Sunday School 11/11/18

Just one classroom this morning, CNN'S State of the Union with Jake Tapper, who declared us to be in a state of 'honoring our veterans.'

On the show today, among other guests, was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who made it clear he thought the Democrats won the midterms, even though they didn't take the Senate. It was "a great victory for Democrats" he said. And, he added,

For Donald Trump to claim, because he won a Senate race in North Dakota or Indiana or Missouri, states he won by 19, 19 and 36 percent, that shows how weak - I would be very worried if I were Donald Trump and the Republicans about the 2020 elections, if all they can claim is they won in North Dakota.

And, in response to a question about Trump's messaging, and the Kavanaugh hearings, and border security, and Schumer actually said

Well, the bottom line is, the Kavanaugh dispute, I think, helped us more than it hurt us. It's one of the reasons we won the house so decisively. It's one of the reasons we won governorships in so many other states, because suburban voters who are traditionally Republican came to our side. And if the coalition can add suburban voters to it and continue to focus on issues like health care which matter to working-class Americans throughout the country, we're going to win. I think the president lost more votes because of the Kavanaugh issue than he gained throughout the country.

Next, the conversation turned to Florida, and ballot-counting, particularly in Broward County. Schumer's position is that the Rs, including the president, are afraid if all votes are counted the Dems will win.. And while allegations of fraud are flying around, nothing has been proven. He also called for Rick Scott to recuse himself from anything having to do with counting or recounting, since he himself is a party in the events unfolding. Heck, even Brian Kemp recused himself in Georgia.

On protecting Mueller, Schumer said Dems will try get some legislation passed that keeps Whitaker out of it, if he doesn't recuse himself first. Tapper pointed out that Mitch McConnell is on record as saying no legislation is needed, and wondered if the Dems would go so far as to shut down the government.

Look I believe - there will be enough of our Republican colleagues who will join us. There's no reason we shouldn't add this to avoid a constitutional crisis. And so that is our position. If it doesn't happen, we will see what happens down the road. 

They also talked about the legitimacy of the Whitaker appointment; Schumer thinks the lack of advice and consent from the Senate means that he can't serve. Tapper remained skeptical, but Schumer was sure the courts were on his side. He also said protecting Mueller was more important than impeaching Trump.

On healthcare, Schumer says he hasn't signed on with Medicare for All because there are lots of ideas on how to improve healthcare, and that they'll unite on one of them as things move forward. He refused to pick one over another. He also told Tapper the Dems have lots of strong candidates heading into 2020.

My basic philosophy right now is, let 1,000 flowers bloom. Let's get a lot of people out there. The political process, it's a little like sports. It's almost mystical. You never know who's going to emerge on top. And so having candidates out there of various views, all united in the need to change the course of how the presidency is conducted and how we help the middle class, people aspiring to be in the middle class in a much better way the the Republicans have, I think Democrats at the end of the day will be united, will be united on a candidate who can best defeat Trump.

Tapper also talked to Jerry Nadler, who is poised to become the next chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Tapper asked him to describe the first three things he'd do. We didn't get to all three because there was lots of talk about impeachment.

Nadler did say that the first thing they'd do was protect Mueller. He also said that the first person Judiciary Committee would talk to, either by summon or subpoena if necessary, was Mark Whitaker to question him about whether or not he'd interfere in the Mueller investigation.

On impeachment of the president, Nadler's main point was "not yet" but that didn't mean never, and that the report from the Wall Street Journal about Trump's involvement in the payouts to the porn star and the Playboy bunny could rise to the level of an impeachable offense, but that doesn't mean that impeachment would be the outcome. He also said that he was not planning on impeaching Justice Kavanaugh, no matter what that conservative reported said she overheard him say in a private conversation.

On impeachment and Nadler's statements that it couldn't be a partisan thing, Tapper pointed out that recent polling shows 77% of Dems favor impeachment but only 5% of Republicans do, which is clearly a partisan divide. He wondered if that as a concern to Nadler.

Not really, because, as I said, we're far from that. If we get to the question of impeachment, then one of the tests should be - and I have said this repeatedly - is the evidence so strong of misdeeds so terrible that you really believe at the beginning of the process that, by the end of the process, when all this is laid out publicly, a very large fraction of the people who voted for the president will grudgingly acknowledge to themselves and to others that you had no choice but to impeach the president?

That's the test, Nadler said, and he admitted

we're far from it. Well, I see lots of potentials, but we don't know. That's why we're waiting to see what the Special Counsel finds...  I certainly hope that we will not find the necessity for an impeachment. But you can't rule that out. 

On that note we'll wrap this up.

See you around campus.