Sunday School 4/28/19

OK, let's see how much ground we can cover today, starting with Andrea Mitchell sitting in for Chuck Todd on NBC's  Meet the Press.  On the show were presidential candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and former Deputy AG Sally Yates, who was fired by the Trump administration. We'll start there.

Mitchell asked what Yates thought about Trump calling the FBI "scum" at his rally in Wisconsin last night. Yates said those were "words we shouldn't be throwing around" about our law enforcement and intelligence folks. Mitchell also asked about the Mueller Report and whether it exonerated the president.

... I think it paints a devastating portrait of a president and a campaign who welcomed a foreign adversary's illegal interference into our election, who then continually lied about it and then used the power of the presidency to try and thwart an investigation into his own conduct. That's not exoneration.

And whether she thought there would have been an indictment on obstruction, absent the "sitting president can't be indicted" position, and whether Trump would have been indicted on the ten obstruction charges if he was just a regular guy? Yates said she's prosecuted obstruction on less evidence, but all ten scenarios might not be prosecutable, just the ones where Mueller found no "significant factual or legal defenses."

Yates pointed out that Mueller "specifically references" the possibility of prosecution after Trump is out of office, but there's a bigger issue, she noted. It's about presidential conduct.

I mean, when the Russians came knocking at their door, you would expect that a man who likes to make a show of hugging the flag would have done the patriotic thing and notified law enforcement. 

And about Rudy Giuliani's comment that there's nothing wrong with taking help from a foreign adversary?

Yeah, that's a shocking statement. And it also just reflects how they have moved the goalpost, when the truth comes out...Surely, that's not what we've come to. 

Sen. Johnson said he personally wouldn't welcome support from the Russians, even given Giuliani's comments. And on the FBI scum comment?  Johnson spent a lot of time talking about "understanding the president's frustration" before finally saying "Probably, I would use different words."

Sen. Klobuchar was asked about obstruction; she supports Congressional subpoenas for administration officials and is looking forward to questioning AG Bill Barr this week. Mitchell wondered if, as a candidate, the senator should say whether or not the impeachment process should be started. Klobuchar noted that the House will make that decision; her interest is in holding Trump  accountable, and citing the Mueller report, noted there are many ways to do that:

One is with the process through Congress, which includes these investigations, which the president is already stonewalling. The second is other investigations that are going on right now, including in New York. And the third is pretty straightforward, Andrea. That is defeating him in 2020. And that's what I intend to do and will do.

Asked about what Joe Biden should say to Anita Hill, who apparently is not happy with her recent conversation with him, Klobuchar correctly noted that was Biden's question to answer. If enough of the candidates not named Biden give that answer, maybe the medial will stop asking them the question. 

There's always hope.

Down the hall, CBS's Margaret Brennan had Senator Lindsey Graham (R-WH) as one of her guests on Face the Nation. Their discussion opened with Graham talking about the shooting in California and about gun control.

Well, I think somebody interdicted the shooter, thank god, and it could have been worse, but I think in California you can't buy a gun until you're 21. So let's find out how this guy got the gun, what his motives were and I'm a big supporter of protective orders, allowing law enforcement to go to a judge if there's ample evidence somebody is becoming a danger to themselves or to others. About 15 states have such laws. I'm trying to get a national grant program to incentivize states to pass laws to allow local law enforcement to go to judges to take guns out of the hands of people that are showing really disturbing signs or danger signs. And I think in Parkland that would have made a big difference, here I don't know.

Um, as a Senator responsible for federal legislation, why isn't he pushing a national red flag law, instead of supporting paying states to do this individually? If you're for it, take the hits, don't hide behind making it a state issue.

Moving on, he's more concerned about Russian interference in our elections than about obstruction or collusion, and he's not impressed with Jared Kushner's comment (paraphrasing here) that a two-year investigation of his father-in-law is more damaging to the country than a couple of Facebook ads.  And, he was surprised by Marco Rubio's comment that the Russians had hacked a county in Florida in 2016 - he hadn't heard that before, he said. And we do need to do something, quickly.

So what I want to do is make sure that Intelligence and Judiciary and Homeland Security, the three committees are working together to harden the infrastructure against Russia or anybody else interfering in 2020. And Russia is still up to it. So the takeaway for me is that they were very involved in the 2016 election. They're coming at us again. I'd like to stop them. 

He supports additional sanctions, now - "before 2020. Because clearly the don't have the message." On impeachment, he doesn't agree, but it's up to the Dems if they want to go there. And he drew distinctions between his younger self talking about impeaching Bill Clinton and his new self talking about not impeaching Trump. You can read that lengthy exchange in the transcript.

And finally, on his old buddy Joe Biden entering the race, and Trump suggesting that Joe's too old, Graham toed the party line. After noting that it's up to the voters to decide, he said

I think president Trump is very vibrant.

Hold please...Hard to type that one without laughing. He did add that

...if you travel with Joe Biden you won't think he's too old.

And he went on to explain what Biden is up against. 

Here's the problem for Joe. Does he fit into the Democratic Party of 2020? I don't know. He's a good man; i like him a lot. I disagree with him on policy. I hope he doesn't apologize for the life he's led because he's led a good life. but if he starts apologizing for all the policy positions and decisions he's made throughout his life, that will be disappointing. I don't know how he fits into this party but I do know this. He's a good man and he would be a strong candidate. 

As they say on the shows, we'll have to leave it there.

See you around campus.