Sunday School 6/28/20

Who's making noise today in the classrooms?

On Meet the Press, Chuck Todd talked with my Sonofa Gov, NY's Andrew Cuomo; George Stephanopoulos had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on This Week;  and John Dickerson questioned Our Great Vice President Mike Pence on Face the Nation, which is where we'll start.

I'll only share two things from VP Pence; first, his answer to "what do you hear the protesters saying when they protest?"  

Well, it's- it's been a focus of ours since the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. There's no excuse for what happened to George Floyd. But there's also no excuse for the rioting and looting and violence that ensued. Look, the president engaged law enforcement leaders. We've sat down with leaders in the African American community. I've - I've met with leaders in the African American community and- and law enforcement in cities around this country.

Notice any mention of his meeting with any of the peaceful protesters from around the country? Nope. 

And what I hear is while - while the radical left says we need to defund the police, what the American people want is for us to fund the police with additional training and support and also improve the lives of the people in our African American community, which I'm proud to say, under President Trump's leadership, we were doing over the last three years. We don't - we don't need to choose between supporting law enforcement and supporting our African American neighbors. We can do both. And that's how we bring our country together.

So, what he hears, in a nutshell, is nothing. Not a damn thing. 

And second, why he won't say 'black lives matter.' After citing MLK and Bloody Sunday, he said

I cherish the progress that we have made toward a more perfect union for African Americans throughout our history. And I've - I've aspired throughout my career to be a part of that ongoing work. It's really a heart issue for me. And as a pro-life American, I also believe that all life matters, born and unborn.

And then he added,  

But what - what I see in the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement is a political agenda of the radical left that would defund the police, that would tear down monuments, that would - that would press a radical left agenda that, and - and - and support calls for the kind of violence that has beset the very communities that they say that they're advocating for. We - I've- I've literally met - I've literally met with African American leaders around this country and in the national capital area who've - who made it clear to us they - they want law and order. They- they want peace in our streets.

Dickerson interjects, saying, "So you won't say black lives matter?" 

John, I really believe that all lives matter. And that's where the heart of the American people lies. And we're going to continue to stand strong. We're going to continue to stand strong with Americans that- that want to see us come together as a nation. And we're going to carry that message all the way to November and for four more years. 

The 'heart of the American people' lies in denial, I guess. And Pence and Trump want to "carry that message" - what a surprise.

Moving to a couple of highlights from the Sonofa Gov's interview, starting with his thoughts on president Trump and Secretary Azar and what they're saying now. 

...they're saying what they said 3 months ago. They're basically in denial about the problem. They don't want to tell the American people the truth and they don't want to have any federal response except 'supporting the states, supporting the states.' I heard that and I understood where they were. I didn't need to torture the rhetoric. I knew what they were saying. 'You're on your own.' It's not a good feeling, but it's sort of liberating. In New York we just handled it totally differently, Chuck. We handled it on our own. Communication, clear, as you mentioned, every day. Then, we came up with a plan and did the testing and did the isolation and that makes a difference.

And on what he'd say if Florida's Gov. DeSantis or Texas' Gov. Abbott call him up and ask him for help, for recommendations?

... This is New York, we're proactive. My team has called their teams and said, can we help? When we were in trouble, Chuck, we had states all across the nation who came to help us. We had 30,000 volunteers from across the United States who came to help us. I called those states. I said any way we can help. We've gone through it. We have the equipment, we have the staff, we have the testing protocols, we have the testing software, we have the tracing program...that's the right thing to do from a community point of view and a citizenry point of view.

He's not just being a nice guy - he is the Sonofa Gov, after all. 

There's also a parochial interest which is if these states keep going up, we are going to have a national crisis like we have never seen. They said this was the way to help the economy by reopening and it's been the exact opposite. Every time the virus goes up, the stock market goes down. If those states continue to increase, you'll see it go all across the nation. You'll see New York on the rise again and you'll see the other states starting to go up even more.

As a New Yorker, I can saw no one I know is at all interested in that.

During her visit, Speaker Pelosi talked about the virus, saying for one thing we need to pass the HEROES Act, which has yet to be taken up by the Senate. 

A major pillar of it is to open our economy by testing, testing, testing, tracing, treating, isolating, wearing masks, washing your hands. There is a way to do it, and instead of what the administration did, deny, delay, death. We have to -- it's time for this administration to take this seriously. As Dr. Fauci said, we have a serious problem ahead. Take this seriously. We are 4% of the world's population... 25% of the cases and the deaths, 25%. We have the worst record of any country in the world. And the president says we're making progress or whatever. So, this is -- this is life and death...We don't have a vaccine, and we don't have a cure. God willing and science-enabling, we will sometime soon. But until we do, we have the tools to halt... the growth of this.

George referenced the NY Times report that says "American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan, including targeting American troops. The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House National Security Council the problem at an interagency meeting in late March. Officials developed a menu of potential options along with an escalating series of sanctions, but the White House has yet to authorize any step."

He asked Pelosi, a member of the Gang of Eight that gets this kind of intelligence briefing, whether she was aware of the reports. No, she said, and they've called for a report to Congress on it. And, she added, "This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians" and, she said, whether Trump was briefed or not, "his administration knows and ... some of our allies" also have been briefed. 

...I don't know what the Russians have on the president, politically, personally, financially, or whatever it is, but he - he wants to ignore, he wants to bring them back to the G8 despite the annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine, despite what they yielded to him in Syria, despite his intervention into our election which is well documented by our intelligence community, and despite now possibly this allegation, which we should have been briefed on.

George asked her to explain how the info could be in Trump's daily intelligence briefing, but he didn't know about it, or that he might not have read it.

Because the president wants to ignore any allegation against Russia... This is totally outrageous. You would think that the minute the president heard of it he would want to know more instead of denying that he knew anything.

Now, if in fact -- we'll find out he was briefed and it was in his daily brief -- but if it were not, what does that say about the concern that those who briefed the president have about not going anywhere near the Russia issue with this president?

This is appalling. This is beyond, amid -- well, the list is a long one in terms of his ignoring of what Russia has done. You see what he was -- it is a gift to Russian to diminish our leadership in NATO, diminish our troops in Germany, all the gifts to Putin.

Something is very wrong here. But this must have an answer.

Something is very wrong here, indeed, if our allies have this intelligence, but the president does not, or denies he does, and the folks in Congress who are supposed to have it, don't.  And something is also very wrong if our Intelligence folks are making stuff like this up, or passing information to the press that they're not passing on to the president.

Lots to mull over, which I expect you'll do behind your mask, in socially distanced conversations, or just by yelling solo from your balcony, roof, or window. I'll have more on the coronavirus in this week's Extra Credit, coming tomorrow.

See you around the virtual campus.