Sunday School Extra Credit 5/31/20

Sunday was oh, so long ago, it seems, but it's still interesting to see what was being said in the classrooms. 

There was a lot, as I mentioned in my Sunday School post, but I want to focus on a very specific issue for your Extra Credit this week - bad guys. We'll start with MTP, and a question from Chuck Todd to Minnesota's AG Keith Ellison. 

The set up for the question was a video clip of SnittySnittyBillBarr talking about violence in the protests. Here's what Barr said.

Many places it appears the violence is planned, organized and driven by anarchic and left-extremist groups, far-left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics, many of whom travel from outside the state to promote the violence. 

Todd's question to Ellison, in a nutshell? "What do you know about who's behind this?" Ellison mentioned video and photos of "very suspicious" people and "cars with no license plates." He specifically mentioned the AutoZone window breaker as one of the bad actors. That's the guy who supposedly was a Minneapolis cop, which the police have denied.

But the real point is we do need to investigate it because the truth is nobody really knows. I've talked to people who are demonstrating, some of them say they think some of those folks are from Minnesota. And they also say some people have come from out of town. What the exact political motivation is, is unclear at this point. We need to investigate it...

He also pointed to failures of the Trump administration in terms of seeking justice change in police departments, doing away with the 21st century policing plan from the previous administration, and more, and added. 

...making incendiary comments about who's to blame here as opposed to actually investigating it isn't helpful. We need their help to be more constructive and less assigning, you know, blame on matters that actually we don't know the truth of yet.

Good luck with that, right? Especially since investigating things fully is not the forte of the administration, where every call, comment, and tweet are perfect, and there's little to no accountability. And we shouldn't expect anything different on this, if the This Week with George Stephanopoulos interview with National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien was any indication. Let's take a look. 

O'Brien ignored George's question about Rep. Ilhan Omar's comment on the president's failure to lead, his comments and tweets, etc. Instead, he echoed what the president said about the murder of George Floyd - "that our hearts and prayers are going out to the Floyd family. We mourn with them and we grieve with them..." He said what happened was "horrific" and agonized over the pain the family must feel with each playing of the video.

Trying again, George referenced the specific tweet below, with its dog whistles and racist language, and other presidential comments. (The tweet was also sent out by the White House Twitter account, and flagged there as well.)

George wondered if the president should take accountability for his comments and tweets. O'Brien said "I think what the president said about those tweets is that he wants to de-escalate violence and doesn't want people looting."

Um, huh? That's the president trying to "de-escalate violence" - by talking about shooting looters, using a particularly racist comment that (of course) he didn't know was racist? 

O'Brien went on to say (that's my emphasis added from here on out)

It's the violent Antifa radical militants that are coming out, under cover of night, traveling across state lines, using military-style tactics to burn down our cities. And they're especially targeting the most (vulnerable) parts of our cities, George....

And the president's outraged by that. And we all are. And that has to stop. And we're calling on the FBI to investigate Antifa and -- and get to the bottom of these -- these violent rioters. And I don't want them confused with peaceful protesters that have every right to go out to the streets. That's -- that's what makes America different from -- from any other countries around the world.

George then asked about reports from the Department of Homeland Security - part of O'Brien's portfolio - "warning that domestic terrorists from the far right and the far left are both looking to exploit the protests. It's not just Antifa and the left. They're saying they are worried about the far right as well.  O'Brien's response? It's a beauty, for sure. Remember, DHS reports to him. 

Well -- well, listen, everything I've seen in -- and that were being reported were -- the reports we're receiving is that this is Antifa. They're crossing state lines. And we've seen this happen before. We saw it in Portland ( in 2019). We saw it in Seattle. We saw it in Berkeley (in 2017). 

So, look, we'll keep our eyes open for anyone else that wants to take advantage of the situation, whether it's domestic or foreign. But right now, I think the president and Attorney General want -- Barr want to know what the FBI has been doing to surveil, to disrupt, to take down Antifa, to prosecute them...

So the FBI has got to come up with a plan to deal with Antifa. This is not the first time that they've engaged in this activity. It needs to stop. I mean they're throwing bricks at park police and -- and uniformed Secret Service officers...

There was an officer, a federal protective service officer was shot in Oakland. And our hearts and our prayers go out to him and his family, Patrick Underwood. This Antifa violent activity has to stop and we need to get to the bottom of it. We're calling on law enforcement to do it.

He's right - this activity has to stop. I can't agree more.  But George - who also can't agree more - pressed O'Brien on saying he hadn't heard about anything coming from the right.

But the DHS warning that went out this week noted specifically that the white supremacist, extremist Telegram channel was inciting the violence as well. They are saying it is both sides that are inciting violence from the outside.

O'Brien started with the word "Yes" and everything after that was, as were his previous answers, deflection. 

Yes, I think the actual perpetrators of the violence, the ones that are on the street, that are burning down minority-owned businesses and restaurants, who have already suffered through this terrible COVID situation and -- and are at risk of losing their business and now they're seeing them burn to the ground, those are Antifa radical militants. And we've seen them before in other protests and we need to get to the bottom of it.

Look, I condemn all extremists, on the right or on the left. But -- but the ones who are out on the streets throwing the Molotov cocktails and attacking our police, who are acting with -- you know, for the most part, with restraint, and heroically, you know, that has to stop.

So, allow me to paraphrase: I condemn those alleged right-wing extremists, as I ignore reports from my own team that they exist and are fomenting violence at this very moment. But we're not seeing them, because, you know - because Barr and Trump want me to ignore those reports and focus on just the lefties. Stop asking already! Sheesh! 

O'Brien also said that "it's an absolute outrage" what happened to George Floyd, saying he wanted to know where the investigation stood, including the three who did nothing, point to their "lack of humanity" - not just as first responders, but "just as human beings." He also said he can't imagine them not being charged, although he was careful not to prejudge. And again, any - every reasonable person would agree 100% with what he's saying - no ifs, ands or buts on that, at all.  

They also talked about "foreign adversaries" on social media "actively stoking and promoting violence and confrontation," a point raised by Acting Senate Intelligence Committee chair Marco Rubio (R-FL). O'Brien initially pointed to both China and Zimbabwe as the bad actors, but shifted attention only to China, saying he had "seen a number of tweets from the Chinese" taking pleasure in the rioting. He made clear the difference between America and those countries., saying that the officer who killed George Floyd will be prosecuted and will have a fair trial, and that Americans

that want to go out and protest peacefully, they're going to be allowed to seek redress from their government. They're not going to be thrown in jail for peaceful protesting...  And this wasn't done on behalf of the party or on behalf of the state...

When George said "We also know that Russia has been actively trying in the past to spark racial unrest" and asked if they were one of the countries trying to exploit the situation, O'Brien seemed to be pretty careful in how he answered.

Yes, there -- there -- there may be Russian activists who are doing that, but the difference that I've seen so far is that, for example, we saw a Chinese foreign -- foreign ministry spokesman trolling the State Department about this. So it's -- it's open. It's coming straight from the government.

And then there was some adroit deflection about cool rockets and Americans going to space in an American rocket. George didn't fall for it asking O'Brien "what are we doing right now" in regard to the other countries trying to promote unrest here, specifically mentioning China, Russia, and Zimbabwe. 

O'Brien added Iran into the mix, saying it's "certainly been active in this...realm as well." And, he said he's talked with our allies; "the democracies will stick together" and that "we've got a number of tools in our tool kit." And, then, as if a bell rang somewhere that only he could hear, we're back to China - but on a different topic now.

We've got a series of measures that we're going to deal with China and the way that they've choked out freedom in -- in Hong Kong. The president made a very important announcement on that front on Friday and -- and the -- the U.S. government is looking at all of our relations with Hong Kong and China.

So there will be a response and it will be proportional, but this is not something that -- that our adversaries are going to get away with for free.

At least, it's clear, China won't be getting away with anything "for free." And Antifa. It won't either. Russia, Iran and the right-wing crazies? Not as clear, is it?

So. there you have it -- your Extra Credit for this week.  And you can give yourself even more extra credit by (you know the drill) keeping your social distance, covering your face in public, waving meticulously clean hands to make your points in discussions, and whatever else you're asked or required to do in your neck of the woods to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

See you around the virtual campus.