Sunday School Extra Credit 6/21/20

In yesterday's Sunday School, we heard from Reps. Adam Schiff and Hakeem Jeffries, as well as from Preet Bharara, with most of the conversation centered on the firing of Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and on John Bolton's book. 

For your Extra Credit this week, we're going to look at the view from Fox News Sunday, where Chris Wallace talked to representatives from the Biden and Trump campaigns, about Trump's failed Tulsa Million-MAGA-Rally and more.  Right off the bat, I want to include this reporting from Mark Meredith, which was part of the opening of the show. 

Inside the Bank of Oklahoma Center, supporters filled about two-thirds of the arena, with many empty seats in the upper deck...

(Photo: Patrick Semansky, AP)

Meredith's arena being two-thirds full estimation is clearly optimistic; of the 19,000 available seats, only about 6,200 had butts in them. And the fact that the empty seats are blue? Well, let's just say the view from the president's perspective must have been frightening, and I'm sure a contributor to how he looked when he got back home. 

Joining Wallace yesterday were Symone Sanders, a senior advisor to the Biden campaign, and Mercedes Schlapp, who holds a similar position with the Trump campaign. 

Here are some excerpts from Sanders giving campaign speeches in response to questions, starting with Trump's rally. 

...I think the most damning thing from that rally... was the president's admission that he, quote/unquote, said to his people to slow down the testing. This is an appalling attempt to lessen the numbers only to make him look good. And so, I think that's what will be remembered long after (the) debacle of a rally...

On the 'double standard' of complaining about the rally and coronavirus, but not complaining about protests and the coronavirus:

There is no double standard here... the American people have the right to go out and raise their voices. The difference here is... we are talking about the president...holding a rally, not following their own precautions that his own public health officials have put out... the president has to lead, Chris, and president Trump has demonstrated so many times, in every sense of the word, that he is unable to do so. 

On why Biden didn't caution protesters about the potential for spreading the coronavirus:

I'm not sure what you're asking or what you're suggesting. Look, Vice President Biden has really exhibited leadership on this issue...you have seen Vice President Biden go back out onto the actual campaign trail and our events are safe. They are socially distant. They adhere with the CDC guidelines.

On Biden's 'reclusivity' - staying Delaware, very few socially distanced events, and so on:

...we have adjusted to this new normal like most people in America...just because we are campaigning virtually does not mean we are not meeting actual voters across the country.... the reality is, what we have been doing it following CDC guidelines. 

On why no press conference for 80 days: 

...as many of you -- many of y'all in the national press and the beltway press are well aware, we take pride in prioritizing local media. And so, the Vice President is going local media interviews. He's doing national media interviews and he is taking questions from reporters. 

On whether Biden contributes to the conversation that he's not up to the challenge of the campaign by staying home:

This is just despicable, Chris, honest. It truly is. The fact that folks are parroting this - you, just unfounded salacious lie from the president and his campaign that Vice President Biden isn't up to the challenge. He's absolutely up to it... 

And, for campaign blah blah blah from the Trump side of here are highlights from the interview with Schlapp, starting, again, with the pitiful rally attendance:

Let me explain. When it comes to understanding how the rallies work, it's a first-come, first-served basis. Basically, what the 1 million RSVPs include are -- it's an opportunity for us to gather data, to get information, obviously.  So the key here that that's -- that is important is to understand -- and I had this with my own personal family who lives not far away from Tulsa, that they were concerned. There were factors involved, like they were concerned about the protesters who were coming in. There were protesters who blocked the MAGAs. And so we saw that have an impact in terms of people coming to the rally.  

On the Fox polling showing that by wide margins, people think Biden respects racial minorities and Trump does not: 

I don't know how that's even possible because the -- here we -- if you want to see the record of Joe Biden, it's one in which he proudly embraced segregationists. I mean even his colleagues, like Senator Kamala Harris, look, basically accused him of being a racist. He's one who gave the eulogy at Senator Robert Byrd's funeral... He did not provide any significant change for the black community. In fact, he supported mass incarceration when it came to supporting the 1994 Crime Bill. This is in complete contrast to President Trump, who has been focused on uplifting the black community. Just this week he signed an executive order on the police reform where in essence he's ensuring that these police departments implement these best practices and they get incentive for this. 

On the recent resignation of Mary Elizabeth Taylor, one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the Administration, who said, "The president's comments and actions surrounding racial injustice in black Americans cuts sharply against her core values:" 

Well, I wish that Mary Elizabeth would listen to the president's speech following the tragedy of George Floyd's death where he said healing, not chaos, where he called for justice, were he brought in community leaders from the black community to -- to speak with them, to listen to them. Just yesterday I was with our coalition, our black voices coalition. These men and women who stand with President Trump because of what he has done to help the black community. 

On all of the top officials who are questioning the president's fitness for office, not just John Bolton: 

Look, these are individuals who did -- did not agree with the president's policies when it came to foreign policy in general. And so, at the end of the day, it's not Rex Tillerson or John Kelly or Secretary Mattis who make these decisions. It's President Trump. And (he) is going to listen to his advisors at the end of the day, but he's the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to foreign policy... You talk to Secretary Pompeo, you talk to Robert O'Brien, you talk to Secretary Esper, these are individuals who know that the president is focused on keeping America safe and ensuring that we keep working with our allies in all the areas of foreign policy, whether it be North Korea, whether it be the Middle East and being tough on Iran. 

And yes, in case you were wondering, Wallace called them both out for speechifying and not answering questions, particularly Schlapp, who is better at it than Sanders.

See you around the virtual campus.