Sunday School 8/2/20: Extra Credit

In our Sunday School post, we heard from Dr Birx, Admiral Giroir, and Neel Kashkari, chair of the Minneapolis Fed. 

For your Extra Credit this week, we'll hear from three women reported to be on Papa Joe's short list for veep: Stacey Abrams, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), who was in two classrooms, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). We'll take them in that order

Abrams talked with Dana Bash on CNN's SOTU; their conversation started with a question on what Abrams thought of the president suggesting that the election be delayed.

...he's attempting to distract us from his failed leadership. But -- invoking the notion that we cannot hold an election cuts against hundreds of years of history. We had elections during the Civil War, during the Spanish Flu. And we can have an election this time. Absentee ballots work, as he admits. And it's the exact same thing as mail-in ballots, vote by mail. It's all the same job. And the job that he has is to make certain that we have a Postal Service that can actually deliver the votes to our elections officials... 

On whether Abrams is worried the president won't accept the results:

 I'm not worried about that. What I'm worried about is that we will not be able to effectively count the votes of every eligible American, because he's doing his best to undermine our confidence in the process. But, worse, he's doing his best to actually steal the vote by undermining the Postal Service knowing that, at this point, more than 40 percent of Americans are likely to use some form of early voting, including vote by mail. And, as we know, we're not yet in the second wave of the pandemic. That means we have to be prepared, and that means we have to have a Postal Service that's working, but we also need the HEROES Act passed, so that cash-strapped states like Arkansas, like Georgia, like North Carolina, like Wisconsin can scale up an deliver an election that is worthy of America.

On whether she's still in the running to be veep:

I leave it to the Biden vetting team to answer questions about who's in the running. But we know that whomever Joe Biden picks will be a good partner to help us turn this country around, restore the soul of America, and build back better. That's what we need. 

On whether she'd be disappointed if it was not her and also not anther African-American:

I have said time and again I believe that Joe Biden is going to pick the right partner for himself, because he's the only person who's done this job. And while I believe that diversity is incredibly important, and I think it is an absolute good to see a continued changing of the face of what leadership looks like in America, I look to Joe Biden to pick the right partner for himself in the moment that we have before us, which is one of an economic crisis, a public health crisis, and a crisis of justice. And I think he's the person who will not take anyone for granted. And I look forward to working with him to make sure he's elected.

Rep. Bass, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, appeared on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, but his questions were poorly worded, almost as if he had never interviewed a potential vice president before. You can read the transcript if you like, but here's a sampling:

Let me ask this. I know nobody runs for the vice presidency and that, you know, people shy away from that. But let me ask you the question this way. Why'd you decide to go through this vetting process?

Is there something about the post itself that is appealing to you if you did end up as vice president of the United States? 

Let me ask you this. Why haven't you considered running for president before? And by agreeing to this, I know it doesn't mean you want to run for president in the future, -- but a lot of people certainly think you will. 

Bass was also in the Fox News Sunday classroom, but first, Sen. Duckworth was up. I think the difference between Chris Wallace and Chuck Todd is pretty apparent, in how they asked their questions, and even what questions they asked. 

On whether Duckworth is prepared to step in and become president of the United States:

Well, I think any one of the women whose names have been mentioned to be -- being considered are fabulous women and well-prepared to step up and do the job of vice president or step up and take over as president if needed.  But I can tell you this, that I will do everything I can to support Joe Biden to get elected no matter where he thinks I should -- what position I should play on the team. We need real leadership and Joe Biden is the kind of empathetic, resilient person that we need to really lead this country out of the crises that we're in.

On how thoroughly Duckworth has been vetted at this point:

Well, Chris, they have their own process. I'm going to leave them to it. Some of it is public, some of it is not. I will tell you that he is being very careful about who he selects, but again, all of the women whose name have been mentioned so far are just wonderful and I've worked with each and every one of them and anyone of us can step up and do the job. 

It's about bringing the country together, Chris. It's about getting a real response to this pandemic that President Trump has so miserably failed at. It's about standing up to the Russians for putting bounties on U.S. Troops heads in Afghanistan. It's about reopening our economy and, you know, we have a team that's going to move forward in a systematic way to do that and really I'm happy to be in any position on Team Biden.

On why Dems won't agree to a one-week extension of the $600 supplemental unemployment proposed by the Republicans:

Well, the one-week extension is not enough, Chris. Americans across this country are hurting right now. There are families who don't know if they're going to be able to pay their rent. Today is the beginning of the month in August and many families just missed the first rent payment or their first mortgage payment. So many families are not going to know if within two weeks their kids are going to go hungry. What Democrats want is to extend the $600 payment more than just one week, well into the future, as long as we're still fighting this pandemic. And then we need to get this pandemic under control... The reason we can't come to an agreement is because there's infighting within the Republican Party. Mitch McConnell has no control over his caucus and they can't come to an agreement. Democrats are united in saying we need to have the $600 a week payment extended well into the future.

On whether, based on her past comments about the president, immigration, and racism, she believes that a sizable percentage of the president's supporters are racist:

I think that -- of course not, Chris. Of course not. I think that President Trump is trying to divide us as a nation. We need to come together as a nation. We need to unite. I think most Americans agree that we need sensible immigration reform. We need a way for those who are here illegally to pay fines and go to the end of the line and work their way towards citizenship. We need to be able to bring all of those folks that are in hiding out of hiding and then we need to make sure that we grow our economy. 

Many, many groups have said that if we had sensible immigration reform, that is doable, that is humane, that is fair, that we could actually grow our economy by as much as $1 trillion over 10 years and, you know, we can't let President Trump continue to divide us. There are ways to come to the middle on this and many, many people have come forward with very good ideas that we can work on it, instead of trying to divide us the way President Trump has.

On whether, since he said she seems "to have been primarily interested and critical of the federal officers defending that building in Portland", she should be focusing more on the violence from some of the protests and protesters around the country: 

I think violence is wrong. I absolutely condemn the violent protesters. That is wrong. I fully support the rights of people to express their First Amendment right peacefully. It's why I spent 23 years in the military. I don't always agree with people when they come out and express their opinions but I will defend to my death their right to express themselves peacefully.

If President Trump truly wants to go after violence in our country, he should call Mitch McConnell right now and ask for a sensible vote on uniform background checks. That is, let's get rid of those gun show loopholes. There is so much that could be done between the Federal Government and local law enforcement working together in order to allow people to express themselves in a peaceful way without federal troops coming in in unmarked vehicles and kidnapping peaceful protesters off the streets, throwing them into an unmarked van and driving off in the middle of the night. 

And finally, we go to Rep. Bass, starting with whether she'd say she is prepared to step in and become president of the United States:

Well, absolutely, and I think anybody that is willing to become the vice president if they're invited should be ready and I think that I am. When I served as speaker of the House of the nation -- of the world's fifth largest economy, managing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, served in the emergency room, have had life-and-death experience, the issues that are going on in our country in this particular historical moment around race and the division, the 10 years that I have sat on the Foreign Affairs Committee working primarily in Africa -- yes, I would be prepared. I know that as I've read about it, everyone has said, whoever has been in the Oval Office, that you could never be 100 percent prepared. But absolutely, I do feel that I could do the job.

On her support for Medicare for All, and whether Vice President Biden, who doesn't support it, is wrong:

Now, I don't think vice -- I don't think that the vice president is wrong at all. What I do believe in is that health care should be a right. I believe that we should be like the rest of the industrial nations and provide healthcare. But I believe specifically is that we need to repair the damage that was done and has been done over the last ten years to the Affordable Care Act. We need to repair the damage, we need to expand that. And then over time, we need to figure as a nation, how do we make health care as a right for everyone?

On whether it's legitimate to question whether the system can handle absentee and mail-in ballots, given that 33,000,000 people voted that way in 2016 and many times that are likely to do so this year: 

Well, I think that what we have to do is to make sure the people can vote safely. People shouldn't have to risk their lives voting. You know, the state of Oregon has had vote at home elections for over the last 20 years. They have perfect -- perfected a system, I would suggest that we look at what they are doing. But I really believe though that the reason why the president said this, and you remember this, he said this a few hours after the economic news that said that our economy has tanked, tanked more than it has ever in U.S. history. I think that he is a master at diversion and I think that's the main reason he did that. He knows he can't delay the election.

On her visiting Cuba eight times during the 1970s, and what it was about Castro and Cuba that she found so appealing, and does she regret that time spent in a communist dictatorship:

... first of all, when I went to Cuba over 40 years ago when I was in my teens and early 20s, I went to help the Cuban people, we were building houses. The other reason why I went was to meet and work with Americans from around the country that were involved in a lot of different social issues. I think that over the past 20 years, my involvement in Cuba has centered on health care and promoting democracy. 

Do I know an awful lot more now? Do I understand that the Castro regime did not have the same freedoms as we do in the United States, was a brutal regime? They don't have freedom of press, freedom of protest -- which was kind of ironic because when I went in my youth, the majority of us that were there were antiwar activists. We were protesting against police abuse and understood then and now that the Cuban people did not have the same freedoms.

...So my perspective has definitely developed over time. 

And, whether she should have known that Fidel Castro's death was not a great loss to the Cuban people: 

I absolutely would have not put that statement out and I will tell you that after talking to my colleagues who represent the state of Florida, raised those concerns with me, lesson learned, would not do that again for sure. 

You can decide if any of these three women would be your choice. I know one of them would not be mine.  And I'm curious - how much of an impact does Papa Joe's Veep pick have on your willingness to vote for (or against) him in November?  Drop a comment!

Remember -- mask, distance, clean hands, clear head and so on.

See you around the virtual campus.