Sunday School 11/8/20: Extra Credit

It feels like it's been a while since I spent any time with the gang from This Week with George Stephanopoulos, so that's where we're going to for your Extra Credit today.

I sat in on the reporter updates and the roundtable discussion at the beginning of the show; here are some highlights.

ABC's Rachel Scott on the difference between a Biden administration and the one he's replacing:

This is a seismic shift in American politics and the makeup of this next administration will look dramatically different from the current one. Biden has already pledged to have the most diverse cabinet in American history...

Some of the 'day one' priorities include rejoining the World Health Organization, repealing Trump's Muslim ban, and reinstating DACA - as well as rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, which he'd previously announced. If needed, she said, Biden will use Executive Orders - that depends on the outcome of the Georgia Senate runoffs, which'll take place a couple of weeks before the inauguration.

Jon Karl, the network's lead White House reporter, said that

Virtually everybody in the president's inner circle, his true closest advisors, including his family members, are fully aware that this is over. There have been conversations, conversations I'm told that include the First Lady, about how to convince him to make something of a grateful exit... and how if he doesn't leave in the right way, he could jeopardize all of that.

And if he does make a 'concession' speech, it's more apt to be a Festivus kind of thing - an airing of grievances "about how they tried to deprive him of his presidency."  Gee - I can't wait! And speaking of waiting, the Trumpeters are refusing to release funding to the Transition Team, because they - the Trumpeters - are a bunch of babies. No surprise there. 

Karl also said we'll see firings - Mark Esper was terminated today, and he was just one of a few we might expect. He also thinks we'll see pardons, although he didn't name names. 

Moving on to the roundtable:

• Rahm Emmanuel on Biden's election: I think Americans were exhausted by the constant pitting against us and they want Washington a little distant from their lives, go back to your work... we're going to get out lives in order, which is why so many people were focused on the pandemic and the economy and a sense of being able to get back to some kind of normalcy.

• Chris Christie, on the election being a referendum on Trump: ...you heard me speaking since the summer that he couldn't win a referendum; not in the middle of a pandemic, not in the middle of an economic recession that was caused by the pandemic and in the midst of real racial issues in our country. You can't win a referendum in that respect. But it was not a rejection of Republican policies across the country.

• Yvette Simpson on the message: ...I do believe in places where we were true to our mission we won. For instance, the progressives who were in swing seats all won. But the moderates who were in swing seats didn't. And I think part of that is we didn't make our message clear enough... go with talking about serving real people. You can do that in moderate districts and it doesn't have to feel extreme.

• Matthew Dowd, on what people were thinking: I'm tired of the chaos. I want calm. I really don't want to hear from the president every single day about every single thing. I think - a year and a half ago, somebody asked me what the slogan should be for a candidate running against Donald Trump and I said, Make America Boring Again.

• Christie, on how Rs are still sticking with Trump: I'm hoping that more Republicans more in the direction of saying, not that we don't support the president, he's been a friend of mine for 20 years, but friendship doesn't mean you're bling. Friendship means that you will listen to somebody, give them their opportunity, and if they don't come forward with the, with the proof, then it's time to move on.

• Dowd, on how the parties did on Election Day: I think ...that the two political parties had a - both had a successful night and a huge amount of warning signs on Tuesday night. Turnout was amazing. There was huge support of each political party... but there's a ton of warning signs for each party and I think they need to look at themselves and introspect on themselves... I think the two political parties need to look at their own tribe first and say, "what is it that we're not doing? Because we're not appealing to huge parts of the country that caused the division within the country."

• Heidi Heitkamp, on problem-solving:  There is a place that you can go in solving these problems that speaks to all sides and does not radicalize important issues in this country. We saw that, with the pandemic, which was incredible, how masks got radicalized and politicized. We need to stop doing that and we need to come together, and both sides have to address the concerns that the other side has on solutions for this country. You know, the unity that we have is really unity about what the problems are.w It's bringing together solutions that can bring everybody together so that we can walk together and solve America's problems. 

Why do I want to drop another huge "damn straight, Skippy" tonight? Heitkamp, a former Senator, nailed it. So did Matthew Dowd.  

So did Christie. And even Rahm Emmanuel at least tacked it, which is almost like nailing it. 

Great discussion, and more food for thought. 

Masks on, distance maintained... you know the drill. Do that, and I'll continue to see you around campus.