First up? DeWine and Austin, who talked with Martha Raddatz on This Week.
Gov. DeWine didn't want to talk about Texas and Mississippi, he wanted to talk about "the Ohio way." He said they've learned a lot over the past year. And while things are getting better, they're still at a "fairly high level." How high? 179 cases per 100,000 people for two weeks, down from over 700/100K in December. They're shooting for 50/100K, before he'll look at getting rid of his state's guidelines.
Turning to schools, they've got 95% of kids in classrooms now, compared to 50% at the beginning of the year. The hold-out? Cleveland, where everyone got vaccinated but the union still doesn't want to go back.
...many of our urban kids have been out of school for one whole year. We had to get them back. Absolutely urgent that we did. So, we -- frankly, we made a deal... and we made the superintendents and the CEOs sign a paper, if you go back in school, promise by March 1, we will vaccinate everyone in your school that wants to. And it's worked exceedingly well and it's safe because we're vaccinating the teachers. They need to go back.
DeWine seems confident they'll get it worked out.
Gen. Austin (Ret.), the first Black Defense Secretary, said he wants to do what's necessary to make sure he's not the last Black Defense Secretary, and that opportunities exist for people of color in the military to "rise to the very highest ranks."
On extremism in the service (40 vets have been arrested for actions on January 6th), he said the service branches are all having "some really in-depth conversations," and added that it's not about political parties or beliefs. Rather,
we want to make sure that our troops are reminded of what our values are, reminded of the oath that we took coming in. And my belief, my strong belief... is that 99.9% of our troops embrace those values, and are focused on the right things, and are doing the right things each and every day.
On some hot topics, here's what he had to say.
- We want Iraq to quickly investigate the rocket attack last week, make sure we understand who was responsible, and that whoever launched them should "expect us to do what's necessary to defend ourselves."
- Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner; we have to work together, but "that doesn't mean (we) can't hold them accountable for various things."
- China's trying to close the competitive edge we have over them, and that they've been "very aggressive" in the region, including against our allies; he said our allies are "very important to us."
Moving down the hall to the State of the Union classroom, Jake Tapper chatted with Sen. Manchin, who initially was confused and called Tapper 'Chuck' instead of 'Jake.' Tapper wasted no time, diving in by asking why Manchin was "fighting for less help for citizens during this cruel economic time?" Manchin said he just tried to make sure that "we were targeting where the help was needed." He didn't say specifically that he was "under pressure," but said
the bottom line is, that's what it's about, negotiations. I work with my Republicans friends. I work with my Democratic Caucus and my friends. We try to find that middle. With that, sometimes, it gets -- it gets a little frustrating at times. But the bottom line is, at the end result, we got one tremendous piece of legislation.
Manchin lamented that folks "don't have the tolerance to sit down and work more," but he also said the bill is more bipartisan than people realize, that Rs and Ds have been working together for a month, and that they did make changes to the bill.
Tapper asked what Manchin would say to AOC about her comment on the minimum wage provision being dropped from the bill. Here's what she said.
The fact that we have two people in this entire country that are holding back a complete transformation in working people's lives, the same people who have held our country together throughout this pandemic, is wrong
Manchin respects her input, but takes a different approach, in part because they come from "two different areas of the country that have different social and cultural needs," and everyone needs to be respected..." He'd like to see a more collaborative approach on getting the minimum raised. He thinks it should be $11, based on the poverty guidelines, and that they can "do it very quickly too, within a couple of years" and then index it to inflation.
It should be the respect to the dignity work always being above the minimum wage of what the guidelines for poverty is and being able to lift yourself way far above that by your skill sets and your determination. And that's all we're saying. And that's what we have been trying to.
He calls that "the easiest lift of all."
Finally, we turn to the Meet the Press classroom, with Manchin again, and Barrasso. Quickly, on Manchin,
- he didn't get any promises from President Biden for his vote;
- he doesn't think they should get rid of the filibuster;
- he doesn't think reconciliation is the first path to legislating, it should only happen after working together and the normal process- "a committee, a hearing, amendments" - fail;
- he hopes they can get Rs involved to the point where 10 or 15 of them will work the Ds.
In contrast, we have Sen. Barrasso, chair of the Republican Conference. He said once people find out what's in the bill, "they're going to lose a lot of any enthusiasm they may have for it..." He said the bill was "a liberal wish list of liberal spending just basically filled with pork." He said the White House didn't work with them, and that the bill "was never about getting people back to work or kids back to school or the disease behind us." He didn't identify any of the alleged pork in the bill.
Chuck asked if Barrasso didn't wish they were bigger checks, back in December, instead of just $600.
Well, not to the level that people are getting them now... with this bill, they're going to people in prison, they're going to people who are illegal immigrants, they're going to people who make much more money than you would expect people to actually need relief or help at this point. So, I think this is a mistake, what's happening in the bill that just passed the Senate.
Barrasso doesn't remember that prisoners got the Trump stimulus checks, I guess, or that the requirements for undocumented immigrants in this bill are the same as for the second stimulus.
On infrastructure, Barrasso said the bill that his committee passed last year is a great starting point; it passed unanimously, even That Guy from Vermont voted for it. And, he's talked to Mayor Pete about it, too.
On whether he supports the reelection of Lisa Murkowski in the Senate and Liz Cheney in the House (Trump doesn't, of course), he said Murkowski hasn't announced her intentions yet, but if she runs again, he'll support her. He and Cheney work closely together, "fighting the Biden administration," so he supports her, but disagrees with her on impeachment.
Also making the rounds today? Lots of folks talking about the pandemic, vaccines, masks and more. I'll have them tomorrow for your Extra Credit.
See you around campus. Wear your mask. And don't be stupid on Spring Break.
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