Sunday School 10/24/21

Perhaps I'm crazy, but I decided to spend my Sunday School time yesterday with Andrea Mitchell in the Meet the Press classroom. What a frustrating adventure that was. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-etiring at the End of This Term and Never Looking Back) of Missouri. 

Mitchell mentioned comments made by the Former Guy, which I won't repeat, and she asked if Election Day was an insurrection. Blunt's taken a bit of heat for the first sentence of his answer: "You know, I think the election was what it was." Here's the rest of his response.

There's a process you go through that determines whether or not the early reports were the right reports. And we went through that process. And I'm of the view that the best thing that president Trump could do to help us win majorities in 2022 is talk about the future. And he can be an important part of that, this '22 effort. But I think, better off to talk about the future than to focus on the past in every election. Every election should be about the future, and I think that's what this next one's going to be about.

Mitchell gave #TFG more free airtime, mentioning additional comments he made about Arizona and President Biden. And here's how the conversation evolved.

AM:  So he's still talking about the past. And a lot of Republicans, a lot of Republican leaders in the House, other members of the Senate are standing with him on this. Doesn't the party have to disavow the challenge to the election in order to, you know, go forward?

RB: You know, I think President Biden and the Democrats are giving us plenty of things to talk about. We don't need to keep focusing on the past --

AM: But Republicans are. Republicans keep talking about that --

RB: Well, I'm not. And I don't think --

AM: -- and incorrectly.

RB: I don't think many Republicans in the Senate are. I think we're talking about bad tax policies, bad environmental policies, bad national takeover of the election process. There are plenty of things for us to talk about, and I think we're talking about them. I'm there every day, and I hear Republicans concerned, as they should be, about this -- the process that the Democrats are going through right now --

AM: But they're also denying the reality of January 6th. Republicans refusing the commission, not joining the House Select Committee. Steve Bannon, only nine Republican House votes to punish him for violating a House subpoena.

RB: Well, you know, I think a lot of this discussion is obviously driven by the media, just like this is here today. We could be talking about Senate rules. We could be talking about tax policy.

AM: Well, if Republicans were --

RB: We could be talking about --

AM: -- accepting the reality --

RB: -- these new entitlement policies.

AM: It's not the media that's, you know, going against the reality of what happened on January 6th. It was the worst attack on our government, on our democracy since the Civil War.

RB: Oh, I agree with that. In fact, on January the 20th, I was at the podium at the Capitol chairing the inauguration. And that peaceful transition of power that we saw that day is one of the most important things we do. And I was able to chair the inauguration four years earlier. And four years later, it was the same important message we sent to the world. And I think we effectively did that.

AM: Well, to that point, if the former president keeps denying the reality of the election and of Joe Biden being the president, should that disqualify him from being a candidate, as he suggests he wants to be, in 2024?

RB: Well, you know, there are constitutional provisions about being a candidate. And having opinions that other people may not agree with is not one of those provisions. He can be a candidate if he wants to be. But, again, I think what President Trump could do that would be most helpful right now would be focus on the policies that aren't working. You know, his policies at the border were working. His regulatory policies were --

AM: But if he --

RB: -- were working. His tax policies were working. But we see that those policies for Democrats with these narrow majorities they have aren't working. I hope that's where he focuses. But, you know, I don't manage his time --

AM: I know. But if he doesn't --

RB:  -- or his comments.

AM: -- concede the election, would you support him in 2024?

RB: Well, the election for 2020 is over. I'm focused on 2022, and it's a long time between now and 2024.

There was more - focused on #TFG and Liz Cheney and voting rights - finally, a policy question! - and Joe Manchin (who wasn't in the classroom, but he was clearly in Mitchell's head) but really, it was pretty clear she didn't give a hoot about Blunt's answers, or if she did, it was a much smaller hoot than she gave to her own questions and endless interruptions. 

It's seriously time for Meet the Press to have a total reboot - and to boot both Chuck Todd and Mitchell and try something else. This - whatever it's supposed to be - is not working.

See you around campus.