In case you missed it, here's the video.
Since we know how that played out, with all the administration folks quickly moonwalking back the comment, I'm going to move on to other things, like these Fox News Sunday interviews, starting with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida Man).
The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Scott didn't even wait for a question to dive right in.
It's nice seeing you, John. I think we're going to have a great year. We've got great candidates running around the country. We've got some primaries. The Democrats have primaries. In their primaries, I think Bernie Sanders type candidates are going to come out. The Biden agenda is very, very unpopular. So, as long as we raise our money, as long as we, you know, focus on big, bold ideas, I think we're going to have a great November.
The 'John' mentioned was host John Roberts, who asked about Russia and Ukraine. Scott said we should be doing more.
... don't play to tie, you play to win. You give them every resource you can and you do it every second. You're thinking, every second, what else can we do to put Putin back on his heels and have him take his troops back into Russia? That's what we should be doing every second. We have got to win this.
Scott also said that Biden has "been pretty weak" and that he had done more, "Putin wouldn't have invaded."
Roberts had some questions on two items in Scott's "11-point plan to rescue America." First, that all Americans should pay income taxes so they "have skin in the game," and second, that all federal legislation will sunset in five years - which could potentially lead to the end of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
He wondered why Scott would propose that kind of thing in an election year. Scott said those were "Democrat talking points," but Roberts insisted they were in the plan - and he's right. In his defense, Scott said
Also in the plan, it says we ought to, every year, talk about exactly how we're going to fix Medicare and Social Security... No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security, but what we're doing is we don't even talk about it. Medicare goes bankrupt in four years. Social Security goes bankrupt in 12 years. I think we ought to figure out how we preserve those programs. Every program that we care about, we ought to stop and take the time to preserve those programs.
That italicized part? I searched the plan for 'Social Security' and there's only one reference:
Force Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.
That's not the quite the same thing as talking every year about fixing these programs. And, on the other point, the tax thing?
...here's what's unfair. We have people that don't -- that could go to work and have figured out how to have government pay their way. That's not right. They ought to have some skin in the game. I don't care if it's a dollar. We ought to all be in this together. I'm going to focus, continue to focus on reducing taxes.
Just once, I'd love a politician to name one of these freeloaders, or one of the lobster-and-steak-eating welfare queens 0r whatever they call them. If they can't name one, do they even exist?
Scott said he's only been in DC for a short while - three years - but he went there "to change this country.
Look at where we are now. The woke left controls, you know, the executive branch. They control a lot of our government. They control academia. They control Hollywood.
My goodness - they control Hollywood!
To his credit, Roberts suggested most of his Republican colleagues "want to focus on Joe Biden," not on coming up with some plan they have to try and sell to the American public. And I'm pretty sure he's right about that.
And, speaking of the woke left, the next guest was Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Silicon Valley is Nowhere Near Hollywood); he's one of the Deputy Whips of the Congressional Woke Left Caucus.
They talked a bit about Ukraine, and the Iran nuclear deal, and where India gets military equipment. And then Roberts shifted to politics and stuff that's more wokey-lefty: how Biden "keeps talking about, 'we've got to move toward the green agenda,' That's fine,
if you do it over the course of decades. Even if you gave everybody in the country an electric vehicle for free and you convert every home to electric heat, the grid wouldn't stand it. So, you've got to update the grid as well. I mean, is it a time to put a pause on the push toward the green agenda and say, look, for the meantime, we've got to pump more oil, we've got to help out our European allies, we've got to get prices down?
Damn - that's an unwoke righty comment right there. Khanna suggested it's possible to walk and chew green gum at the same time, or something. He called it 'common sense.'
Short term, increase production. Here's one way to do it: the federal government can buy back what we're using in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and provide a floor price. That's a bipartisan proposal. Let's pass it.
Long-term, let's have a moonshot on clean technology. If John F. Kennedy said that we need to go to the moon to defeat the Soviets, you want to defeat the petrol states of Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, let's have a moonshot on renewable energy.
Remarkably, Roberts' head did not explode after Khanna's answer. He moved to Queen Work Lefty AOC and her recent NY1 interview, and her thinking that "the Democratic Party is in trouble because of the president." He played this clip, and asked Khanna if she's right.
This is really about the collapse in support among young people, among the Democratic base, feeling like they are not -- that they worked overtime to get this president elected and they aren't necessarily being seen.
Khanna outlined Biden's accomplishments (American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure bill, and more) and said "of course there are other things we ought to do. But this president has met the moment in very difficult circumstances." That led Roberts to suggest "Americans might disagree with you," pointing to the president's 40% approval rating.
Finally, Roberts had a question about Khanna's book, which talks about technology and how we can make it work better for us.
... the political discourse in this country has sunk to new lows. Everybody's yelling at each other. And much of the reason why they're yelling at each other is because of social media. Is social media ruining this country?
He said no, but "social media needs to do better."
They ought not to have incitement of violence. They ought not to discriminate against viewpoints, allow for free speech, and they ought to make sure that teenagers aren't getting manipulated in ways that are causing depression and suicide. So, absolutely, there need to be more smarter regulations on social media.
Speaking of social media, remember Truth Social, former president Trump's new platform? No surprise if you don't - it's been a dud, it seems. This article in The Guardian says
...nearly a month after its launch, Truth Social has become a laughingstock, marked by a botched rollout, a share price collapse and, in Trump, a figurehead who doesn’t actually post much to his own social media platform...
And almost a month after the launch, Trump has so far shared only one thought to the platform; a boilerplate message in mid-February urging people to “Get ready!”
See you around campus.
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