First up? President Biden's recent comment about a subset of Republicans; here are the two statements he made that are causing a bit of consternation among the Righties. The first statement was made as he was speaking at a fundraising rally in Maryland.
What we're seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It's not just Trump, it's the entire philosophy that underpins - I'm going to say something, it's like semi-fascism.
And later, he said, after calling Maryland's Gov. Larry Hogan "a Republican you can deal with,"
We disagree, but at least he's within the mainstream of the Republican Party. I respect conservative Republicans. I don't respect these MAGA Republicans.
So, here's Griffin's question to Williams: How similar is this to Hillary Clinton and her 'deplorable' comments? Williams started with a date: January 6, 2021. Clinton's widely (and often purposefully) misconstrued statement happened before that date, and Biden's was after it.
After January 6th, you had the reality that there were a group of people, Trump supporters, who attacked the Congress of the United States to stop the certification of a legitimate, fair election. You had people in the crowd who wanted to threaten, if not hang, Vice President Pence. You had a situation where there were Trump officials who were pressuring state officials to manufacture votes and send phony electors to the Congress of the United States. I think if people behave that way, then they can be -- they can expect to be called semi-fascist, fascist, because it's antidemocratic action. You're acting against the constitution of these United States. And I think, you know, without being dramatic, that's how democracy dies. They were trying to undermine, to subvert this Constitution.
He also pointed out the second comment Biden made, which differentiated between Trump's extreme MAGA Republicans (RINOs, in these pages), and mainstream, conservative Republicans. And he also noted another network's poll saying "the idea that this democracy is under attack is a number one concern of American voters.
Karl Rove begged to differ with Williams, saying
Joe Biden, President Biden, was attacking Republicans generally. He was not talking but the people who assaulted the Capitol that sits to the south of us here. He was attacking the entire party... This was - this was not in keeping with what the president promised us. My whole soul is in it, he said, in his inaugural, bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. That was after January 6th. We must see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We should treat each other with dignity and respect. He was not treating his political opponents with dignity and respect.
Williams strongly disagreed, Rove said Biden never said anything about conservatives, and eventually Griffin told the two to stop barking at each other so she could ask Kraushaar about Republicans (she didn't specify which kind she was referring to) cancelling ad spending "in several key states, like Arizona."
In response, Kraushaar talked about Biden's confidence, and "the fact that he is now going after Republicans suggests a certain confidence that he think some of these Republican candidates are too far to the right." And, he said, it's not the GOP overall, it's specific races.
There are a lot of races like that where Republicans are going to have to figure out where to spend the money because some of these candidates are just a little bit too far to the right of the swing states that they're running in.
Griffin asked Lucey whether Biden's student loan debt plan is "just a play to get young voters and minorities" to vote in the midterms. Lucey remined everyone that Biden campaigned on doing this, and using income limits for eligibility shows
they see this as a - a policy decision that was important to make. I think, in some ways, the thing to think about more with November is less - is, you know, certainly this could motivate a certain group of voters, but there's a lot of candidates, there's a lot of Democrats who aren't huge fans of this decision...who think that this could be a problem for them in November. So, you have that dynamic playing out.
Turning to Mar-a-Lago, Rove was asked if Trump's in trouble, and he said "Well, I think he's in trouble with public opinion." He talked about the 184 classified documents - 700 pages worth - that were turned over in January, and then the new set of classified documents from the search this month. He said "apparently" everything's out of Trump's hands, and he hopes
the former president has no exposure on this. It would tear our country apart if he were now to be indicted, particularly after Hillary Clinton was not indicted over - over the - the use of a - of a private email server to share classified information. But he -- those documents should not have left the White House. They should not have gone to Mar-a-Lago. The Presidential Record Act of 1978 forbids it. And the president himself, former President Trump said, they could have had them back anytime they wanted and that long ago, all they had to do was ask. Well, apparently, they were asking...
Williams said
I think it's clear the Department of Justice was justified in this step. And, boy, if Hillary Clinton had done this, I think a lot of people's hair would be on fire.
Kraushaar said there's legal jeopardy for Trump,
but I think the politics are a lot more mixed because it's clear he mishandled classified information. Is it incompetence or is it malice, that's the political question.
Incompetence? Malice? Is malicious incompetence a choice?
See you around campus.
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