Sunday School 8/7/22

Here's your recap from the Meet the Press classroom this morning, starting with what's-his-name's conversation with Stacy Abrams, the Democrat running to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia. 

He asked her to explain her stance on abortion (below) and how she'd legislate around it.

My intention is going to be to pass legislation that says a woman has the right to an abortion, and that right continues until a physician determines the fetus is viable outside of the body, except in the case of protecting the woman's life or health.

She said you don't apply "arbitrary gestational limits."  It's a medical decision, she said.

And when we give it back to doctors, when we tell women and their doctors to make these choices, what we are saying is we respect the responsibility that women have and the obligation that doctors have...we should not be setting into law these moving targets that do not reflect the reality that women face when they're sitting in that doctor's office.

What's-his-name said someone on the right would say her position would "essentially" allow abortion throughout the pregnancy; he asked if she'd want to "put guard rails on that." Abrams explained that late-term abortion decisions are incredibly difficult, and that "there is no woman who at eight months has not cherished the notion of this pregnancy."

... to put an arbitrary date in a law devalues the pain and the tragedy of that moment. A doctor is not going to take an action that is not medically required... I understand that there are those who would feel better if we plucked a date out of the air. But we know that that is not scientifically supportable. 

She also said you can't put every exception into a law, and pointed out that in Georgia,

where we have 82 counties without an OB/GYN, 64 counties without a surgeon, 18 counties without a family doctor, and nine without a doctor at all, setting arbitrary limits that are not grounded in the reality of what women face is deeply problematic and ultimately cruel.

He next asked if she was willing to compromise with a Republican legislature. Sadly, that insulting question is relevant, given so many progressives can seem to be unwilling to take a win. 

As someone who served in the legislature for 11 years and was lauded by both parties for my ability to navigate, I will certainly get the best law we can. But we begin making decisions based on what it should be. And then yes, of course, you work towards what you can get. But we have to start with a governor who actually believes that a woman should have the right to control her body and to control her economic freedom.

Turning from domestic politics to foreign policy, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-DE), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, was up next. He was asked if Speaker Pelosi's stop in Taiwan "was worth it, given the fallout?" Van Hollen thinks so; he said "we need to be very clear that China doesn't get to dictate" which US officials go to Taiwan, and when. He added

...what President Xi decided to do was manufacture a crisis over Pelosi's visit. He's got, as you know, this fall, the Communist Party Congress is coming up. He's seeking an unprecedented third term as leader of China. And this is saber-rattling and, you know, chest-bumping by President Xi.

And what does he want to see the US do, "...to reassure the Vietnams, the Japans, the Philippines, who are nervous about what China's doing here, they're nervous about if we're going to have Taiwan's back, do we have to send a message again that we're going to have their back?"

The senator thinks the administration "has been clear" that we'll recognize the One China Policy, but that we've also made it clear we'll "oppose any effort to reunify Taiwan by force or violence," and we've told our allies that as well. He thinks China's "putting missiles into Japan's economic zone, exclusive economic zone, is going to backfire." Japan will probably increase defense spending, and seek "even closer military engagement and cooperation" with the US. 

He also said he doesn't think China making "a run at Taiwan in the next five years" is inevitable. He said we have to "help Taiwan make that as difficult as possible."

We need to continue... to make Taiwan into the porcupine so that when, you know, China looks at Taiwan, it realizes that this is going to be a hell of a fight and not a winnable fight.

He suggested that if China looks at Putin's efforts in Ukraine, they'll see "how a determined people can thwart someone" like Vladimir Putin.

What's-his-name noted that we've long tried to not talk about the US/China relationship in "adversarial terms" and asked, "how do we look at" Xi's response to Pelosi's visit and "not say we're in a cold war with China?"

Van Hollen said he doesn't think we're in a cold war with them; he said "a lot of that depended on what China does next." Xi's escalated actions against Taiwan pre-date Pelosi's visit, and he's "been more aggressive throughout the region." 

At the same time, we have been trying to cooperate with them on these other measures, as you say. I believe they'll be back at the table on those measures. It is important that we have that military-to-military dialogue. But it is important that we also confront and check China, where it's tried to export its model of authoritarianism around the world in Africa, and the Middle East and other places.

Finally, there was a discussion with the panel on Biden's "good news" of late. What's-his-name wondered who gets the credit - Biden? Schumer? Pelosi? 

Anna Palmer (Punchbowl News) says not Biden; he wasn't involved in everything that's been accomplished. Instead, she says Schumer

... kind of been an untested leader and he has gotten a lot of things done here. Everybody would have thought that this was going to be a much smaller package when it came to this reconciliation bill. They come together with this kind of sneak attack, outwits McConnell. And they get this much larger package through, giving Democrats something to run on.

Susan Page (USA Today), said traditionally approval ratings matter a lot, especially when they're bad. 

But you have this unprecedented situation where you've got two presidents who are big factors in this midterm...maybe Donald Trump is more of a negative for Republicans, more of a positive for Democrats, than Joe Biden is for either one.

Cornell Belcher (a Dem pollster) thought that was smart thinking, but Pat McCrory (former NC gov) says Jon Stewart deserves the credit. The lesson for both sides?

...don't pick a fight with a comedian like Jon Stewart or Bill Maher or David Chappelle. They will win. They are quicker than us politicians. And I think right now the only guy on the offensive was the governor of Florida, DeSantis. And yet Trump will not let him share any spotlight.

Nope - he surely won't. 

See you around campus.

Sunday School 3/14/21: Extra Credit

As promised, here are some of the other classroom conversations from yesterday. 

Stacey Abrams, of the voting rights group Fair Fight, was in a couple of classrooms, including Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. He asked if HR-1, the House's massive voting-rights-plus-more bill, should be pared down to get past Senate filibuster rules, or if the focus should be on eliminating the filibuster. 

Abrams said the US Constitution gives the House and Senate "the sole responsibility... to regulate the time, place and manner of elections." She'd rather have Republicans join the fight, but if not, "I would say that an exemption to the filibuster for the purposes of protecting our democracy is not only logical, it is fundamental to who we are." 

She said "the whole of our democracy" needs to be defended and protected, and that 

the Senate has to believe it has the responsibility and the ability to act. And that is why my focus is on making certain that the exemption to the filibuster be the necessary front and center conversation, so we can get something done to protect our democracy.

Of the Georgia bills, Abrams said they're not about protecting the right to vote, the bills "are nothing more than a pretext for returning to Jim Crow and stopping voters that they (don't) want to hear from." 

Georgia's Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan was next. He said 

Republicans don't need election reform to win. We need leadership. I think there’s millions of Republicans waking up around the country that are realizing that Donald Trump's divisive tone and strategy is unwinnable in forward-looking elections. We need real leadership. We need new focus, a GOP 2.0 that includes moderates in the middle to get us to the next election cycle.

He's "one of those Republicans that want more people to vote." He believes Republican ideas help people, that "an overwhelming number of Americans" think the Rs are better on the economy, and keeping communities and the country safe, and so he wants more voters, not fewer.

You know, this started shortly after the November elections, when all the misinformation started flying up. And quite honestly, it hurt Republicans in any sort of conversation around election reform. We lost credibility. Those were ten weeks that we can't take back. January 6th was a pivot point for this country and for this party. 

Finally, on the investigation into Trump's "possible" interference (we all heard the call, right?), Duncan said, "I think the best thing we can do is to continue to focus ahead on our jobs at hand. And district attorneys and lawyers and whatnot can do their job."

In the CNN SOTU classroom, Jake Tapper talked with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) about the nearly 4000 children that are in custody at the southern border, and asked her if what we're seeing now is a "crisis," which is what she called it back in 2019 when there were fewer children in custody.

In a nutshell? No. That was a crisis; what we have today is "an enormous challenge. And it's unacceptable." It's gotten better - she also said pre-COVID, the last time she was there, kids had been in shelters for months, some up to a year, but now it's down to about a month.

Tapper asked her about Mexicans seeing Biden as "the migrant president," according to Mexican President Lopez Obrador, and whether that's helping create the mess at the border. She said focusing on that

... obscures the bigger picture that many of us, myself included, have been talking about for years. The flows -- the flow of humanity ebbs and flows. There - as I mentioned, in April, we began seeing - in April of 2020, under the harshest of conditions, a Trump administration and COVID, we still saw people arriving at our front door.

She believes Biden will "address the root causes of migration," and that we'll keep having the conversation again and again "until we have leaders in this hemisphere who are willing to work together."

George Stephanopoulos talked infrastructure with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on This Week. Pelosi said this has always been bipartisan, "except when they oppose it with a Democratic president, as they did under President Obama, and we had to shrink the package." She's asked her committee chairs to reach across the aisle and find common ground.To 

This is about broadband. It's about water systems. It's about mass transit, it’s about good paying jobs all over the country. It’s also about schools and housing and the rest. Good paying jobs across the country. And not only that, once those jobs of building are done, it's about promoting commerce, creating good -- so it’s -- the goal is to promote good growth creating good paying jobs as we protect our planet and are fiscally sound.

To pay for it, taxes are in the mix, along with several other options, because "we want to be fiscally sound as we go forward."

And this is job creating which creates revenue that comes back to the Treasury, unlike what the Republicans did with their tax scam in 2017 which gave 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent and indebted our children to the tune of nearly $1.9 trillion -- recognize the figure, in debt, added to the national debt. So they should be the last people to be talking about what is too expensive for the American people as we meet their needs.

Always so helpful, the Speaker, isn't she?

We'll end where we started, with the filibuster. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) also talked with George, and said there's nothing wrong with the 'talking filibuster,' when a Senator had to hold the floor to block a vote. The issue is "how many votes does it take to get moving forward with legislation?" 

You know, we have a 50/50 Senate. That's what the American people sent to Washington with the vice president breaking the tie. You know, George, that ought to be a mandate to move to the middle. So we ought to do things that actually can get broad, bipartisan support like the infrastructure bill that came out of my committee last time. That's the best way to get things done. If you get things that are one vote, and the vice president breaking a tie, harder for America to buy into that thing. The major pieces of legislation for our country historically have been done in a broad, bipartisan way.

Good lord, I'm thinking like Barrasso? Which one of us has lost our way? George Tried to bring him back to the filibuster, and got basically the same answer.

I don't mind talking. I think the people ought to be able to stand and express their views. The question is, is it 50 votes or 51, or is it 60? And the current number is 60. We've had this going on now for over a century. And the idea is to get bipartisan buy-in to bills. If there are parts that are very partisan, they ought to be left out. Focus on the areas on which we can agree. On most items, I think you can agree on 80 percent of the things. So let's leave out the 20 percent which are the hot button issues and move the country forward on issues on which we agree.

What's your takeaway from this week's classroom visits? 

See you around campus - I'll be wearing a mask, still and hope you will be, too. 

Sunday School 11/8/20

For today's Sunday School, we had an interesting cast of characters to choose from. Utah's Sen. Mitt Romney was in three classrooms (I've got one of them); House Majority Whip Rep Jim Clyburn of South Carolina was scheduled for two (I've got him, too); and so was Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. 

Others wandering around?  My Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo; South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem; Stacy Abrams (I've got her) and Sen. Joe Manchin of WVA (I've got him, too). 

Let's start with Clyburn and Abrams and their visits to the CNN State of the Union classroom, with Jake Tapper in the host's chair. Clyburn was asked about the little family feuding going on in the Democratic Party, specifically concerns that the progressives have made it hard for the party by forcing them further and further to the left.

Clyburn noted that he's long not been a fan of sloganeering, and pointed to a conversation he had with the late John Lewis.

John and I sat on the House floor and talked about that 'defund the police' slogan, and both of us concluded that it had the possibilities of doing to the Black Lives Matter movement and current movements across the country what "Burn, baby, burn" did to us back in 1960. We lost that movement over that slogan... and so, we saw the same thing happening here...

We need to work on what makes headway, rather than what makes headlines. 

As they say, "damn straight, Skippy."

In his chat with Stacey Abrams, whom many are crediting with delivering Georgia for Joe Biden, Tapper wondered about Dems and minorities, given that the president made "some inroads" with minority groups himself.

Abrams said, as pretty much every Tom, Dick and Harry has said since last Tuesday, "the Latino community is not a monolith." And while Latinos will be behind Biden's victories in Arizona, Nevada and even Georgia, the key is consistent engagement.

We began early on saying that this is not about black and white; this is about pulling together coalitions of people of color, of the poor, of the disadvantaged, of the marginalized, and being consistent with our engagement, not waiting for an election to meet them, and certainly not waiting until the end of an election to acknowledge their value.

We have been doing this work from the very beginning. But I also want to acknowledge the very strong work of progressive whites who've been working to help build these opportunities as well. We are not a majority-minority country yet. And that means that this is a coalition that has to be built and sustained across racial lines, across demography, across geography, because our mission should be the protection of our democracy and the action of progress for all.

I'll give her a "damn straight, Skippy" as well. 

I picked Meet the Press for my Mitt Romney interview, where Chuck Todd asked him about alleged 'rigged' voting, which the president is alleging. The question, in a nutshell, since we know it's possible that someone might have voted for Joe Biden for president but chose to vote for a Republican for Senate, does Romney think that if one vote on that ballot is 'rigged,' the others could be too.

Well, I think that's a pretty fair point... I think you make an important point, which is a lot of Republicans, a lot of voters, voted for Republicans but did not vote for the president. And that suggests to me that conservative principles are still in the majority in our country.

On that point, Todd mentioned Romney's 12-point win in Cobb County, in the Atlanta suburbs, which was the same margin Biden won by. So, while maybe there are still conservative values, is there a suburban problem for the Rs?

Romney noted that the Ds have their own problems, too. But he did make an interesting point.

...I think if you look at the numbers and look at the pickup that Republicans had in statehouses across the country, in Congress and holding the Senate so far, versus our loss in the presidency, you'd suggest that the presidential race was more a matter of a referendum on a person. And that when it came to policy, we did pretty well.

Back to the suburbs, Romney admitted the Rs have challenges, that they need to do better with young people and minorities, and that he thinks they can get the suburban women back, but "we've got some work to do."

And on whether it's still Donald Trump's Republican Party, Romney said Trump is the most powerful voice in the GOP.

He will have an enormous impact on our party going forward. I believe the great majority of people who voted for Donald Trump want to make sure his principles and his priorities are pursued. So, yeah, I mean, he's not - he's not disappearing by any means. He's the, you know, the 900-pound gorilla when it comes to the Republican Party.

A very angry 900-poung gorilla, it would seem.  

Finally, let's check in with Margaret Brennan's conversation with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on Face the Nation. She asked him about the election being a wakeup call for senators, and what president-elect Biden's first order of business should be. 

Manchin said Biden wants to be a president for everyone, and that's exactly what he'll have to do.

Joe Biden got elected in a very, very contested primary, and all the nuances that were thrown on the Democratic Party is not who we are. He was not for any of this stuff. And I think Jim Clyburn said it best, that was an albatross around us. Basically, labeling every Democrat as a socialist or supporting socialism, that's not who we are. It's not who I am. It's not how we were raised. And it hurt a lot of good Democrats in rural America, Montana, for one. Other places around the country.

Brennan wondered about West Virginia going "ruby red" for Trump and wondered why the Dem's message break through there. It wasn't a good message he said, because the Dems had been tagged as socialists before they even had a chance to "remind people who we are."

Here is the thing, four years ago in rural America, in America in general, voted for Donald Trump because Democrats were mad, independents were mad. They thought they'd been left behind...They went from being mad to being scared in 2020. They were scared of this socialism that was thrown out there by a radical part of the so-called left that was throwing all this out, that basically scared the bejesus out of people and that hung on and hung on strongly. And it's not who we are. It is not who we are and it's not what we're about. And I have fought against that. Joe Biden has fought against that. We're not for New Green Deal. We're not for all the things that he's talked about, Medicare for all. We can't even pay for Medicare for some. We've got to take care of a lot of things.

Manchin took pains to separate Biden from the Green New Deal, when Brennan pushed on that. He said Biden's plan is all-inclusive and that we have to remain energy independent

To have the most powerful nation on earth, we can't be dependent on foreign-- on any foreigners-- foreign countries for our energy sources.

Innovation, not elimination, he believes. And he talks like Biden is on the same page with him.

Finally, Brennan wondered what the Biden administration would be able to get done, and whether the message from the election is that the Dems need to be moderate.

Manchin said he's always been moderate, and that he'd encourage his fellow Dems to "find the middle" if they can. He said they're not going to be able to govern "from the extremes or from the fringes" and, he added, 

... I've always said I'm fiscally responsible and socially compassionate. I believe most Americans are, my moderate Republican friends and the moderate Democrats. We've got to govern from that middle, that moderate middle. Joe Biden has always been there. He knows how to work across the aisle. He'll reach out first and make this Senate work and give it every chance he can... There'll be more and more crossing over wanting to work in a more moderate, moderate Senate. I really believe that.

Brennan was skeptical, and she didn't offer a "damn straight, Skippy" to Manchin. But I will. And I'll have more on the moderates vs. progressives stuff as things unfold. 

See you around campus. Keep your sense of optimism, keep your sense of joy, keep your happy feet moving - but listen to me when I tell you, keep your masks on. We're depending on you. 

Highlights from the DNC: Night Two

I  know it's Wednesday, and usually we'd be wondering on whatever strikes me. 

But, because we've got more  highlights from the Dems in Zoomland, we'll forgo our usual wondering and instead dive in and see what the main speakers had to say, starting with Stacey Abrams.

 This nation belongs to all of us and in every election, we choose how we will create a more perfect union. Not by taking sides, but by taking stock of where we are and what we need. This year’s choice could not be more clear. America faces a triple threat, a public health catastrophe, an economic collapse, and a reckoning with racial justice and inequality. So our choice is clear. A steady, experienced public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he’s done before, or a man who only knows how to deny and distract. A leader who cares about our families or a president who only cares about himself. We know Joe Biden. America, we need Joe Biden. 

Sally Yates. 

...from the moment President Trump took office, he’s used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, trying to weaponize our justice department to attack his enemies and protect his friends. 

His constant attacks on the FBI, the free press, inspectors general, federal judges, they all have one purpose, to remove any check on his abuse of power. Put simply, he treats our country like it’s his family business. This time, bankrupting our nation’s moral authority at home and abroad.

But our country doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to all of us. Joe Biden embraces that. He has spent his entire life putting our country first. He has never backed down from a challenge or a bully. He summons the best in us, and lives by the values that define us as Americans, service, integrity, courage, compassion.

There are countless stories of Joe Biden reaching out to someone in their moment of need. Well, this is our country’s moment of need. We need a president who respects our laws and the privilege of public service. Who reflects our values and cares about our people. We need a president who will restore the soul of America. We need Joe Biden.

Chuck Schumer.

Behind me is a site I see out of my window every night, the Statue of Liberty. The same site that greeted hopeful immigrants, like my grandparents. A symbol of freedom and a beacon of hope to the world.

Today, Donald Trump has divided our country, diminished our greatness, and demeaned everything that this statue represents. 

America, Donald Trump has quit on you. We need a president with dignity, integrity, and the experience to lead us out of this crisis. A man with a steady hand and a big heart who will never, ever quit on America. That man is my friend, Joe Biden.

Together, we can reignite the hope once felt by millions of men and women, huddled masses on creaking ships, who glimpsed this mighty woman with her torch, knowing they could build a better life here in America. And out of this long, national nightmare, America will finally awaken to a brighter future and a new day.

Jimmy Carter. 

We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people.

Joe is that kind of leader, and he is the right person for this moment in our nation’s history. He understands that honesty and dignity are essential traits that determine not only our vision, but our actions. More than ever, that’s what we need.

During these uncertain times, Joe Biden realizes that many American lives can be saved each day with the use of masks and testing, as recommended by our medical experts. Joe Biden must be our next president.

Bill Clinton. 

At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it’s a storm center. There’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes, his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.

Our party is united in offering you a very different choice, a go-to-work president. A down-to-earth, get-the-job-done guy. A man with a mission to take responsibility, not shift the blame; concentrate, not distract; unite, not divide. Our choice is Joe Biden.

Joe helped bring us back from a recession before, and he can do it again. In 2009, Barack Obama and Joe Biden started with the worst economy since the Great Depression. When they were done, they delivered more than six straight years of job growth.

In this job interview, the difference is stark. You know what Donald Trump will do with four more years, blame, bully, and belittle. And you know what Joe Biden will do, build back better. It’s Trump’s “us vs. them” America against Joe Biden’s America, where we all live and work together. It’s a clear choice. The future of our country is riding on it. Thank you.

Tom Perez. 

Indeed, every American story is a story about that hope, that sense of possibility. It’s what unites us, defines us, and it’s what sustains us now. We will work to meet our extraordinary challenges, because progress is made by the hopeful, not the cynical. We will do that work together because movements are built by the many, not the few.

As you watch tonight’s decidedly unconventional roll call and reflect on the diversity of our nation, remember you too are part of the American story. No matter where you come from or where you’re watching from tonight, you have a place in Joe Biden’s Democratic Party.

John Kerry.

This is the bottom line, our interests, our ideals, and our brave men and women in uniform can’t afford four more years of Donald Trump. Our troops can’t get out of harm’s way by hiding in the White House bunker. They need a president who will stand up for them. And President Biden will. Joe’s moral compass has always pointed in the right direction, from the fight to break the back of Apartheid, to the struggle to wake up the world to genocide in the Balkans. Joe understands that none of the issues of this world, not nuclear weapons, not the challenge of building back better after COVID, not terrorism, and certainly not the climate crisis, none can be resolved without bringing nations together with strength, and humility. Joe understands our values don’t limit our power, they magnify it. He knows you can’t spread democracy around the world if you don’t practice it at home.

Before Donald Trump, we used to talk about American exceptionalism. The only thing exceptional about the incoherent Trump foreign policy is that it has made our nation more isolated than ever before. Joe Biden knows we aren’t exceptional because we bluster that we are, we are exceptional because we do exceptional things. On June 6th, 1944, young Americans gave their lives and the beaches of Normandy to liberate the world from tyranny. Out of the ashes of that war we made peace and rebuilt the world. That was, and remains exceptional. It is the opposite of everything Donald Trump stands for. This moment is a fight for the security of America, and the world. Only Joe Biden can make America lead like America again. 

Colin Powell.

The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx, and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden’s parents instilled in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States, because those values still define him. And we need to restore those values to the White House. Our country needs a commander in chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn’t need teaching, it comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families, sending his beloved son off to war, and praying to God he would come home safe. Joe Biden will be a president we will all be proud to salute. With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends, and stand up to our adversaries, never the other way around. He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots.

He will make it his job to know when anyone dares to threaten us, he will stand up to our adversaries with strength and experience. They will know he means business. I support Joe Biden because beginning on day one, he will restore Americans leadership, and our moral authority. He’ll be a president who knows that America is strongest when, as he has said, we lead both by the power of our example, and the example of our power. He will restore America’s leadership in the world and restore the alliances we need to address the dangers that threaten our nation, from climate change to nuclear proliferation. Today, we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way, and keep us that way. What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength, and our soul. I still believe that in our hearts, we are the same America that brought my parents to our shores, an America that inspires freedom around the world. That’s the America Joe Biden will lead is our next president. Thank you very much.

Dr. Jill Biden.

We found that love holds a family together. Love makes us flexible and resilient. It allows us to become more than ourselves together. And though it can’t protect us from the sorrows of life, it gives us refuge, a home. How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation hole, with love and understanding, and with small acts of kindness, with bravery, with unwavering faith. You show up for each other in big ways and small ones again and again. It’s what so many of you are doing right now for your loved ones, for complete strangers, for your communities. There are those who want to tell us that our country is hopelessly divided, that our differences are irreconcilable, but that’s not what I’ve seen over these last few months. We’re coming together and holding onto each other. We’re finding mercy and grace in the moments we might have once taken for granted. We’re seeing that our differences are precious and our similarities, infinite. We have shown that the heart of this nation still beats with kindness and courage. That’s the soul of America Joe Biden is fighting for now.

...if you listen closely, you can hear the sparks of change in the air across this country. Educators, parents, first responders, Americans of all walks of life are putting their shoulders back, fighting for each other. We haven’t given up. We just need leadership worthy of our nation, worthy of you, honest leadership to bring us back together, to recover from this pandemic and prepare for whatever else is next.

Leadership to re-imagine what our nation will be. That’s Joe. He and Kamala will work as hard as you do every day to make this nation better. And if I have the honor of serving as your first lady, I will too. And with Joe, as president, these classrooms will ring out with laughter and possibility once again. The burdens we carry are heavy and we need someone with strong shoulders. I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours, bring us together and make us whole, carry us forward in our time of need, keep the promise of America for all of us.

Tonight, we've got Barack, and HRC, and Kamala, among others - which should make for an interesting night don't you think?

Highlights tomorrow.

Sunday School 8/2/20: Extra Credit

In our Sunday School post, we heard from Dr Birx, Admiral Giroir, and Neel Kashkari, chair of the Minneapolis Fed. 

For your Extra Credit this week, we'll hear from three women reported to be on Papa Joe's short list for veep: Stacey Abrams, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), who was in two classrooms, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). We'll take them in that order

Abrams talked with Dana Bash on CNN's SOTU; their conversation started with a question on what Abrams thought of the president suggesting that the election be delayed.

...he's attempting to distract us from his failed leadership. But -- invoking the notion that we cannot hold an election cuts against hundreds of years of history. We had elections during the Civil War, during the Spanish Flu. And we can have an election this time. Absentee ballots work, as he admits. And it's the exact same thing as mail-in ballots, vote by mail. It's all the same job. And the job that he has is to make certain that we have a Postal Service that can actually deliver the votes to our elections officials... 

On whether Abrams is worried the president won't accept the results:

 I'm not worried about that. What I'm worried about is that we will not be able to effectively count the votes of every eligible American, because he's doing his best to undermine our confidence in the process. But, worse, he's doing his best to actually steal the vote by undermining the Postal Service knowing that, at this point, more than 40 percent of Americans are likely to use some form of early voting, including vote by mail. And, as we know, we're not yet in the second wave of the pandemic. That means we have to be prepared, and that means we have to have a Postal Service that's working, but we also need the HEROES Act passed, so that cash-strapped states like Arkansas, like Georgia, like North Carolina, like Wisconsin can scale up an deliver an election that is worthy of America.

On whether she's still in the running to be veep:

I leave it to the Biden vetting team to answer questions about who's in the running. But we know that whomever Joe Biden picks will be a good partner to help us turn this country around, restore the soul of America, and build back better. That's what we need. 

On whether she'd be disappointed if it was not her and also not anther African-American:

I have said time and again I believe that Joe Biden is going to pick the right partner for himself, because he's the only person who's done this job. And while I believe that diversity is incredibly important, and I think it is an absolute good to see a continued changing of the face of what leadership looks like in America, I look to Joe Biden to pick the right partner for himself in the moment that we have before us, which is one of an economic crisis, a public health crisis, and a crisis of justice. And I think he's the person who will not take anyone for granted. And I look forward to working with him to make sure he's elected.

Rep. Bass, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, appeared on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, but his questions were poorly worded, almost as if he had never interviewed a potential vice president before. You can read the transcript if you like, but here's a sampling:

Let me ask this. I know nobody runs for the vice presidency and that, you know, people shy away from that. But let me ask you the question this way. Why'd you decide to go through this vetting process?

Is there something about the post itself that is appealing to you if you did end up as vice president of the United States? 

Let me ask you this. Why haven't you considered running for president before? And by agreeing to this, I know it doesn't mean you want to run for president in the future, -- but a lot of people certainly think you will. 

Sunday School 4/26/20

Holy moly, the classrooms were packed today! I'll fit in what I can, and the rest will flow over into an Extra Credit post, sound good?

Stacey Abrams, the woman who has made it clear she wants to be Joe Biden's veep. was on with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, as was Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.  Here are highlights of those discussions, starting with Abrams.

If she were governor of Georgia, it seems clear she would not have reopened until there was more testing and a reduced infection rate; she said reopening before those were in place "wrongheaded," noting the state's "14th highest infection rate and 7th slowest testing rate."  In response to Todd's question on how she'd "launch a national testing strategy" if she were in charge of the federal government. She likes what Congress is doing with the investment in testing, and funding for folks in the trenches,

But I would also be encouraging states like Georgia and the other southern states and Midwestern states that have refused to expand Medicaid to do so immediately. Part of testing is making sure people trust that they can go and be tested. And right now, there is an inadequate equipment, an inadequate strategy. We should increase production. We should make certain it's not simply the testing that's available but the mechanics, the swabs, the vials. And that we are funding people on the front-lines to do this work, to put themselves in harm's way, to make sure we can test, trace and track.

After some discussion on what skills a Biden VP should have, or what that person should bring to the table, she was asked if she thought it'd be a mistake if Papa Joe didn't pick a woman of color.

I think President, a President Biden will do what he has always done, which is respect and value communities of color. I think he understands that black communities and people of color are vital to the success of the Democratic Party. And I think he's going to pick the right person. I, of course, think that a woman of color can bring certain attributes. We have to lift up marginalized communities, communities that do not trust that they will be served because they’ve been the hardest hit by this pandemic.. And so, yes, having a woman of color on the ticket will help promote not only diversity, but trust. But I trust Joe Biden to pick the person he thinks is the right running mate for him.

And yes, of course, she's still interested in the position. 

Moving on to Osterholm, there was a lot of talk about testing. He said that "our government is not working with private sector companies," that "we have the wild wild west for testing right now. The FDA has all but given up its oversight responsibility," and that, "if you were to test for antibody in most places in the US, over half the tests would be false positives."

So what we need is a major, new initiative on testing that gets away from every day just saying how many people get tested. We're missing the mark in a big way right now.

Using the Defense Production Act to force companies to make what we need to be able to use the available testing capacity is part of the answer, but "we're competing against the world for the reagents" and we've not been clear what we want or need. We have "too much happy talk" and we need a "strategic plan that lays out why we are going to use the test, how we are going to use the test, when will it be available?" And finally, on which will come first, herd immunity or a vaccine, he said we'll have the former if we don't get the latter, but that he thinks "we have a better chance of a vaccine than some." 

Next up? Senator Amy Klobuchar, talking with George Stephanopoulos on This Week. She supports what Minnesota's governor is doing as far as stating to reopen things, as he's "been very careful and listened to the doctors and scientists" and they still have stay-at-home orders in place. And, like others who made the rounds today, she lamented the lack of a national strategy and "that there is an absence of national leadership." 

She said Dems are going to keep pushing for funds for state and local governments which are being hit so hard with all of this.  Short term, the goal is to get the state/local money; long term, it's "how we're going to make a steady economy so we can once again lead in the world. And we're not going to do it with this president."

And, does she think Minnesota is in play for November? 

No, I don't think Minnesota is in play because we want a real leader in the White House, and I am -- you know, the whole Midwest, when you look at what's happening with our biofuel plants, with our commodities, with what's happening with our poultry, this is not a good situation, and the president, in my mind, has never done enough when it comes to rural America, and now as they would say, the chickens coming home to roost and you have seen some real problems with people having to kill their chickens literally, because of what is going on right now with our rural economy. 

And finally, Dr. Deborah Birx and Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union. Their conversation started on testing, and why it's "taking so long" to fix things such as the shortage of nasal swabs, not enough people or equipment at labs, and so on.

Birx said in the beginning, there was only one platform for the labs, but now there are "six or seven platforms that they have to integrate" in order to use the capacity we have. Tapper asked about how our capitalist system - he's "glad we have it" - there isn't any financial incentive for companies to "do things out of the goodness of their hearts" and can't we use the DPA here to make sure the testing supplies get made?

Like others in the administration, Birx said that Trump has used the DPA, but didn't specify how it was being used here. Instead, she focused on what the FDA is doing behind the scenes to "unlock capacity day after day after day." (Trump himself has often tweeted about 'invoking the D but it in fact it's been used more as leverage than as a directive, which is what folks have asked for.)

She also noted that so much of what we need, from PPE to ventilators to testing supplies are not made in the USA,

And I think this is really a wakeup call for all of America to really ensure that we have internal capacity, because everybody's supply chains are very stressed right now... And so there's amazing positives, but there's also a real analysis of, after we move through this into the summer months, to really ensure that we have more vibrant internal, at least Northern Hemisphere and North America, supply chains that we can count on.

On concerns about seeing a surge in cases and deaths in states that are relaxing their stay-at-home orders but aren't following the Administration's guidelines. she said she's "always concerned" and said that's why they put out "key, key gating criteria" which included a focus on protecting health care workers and hospital capacity, and other things too. Basically, she gave a very detailed response which illustrated the point of Tapper's question - and he was not shy about pointing that out, either.

He said it seems like the states are on their own, and mentioned a CDC web site that's still not up and running with critical information on contact tracing, and asked if she thought states are ready to do what they're doing. given there's little evidence that they're meeting the gating criteria.

Her answer? Well, in a nutshell, CDC is doing more, but more importantly she spoke to all the ways that state and local officials are doing more, too. And they're sharing information with each other, and with CDC, and everyone is learning together.

We have never had to do this before as a country. And so we're learning, as a federal government, how to better support the states, and the states are learning how to share critical information about how we work through this together.

Not sure anyone should feel more confident about the states jumping early, without even meeting the case, death, and hospitalization metrics, much less the rest of it. But maybe it's just me.

They also talked about antibodies, and what we don't know about immunity; Birx said that the WHO is being cautious when they talk about that stuff. She thinks that all the data that's being collected by CDC, which is studying antibodies, and by the hospitals that are using plasma from recovered patients, the data is what's going to tell us what we need to know about antibodies.

I think what WHO was saying, we don't know how long that effective antibody lasts. And I think that is a question that we have to explore over the next few months and over the next few years. But I think everything that the WHO said should be happening, we're doing here in the United States to help the American people.

And finally, Tapper asked her "what should Americans know about disinfectants and the human body?" She defended the president, point to a "dialogue" he was having with the DHS guy, but that she made it clear to Trump - and he understood - that "it was not a treatment." She pointed to the DHS study as being important, and helpful in our understanding "how we can effectively create decontamination in different environments."

What bothered her about all of this - the scurrying to issue statements to protect Americans who might have acted on what the president was musing about - was not what he said, or that he said it. Rather, she's concerned that people are still taking about that, and not talking about all of the things that we're seeing that other countries didn't see - she mentioned a few of them - and that we need to have information so we can protect ourselves and each other. She wants us to move on,

to be able to get information to the American people that can help them protect each other and also help them understand how devastating this virus is to different age groups and different symptoms and different comorbidities.

If he would only let the task force do that, and if he wouldn't argue with his experts on camera, and if he wouldn't provide support to people who are ignoring his own guidelines, we might be at exactly the place Dr. Birx wants us to be in.

Lots to digest here, and I can assure you it's better digested from a safe social distance with nice clean hands.

See you around the virtual campus.