OrangeVerse (LXVI): WHCA Part 1

For about an hour on Saturday night, the FOTUS rambled on and on at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, rescheduled from April when a man tried to get into the ballroom and assassinate the president and other members of his administration. 

Other presidents who have attended usually speak for 15, 20, or maybe even 30 minutes, nothing like what GOP strategist Alyssa Farah Griffin described as "what felt like 90 minutes we'll never get back of our lives." 

There's so much to unpack, as the punditry likes to say, that I'm breaking it down into bite-sized pieces of poetry. Well, OK, Big Mac-sized bites... giant Diet Coke-sized slurps of verse, if you will. Are you ready?

Karoline

our favorite White House

Press Secretary...who just had her

second child, you and your husband.

She's great. She's done a fantastic job.

We all love her. She's done a fantastic job.

She is another one.

She can be nasty

But sometimes she has no choice, right?

Karoline

may have one of 

the hardest jobs...she

has to deal with all of you 

all of the time,

and you could be very difficult.

You can be very, very difficult people

but I'm probably being a little bit oversensitive.

Sometimes I really do think

That some of you don't like me

I read a report

I get 93% negative publicity,

93, I said, how the hell

did I win the election

by so much?

Think of it, I

don't think that's true.

I can't believe it's 93.

In the 80s maybe, but

not 93.

But this place

is the, really,

the largest group

of Trump Derangement Syndrome

people. Ever put together

at one time, I suspect. Some

of you are lucky

that our last dinner was cut short

because I brought with me

what would possibly

have been,

I'm telling you,

I had, uh...

 I had something

I was gonna go after you.

I was gonna. I feel

so badly doing this.

It's gotta be

such a letdown

Oh yay, yay.

But your lives were really in danger

the last time but for

an opposite reason.

But on the plus side, your

careers were saved and

we have a, uh, we really do.

We have a complete and total,

you know, I love the words

Complete and total

they say, but it means almost

the same thing,

I said, it doesn't matter

when you say it.

It's called emphasis.

It's called emphasis.

But everyone is now

really warming up

the new White House

military center,

drone port,

highly protected

ballroom.

It's, we have

our ballroom.

The windows are this thick.

I said to the people

well, if a bullet hits, what happens?

Nothing. Nothing.

It bounces right off, sir.

This is the greatest bulletproof glass.

I said AK-47,

that's supposed to be a big one.

I don't know so much

about the guns.

My sons know a lot.

But I said

Ah, I know it's big.

What would happen?

They go up, meaning

it could take more.

I said so, if I'm making

a speech and I hear that

pinging sound at a window

what would I do?

Sir, uh, leave the room

right away but

you're gonna be safe.

We're building something that's

gonna be amazing.

And in light of 

what we went through

I think, uh, people

understand it.

 It's 

gonna 

be 

amazing.

I wonder... what could be more amazing than Part 1? Stick around - you'll have a chance to pick your favorite part when it's done. 

In Case You Missed It (v116)

The writing was easier last week, at least for a while. Here's your recap of what made it out of my head. 

I opened the week with a Sidebar driven by all the attention received by What's-his-name, the guy who hosts Meet the Press. He "did his job," fans say, by having another on-air argument with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). 

I'm no Johnson fan; I think he's a partisan hack. Even as I dislike him, I admit he's not wrong on everything. For example, he and I agree, the American people deserve to hear about the bad behavior of government officials, and Congress deserves the chance to provide 'oversight' of the government, even if no criminal statutes have been violated. 

WHN thinks that's ridiculous.

So, I guess the problem that I feel like you run into with that decision is what you're saying is if the Justice Department decides a crime wasn't committed, they're not going to prosecute a crime, it sounds like you still want the information out there because you want to politically damage the person that was investigated?

I suggested that maybe we want these bad actors to be held accountable, even if they're not 'officially' criminals, and it led to these questions.

Would WHN say that if the subject of the investigation was Clarence Thomas? Brett Kavanaugh? Marjorie Taylor Green? Matt Gaetz? Ron Johnson? Has he ever said that about any Donald Trump investigation?

We all know the answer to those questions, don't we?

Next up? A Quick Take inspired by the latest classified document finding - a "small number" of them, at the new home of former VP Mike Pence. I caught wind of that via a breaking news alert, and as often happens, my mind started racing. My former boss and co-workers would call out, "Oh, look - a squirrel!" when this happened in staff meetings. Here's a bit of that.

Shortly after seeing the headline, I had sketched out a perfect solution.

The houses, garages, car trunks, libraries, golf bags, duffel bags, diaper bags, bar carts, and sock drawers of every member of Congress, as well as every living president and vice president, must be searched for classified documents or other absconded-with items; the search must happen as soon as possible, to protect our national sanity, er, I mean, our national security.

And Ivanka's grave, too, must be searched - don't forget Ivanka's grave. I mean, who buries his ex-wife on his golf course while under investigation for missing documents?

Who does that? Donald Trump does, that's who.

If we need that kind of document-hunting effort, we'd need funding, which I figured out; and we'd need people to do the work. I had an answer for that, too.

Call up the Texas bounty hunters.

There's a reason they'd be perfect for the job - and it's in the post.  

I spent some time in the Sunday School classrooms, looking for discussions on the debt ceiling, which seems at least as important as worrying about which potential presidential candidate is hurt more by the politics of their document handling.  

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) had some thoughts on the debt, how we got where we are, and a possible solution, which he shared on CNN's State of the Union.

Everybody believes -- I mean, my goodness, when you have $31.4 trillion, and we have thrown caution to the wind, and to blame the Republicans, Republicans to blame the Democrats, who's at fault? Everybody's at fault. We don't have a process. I have been there 12 years, no budget.

He thinks the government needs to have "guardrails" on spending; having a budget, and trying to stick to it, is a good start.  And, while some have suggested forming a commission to develop recommendations, he's not a fan.

Can't you look and find out in government where you can be more efficient, more basically prudent with the taxpayers' money and quit wasting it, don't you think? And we all talk about waste, fraud, and abuse. That's an easy thing to do. But no one looks at it.

Hear, hear! 

It took me until Thursday morning to get the post out, but I did do some Wondering on Wednesday, on hypocrisy and indifference, among other things. Here's the hypocrisy wondering.

One thing I don't have to wonder about? Whether the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will be asking for Mike Pence's visitor logs. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen - but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they asked for Jimmy Carter's. 

The indifference part? Mass shootings, and guns. There were three mass shootings in California in a matter of days. One was plastered all over the news; another was pretty widely covered. The other one?

You probably didn't hear much about the third one; it was likely gang- or drug-related, which means, you know, "it was their own damn fault" that young mom and her baby were executed along with several other family members. I wonder why the media doesn't talk about that kind of mass shooting so much? Is it because they wouldn't have time to tell us about storms headed for the I-95 corridor?

So, that's a wrap on last week; as always, feel free to drop a comment on any of the posts. 

Wondering on Wednesday 1/25/23

 

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Tonight, I'm wondering how many lawyers out there are experienced with classified documents, and how many of them have been retained by current or former government officials? I mean, even former President Jimmy Carter had classified documents found in his house once - and if it can happen to him, is anyone really in the clear?

According to the Associated Press, 

It turns out former officials from all levels of government discover they are in possession of classified material(s) and turn them over to the authorities at least several times a year, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of classified documents.

And sometimes, the folks in charge of handling them correctly are guilty of allowing the documents to be mishandled, which leads me to wonder which group should be under investigation: the handlers or the mishandlers? 

One thing I don't have to wonder about? Whether the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will be asking for Mike Pence's visitor logs. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen - but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they asked for Jimmy Carter's. 

I will never stop wondering about mass shootings - they've become a familiar fixture here (and only here.) We've had school shootings, Walmart shootings, and house of worship shootings. We've had medical office shootings, entertainment venue shootings, and grocery store shootings. And this month alone, California has seen three mass shootings, with nearly 30 dead. 

You probably didn't hear much about the third one; it was likely gang- or drug-related, which means, you know, "it was their own damn fault" that young mom and her baby were executed along with several other family members. I wonder why the media doesn't talk about that kind of mass shooting so much? Is it because they wouldn't have time to tell us about storms headed for the I-95 corridor?

I also wonder why Democrats rarely mention that kind of shooting? They're very quick to mention 'hate' and 'racism' whenever a shooting involves people of color, even before details are available. Some did that with the Monterey Park shooting; there were no retractions after we learned the shooter was a septuagenarian Asian man. I'm sure they were tempted to do the same with the Half Moon Bay shooting, where another Asian man was behind the killing of Hispanic and Asian farm workers.

Republicans will always mention Chicago when they're in front of microphones, as Rep. Mike McCaul did on CNN's State of the Union, suggesting that red flag laws and strict gun laws aren't the solution. Why don't Dems mention Chicago more, I wonder?

One last thing on guns and another part of my wonderment on all of this. The Virginia teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student is planning on suing the school district for its failure to act on multiple concerns raised, by teachers and staff, that the child who did have a gun might have had a gun.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Concerned staff warned administrators at a Virginia elementary school three times that a 6-year-old boy had a gun and was threatening other students in the hours before he shot and wounded a teacher, but the administration “was paralyzed by apathy” and didn't call the police, remove the boy from class, or lock down the school, the wounded teacher's lawyer said Wednesday.

“On that day, over the course of a few hours, three different times — three times — school administration was warned by concerned teachers and employees that the boy had a gun on him at the school and was threatening people. But the administration could not be bothered,” Toscano said.

Among the reasons the warnings were ignored? He had little pockets, presumably too small to hold a gun, and it was almost the end of the school day, so there was no need to look harder for the weapon - even though he had threatened another child on the playground. I wonder why, and how, after Uvalde, any school district employee could have such a dismissive attitude about this.

Finally, we learned Pope Francis said that "being homosexual is not a crime" even though "Catholic teaching holds that homosexual acts are a sin." He said the Church "should work to put an end to" laws criminalizing homosexuality. Importantly, he also

stressed the need to distinguish between the two, and said, for example, that lack of charity with one another is also a sin. 

I can't help wondering if anyone will take that part to heart. 

What are you wondering about?

Sunday School 11/27/22: Extra Credit

This week's Sunday School was all about the classroom panel discussions. For your Extra Credit, I'll nose around a few of the 'usual suspect' interviews, starting with Dana Bash and Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) on CNN's SOTU.

"A former president, an antisemite, and a white supremacist walk into Mar-a-Lago. There is no punchline." That was Bash's intro to her discussion with Hutchinson - and I love it. Now - on to the recap.

• Hutchinson said he hopes "someday, we won't have to be responding" to stuff Trump has said or done. About the dinner, it "empowers people when you meet with them... you want to diminish their strength, not empower them." He also said "You have got to be absolutely clear in your communication that this is not acceptable dogma, it's not acceptable conversation, it's not acceptable history, and you have to disavow it. it's as simple as that."

• In his upcoming speech at the Reagan Institute, he's going to talk about things that Republicans "historically" don't do: "attack America's democracy...denigrate our political system...undermine confidence in America...attack those institutions that are fundamental to the rule of law." He said the party "is in a good position coming out of the midterms," but his remarks are for "the individual candidates that strayed from" Republican principles.

• He signed a bill banning biological males from competing in women's sports, so he's "comfortable" with Herschel Walker's attack ad about trans athletes just days after the shooting at a LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Spring. He also passed anti-hate legislation and said "we shouldn't be targeting anyone because of their race or their gender." He closed with, "What happened at that nightclub is a human tragedy... These are challenging issues. And what happened is just simply wrong."

On MTP, What's-his-name (WHN) talked with Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO). Colorado's been the site of several mass shootings over the years. 

• Polis said everyone's voices need to be heard to fix this. "I think what you really need to do if you're serious about reducing these kinds of gun violence events and mass violence events is try to take the best ideas from all sides that work." That means mental health, and gun policy, and dealing with anti-LGBTQ stuff. "We need to, as a society, as political leaders, walk and chew gum at the same time. We need to look at all the evidence and the facts and try to make decisions that lead to a safer country."

• He said it looks like "this would have been a good instance" for the use of Colorado's 'red flag' law. It's been used "several hundred times, but could have been used even more" to prevent mass shootings, self-harm, or suicide." He also said "it's never comfortable" to get involved in someone else's business, particularly when it's a mental health issue, but "it's certainly better than the alternative," which is doing nothing.

• We need a national solution on guns. One example? Colorado has universal background checks, but neighboring states don't. He also was "generally supportive of national efforts towards closing the gun show loophole, towards having a conversation about. having a "process where you need an additional license or background check for some of the most high-powered weapons, I did support that as a member of Congress."

Finally, Jon Karl talked with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in ABC's This Week classroom. 

• Unbanning Trump from Twitter is "a terrible mistake" and that Elon Musk did it via a user poll "further contradicts Musk and his claimed concern about bots on his own platform."

• Appointing a special counsel for Trump investigations is the right move, and "if the same prosecutors that have been investigating the former president and others can be moved on to the special prosecutor's team, then there is every reason to do it, no reason not to do it..." 

• Yes, we could have a trial of a candidate during a presidential campaign. He thinks the position that you can't indict a sitting president "is flawed as a constitutional matter," and he said DOJ can't now say "you also can't indict a former president who wants to run again."

• He doesn't want to "get ahead of" the decision the January 6th Committee issuing any criminal referrals. "I think the evidence is there to make a referral and we just have to decide whether that's the course we are going to take."

• Similarly, the potential for holding Trump in contempt for ignoring the Committee's subpoenas "is being discussed." He expressed frustration with the DOJ, saying "...even where we have held people in contempt, we're only batting 50 percent with the Justice Department in their willingness to enforce it."

• Kevin McCarthy probably will strip Schiff of his Intelligence Committee seat. "I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do. He is a very weak leader of his conference, meaning that he will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator."

• He said the Ds "continually face a variation of the same question, which is should the Democrats do the right -- do the appropriate thing when Republicans have consistently refused to. I think we maintain the high ground. We follow the law. We follow our responsibilities under the separation of powers," and so yes, they should comply with "appropriate oversight."

• And finally, should now 80-year-old Joe Biden run for re-election? "I think he should. I think he's extremely capable. What he's been able to do in the last two years is an unprecedented level of accomplishment. If he wants to continue, I'm for him."

See you around campus. Chime in if you want - my office door's always open.

In Case You Missed It (v112)

I'm chuckling this morning doing my 'week in review' post - it feels like I missed last week! Only two posts escaped my head, although I had the best of intentions.

 If I had to pin it down, I'd say my ADD and my Maine Coons and our other cats got the best of me after vacation. (As I write this, I've got a MC on my lap, and another on my desk, her head resting against my laptop and her feathery white fur covering the tab, caps lock and shift keys, so this could be fun.)

Anyway - two it was, and here they are. For your Sunday School I focused on a couple of US Senate races - Colorado, where Joe O'Dea (R) and incumbent Michael Bennet (D)  are battling it out, and Utah, where Evan McMullin is mounting an independent bid to oust incumbent Mike Lee (R).  And, it was purely coincidence that Utah and Colorado were the states were I spent my vacation...

First up? Dana Bash in the State of the Union classroom with the candidates for the Colorado seat. O'Dea was pushing a 'tough on crime' message, although the specific message would have made more sense if he was running for a state office, not the US Senate. 

He said Dems in his state are ignoring the laws on the books, that we "need more cops on the street" and to "make sure we're enforcing the laws we have." And, specifically on red flag laws, like the one in Colorado that's focused on mental health? 

Sheriffs tell him it doesn't work, "it puts them at risk. They're not happy with that law," and it needs to be rewritten.

...We need to do more with mental health here to get these people off the street. But we have hundreds of laws on the books. We need to enforce them.  We need more cops on our street right now. If you talk to Chief Pazen here of the city and county of Denver -- he's the chief of police -- he will tell you he's short 250 officers. That's because Democrats across the state of Colorado have defunded, demoralized the police. And we need to do better.

Bash followed up, noting that Colorado's approved 146 applications to take guns away from dangerous people in two years, and asked if that didn't make his state safer.

He said no, citing stats saying it's the "the third worst state for violent crime in the United States," and "they just deemed Denver as one of the most unsafe cities in the nation." He said they have record crime everywhere, cashless bail issues, and again, the laws on the books need to be enforced.

I wish, as I do every Sunday, that the interviews were more about getting questions answered than about getting questions asked.  

Meanwhile, down the hall in the MTP classroom, What's-his-name talked with McMullin. His opponent has said that voting for the independent is "a vote for the Democrats to keep their majority," and W-H-N wondered if that was correct. McMullin said no.

... look, I'm building a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and members of third parties to better represent Utah and to help lead our country forward. And I'm not going to Washington to join a party or to caucus or to play the party power game. I'm going to represent our coalition. 

... He said he'll maintain his independence, and that would help Utah and give it "an added value of influence." After blasting Lee ("He sits on his hands until it's time to vote no and then he goes and complains about our country on cable news."), he said he thinks we've seen

... that the senators in the chamber who are willing to act with greater independence, serving their constituents, standing up to party bosses, standing up to extremist factions and special interest groups, they have the most influence in the chamber. They're more influential, I think, even than the party bosses. And I want that for Utah. 

I wonder what would happen if we had more unaffiliated members of Congress? 

For your Extra Credit, I spent time with the pundit panels in the MTP and This Week classrooms. Starting with MTP, Amy Walter said the Dems

have known that the crime issue was a challenge for them" from the beginning, and she said "they've been playing defense on this for quite some time.

Maria Teresa Kumar said that "one of the conversations we're not having is that this is an opportunity for the Democrats to own police enforcement... all of a sudden, these Republicans and Republican leadership flipped on it, and said it was an FBI sting job. That is not the party of law enforcement. And if anything, it's undermining a really basic institution." Pat McCrory said he was "shocked the Democrats aren't bringing up guns," but said on "everyday crime, the Democrats are on their heels. And they deserve to be on their heels."

On abortion, 

Daniels said it "was always going to happen" that the Rs would be all over the place on abortion, creating "kind of this hodgepodge of different ideas of what voters might want to hear at that time... People can just pick and choose whatever they want, even within the issue themselves." Walter said how important the issue is depends on where the voter is. "...if you're in a state with abortion restrictions -- you are much more motivated than if you're in a state that doesn't." So, in reliably blue states, it's not that big an issue.

And in George's This Week classroom, the gang talked January 6th and election deniers running for office. 

Donna Brazile said even if Trump shows up to answer his subpoena from the January 6th Committee, he won't say anything. But she wishes he would tell his story, he should be willing to - but he won't, because "he doesn't have the truth on his side." Julie Pace agreed when George said polls aren't showing a bump for Dems as a result of the hearings, and that the Ds aren't pressing this issue. Rather, "Democrats are scrambling to try to figure out how they can form an economic message." 

Maggie Haberman said the election deniers is "the story that is actually not getting a ton of attention" given the crush of information that's out there, and that secretaries of state elected this cycle will be the ones to impact 2024, as they'll be deciding whether to certify the results. 

Chris Christie and Brazile got into it a little bit on the Committee

Chris Christie said the January 6th Committee "was resigned to having a credibility problem because of the membership of the committee and the way that was done." He also said "there's nobody there to argue the other side," to which George said "But there's - there's no other side..." Brazile agreed. Christie said "I think you can question a lot of these witnesses who came up, and test their credibility." 

Brazile pushed back pretty hard, wondering if Christie wanted to test the credibility of Bill Barr, the people who were advising Trump in the Oval, or "of the cops who got their heads smashed in - is that who you're going to test?"

 In the end, they didn't come to blows. Christie said his point was some people are remembering things now that they had no recollection of earlier - which is likely true, but also not uncommon. I mean, just look t the Republican Party. Half of them don't remember what they said, even when they see themselves saying it on television...

So - there you have it: last week's posts, in a nutshell. We'll see how I do this week...

Sunday School 10/16/22: Extra Credit

Your Sunday School lesson covered a couple of key US Senate races; for your Extra Credit, I'm going to see how much punditry I can fit into a single post. We'll start with George and the gang in ABC's This Week classroom: Chris Christie, Donna Brazile (both of ABC News), Julie Pace (AP), and Maggie Haberman (NY Times).

The FPOTUS loomed over part of the conversation. There's the whistleblower report saying he pressured at least one person to give Melania shares in Trump Social. Haberman called that "staggering" and "very hard to explain away," and she cautioned us not to forget about this investigation. 

And what about the person close to Trump allegedly being told to move documents at Mar-a-Lago - after Trump was subpoenaed? George said "that's obstruction." Christie said when it comes to charging a former president, "you can't treat it any differently than any other case, but you have to know that it's going to be 'bang, right between the eyes.' If not, you don't bring a case.

Brazile said even if Trump shows up to answer his subpoena from the January 6th Committee, he won't say anything. But she wishes he would tell his story, he should be willing to - but he won't, because "he doesn't have the truth on his side." Pace agreed when George said polls aren't showing a bump for Dems as a result of the hearings, and that the Ds aren't pressing this issue. Rather, "Democrats are scrambling to try to figure out how they can form an economic message." 

Haberman said the election deniers is "the story that is actually not getting a ton of attention" given the crush of information that's out there, and that secretaries of state elected this cycle will be the ones to impact 2024, as they'll be deciding whether to certify the results. 

Christie said the January 6th Committee "was resigned to having a credibility problem because of the membership of the committee and the way that was done." He also said "there's nobody there to argue the other side," to which George said "But there's - there's no other side..." Brazile agreed. Christie said "I think you can question a lot of these witnesses who came up, and test their credibility." 

Brazile pushed back pretty hard, wondering if Christie wanted to test the credibility of Bill Barr, the people who were advising Trump in the Oval, or "of the cops who got their heads smashed in - is that who you're going to test?" Christie said no, but he also mentioned there are people with "convenient memories" about things now, who didn't have them before. The bigger issue is, Trump's not on the ballot, so it's hard to make the 2022 election about him, or about January 6th.

With three weeks to go, Brazile said "Democrats must understand in the closing weeks they have to put freedom on the ballot... and they have to challenge the assumption that they're afraid to run on their record." Christie said the Rs should be talking about high prices, crime, fentanyl overdoses due to the open border... "if they talk about anything else they're nuts." And while some races are close, he thinks the Rs will have a 15-seat margin in the House.

Pace says the Dems should be worried about Georgia, both the Warnock/Walker Race, and Brian Kemp's expanding lead against Stacey Abrams. And, she said, Kevin McCarthy "has a battle for the speakership on his hands," and while he's "trying to make this case" for his return as Speaker, "the margin, how far he can push it out, that's the crucial metric here."

In the MTP classroom, What's-His-Name and his panel - Amy Walter (Cook Political Report), Eugene Daniels (Politico), former NC Gov. Pat McCrory (NBC), and María Teresa Kumar (NBC) - talked about the midterms, and crime. Walter said the Dems "have known that the crime issue was a challenge for them" from the beginning, and she said "they've been playing defense on this for quite some time."

Kumar said that "one of the conversations we're not having is that this is an opportunity for the Democrats to own police enforcement... all of a sudden, these Republicans and Republican leadership flipped on it, and said it was an FBI sting job. That is not the party of law enforcement. And if anything, it's undermining a really basic institution." McCrory said he was "shocked the Democrats aren't bringing up guns," but said on "everyday crime, the Democrats are on their heels. And they deserve to be on their heels."

Moving on, Daniels said it "was always going to happen" that the Rs would be all over the place on abortion, creating "kind of this hodgepodge of different ideas of what voters might want to hear at that time... People can just pick and choose whatever they want, even within the issue themselves." Walter said how important the issue is depends on where the voter is. "...if you're in a state with abortion restrictions -- you are much more motivated than if you're in a state that doesn't." So, in reliably blue states, it's not that big an issue.

The panel also touched on the FPOTUS; Walter noted "he would like the 2022 election to continue to be about him," while Rs want it to not be about him. And she said the January 6th Committee hearing last week "didn't generate the kind of headlines and the kind of wall-to-wall coverage" people might have wanted. And saying he'd be subpoenaed was nothing like it would have been had they said "we believe he should be indicted." Daniels said it's just too much chaos for the Rs, but they can't say it out loud and risk offending his core supporters.

McCrory said "the Democrats are running away from Biden in this election, too... Democrats don't want Biden or Harris either, and Republicans frankly don't want Trump. And they're the ones trying to consume the TV time." 

Kumar thinks that "with Biden, his challenge is that he hasn't been able to communicate to the American people what he's done. I mean, we can say that the difference between Donald Trump and the difference with Biden is, Biden is a policy president. So, he has – he's going to make fundamental changes for a generation." 

She compared that with Trump, saying "his consequence is not policy. It's his legacy of undermining elections. And it's not just him, it’s not him, but he actually has a cadre of individuals right now seeking office that are election deniers. And that legacy is far more dangerous for a modern-day president than any other thing because it believes in undermining our democracy."

Ain't that the truth. 

See you around campus.

Sunday School 10/16/22

Here's a look at a couple of the Senate races at play in November. First up? Dana Bash in the State of the Union classroom with the candidates for the Colorado seat, Joe O'Dea (R) and incumbent Michael Bennet (D).

O'Dea was up first; he was asked what he'd do about inflation if he gets elected. Mostly, "we have got to get our energy policy back on track" and that means "getting the permitting out of the way" 

so we can go back to work here in Colorado and flood the market with increased supply. It'll cause the price to come down. Inflation will go away. That's how you do it.

Bash didn't follow up on that, or on data showing that the Biden administration is approving 96% of the lease permits it receives, or about approved leases not going into production. Instead, she moved on to guns, asking if O'Dea thought any new gun laws were needed. 

He said Dems in his state are ignoring the laws on the books, that we "need more cops on the street" and to "make sure we're enforcing the laws we have." And, specifically on red flag laws, like the one in Colorado that's focused on mental health? Sheriffs tell him it doesn't work, "it puts them at risk. They're not happy with that law," and it needs to be rewritten.

...We need to do more with mental health here to get these people off the street. But we have hundreds of laws on the books. We need to enforce them. We need more cops on our street right now. If you talk to Chief Pazen here of the city and county of Denver -- he's the chief of police -- he will tell you he's short 250 officers. That's because Democrats across the state of Colorado have defunded, demoralized the police. And we need to do better.

Bash followed up, noting that Colorado's approved 146 applications to take guns away from dangerous people in two years, and asked if that didn't make his state safer.

He said no, citing stats saying it's the "the third worst state for violent crime in the United States," and "they just deemed Denver as one of the most unsafe cities in the nation." He said they have record crime everywhere, cashless bail issues, and again, the laws on the books need to be enforced.

Moving on, O'Dea said January 6th was "a black eye on the country" and that Trump "should have done more" to "keep the violence" away from the Capitol. Anyone who was violent needs to be held accountable. Trump should not run again, he said, and he'll "actively campaign" against him and will make sure the Rs have viable choices.

And finally, on abortion, he believes "for the first five months, that decision should be between a woman and her doctor. After that, for rape, incest, life of the mother, medical necessity, I believe that decision should also be between a woman and her doctor."  He says his position "is where most of America is."  

Bash started her interview with Sen. Bennet asking why the Inflation Reduction Act isn't reducing inflation. Bennet pointed out that some pieces "are going to take a while to put into place." He also explained that it's "a global problem," something other Dems forget to do. He blamed oil prices that skyrocketed during the recovery and Putin's invasion of Ukraine. 

Bash interrupted him to note that the media's favorite economist, former Dem Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, said that spending Bennet voted for, "particularly $1.9 trillion for the American Rescue Plan" is making inflation worse. Like other Dems who are paying attention, Bennet noted that other economists disagreed. And, he said, the ARP 

kept 30,000 Coloradans from being evicted... it has funded law enforcement all over the state, mental health services that we desperately need. It cut childhood poverty in half last year because of a bill that I wrote. I'm concerned that the Federal Reserve kept their interest rates at zero for too long and that their quantitative easing was too aggressive. But that's looking in the rearview mirror.

The senator said we can fix things by bringing supply chains back to the US, and "by making sure we are benefitting from the Inflation Reduction Act" by being the leader transitioning away from fossil fuels over the next 25 years. He thinks we're perfectly positioned to do that, and he thinks "that's an amazing place for us to be."

Bash turned to an ad run by a Dem group to help boost O'Dea's primary opponent "because they thought he would be easier" for Bennet to beat - and she wondered how Bennet would paint O'Dea as a "far-right Republican." Bennet said O'Dea does that by himself: he would have voted for all of Trump's SCOTUS picks; he opposes codifying abortion rights; he voted for a ballot issue that banned all abortions; and he doesn't think Trump bears any responsibility for the insurrection. 

Bash asked if it was a "mistake for fellow Democrats to prop him up as" Bennet's opponent. Bennet said we need to reform the campaign finance system, noting he's "got a racist billionaire who's funding a super PAC" that's supporting O'Dea - from Wyoming. 

That's not helping voters in Colorado. But I want, Dana, you to know and I want your viewers to know how out of touch he is with Colorado... not just on the abortion issue, but the idea that he would not support any additional gun laws, including a law Mitch McConnell voted for in the U.S. Senate. He thinks that our red flag law in Colorado after Columbine, after Aurora, is -- is out of touch.

Meanwhile, down the hall in the MTP classroom, What's-his-name talked with Evan McMullin, the Independent running against Republican incumbent Sen. Mike Lee. Notably, the other Utah senator, Mitt Romney, hasn't endorsed Lee. What's-his-name wondered if McMullen had spoken to Romney; McMullen said he hasn't, and said he respects and appreciates Romney's decision to sit this one out.

Lee has said a vote for McMullin is "a vote for the Democrats to keep their majority," and W-H-N wondered if that was correct. McMullin said no.

... look, I'm building a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and members of third parties to better represent Utah and to help lead our country forward. And I'm not going to Washington to join a party or to caucus or to play the party power game. I'm going to represent our coalition. 

If he serves all six years, he wouldn't join either party's caucus? He said he'll maintain his independence, and that would help Utah and give it "an added value of influence." After blasting Lee ("He sits on his hands until it's time to vote no and then he goes and complains about our country on cable news."), he said he thinks we've seen

... that the senators in the chamber who are willing to act with greater independence, serving their constituents, standing up to party bosses, standing up to extremist factions and special interest groups, they have the most influence in the chamber. They're more influential, I think, even than the party bosses. And I want that for Utah. 

W-H-N asked about McMullen tweeting in January 2021 that "Not only should Mitch McConnell never be majority leader again, he shouldn't be minority leader either. It's time for something new." He said he wouldn't be involved in choosing the leadership, because it's up to the parties to make that decision.

Next, he was asked whether he would have voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. There were things in it he liked, and some that he didn't like, and he would not have voted for it "as written." He thought it didn't do enough about inflation in the short term, and thinks more needs to be done on that front.

...we need leaders and need a Senate who is going to focus on actually delivering more results to lower inflation. I did like the fact that it started to allow Medicare to negotiate on prescription drugs. We pay far more for prescription drugs than we need to in America...

McMullin favored Roe being overturned, but he's expressed concern that extreme laws were being created since that happened; most of the bills that have surfaced since the decision have been designed to make a political point, and that the extreme positions are "tearing the country apart." 

...we've got to stand up to those extremes. But more importantly, we've got to find a more constructive way forward. And that's about making contraception more available, doing more to support women, children, and families, and improving education on this matter. And that's where I'll focus my time.

Of the three candidates we heard from, I prefer McMullin's approach. We do need more people who are there to represent us, not just to stand with their party or protect their own longevity. 

See you around campus.

In Case You Missed It (v108)

I did a little better getting posts out last week - I hit all four of the regular weekly features, which I haven't done in a while. Immigration - well, migration, I guess might be the better term - was a hot topic. Here's your recap.

For your Sunday School, I focused on Jon Karl's conversations in the This Week classroom. Among his guests? Oscar Leeser, the mayor of El Paso, and Eric Adams, the mayor of NYC. Here's a bit of the conversation with Leeser.

Karl asked Leeser to explain what he does when he arranges for migrants to move north, which is different than what Gov. Greg Abbott is doing by dropping them in front of the Vice President's residence. 

Leeser made a great point in his response.

...if you look at -- the people are not coming to El Paso, they're coming to America, and that's something that's really important.

While (in my words, not the mayor's), Abbott shoves people on a bus and sends them to a political target, Leeser and NGOs in El Paso try to get them where they want to go, where they have people they know. In the past, around 95% of asylum seekers and migrants had sponsors - family or friends who have arranged transportation, and who are waiting for the person to arrive. And now?

So, we have about 50% of the people today that do not have a sponsor, they don’t have money. So, we're helping and working to get them to where they want to go. So, that's been really important that we don't send anyone where they don't want to go. We make sure we help them and we put human beings and, you know, and we put them on buses with food and make sure they get to their destination where -- and make sure that we always continue to treat people like human beings.

Folks on the panel also chimed in. For example, the WaPo's Mariana Sotomayor suggested

there doesn't seem to be much of a strategy from the administration or from Capitol Hill. It might be a topic this week, what with the Martha's Vineyard shenanigans, but this close to the midterms, no one's apt to want to talk about it, other than the Rs - but they're not talking about legislative solutions; they've "tried and tried and tried again and there's just no discussion right now about whether to actually engage in any changes."

Stick around to the end of the post to hear from Marc Short, former chief of staff to VP Mike Pence, who had, um, interesting thoughts about this issue.

The conversation continued in your Extra Credit, where I listened in on Jake Tapper's conversation with Mayor Adams, who was also in CNN's State of the Union classroom. On the larger issue, 

Adams said it's a humanitarian crisis "created by human hands," and that it's one of those moments where everyone is supposed to "come together and coordinate." That means the federal government, and the governors of Texas and Florida. And, he said,

We should not be really treating other cities and municipalities in the manner that we're witnessing now. And so, we need resources for housing, resources to make sure that we can properly give people the medical care, all of the basic necessities that you would give new arrivals that enter a city.

Tapper asked him about a message for the photo-op governors, Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida.

Adams talked about them "hiding up" their actions on guns, for example, and on a woman's right to choose.

You see, this is their way of covering up when many people have been really concerned about the erosion of basic human rights. We're seeing crisis calls for coordination. We received a minimum of six buses early this morning, over 11,000 individuals, asylum-seeking migrants, have come to the city already. It is time for us to coordinate this humanitarian crisis that our country is facing.

Also in the classroom with Tapper? Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who said

discussions "are ongoing" in the Senate, and said the last "hard push" was in 2017, when he and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that got 54 votes. It addressed Dreamers, chain migration, a pathway to citizenship, and that "nothing has happened during this administration." 

Tapper didn't interrupt to ask what happened to the 2017 effort, when the Rs had a trifecta: the House, the Senate, and of course, the Trump White House. And he didn't ask what happened to immigration legislation in the next Congress in 2019, when the Rs held a 53-to-45 majority in the Senate. It would have been interesting to hear Rounds explain why nothing happened. 

Moving on to Wednesdays' wondering, Gov. Abbott popped up, but not for reasons related to his burgeoning travel agent career. He signed an Executive Order declaring Mexican drug cartels 'terrorists' in the Lone Star State.

Texans are victimized by Mexican cartels that produce and import (fentanyl). So, cartels are terrorists. And it's time that we started treating them that way.

His order directs law enforcement to "identify gangs that are supporting Mexican cartels and work to seize assets as well as disrupt cartel networks." And, he's

also directed Texas agencies to alert the public about the fentanyl crisis, including schools and workplaces through mediums like social media and public service announcements to make clear, that truly one pill can kill."

I don't have a problem with anything he did, including asking the White House to make a similar federal declaration; it's reasonable, and certainly defensible, which some of his recent antics aren't. But here's where the wondering comes in: fentanyl's been killing Americans, including Texans, for years, in rapidly increasing numbers. Abbott said that in Texas last year, nearly 1700 fentanyl-related deaths were reported. So, why did it take him so long to order his government to get the word out?

For your TGIF, we had two good week/bad week opportunities from the Sunshine State. Not surprisingly, DeSantis was one of them. I didn't pick who had what kind of week, I left that up to you. 

Ron DeSantis. Do I need to say more? I mean, I can. There's a case going to trial over his replacing an elected District Attorney; there's the lawsuit filed by the migrants from Texas who were sent to Martha's Vineyard; and there are calls to investigate him over that stunt, which included giving them incorrect information about benefits available to them. 

The other Florida reference was, perhaps, less expected: it seems the special master FPOTUS demanded in his attempts to kill or at least delay the investigations into his handling of our documents doesn't seem to be as 'special' as hoped. 

And what about Judge Raymond Dearie? First, there was the dessert ruling that Donald Trump can't have is cake and eat it, and there's put up or shut up with Trump's nonsensical claims about the FBI and the documents, and there's and you're going to pay for it - hardly music to the former president's ears. 

 I'll be back later with Sunday School; hope you'll be back, too.

Sunday School 9/18/22: Extra Credit

As promised in your Sunday School lesson, here's a longer interview with NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who talked with Jake Tapper in the CNN State of the Union classroom.

Tapper began by noting that "more than 11,000 asylum seekers have passed through New York's shelter system since May, including roughly 2,500 bused to New York from Texas."  Adams has said NYC is "nearing its breaking point" and has even talked about bringing in cruise ships as temporary shelters. With that backdrop, Tapper asked what Adams needs from President Biden and the feds, and "how much longer can New York continue" without additional resources. 

Adams said it's a humanitarian crisis "created by human hands," and that it's one of those moments where everyone is supposed to "come together and coordinate." That means the federal government, and the governors of Texas and Florida. And, he said,

We should not be really treating other cities and municipalities in the manner that we're witnessing now. And so, we need resources for housing, resources to make sure that we can properly give people the medical care, all of the basic necessities that you would give new arrivals that enter a city.

He also said they're not going to run out of resources; they're "going to follow the law... as well as our moral obligations and responsibilities." He said it's already challenging, and will continue to be so, because NYC is a "right-to-shelter" city. And when Tapper asked about his message for DeSantis and Abbott, Adams talked about them "hiding up" their actions on guns, for example, and on a woman's right to choose.

You see, this is their way of covering up when many people have been really concerned about the erosion of basic human rights. We're seeing crisis calls for coordination. We received a minimum of six buses early this morning, over 11,000 individuals, asylum-seeking migrants, have come to the city already. It is time for us to coordinate this humanitarian crisis that our country is facing.

He disagreed when Tapper said "it seems like you agree this is a crisis that needs more attention from the Biden administration," and said it's something that needs more coordination from the whole country, "at the federal level, the state level, and even city-to-city. Tapper tried again, asking if Biden and the Dems in Congress should make immigration a priority, "using their political capital to finally fix this problem," given it's been since Reagan was in office that we last had major immigration reform legislation.

Adams said one of the most important things we can to is allow migrants to work.

They came here to pursue the American dream. I don't think it really is logical to allow people to be here for months without the ability to seek employment, particularly during a time when we are seeking employees on various sectors in our city.

And, from the other side of the aisle - in fact, from the other side of the country - Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) was on next, with immigration one of the topics. Tapper asked if he agrees with the moves by Abbott and DeSantis. Rounds said they're trying to send a message to the rest of the country "about the plight of those individuals that are coming from south of the border." Pointing to the ridiculously high number of border-crossers under the Biden administration - he said it's "about 3.4 million" (and I'm not fact-checking that) coming to our southern states.

What is a governor supposed to do? They're trying to send a message to the rest of the country that this is not acceptable, and that their states can't handle that type of an inflow.

And it's not just the people - it's the drugs, too. He said his state's Native American reservations "have got huge inflows of drug trafficking coming into our state into some of the heaviest poverty areas of the entire country," and South Dakota's 1200 miles from the border.

So, it's affecting all of our states, but the administration is not doing anything about it.

I wish Tapper had said, "I'll have you back to talk about Native American poverty and drug problems," but he didn't. He did ask if there wasn't a "degree of trolling here" and whether he "really have no issue with using human beings, a one-month-old baby, little kids to make a political point like this?"

Rounds said it needs to be put into perspective, "This is every single day thousands of individuals coming across with babies" to our southern states.

And so, yes, I mean, do any of us like the situation that we're in? Absolutely not. Matter of fact, I would suspect that the individuals in the Southern states that are trying to find a way to get the attention of the administration would love to have other alternatives to them. It's been 606 days since Joe Biden took office, and this problem has done nothing except continue to develop. This is a national problem. And yet these governors on -- along the Southern borders are the ones that are faced with trying to address it.

Tapper suggested what we need is "a comprehensive immigration bill" addressing border security and a pathway to citizenship for all the folks who've been here for decades. And, he said

In the more than 20 years I have been in this town, I have seen people like President George W. Bush and Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Marco Rubio trying to get immigration reform done, working with Democrats. Every time, they were defeated by House Republicans, who wouldn't go along with any sort of compromise. Would you support restarting bipartisan negotiations to try and -- try to finally fix this broken immigration system?

Rounds said discussions "are ongoing" in the Senate, and said the last "hard push" was in 2017, when he and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that got 54 votes. It addressed Dreamers, chain migration, a pathway to citizenship, and that "nothing has happened during this administration." 

Tapper didn't interrupt to ask what happened to the 2017 effort, when the Rs had a trifecta: the House, the Senate, and of course, the Trump White House. And he didn't ask what happened to immigration legislation in the next Congress in 2019, when the Rs held a 53-to-45 majority. It would have been interesting to hear Rounds explain why nothing happened. 

Instead, Tapper let Rounds continue.

Yes, would we like to step forward again and try and approach again? Absolutely. Do we have to address it? Yes. Do we have to have border security? Before anything else can happen, we have got to be able to defend that border. We have got to be able to make a border that actually works. Otherwise, why should people pay any attention to the laws that we have gotten? What good would it do to reform them if we're not going to enforce them?

Rounds is right, but he would have had a better case if he had expanded upon the "ongoing" discussions, or if he said he and King were back at it with his bill from 2017, or if he had responded in any way at all to Tapper's comment about House Republicans who refuse to compromise.

Blaming the administration is easy, but it would have been a whole lot more powerful if he had a better story to tell.

See you around campus.