7.8.18: The President Likes To Play Games... With People's Lives

The real reason the Supreme Court matters so much to Republicans is because of their inability to govern or compromise that still allows them to get the political decisions that they want without having to put their names down for a vote, and stand on a record. Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute touched on this during the program. Key examples include Republicans unwillingness to compromise on a healthcare bill so the Democrats went it alone with the Affordable Care Act. Now, conservative court judges are striking down key components of the law, which will raise premiums on American citizens, and take away affordability for anyone with a preexisting condition. Republicans don't have to take direct blame for that. Another example was the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill which would have put restrictions in place so that unlimited dark money would not dictate the outcomes of elections. But Republicans didn't want to compromise on that and killed it. Then along came Citizens United that basically said that money is speech and that corporations are people. These are outcomes that Republicans have wanted and they got them done without having to stand by a vote that most Americans wouldn't have liked.

However, as USA Today's Susan Page explained, "be careful what you wish for," when it comes to the conservative agenda on cases that the court has ruled on, setting precedent like Roe vs. Wade which gives woman the right to choose what they do with their bodies. If the court decides to hear this case again, and five conservative men rule that Roe vs. Wade is unconstitutional throwing the law back to the states to decide, there will be an unprecedented backlash by the majority of the electorate which will include people from both parties.

This brings us to our game show president. The panel discussion touched whether President Trump wants a fight or a win - the consensus being that to him it doesn't matter. However, the president is most certainly going to nominate a white man, no doubt. As the president plugged, "Tune in at 9pm on Monday" for the choice. Our president loves to play games... with people's lives, just as he's done with separated families on the southern border - a "bureaucratic cave" they're trapped in as Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) aptly put it.

The vote for red state Democrats on the Supreme Court pick seems to put them into a box. If they vote for the pick, they will anger their base in their respective states, but if they don't they could lose reelection. Mr. Durbin when confronted with this by Chuck Todd really didn't answer the question though he did suggest that these particular Senators should unite with their party as he said that the pick is bigger than the next election. However, The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson went the opposite direction and said that it's more about winning elections to gain control of the agenda. Either way, the master trickster Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is not going to delay the vote and will push it through before the midterms. If you're a pragmatist then your thinking would be more in line with Mr. Robinson's and the goal should be to get control of the Senate.

While we're on the subject of tricks and games, it seems like the Trump Administration is being totally played by North Korea and Kim Jung Un. The North Korean dictator received legitimacy by meeting face to face with a sitting U.S. president, got U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises suspended, and made no commitment to a timeline of dismantling any nuclear sites. The U.S. got in return... The U.S. got in return... ah, nothing. Way to go, Mr. Trump. The North Koreans stated this week that the U.S. requirements for denuclearization were 'gangster-like.' If it wasn't completely clear before the summit, it's pretty clear now that North Korea dictates the pace and has no intention at all of getting rid of the nuclear weapons, even Senator Roy Blount (R-MO) agreed that it is unlikely that North Korea would honor any kind of agreement for denuclearization. "Standard operating procedure," he called it on the part of the North Koreans to twist things around and go back on their word.

This 'great' negotiating skill on the part of President Trump will again be on display with President Putin of Russia later in the week in Helsinki. Mr. Trump has floated acknowledging Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, to which Ms. Pletka said, "I hope to hell not." Totally agree. Not only does the president not acknowledge that Russia meddled in the U.S. election, to his benefit, but now the entire western alliance waits nervously to see what concessions Mr. Trump will give up to curry favor with the Russian autocrat. This coming after the NATO summit, which is sure to draw tense words between Mr. Trump and the other respective countries. Ms. Pletka also said, however, that she agreed with the president that NATO countries have to invest more, but that the president's tone and tenor were way off base. Ms. Page stated that through these first 18 months of Mr. Trump's presidency, he has certainly left his mark on the U.S.'s role in the world, which we conclude that Mr. Trump doesn't want to lead the free world but wants to bro down with autocrats.

Finally, all this brings us to the interview with the president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani who had nothing factual to say. Mr. Giuliani's hand in this poker game is a bad bluff. He knows that that Mr. Mueller's team holds all the cards and that he doesn't want his client sitting down at the table. Mr. Giuliani said that he hopes that Michael Cohen cooperates with federal authorities, but the only reason he said that was to implicitly downplay the fact that the president was freaking out about the seizure of documents from Mr. Cohen. The fact is that Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump don't know what Mr. Cohen knows or what Mr. Mueller knows so the strategy is to try to distract and discredit while bracing for impact.


Panel: Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Susan Page, USA Today; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Mark Murray, NBC News