12.27.20: Keeping Our Expectations in Perspective for 2021

Today's program focused on president-elect Joe Biden's career up to his latest interviews and statements as to give some perspective as to how Mr. Biden will lead and what we can expect in 2021. 

As is the case with the president-elect, you can go way back in television history for clips of Mr. Biden explaining his views, which we won't go into in depth except to say that what these old clips showed was a politician that indeed has the perspective of history, which this column would argue is essential to be successful in the presidency. That's not to say that Mr. Biden as a U.S. Senator didn't cast votes for bad legislation or that he didn't have his share of political scrapes. The point is that there is that perspective of the good and the bad since 1972 that's put him in the position he is now.

Former Senator John Sununu (R-NH) said that one politician's flip flop is another evolution, which is a fairly dismissive view of things and he seemed to exclude himself from the false equivalency. Dismissing vulgar social media statements for four years and then saying someone isn't qualified because you don't like what they said on social media is a flip-flop, not to mention hypocritical. "Being for it before I was against," as John Kerry argued about the Iraq War in 2004 didn't make the grade either. But you can not compare it to Mr. Biden's evolution and reconciliation with his faith on Roe vs. Wade or his sense of marriage equality. 

The fact that we're discussing issues and political philosophies will be the biggest expectation for this column in 2021, which brings us to expectations in the new year.

As fmr. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said, the biggest challenge will be unifying people, but again, if there is anyone suited to do it, it would be Joe Biden. The majority of Americans assessed this to be the case and that's why he's president-elect. 

Beyond that in terms of domestic policy, NBC's Kristen Welker reported that the Biden Administration's first priorities will be healthcare and climate change, to which Sen. Sununu said that would be a waste of time because Republicans would block those priorities and that the party isn't obligated to cooperate with Democrats but he sees opportunity on infrastructure and taxes. He's half right. The tax breaks that are expiring are for the top one percent mostly so for the most part, they should be left to expire. However, infrastructure, which those expiring tax breaks could help with is the way forward, outside of ridding ourselves of the pandemic, of course. Infrastructure would accomplish multiple goals in building more energy efficient building and bridges, renovations, and broadband access. Additionally, it means jobs.

Healthcare reform, building on the Affordable Care Act, to include a public option, will be a difficult lift, especially if Republicans maintain control of the Senate, which the incoming Biden Administration is planning for.

But it's really all secondary as long as the pandemic is raging out of control.

In terms of foreign policy the three areas that the panel focused on were the Paris Climate Accords, Iran and Russia with extenuating circumstances surrounding each. Of the three, the United States should reenter the Paris Climate Agreement immediately. Even if you think that climate change is a hoax, the rest of the world is playing on this field of business and the United States has to enter back into the game. When you think of it in business terms, it's the way forward. 

In terms of Russia, if you read our column last week, you know our stand, but it's worth mentioning that Ms. Welker reported that there will be an immediate change in tone from the top when it comes to U.S. relations with Russia and where the Biden Administration stands.

Fmr. Senator Sununu gave the current administration way too much credit and too big of a pass when it came to discussing foreign policy writ large saying that the Trump Administration set a solid framework with Russia, Iran and most notably China. Mess, mess and more mess. The Administration decimated the United States farmers' soy business which thoughtless tariffs on China, Mr. Trump let pass Russia bounties on U.S. soldiers and has given a pass to Russia for the biggest cyber attack in U.S. history, and with Iran he has just made things worth without the U.S. having an real leverage.

On the last point, rejoining and restarting the Iran nuclear deal may be a fruitless task. Congressional Republicans didn't want the deal in the first place and the president's aggressive moves toward Iran's regime have given Iran little reason to go back. This may really be starting again from scratch.

So there's the policy and it's a pleasure to write about it, but as we write, there is a tragic reminder of why it's understanding is needed so badly in this moment. The House and Senate passed a bi-partisan Covid relief bill, which the president is refusing to sign because he said that direct payments of $600 are too low and they should be $2,000. For once, the problem isn't that the president is wrong, Americans should get $2,000, but where was he all this time? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) brought the measure to the House floor and Republicans voted against the increase.

As it stands, the American people aren't getting any relief and if the president doesn't sign that bill and the other spending bills on his desk by Tuesday, there's no direct payments, no military funding and no government funding so there will be a shutdown on Wednesday. 

As for the motivations behind all these non-action, duty derelictions by the burn-it-all-down president, trying to decipher them is so 2020, and we're trying to look forward to 2021. 

If you read this column, and we are humbly grateful and thankful for your support, you know we're fairly pragmatic in our political thinking. With that, save your political resolutions for January 20 because 2020 isn't over until then.

This is probably our last column for the year so THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!
Have a safe and healthy rest of the year. 

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Claire McCaskill, fmr. Senator (D-MO); John Sununu, fmr. Senator (R-NH)

Meet The Press's In Memoriam 2020:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Civil Rights Leader C.T. Vivian, Senator Slade Gorton (WA), Senator Tom Coburn (OK), Paul Sarbanes (MD), Senator Roger Jepsen (IA), General Electric CEO Jack Welch, Talk Show Host Regis Philbin, NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson, Civil Rights Leader Joseph Lowery, National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, PBS News Hour Anchor Jim Lehrer, NYC Mayor David Dinkins, Linda Tripp, Actor Chadwick Boseman, AAPI Activist Irene Inouye, Georgetown Basketball Coach John Thompson, Businessman Herman Cain, Test Pilot Pioneer, Chuck Yeager, Sportscaster Phillis George, Jeopardy's Alex Trebek, Basketball Icon Kobe Bryant, Writer and Gay Right Activist Larry Kramer, Diplomat and Humanitarian Jean Kennedy Smith,
Our American Soul Congressman John Lewis
and
over 300,000 Americans dead from Covid-19

12.20.20: The Question Remains - What Else Can This Outgoing President Do to Weaken the Nation?

 Just add one more panic button to the growing list of the anticipated and unimaginable dangers outgoing President Trump is leaving this country with in 2020. In addition to the internal cultural strife that he only exacerbated; the continued unmitigated failure of his administration's response to the pandemic that has left 316,000+ Americans dead; the wrecking of our economy that has seen 8 million Americans fall below the poverty live since April; we now know that the United States has suffered the worst national security failure since WWII. 

It simply leaves one to ask: What the hell else?

Since March a sophisticated trojan horse malware attack through a 'trusted source' network has penetrated numerous government agencies and businesses with access to untold amounts of classified information, which could take months if not years to assess the damage. 

By all accounts from the United States intelligence community, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and congress people on both sides of the aisles, responsibility all points Putin's Russian regime. 

And then the odd off-putting dance and song we've heard before, which begins with the president doing a soft-shoe saying nothing about the Russian cyberattack on American sovereignty followed by the off-key, tone-deaf response that it 'could be China.'

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) on the program today, recalled his impassioned plea this week to the Administration to respond to this publicly and said he was disappointed by the president's comments. What he also said this week that this cyberattack was the equivalent of Russia flying war planes over the continental United States and doing nothing about it. 

Chuck Todd didn't bring up that last piece today, but he seemed to refer to it when asking Senator Romney about the line between espionage and an act of war. Understandably, Mr. Romney who chooses his words carefully avoided the distinction, but was forthright in stating that the Russians feel as though they can act impunity, the United States has to rethink it cyber capabilities defensively and offensively, and that there should be a response.

The last one for certain. There needs to be an offensive response against the perpetrators of this invasion of the United States' government systems. The response needs to be aggressive, large scale and on multiple fronts. What it must not be is rushed, but it must indeed be.

It has gone on for too long in too many countries, not to mention gratuitously brazen assassinations throughout European countries. A time for response is coming, but chess masters know this and prepare and in the meantime, grab all they can before their opponent finally wakes the hell up and responds.

Senator Romney also said that the president has a blind spot when it comes to putting responsibility upon Russia for its apparent bad actions. 'Blind spot' was a charitable eyebrow raiser and it didn't go unnoticed by Mr. Todd. The senator responded that he didn't want to psychoanalyze the president, which is another way of saying "I don't want to go there." But it doesn't take psychoanalysis, it takes a thorough deep dive into the tangled web that is Mr. Trump's finances. If there is reason to look in any direction that would be the one this column recommends.

All that said, one can be as optimistic about a response as one can about getting a Covid-19 vaccine at this moment. NBC's Hallie Jackson reported that all of the president's focus is on the election and trying to find a way to overturn it while as a sidebar creating as many problems as possible for the incoming Biden Administration. Notably, the president's newly appointed loyalists to the Pentagon are holding up transition briefings.

Pretty heavy and heady for a Sunday before Christmas - too much to think about. However, the question remains of what other pain can this outgoing president inflict to weaken this nation and cripple the government's capacity to keep its citizens safe.

In the meantime, please have a very safe, healthy and happy holiday. Thank you for reading.

Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; Rich Lowry, The National Review

12.13.20: Numbers Don't Lie So Don't Even Consider Them

It's certainly great news that Pfizer's vaccine is starting to roll out across the country, with the combined effort of the private sector, namely UPS and FedEx, handling the transportation. However, for all intent and purpose, the vaccine doesn't exist in practical terms. In other words, for the time being we have to continue to live life as though there isn't one.

Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institute of Health, explained that to eliminate the virus and move back to a sense of normal we need 70 to 80 percent of the population immunized. He also expressed great concern, as have many other health professionals, that roughly 50 percent of the population for one reason or another, some valid and some not so much, isn't on board with getting vaccinated.  

Frankly, it's surprising that we've gotten this far considering one of the main reasons, of course, which is... wait for it... the politics surrounding every step of the way. When you hear that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows threatened the FDA director with his job if he didn't approve emergency use of the vaccine and consider the speed in which it was developed, it drives skepticism on both sides of the political aisle.

In the mean time, the lack of empathy along with the tone deafness that goes with it from the president and the Senate majority leader on the toll that the pandemic is taking on the economic welfare of working Americans has compounded the misery. There is a $908 billion relief bipartisan package going through the Senate and Mitch McConnell will not bring it to a vote. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) said he was frustrated and embarrassed by Mr. McConnell's blocking of a second relief package, laying the blame squarely at his feet. The fruit of Senator McConnell's work has manifested itself in 850,000 new unemployment claims last week. 

Mitch McConnell looks at the dollar numbers and doesn't like them. He looks at Americans as simply numbers and doesn't like us either. Speaking of numbers, it may go without saying that Donald Trump doesn't like us either because he really doesn't like the numbers.

After the Supreme Court flatly rejected the lawsuit brought by Texas' Attorney General in which 17 other states' Attorneys General signed onto, 9-0 by the way, to nullify hundreds of thousands of votes in others, not their own, the president vowed to fight on.

The thinking can only be that since numbers don't lie, they shouldn't even be considered in the first place.

But here are some numbers to consider:

3,100+ deaths per day (equivalent of 9/11) everyday for the next 30 to 60 days. 
     This is what the Director of the CDC predicted this week;

297,000+ deaths in the U.S.; 16.1 million infections
     According the the New York Times Covid-19 tracker; and

more than 100,000 small businesses have closed permanently.

But these numbers mean nothing to the Senate majority leader or the president. Kristen Welker noted that the president has commented on the election 62 percent of the time this week while only referencing the pandemic 7 percent. As we said before, the president is checked out completely from any sort of governing as all his efforts have been focused on overturning a free and fair election. (Mr. Trump is so completely checked out from governing, it makes one wonder that if he could overturn the election, how would he ever be able to check back in?)

And speaking of free and fair elections, lastly we leave you with this number, 126. This is how many Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed onto the aforementioned lawsuit to nullify the election results, subvert the democratic process, and act in direct defiance of the U.S. Constitution. 

OK...

We don't know who has already called for this, but without hyperbole it's important to get on the record that this column is calling for resignation letters of these Congress people. Not out of malice, but because in a moment of expedient political posturing, they did not uphold their oaths to the office in which they sit.

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Matt Bai, The Washington Post; Lanhee Chen, Stanford University

12.6.20: "Responsible People Need To Act Responsibly."

Paraphrasing himself from earlier in the week, Georgia Voting Systems Manager Gabriel Sterling said "responsible people need to act responsibly." However, what we're seeing is an abdication of responsibility with regard to both the post-election/transition and the Covid-19 response on all levels of American life. 

Mr. Sterling's tough words for Republican leaders come on the heels of one of his 20-year employees received death threats, just for doing his job. Mr. Sterling said he was done. Though Mr. Sterling voted for Mr. Trump, he also explained that the president should be held to a higher standard. Yet, it is Mr. Trump who is leading the charge of irresponsibility on both fronts.

Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute explained that Mr. Trump's rally last night in Georgia focused on the two Senate-race candidates for about 10 minutes of the 90 minute speech with the rest reserved for the president's grievances and conspiracy theories about how he lost in the state and that it was rigged... Of course this is how it was predicted to go. 

The panel generally agreed that the president's toxic anti-democratic rhetoric could suppress the vote in Georgia, giving the Democrats control of the Senate. This could very well be the case, however Steve Kornacki explained that Georgians with intention voted for a split ticket - Trump out and Republican control of the Senate - with Biden winning the state by 13K+ votes, but incumbent Senator David Perdue getting 88K+ more votes than challenger Jon Ossoff. The question here is whether Trump supporters view the president's irresponsible voter-fraud/ rigged-election rhetoric as a show or do they think it's for real. 

The president gives his supporters what they want, getting them angry and fired up in the moment, but chances are that at the end of the day, they will turn out to vote. Ms. Pletka said that if there is depressed turnout and Republicans lose even one of the seats, he will be to blame. It's difficult to imagine these two races splitting between parties.

Well that was five paragraphs too many... 

We're not making light of this totally unprecedented assault on our democracy of respecting the vote and the peace transition of power by the President of the United States no less. There is no way to minimize the fecklessness and irresponsibility of Republicans in Congress who do not accept or will not say publicly that Joe Biden is the President-elect.

But it palls in comparison to Mr. Trump walking away from any responsibility on combatting the Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of leading this fight, the president has flat out quit on us. 

And if you don't think so, let these numbers soak in...

Not only did he not talk about the pandemic at his rally, but the rally itself was potentially a super spreader event. Chuck Todd asked Corona Virus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx about the mixed messaging coming from Administration health officials and the president. But what really can Dr. Birx say to that question at this point? She along with many other health professionals, namely Dr. Anthony Fauci, have been thrown into a political hell that they can't even understand, let alone see coming.

Dr. Birx said that she didn't want to be critical on television any individual state or official (good move) and reiterated the mitigation measures - wearing a mask, socially distancing, washing hands, not gathering in big groups - that we all should be following. 

There within lies the rub.

The populace writ large is not being responsible either. Dr. Birx mentioned that we haven't yet experienced the spike in cases from the Thanksgiving holiday. You read about public officials, Democrats in particular are guilty of this, telling their constituents to exercise mitigation but don't do it themselves. Sure, we're lacking leadership from the president and on down it's quite spotty but when you see statistics like these:

As of Dec. 6th,
     U.S. Cases: 14.6+ million
     U.S. Deaths: 281,202;

you would think people would take personal responsibility and protect not only themselves but their families as well; just as a precaution, right? Alas, that is certainly not the case and our hospital systems are being pushed beyond the limit. Even when all this ends, we'll need a public fund to assist healthcare workers with all the PTSD they are sure to suffer from in the future.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) explained that a bi-partisan group of Senators came together over the holiday to put together a bill for Covid relief in the range of $908 billion. It's frankly not enough but it's at the very least something. This is the kind of responsibility you want to see from your Senators only to have it undone by a cynical Senate Majority Leader and a president who has not interest in the oath that he took way back when on January 20th, 2016 - to protect the American people.

Determined to hamper the transition and knee-cap the incoming president as much as possible, Donald Trump is irresponsibly putting the safety of the American people at extreme risk.

Panel: Kimberly Atkins, Boston Globe; Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Jeff Mason, Reuters; Steve Kornacki, NBC News

11.29.20: Living in Limbo is Killing Us

There is certainly a presidential transition happening but essentially 'government' as we know it is not working. We don't mean that something is wrong with the levers of government, no, we mean the administration and congress aren't doing their jobs, hence not working.

Behind the scenes current administration officials are working with transition personnel, but at the presidential level it's non-existent. Without getting into the weeds of Mr. Trump's hold-out on this front, the ripple effect is a congress in limbo, with no real impetus to get anything done until the president decides his next move, to which Mr. Trump said that he would leave the White House if the electoral college votes for Joe Biden on December 14th, but he also said that a lot can happen between now and January 20th. Yes, a lot can happen in that time, but Americans need something to happen now on pandemic relief because we're on the cusp of a complete Covid meltdown.

At the top of the program today, Mr. Todd ripped through some troubling statistics:

     1. The United States has 4 percent of the world's population but has 19% of the world's Covid
         deaths;
     2. Currently, the United States has over 13.3 million Covid cases and 266,826 total deaths;
     3. Since Thanksgiving (three days ago), 2,704 have died from Covid-19 in the U.S.;
     4. Over 4 million Covid infections in November alone;
     5. Over 91,000 hospitalizations due to Covid-19; and
     6. 22 percent of hospitals in the United States are under staffed.

No wonder Dr. Anthony Fauci is very concerned about hospital healthcare systems breaking down because "reality is staring us right in the face." He explained that it isn't too late to do something about this, but the mitigation measures that he and all top healthcare officials are imploring people to follow are being ignored by large swaths of the populace. Let's face it, the CDC, Dr. Fauci, Secretary of HHS Alex Azar, Mike Pence, et al could say 'where a mask' on television 24/7 for a week and it still wouldn't make a difference. When asked about advising the president on speaking about mitigation measures, Dr. Fauci said that he didn't have that kind of influence with the president so he's doing all he can by appearing on national television programs, then he thanked Mr. Todd for giving him the platform. The only thing that could jump start a decline in those tragic statistics and begin to bend the curve (sidebar: Isn't curve a misnomer at this point when doctors like Dr. Fauci illustrate it as a straight line upward at a 70 degree incline?) is President Trump formally addressing the public and advising people to wear a mask. It would have that big of an effect.

What it would also do, indirectly, is that it would give the incoming Biden administration something on which they can ride coattails by continuing their mask messaging and maybe, just maybe, unite people using this one issue. OK, a big leap, but it would be a game changer.

Instead, there's no push from the current administration on Covid-19 mitigation measures or financial relief for Americans. It's prompted questions in the media about whether President Trump is trying to box in President-elect Biden on policy issues because Mr. Trump is planning on running again in 2024. Hugh Hewitt seems convinced that this is the case and wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Trump declares his candidacy on Mr. Biden's inauguration day. 

And Mr. Trump is certainly boxing in the incoming Biden administration on Iran. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Retired Admiral Mike Mullen explained that our adversaries look to take advantage of the United States during transition periods. However, it looks like our friends do as well. Mr. Todd all implied that Israel was responsible for the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist, Dr, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. More importantly, Iran is saying that Israel and the United States are responsible and is vowing to retaliate. As Admiral Mullen said, Israel regards a nuclear Iran as an existential threat and will do whatever it has to to prevent that. 

The incoming Biden Administration is looking to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal, putting safeguards and inspections back in place and if you're Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you look at the situation and see that a Biden Administration wouldn't give its blessing to killing Iran's top scientist when the U.S. is trying to rejoin the accord. With President Trump still in office, Mr. Netanyahu would have U.S. support for such an operation and for Mr. Trump it's a win as well. He has essentially cemented the elimination of any trust it would take to reconstruct the nuclear accord. 

And while decisions like this are being made in the name of the American people, they are left to fend for themselves and survive on their own without an help from the government during a pandemic health and economic catastrophe.

It's like we're all living in this weird limbo. When you live in limbo things aren't supposed to move in either direction, a holding pattern, but this limbo is killing us.

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; O. Kay Hutchinson, Director of Iowa Radio Network; Michael Eric Dyson, Vanderbilt University; Hugh Hewitt, Salem Radio Network

 

 

11.22.20: When Do We Go Back to Normaltown?

Editor of Commentary and former long time New York Post report John Podhoretz explained that he has been a conservative for 40 years and is now being put in a position of having to choose between being ostracized or getting onboard the train to Crazytown, getting there and then bombing Normaltown.

That's one way to put.

Rudolph Guiliani, the president's personal lawyer, is certainly the welcoming party into Crazytown after accusing the a dictator dead for 7 years of conspiring with the Governor of Georgia. Mr. Trump's legal team's press conference was widely panned, and that is kindly understating it. Yes, it was a shame that Mr. Guiliani had hair dye running down the sides of his face, but the real shame is that he's still wearing that NY Yankees championship ring. At this point, he doesn't really deserve to wear it (a stain on a great team) and besides, the Yankees have a policy of no facial hair.

Honestly, we're still trying to decide whether the President and Republican Leadership's denial and stalling of the inevitable is a threat to Democracy, but it's certainly a threat in other ways, namely in battling the Covid-19 pandemic. As we said last week, the president has given up on doing his job, which makes it more imperative that new leadership gets in the door a week ago.

In the past week, there have been over 1.8 new infection cases with Friday setting a single day record of 196,000 plus positive tests. There are over a quarter of a million people dead (256K+).

That's the threat. As the Secretary of State of Georgia said, "The numbers do not lie."

We would posit that we are in Crazytown and standing at the gate to the road back to Normaltown is being block by the President of the United States. As to the question of when, if the president has his way it will be as late (and as deadly) as possible.

NBC's Hallie Jackson explained that even if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) were to come out say that Joe Biden is the president-elect that the rest of the Republican leaders would follow suit, but... This is would make little difference in the mind of the president.  This speaks to the much discussed (including today's panel) of the hold that Mr. Trump has on the Republican party, and is his party, in which he'll be the kingmaker and is already talking of another presidential run in 2024. 

We're quite skeptical of all that. A lot can happen in four years, and a lot will happen. Mr. Trump may continue to make a lot of noise and maintain his following, but the Republican power brokers will slip away from him and in another four years, who will he have to work with him? If a Biden Administration gets the pandemic under control and the economy gets better, i.e. displaying better competency in governing, are Americans going to go back to chaos? A truly American trait is that we're always looking forward toward the future. The downside of that is our sense of our own history is lost, long term and short term history.

In the immediate, Republican Senators such as Kevin Cramer (R-ND) has to "thread the needle" when it comes to explaining that the Biden transition team should have already started without acknowledging him as the president-elect. Some will ask, when will all this end? There is in fact a hard deadline of December 14th when all the states have to have by law their vote tallies certified. That's too long, but anything after that, when Joe Biden is officially certified as the winner, is unlawful in holding up a transition.

One last thing, give credit to both Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp and to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Slaoui did an admirable job is staying away from Mr. Todd's questions that leaned into the political and the transition. As he should; he's just trying to serve the greater good for public health, no matter the administration. Same with Dr. Fauci who implored us, once again, to wear masks, socially distance, wash our hands frequently and not to gather in large groups. What this column would call, doing the right thing. 

It's going to be a while from now, but he did say that help is on the way. With that, we give you this song/ video clip goes out to Dr. Fauci and our healthcare workers.

(at least treat yourself to the first 3:40)

For our American audience, have a Great and Safe Thanksgiving! And the rest of our audience around the world, a humble thank you, and we wish all good health and safety.

Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Anna Palmer, Politico; John Podhoretz, Commentary; Eddie Glaude, Jr., Princeton University

11.15.20: Take Responsibility or Get Off The Pot

It would be easy to start this column by stating that the President is this or that for not accepting the result of the election and to concede, but the conversation has little room for frivolity and name calling. Infections from Covid-19 reached a single day record on Friday with over 176,000 positive cases and 49 states seeing sharp spikes in infection rates and hospitalizations. 

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) said that he expects Joe Biden to be president on January 20th, 2021 and that he was pleased that President Trump had tweeted out in part that he's acknowledging that Mr. Biden won. The first sentence of that tweet: He won because the Election was Rigged. 

We can not speculate on what Mr. Trump is thinking, but if he is still thinking he won that he'll have a second term (in opposition of fact), then he needs to do the work of a president. Infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm said that we are entering the most dangerous public health crisis since 1918 and that the "future is in our hands" in terms of fighting it. But, frankly, it's not in our hands. While the president is sequestered in the White House, he is not pushing Congress for a second relief bill that states desperately need. The hands-off approach that the Trump Administration is taking right now could lead to another 150,000 deaths before January 20th. 

This refusal to honor the result of the election or at the very least, the possibility of a transition, a national strategy will be delayed even further. Chuck Todd asked the incoming Biden Administration Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, is the transition team has had an informal conversations with government doctors and disease experts, to which he answered no because the General Services Administration hasn't released the funds necessary that by law start would start the transition. Until then, the incoming Biden Administration can not speak to anyone. This column has never even given a thought to the GSA before but now we know that a Trump appointee named Emily Murphy is refusing to accept the results of the election. Ms. Murphy is single handedly blocking government from functioning and is subverting the democratic process. 

This may all seem like just politics for Mr. Trump, but a quarter of a million Americans are dead and as Dr. Osterholm explained, our healthcare system is breaking.

Governor Hutchinson said that it was important that the president recognized the legitimacy of the election and judging by his tone given the severe challenges his state is facing due to the pandemic, he wants it to start happening sooner rather than later. Arkansas, like many other states, need help and rightfully, the governor can wait any longer.

Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) along with other Republican Senators are still advocating for the president NOT to concede the election so that the party can fund raise for the Georgia Senate run-offs. It's an obvious political strategy that obviously pays not an ounce of consideration to the crises - health and economic - that this country faces. Long-time Republican strategist Al Cardenas explained that despite the political maneuvering during the transition the governing part has to be smooth, but he concluded by saying we're in a meltdown in that capacity right now.

Finally, just a soon as we heard Governor Hutchinson say that he was glad that the president is coming around, by the end of the program NBC's Carol Lee reported that Mr. Trump tweeted that he "concedes nothing."

That's just great. If this is the case, he has to either govern or concede; and if he's not going to concede then he needs to take responsibility. The president can't have it both ways. If anyone else in this country were doing what he's doing, a person would be justified in saying what every American understands, "Shit, or get off the pot."

Panel: Carol Lee, NBC News; Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist

11.8.20: The Outcome of a Historic Election, in Perspective

History was made yesterday with the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, despite what President Trump said yesterday and this morning. For the United States, it's long overdue that a woman serve in the executive branch of our government, and this is something that all Americans should be proud of. (Unfortunately, that's not the case. More on this to come). However, for supporters of Joe Biden and Donald Trump need to keep things in perspective. 

Setting aside the Senate run-off races in Georgia, in a way everyone got what they wanted. Of course there is going to be disappointment for Donald Trump supporters but the country now has a president that is empathetic and aims to govern all Americans instead of only looking to govern half the country. Meanwhile, Republicans gained seats in the House and could still control Senate. The checks and balances still remain. As The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan said, divided government isn't the worst thing to happen.

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said that this election was a referendum on one person and not on conservative policies, which he said Americans largely support. The latter point is debatable but given the election outcomes, it's not completely off-base. However, on the day after the calling of the presidential election, the press is already framing friction in that President-elect is a moderate and the progressive wing of the party is already calling out moderation, most notably via New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. 

Here again, some perspective is needed. Kate Benningfield, Biden campaign chief, and Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) both outlined the Biden agenda as the most progressive agenda ever put forward by a Democratic president. It begs the question that Mr. Clyburn in fact posed, which is what exactly is the definition of progressive? You have consider Ms. Ocasio Cortez's positions as you would consider say Jim Jordan's views - both are outside the mainstream of American politics. That's not to say that there isn't a place for both - it's part of the big tent that is America.

As Mr. Romney explained, the president has every right to contest vote counts and file for recounts in states where the totals were close, but there is no place for Mr. Trump's rhetoric that there was fraud (there was none) or that Democrats rigged the election. This is exactly the type of irresponsible statements that got Mr. Trump voted out of office. 

The Cook Political Report's David Wasserman explained that this election has ended with more polarization, not less and that there were blind spots in the polling data. Ya think? The polls haven't been accurately reflective of presidential election year races since at least 2012 and they're not getting better on the granular level. Anyone can call a presidential race, hell, this column called it accurately, but when it comes to analyzing data for congressional races it's becoming more evident that professional pollsters have been wrong in predicting outcomes in contested districts. This along with media writ large creating narratives that don't necessary play out how they describe only contributes to further polarization.

Speaking of which, post election this column was on a chat with supporters of both candidates and one supporter of Mr. Trump in particular called Mr. Biden senile and Ms. Harris a communist whore. This is the unfortunate legacy of Donald Trump's presidency and frankly, that's why he needed to go. The country is simply exhausted by this toxic partisan rhetoric, and as we've all seen it's counterproductive to the general health of the country. Once this column saw those comments, all we could do is wish the person well moving forward. 

On the topic of legacy, it is now, post-election, where Mr. Trump will cement his legacy. What he does or doesn't do in this transition period will shape perceptions for decades. Will Mr. Trump concede the race, never and that's sad. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reported that Mr. Trump will most likely just check out and much of the responsibility will fall to VP Mike Pence. We hope this is not the case, but on a human level, it makes sense. Think about it, Donald Trump has never lost anything so clearly as he has lost this presidential race and that definitely takes a toll on one's psyche. We understand but that understanding does not come with sympathy because Mr. Trump is responsible for the division he's sown, of which there will be more to come. 

As we've said before in this column, if the enormous cruise ship that is the United States sometimes tacks to the left and sometimes to the right, but too hard and too fast either way and the ship tips over and sinks us all. One thing that is for certain is that we will always be moving forward, never back. And no matter how painful for some, this country will move forward no matter what President Trump does at this point. The American president acting like a childish sore loser doesn't help this country in the slightest. 

As Americans, we congratulate Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris's victory and take pride in the momentous history made last night, as long as we keep it all in perspective.

Panel: Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Cornell Belcher, Democratic strategist; David Wasserman, The Cook Political Report

11.1.20: Soon the Cosmic Political Universe of "What-if's" Will Stop Swirling... and it Can't Come Soon Enough

We're two days away from the election deadline - Tuesday, November 3rd for those not paying attention -  and in the cosmic political universe of "what if's" anything can still happen with various, variable polls and pollsters trading election night scenarios.

The only certainties at this point is that the United States has recorded 9.2 million Covid-19 infections and of 230,000 deaths from the disease. In spite of this objective failure on the part of the administration, the presidential contest and Senate races despite all the pontification are tight. 

Last week this column provided some predictions of how we thought election night would play out and as ever more considerations come in about how the stars will align, we still see the same outcomes. Today's panelists are equally as confounded as to how things will play out, but their conversation starters, we found edifying.

Chuck Todd, being from the state of Florida, said that it is a state that is never won the same way twice. If you follow state to state politics, you intrinsically know this, but when it's said aloud, it's so damn true and that's why it's still anyone's race in Florida.

As for Georgia, former Senate Claire McCaskill said that it's surprising for Democrats to be talking about and campaigning in states like Georgia and Texas at this point in the race, but especially the former with not one contested Senate race but two. Just writing about it seems borderline ridiculous, but in ridiculous times we are in, indeed. The important thing to watch in the Georgia senate race is if either candidate gets over 50% of vote. If neither breaks that threshold it goes to a run-off as the second open seat is headed for. Mr. Ossoff (D) does have moment as Sen. McCaskill explained but enough to avoid a run-off is anyone's guess. If Georgia does in fact go to the Democrats, the credit will and should be rightfully given to Stacey Abrams and the continual fight against suppressing the vote and also turning it out in communities of color.

North Carolina will be a key early indicator on how the race is shaping up because the Senate race is linked to the presidential race. Really, does anyone see a voter in North Carolina splitting the ticket? Rich Lowry pointed out that the state is vulnerable because Senator Thom Tillis (R) is a terrible politician and is in lock-step with the president, but that also Democrat Cal Cunningham has an infidelity scandal. One can't help but see the irony that Mr. Todd pointed out, that the president's infidelity scandals may have diminished the impact that it has on voters' attitudes. What an election...

And then there's Pennsylvania... And if you're from there as this column is there's the old joke that between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is like Alabama. (And no, that's not what this column thinks of the state.) The key to Pennsylvania is turnout and if the Democratic voters turn out they win, but the enthusiasm isn't always there, clearly. Republicans for their part need places like Erie and the suburbs of the aforementioned cities to go their way. Not an easy sell for either candidate and that's why we do think that the race is much closer than the polls suggest.

To close it out, if you haven't yet, go VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! And yes, who ever you support. Also, be patient with the counting and state reporting because no matter how long it takes, that's too much time. The map is certainly bigger in terms of contested and close races and don't forget about the House races because it's more vital for Democrats to pick up seats than it even is for Republicans. 

All of which will make for a suspenseful night on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning and soon this cosmic swirling political universe of "what-if's" will end and you'll be able to stop asking if the stars have aligned, if Mercury was in retrograde, if another discovered planet is in the Goldilocks Zone, if we can get back from political Uranus, if Space Force is a thing, if we can and need to get to Mars, and if in fact there is water on the moon.

And if you think we've overdone it on the outer space metaphor, it's because this entire election season has been outer limits.

See you on the other side.

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Kristen Welker, NBC News; Claire McCaskill, fmr. senator (D-MO); Rich Lowry, The National Review

10.25.20: With Nine Days to Go Until the Election Deadline, It's Time to Put Up or Shut Up

With nine days to go until the voting deadline on November 3rd, it's time to make closing arguments and put up or shut up. Since 50 million Americans have already cast their votes, a week from this Tuesday is not so much election day as it is the deadline to get your vote in.

In these final days of the campaign, it's still anyone race but the warning signs for a bad Republican outcomes are growing and it's starts where it all began four years ago and that's with the top of the ticket. President Trump's inability to articulate a vision for his second term is crippling his campaign because simply attacking your opponent with unfounded accusations isn't going to win the day. 

The president says that he's is tired of talking about "COVID, COVID, COVID...," but it is precisely because of COVID-19 that his campaign and reelection prospects are flagging. Frankly, if the administration put in the work eight months ago, the pandemic would still be with us, but maybe 100,000 Americans less would have perished and the president could say, honestly, that every we could do has been done. Then he could have truly made a sound argument for a post-pandemic America. 

Alas... 

This is not what happened and this coup-de-gras failure has exacerbated all the other outrageousness behavior and negligence throughout the president's first term.

With all that said, it's time...

Many people have asked this column, straight up, who is going to win the presidential election. In our answer, we have been taking a breath before answering because you must consider where it may head before knowing who ultimately wins. 

Because early voting, especially mail-in ballots heavily favors Democrats, not all the vote totals will in on election night while same-day voting is thought to favor Republicans and at the end of election night it will show Mr. Trump leading. This seems to be the common wisdom for many political pundits and the worry for many Joe Biden supporters, but this isn't what is going to happen. 

By the morning of November 4th, Joe Biden will in fact be ahead and as more votes are counted, it will confirm or even enhance his lead. Yes, it is that bad for President. This week's debate didn't move the needle in either direction if only to affirm that VP Biden has a much better knowledge of the issues and the nuances surrounding them. (Let's face it, if we didn't grade Mr. Trump on such a curve where it says simply that if you don't shout, you still make sense and graded him on the same scale as we do Mr. Biden, then the former VP still cleaned his clock.)

We'll go on record to say that ultimately Joe Biden will be the next president.

With that existential dread over with, let's get to the fun stuff - the Senate races.

During the panel discussion, Mr. Todd asked each individual which state race he or she is watching, as follows:

Amy Walter: North Carolina where Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham is still ahead of incumbent Thom Tillis despite a late breaking sex scandal.

Mark Murray: Iowa where it's an even race at the presidential and senatorial levels. Seniors are playing a role switching support to Biden and incumbent Joni Ernst doesn't know the break even cost on a bushel of soybeans ($10 btw).

Yamiche Alcindor: South Carolina where Lindsey Graham is in the fight of his life against Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison who is pulling out all the stops with the incredible amount of campaign contributions he received.

Anna Palmer: Maine where Susan Collins tries to maintain her balancing act of being a bi-partisan moderate Republican but her lack of being just that and her gullibility when it comes to her judgement on President Trump.

We're watching this and a few more.

Starting with North Carolina and Maine, we think that Democrats will take both races. North Carolinians won't split their ticket and Joe Biden is up in the state. As for Maine, it just seems like the people there are simply fed up with Susan Collins rolling over at critical moments of Mr. Trump's presidency. Cal Cunningham (D) in North Carolina and Sara Gideon (D) in Maine.

For control of the Senate, Chuck Todd outlined the following state where the race is a toss up: Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, in addition to the aforementioned Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Iowa.

Iowa is close and historically does swing back and forth and this time around, we think ultimately Iowa is going for a change, will not split the ticket and go for both Joe Biden and Theresa Greenfield in the Senate.

South Carolina, on the other hand, is going to disappoint Democrats and Jaime Harrison is going to come up just short in race that would have thought to have been closer in the end. Lindsey Graham loses his standing, his power, his influence but not his seat in the Senate. 

For Republicans, Arizona is gone. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat after losing her previous bid for the senate against Kyrstan Sinema, has done nothing to convince people that she has earned the seat. Meanwhile, there is Mark Kelly, astronaut and American hero who is married to former Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords. Mark Kelly running away.

In Colorado, Corey Gardner doesn't even seem to be running for reelection because he knows the former governor John Hickenlooper is going to win in a wash.

As for Georgia, Amy Walter explained that it would be bad for Democrats if senate control came to two run-off elections in Georgia in January. However, we don't think it's going to come to that and Democrats will have control by the time the Georgia senate rates are decided. It's a tough one to decide so with permission, we'll say that Georgia is either going to be split with one Senator from each party or it stays in full Republican control, by a small margin.

So there it is, we've put up, so now we'll shut up.

Panel: Yamich Alcindor, PBS News Hour; Amy Walter, Cook Political Report; Anna Palmer, Politico; Mark Murray, NBC News

10.18.20: Secretary Alex Azar Explains Mitigation Fatigue, But For Clarification...

As of this writing, there are twenty-six states seeing a significant increase in cornoavirus infections, which going into cold and flu season could put significant stress on a healthcare system already stretched beyond its limits.  

Because of this fact, Chuck Todd acknowledged the urgency in Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar's voice to adhere by the "3 W's" - Wash you hands, Watch your distance and Wear a mask. Until we have a vaccine, he said, these are the measures that he's asking Americans to take. It's a message that all people should take to heart, so then why is this message so difficult for the president, Mr. Todd asked the secretary.

And then...

Mr. Azar explained that because of mitigation fatigue it's difficult for all western democracies, never addressing the president's dangerous messaging. He said that we're weeks away from having vaccines apply for FDA approval, something that we should be "celebrating," he exclaimed. Pardon if we're not in a celebratory mood. Then after equivocating on whether it is administration policy to advocate for herd immunity, something pushed by the White House's resident quack Dr. Scott Atlas, Mr. Azar finally came around to say 'no.' 

Secretary Azar explained mitigation fatigue inasmuch as the populace is tired of being responsible in taking the measures he's advocating and that the president has disdain for. We get, people are tired of wearing masks.

However...

We're also mitigating the fatigue of seeing an administration abdicating its responsibility on the coronavirus.

We're mitigating the fatigue of a president who constantly sells out our troops and our allies.

We're mitigating the fatigue of the stress of an orange human being bombarding our thoughts every day.

We're mitigating the fatigue of the racial animus and economic disaster that this president has wrought upon the country. 

We're mitigating the fatigue of so many lies this president has told.

We're mitigating the fatigue of wanting this election to be over.

We're mitigating the fatigue of the loathing we feel at the prospect of Mr. Trump winning reelection. 

So Secretary Azar, let's please have that discussion about mitigating fatigue, because as Mark Leibovitch explained, there's going to be no pivot on the part of the president. The press keeps talking about how if the president could pivot his messaging... Ain't gonna happen. His speeches will continue to spray divisiveness, false science and undemocratic ideas like "fit in a shan," (if you get our meaning).  

Ten days after 13 people, now 14, were indicted for planning a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, the president campaign in the state advocated for "locking her up." Governor Whitmer said that she didn't want to discuss the danger to politicians but in fact the danger in the face of 220,000 people having died from Covid-19. She also said that it's disturbing that the president hasn't denounced the the threat against her and her family, but that she was going to continue to do her job. Unlike Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) who is not a profile in courage as The Washington Post's Ashley Parker explained for his trashing of the president on a campaign conference call with 17,000+ supports, Governor Whitmer is such a profile. She continues to speak out despite all this. And keep in mind, the governor and her family (young kids) had been living with this threat for months before the arrests were made.

Lastly, we'd be remiss if we didn't comment on the sobering reality check provided by Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, who does not share Secretary Azar's optimism. There are two ways to achieve herd immunity - through vaccination or a massive death total. Vaccination, Dr. Osterholm explained, won't be widely available until the third quarter of next year, maybe sooner. So if we don't want massive death until then we have to fight through the fatigue and continue to mitigate. To do that, Dr. Osterholm explained that we need consistent messaging that is science based, something he said we haven't had from the beginning. 

So there's that... Boy, are we tired.

 

Panel: Ashley Parker, The Washington Post; Donna Edwards, fmr. congresswoman and Post columnist; Mark Leibovitch, New York Times Magazine; Pat McCrory, fmr. governor of North Carolina

10.11.20: Dim Prospects for the Super Spreader in Chief and Senate Republicans

"It was a very good week for Senate Republicans," said Hugh Hewitt with 23 days until the election. That may be true in North Carolina where Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham has to now respond to allegations of an affair. Otherwise, it's difficult to see how Senate Republicans have benefited this week from a president who continues to be cavalier (that's being charitable) in his messaging about the virus. His positive diagnosis and then the less-than-forthcoming medical information about his condition have left people to label the president as a "super spreader" of the virus. Coupled with disastrous debates by Marth McSally (R-AZ), Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the last of whom got his clock cleaned by Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison. 

There are two Republican senators of the judiciary committee who have tested positive for the coronavirus, but the Republican-controlled Senate is pushing ahead with the Supreme Court confirmation while at the same time, these very Republican senators are holding up a relief package for the American people. It also doesn't help Republicans that the president has switched positions on the relief package three times this week.

Speaking of the court, it's Constitutional for the Republican Senate to confirm Judge Barrett, and they will do it, as we've previous said. Given that 7 in 10 Americans want the Senate to wait until after the election, it seems wrong to push this nomination through. The controversy surrounding this nomination process stems from the hypocritical position the Republicans have put themselves in because of what they said 4 years ago, that a justice should not be confirmed in an election year. Despite this, Republicans are pushing ahead because they see their electoral prospects becoming dimmer by the day. All this has prompted the media to press the Biden campaign on whether or not Democrats would "pack" the court if they were to take control of the White House and Senate. Former VP Biden has refused to answer this question. There's that saying, "Give the people what they want," but it by no means applies to your political opponent. In other words, Mr. Biden should not answer this question because it only creates political fodder - don't lend out ammunition against yourself, politics 101.

Mr. Biden, smartly, is keeping the attention on the Trump Administration's handling, or lack thereof, of the coronavirus pandemic. In this week's vice-presidential debate, where a fly on VP Pence's head took center stage,  Ms. Harris pointed out that Mr. Pence is the head of the Covid-19 task force and over 210,000 Americans have died on his watch. And of course, it begs the question that if the Administration can't keep the staff of the White House safe, how are we to expect they can provide the populace writ large? 

Twenty-five percent of Americans feel the president is doing a good job on battling the pandemic and a majority thinks the country is on the wrong track. Yet, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is in self-quarantine, believes that this election will turn on optimism and turn out. First, that's a lot of optimism for 25 percent to shoulder and it's fear that driving turnout - fear that is coming from both sides. Democrats have the existential fear of another Trump term and the president has been stoking fear in his base for the past 4 years. Optimism was a nice thought put forth by Mr. Cruz, but all evidence indicates that the American people are hardly feeling that way.

And if you want confirmation on how well the Administration is doing, look no further than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who hasn't been to the White House in months, saying that the White House hasn't taken precautions that he has feels necessary to take in the Senate [read: The White House is not safe.] On top of this, we still don't know if the super spreader in chief hasn't tested negative for the virus while he has scheduled three rallies this week. Think about all the personnel involved in moving the president and the danger it creates for potential spread, but as NBC's Hallie Jackson explained, Mr. Trump feels that getting out and doing rallies is the only way to turn things around for his reelection. 

Despite what the president said this week, this is no cure and there is no vaccine for the virus, as Bill Gates confirmed in his interview today. Mr. Gates also explained that a vaccine could be ready for next year but that it would be a second or third generation of a vaccine to get life back to normal. However, unequivocally, Mr. Gates said that the United States has the worst testing system of any country and we will see a significant amount of more deaths if the leadership doesn't get its act together. Only problem, that's not going to happen any time soon.

*****

Lastly, there is grave concern in the FBI that white supremacists are the number one domestic threat in the country, and it was clearly evidenced this week with the arrest of 13 individuals who plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and put her on 'trial' in another state. For the average American, this is WTF?. As the panel agreed, this is a straight up act of terrorism, but Mr. Hewitt pointed out that this should preclude the president criticizing the governor for her handling of the coronavirus in her state. What a dodge and a contribution to the problem. Governor Whitmer had to be living with this threat for months and surely the president knew about it. But in these months, the president has refused to denounce white supremacists [see: Stand Back and Stand By]. When Gov. Whitmer stated in a press conference that leaders who encourage these groups or give them a pass are complicit. Jake Sherman reported that the Republican response on the Hill has been muted, further demonstrating their collective fecklessness. Timothy McVeigh was no rogue actor, he was backed by the Michigan Militia. It's sad to say, but this domestic terror threat will only become more emboldened with a Trump election win. However, the FBI and law enforcement anticipate immediate violence in the wake of a Trump lose. Lose-lose until we formally and legally recognize these group for what they are, terrorists.

 

Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Jake Sherman, Politico; Hugh Hewitt, Salem Radio Network; Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino

 

10.4.20: Continually Testing But Ultimately Failing

The administration's attitude toward the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the president's, has been metaphoric of their performance over the last four years. The president keeps being tested and ultimately he's failed the test.

Before going further on this point, it must be said that we hope that the president and the first lady make a healthy and speedy recovery. For all the divisive statements and actions the president has adopted, he is after all the president of the United States and for the sake of the American people you never want to see the president's health in danger.

Yet, with the president now at Walter Reed Hospital whose condition has been made less than clear, we see again that the Trump Administration and its campaign are putting politics over the safety of the nation. By having Vice President Mike Pence go out on the trail, the Trump campaign is putting the continuity of government at risk. That is to say unless the administration wants Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to act as president as she is third in line. As Peggy Noonan explained, the nation is in a state of emergency and that should require leaders to be in Washington, especially the vice president. It's another small test of the Administration that they don't even realize they're failing.

Given the irresponsibility that the campaign has thus far demonstrated in terms of following CDC protocols, Senior Campaign Advisor Jason Miller's are hardly reassuring when he says that he has no concerns at all about the "aggressive" campaign schedule planned this week for the vice president. "Meet The Press" wasn't the only Sunday program that Mr. Miller on and throughout he manages to have the gall keeping a straight face while explaining that the president has always urged the American people to get tested and socially distance with a mask in between tests.

During the debate, the president mocked Mr. Biden for wearing a mask, even when he's '200 feet away from people' but isn't for the president to model behavior recommended by his health experts? For Mr. Trump, his answer during the debate was 'no' as he openly disagreed with administration health officials. 

Throughout this pandemic, the president's failures have been well documented along with all the misinformation he has unceasingly spouted, but while the reasoning that if the president can contract the virus anyone can is sound, the administration DID NOT take all the necessary precautions to protect the president. The truth here is that President Trump is the administration and he acted irresponsibly and now he is among over 7 millions Americans infected with Covid-19.

The debate, if that's what we're calling it, was certainly an embarrassment but it was also instructive in some ways. As the National Review's Rich Lowry pointed out, Mr. Trump's strategy was to steam roll Mr. Biden but the fmr. vice president didn't buckle. The big elephant in the room is to ask why the president took this strategy instead of the consequence of it. Mr. Trump couldn't debate the issues because on the most important to the American people, he has failed the test. Obviously on he's failed on his pandemic response (He's contracted it!) but in the wake of George Floyd's and Breonna Taylor's deaths, he failed to bring heal the country. Going back to what seems like a distant memory, the administration completely botched the response to Hurricane Maria and the relief effort for Puerto Rico. 

In terms of healthcare writ large, the administration is seeking to completely nullify the Affordable Care Act in the midst of a pandemic with no replacement plan. On the economy, pandemic recession aside, the trade deficit with China that Mr. Trump says he's combatting is higher than it's ever been and we're in a manufacturing recession. As Peggy Noonan said, getting 90 minutes undiluted Donald Trump is just too much. The reason is that Mr. Trump's sound bite discourse is catches up with him in a debate setting because he can not speak intelligently and insightfully about any issue important to the American people. The populace, even Republicans deep down, implicitly know that Mr. Trump has failed these tests of leadership. With him contracting Covid-19, these failures all come into crystalizing relief.

Even though Mr. Biden didn't really help himself all that much during a debate where he also made a few regrettable remarks, referring to the president as a clown, but it was clear that Mr. Biden went into the debate hoping to have some semblance of normal discourse where it was clear that that was not Mr. Trump's intention at all. Americans are literally sick and tired, and the realization that after four years, the president still can not demonstrate the capacity for empathy and helpful thought-out solutions to the country's ills is the reason why Mr. Biden has a 14 point lead on Mr. Trump. 

Do we need more debates? Interestingly both Rich Lowry and Peggy Noonan, connected in Republican circles, both feel that we've seen the last one in the 2020 election cycle. Maybe they know more details about the president's health that the rest of us do not. The president's health aside, as Jeh Johnson said, it would be very helpful to have more debates, but not like this last one.

Panel: Jennifer Palmieri, Democratic Strategist; Jeh Johnson, fmr. Security of Homeland Security; Rich Lowry, National Review; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal

9.27.20: The President's Supreme Court Nominee Isn't There to Save Him

The respective interviews today with Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) are superfluous due to all the answers they gave on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett make no difference in the what is to come. Judge Barrett will be confirmed by the Republican-lead United States Senate before the election on November 3rd. 

Never mind that Senate Republicans four years ago said that a Supreme Court Justice shouldn't be confirmed in an election year and denied Judge Merrick Garland (President Obama's nominee) hearings. The hypocrisy of Republicans is baked into their political cake and frankly, they don't care about being called out on it. It's an opportunity at a naked power grab and there is no doubt that Republicans will take advantage of it no matter what Democrats in congress say, no matter what the press says and definitely no matter what the will of the American people is. 

Judge Barrett will be confirmed before the November election. Hard Stop. 

However (there's always a however), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell certainly knows this, the effect of this confirmation is not going to bode well for Republicans in the election. This confirmation is going to motivate Democratic turn-out in a major way and will also sway independents toward Joe Biden and Democrats down ballot. Republican voters still left to vote may not feel as motivated because they got 'their pick.' But none of this matters because Mr. McConnell already sees the writing on the wall. The Republicans in the Senate are headed for the minority and in the lame duck session it will be politically untenable to confirm a justice. Given this, why not get out of the majority what Republicans can while they can? 

Also, much has been made of President Trump's judicial nominee list for the Supreme Court and part of Republicans rhetorical argument is that Joe Biden has presented a list because he's a tool of the left. This column finds this tact typically Republican. We all know that Mr. Trump's list is in actuality not his list, but a list provided to him by the Federalist Society so couldn't the argument be made that the Trump is a tool of the right when it comes to the court?

The president has said that nine justices on the court are a necessity to resolve any election disputes, but if the polls and Mitch McConnell's calculations are correct, the Supreme Court won't be a factor in deciding the election like in 2000. Instead, this shift in the court will address something more important to Republicans, which is getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, that's the real motivation. Even if Joe Biden is elected, the court could strike down the ACA, which would be invalidated around June when the decision comes and then some months after until it's void. There is no way to recover the bill in time so that millions of Americans won't lose their healthcare. Republicans pay lip service to preexisting conditions and keeping young adults on their parents' plan, but without the ACA those two aspects will become unaffordable.

What this nomination does and what the president said this week about not committing to a peaceful transfer of power, something that Senator Booker described as menacing our democracy, all serve to distract from the fact... the fact that Mr. Trump has presided over the fourth largest mass casualty event in American history - his horrendously inexcusable handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Over 7.1 million Americans infected and 204,450 (756 yesterday) dead. (source: NY Times)

So the complainer-in-chief who famously doesn't prepare for debates (the one upcoming on Tuesday being no exception) better not be surprised when those numbers and that failure are shoved into his face during the debate.

Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Lanhee Chen, fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford; Claire McCaskill, fmr. Senator from Missouri l Court Press 

9.20.20: Deeper Into Political Warfare

As if we couldn't go any deeper into chaos and civil political warfare, the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg silences an essential voice on the Court and in American life and history writ large. She can never be replaced.

Here's a link to The Washington Post's obituary...

The sad news of her passing and her legacy has been predictably overshadowed by what will be the most ferocious political battle in modern history on top of a presidential election will determine the course of the American democratic experiment. 

Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish was to not have her seat filled until after the election, but Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has no inclination to honor Justice Ginsburg already having stated that the Republican-controlled Senate will have a floor vote on a new nominee. Never mind that NBC's Pete Williams said that the average turnaround time for seating a Supreme Court Justice is seventy days, never mind the damaging of the court's credibility, and never mind the rank hypocrisy of behalf of Republicans who all said four years ago that they wouldn't seat a justice until after the election so that the American people can decide.

Now, to hell with the American people making the decision. 

Senator Tom Barrasso (R-WY) tried to defend why the rules that Republicans made in 2016 only apply to Democrats and not Republicans by citing the fact that the presidency and the senate are both controlled by the same party, to which he said there was historical precedent. Republican senators already have all their talking points down pat, citing the number of times this has happened and each nuance blah blah blah... But there is no precedent and there is no 'Biden rule' as Senator Barrasso tried to through out there. 

This hypocritical power grab is NOT the will of the people either, with President Trump never having won the support of a majority of Americans and there is no 'will of the electoral college.' But Republicans aren't interested in the will of the people if it doesn't serve there interest. This is the latest move that exacerbates those feelings of foreboding as if we're living in an apartheid-type state where the minority rules the majority. 

However, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) may be correct that Senate Republicans do not have the votes because a few are resisting the majority leader for various reasons, top among them is the vulnerability of their seats, e.g. Susan Collins of Maine, Corey Gardner of Colorado. Then there are senators like Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) who recognize the hypocrisy but want to either stick it to the president or don't trust the president's pick will protect women's issues.

Secretary Hillary Clinton, the person who recommended Justice Ginsburg for the court, said that the nominating and confirmation process is broken and that this was another blow to our institutions. But maintaining institutions was never of interest to Mitch McConnell, unless the institution is a Republican-controlled Senate. When in the minority, Mr. McConnell would obstruct and when in the majority, as we see now, he makes up rules for Democrats that don't apply to Republicans. But Mitch McConnell has always been like this; he hasn't co-authored a bill since the last century. Now, with a president intent on taking down American institutions and politicizing everything, Mr. McConnell's destructive actions only get magnified.

And speaking of destructive, or non-constructive as it were, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is firmly in denial mode. Like other administration officials he refuses to acknowledge the numbers never verbally uttering that there are 200,000 Americans dead... in six months. Mr. Azar must have won a big game recently because they've poured Kool-Aid all over this guy (We know, it's Gatorade, but for the purposes of this analogy...) with his sunny statements of things to come. He also disagreed with CDC Director Robert Redfield who testified to Congress this week saying the mask is the most effective tool in fighting the virus, more so than a vaccine because it's determined that 'successful' means 50 percent effectiveness. This column's earlier determination that Mr. Azar was for the most part a straight shooter was misplaced. He's just another nail for Trump's hammer.

 

Panel: No panel

Latest Coronavirus Numbers:
    6.8 million+ infected
    199,308 deaths
    (source: NY Times)

9.13.20: A New Presidential Norm - Lying about Lies

"I didn't lie."

President Trump responding to Jonathan Karl's question about lying to Americans by downplaying the severity of the coronavirus.

Trump on the defensive.

"Downplaying something is really a threat."

Dr. Anthony Fauci responding to Andrea Mitchell about downplaying the virus.

Thank goodness, we had Republican National Committee Chair, Ronna McDaniel, to clear up the confusion and put our minds at ease. Ms. McDaniel explained that the president has taken all the right actions to protect the American people and that "history will look on him well" with regard to his leadership.  She also condemned the Democrats for politicizing the pandemic because Speaker Pelosi called it the "Trump virus." That is disgusting, indeed. And the president doesn't lie about lying.

Now that the record is straight, don't you feel much better? 

There's one question, however, that keeps putting a monkey wrench in all that logic. Why does the United States have 4 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of the total deaths?

The latest CDC Numbers:

6,427,058 total cases (46,045 cases in the last 24 hrs.)

192,388 total deaths (1,035 dead in the last 24 hrs.)

Basically, in the span of 6 months, over 190,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States. Unless history loses its pencil, the record is going remember this most of all. Ms. McDaniel said in response of this '25 percent' that we have increased testing, which translates into more positive cases, hence deaths; so essentially we have more deaths because we have more testing. We'll call this 'head in the sand' logic - if we don't know, there's no problem. By contrast, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Dir. of the Center of Disease Control at the University of Minnesota, said today that he is on the same page as Dr. Fauci assessing that we've plateaued at 40,000 confirmed cases and 1,000 deaths per day. 

How in the real world is 1,000 dying everyday, the equivalent to a 9/11 death toll every 4 days, remotely acceptable? Of course, the president downplayed and politicized the danger and he's lying about it as of this very writing, saying that we've 'rounded the corner' on the virus. The president explained that he wanted people to remain calm, not creating a panic, but as Chuck Todd explained the last thing the president exerts is calm, indeed with a wantonness to incite panic - they're coming to get you in the suburbs...

Long time Republican strategist Al Cardenas explained that people are accepting it as a norm that this president lies, which is an incredible statement unto itself, but factor in that 38 to 45 percent of Americans still support the president despite this, and it becomes... well, sad.

The answer to this pandemic crisis is not to downplay it and draw our attention to another crisis, like the continuing social unrest in the country and demonizing protesters. But as the crises mount, the economy in shambles with millions still out of work and devastating fires overwhelming the west coast, smoke from which has been detected in Europe by the way, blame and deflection and telling us to put our heads in the sand is only going to bring more catastrophe on the heads of Americans.

 

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist

A couple more things...

Even if you believe that fmr. FBI Director of Counter-Intelligence Peter Strzok is a partisan, there is no denying what he said as fact, as it's in the public record - no Presidential Administration in modern history has had this many broad and deep contacts with Russian Intelligence officers. Coincidence, this definitely is not. Does Putin have something on Trump? Yes. Financial. For sure.

Jeffrey Goldberg mentioned that the president keeps 'shadow boxing' by fighting old battles, citing that last night at a campaign rally, Mr. Trump was arguing with Hillary Clinton. He also said that Bob Woodward, the legendary most-trusted reporter in Washington D.C., a whack job. Really? Smell that? Smells like desperation in the morning. 

It begs the question that Mr. Trump has yet to answer, what's your vision for a second term? And political survival isn't a vision. 

9.6.20: 1.3 Million Losers and Suckers, and Other Voting Disses

Editor's Note: This week's "Meet The Press" was a Special Vote Watch edition, and it must have been taped on Wednesday at the latest because given the week's events in the aftermath of Geoffrey Goldberg's bombshell story in the Atlantic magazine released on Thursday, in which President Trump disparages the United States' war dead, disabled veterans and our P.O.W.'s calling them losers and suckers. We'll comment on this Special Vote Watch edition, but we'll be more timely and poignant this week than our namesake. (Hey, can't blame them, this administration runs everyone in the press ragged so they could use a longer break, and we only comment once a week... work/ life balance is vital.)

Way back on May 26, 2013, we posted an article entitled Our Soldiers - Recognized and Unrecognized, which is the most widely read post on this blog. The primary reason must be this referential list:

The total number of deaths in U.S. major wars:

American Revolutionary War:  25,000
War of 1812:  15,000
Mexican-American War:  13,283
U.S. Civil War:  625,000
Spanish-American War:  2,446
Philippine-American War:  4,196
World War I:  116,516
World War II:  405,399
Korean War:  36,516          
Vietnam War:  58,209
The Gulf War:  294
Afghanistan:  2,031
Iraq War:  4,487

Total: 1,308,377 

Over 1.3 million "suckers and losers," according to President Donald Trump. The Atlantic story has been verified by The Washington Post, Fox News, CNN and the Associated Press among others, and given the president's past comments it's easy to see the truth in his statements.

Think about that... Died for the cause of the Revolution or of ending slavery, sucker. Why did the U.S. fight on the side of the allies in WWI? (a question asked by Mr. Trump) So the Marines who died at Belleau Wood, losers. The Greatest Generation... losers. Didn't get out of service in Vietnam? Sucker. Disabled in Afghanistan or Iraq... don't expect to be included in any parades for the military.

It's difficult to comment on something so alien in the mind of every American, that we wouldn't honor our war dead and veterans; and that it is our president making these statements is all beyond our collective comprehension.

What can we possible say that hasn't already been said about this with the exception of pointing out the obvious, which is a vote for Donald Trump is a vote of profound disrespect for our military, and supportive of antithetical statements and feelings in contrast to every president that has preceded him.

And speaking of the vote, this entire Special Vote Watch edition of this week's "Meet The Press" is directly due to the chaos and doubt through statement and action that President Donald Trump sows every day. If we had two candidates (instead of only Joe Biden) who actually believed in democracy then this "special edition" probably wouldn't even be necessary, but oh well, here we are.

Mr. Todd checked off a series of issues concerning election officials this November that included voter suppression, election meddling and the possibility of voter fraud because of mail-in ballots. 

Here's the good news as we see it. Given the amount of scrupulous attention that this election has been getting for the past two years already with marches on the streets and litigation in the courts already at full speed and 330 million other observers, in the end we feel that we will get it right. Everyone watching and drawing attention to every aspect in every corner is a good thing.

That little optimist bit is in spite of the Trump Administration's efforts. It's no wonder that 52 percent of Trump supporters don't trust mail-in balloting, it reflects the president's comments. Mr. Trump, the hypocrite, votes by mail. Mr. Trump, he idiot and accessory to felony, has told his North Carolina supporters to vote twice and see what happens. 

The Trump Administration has been trying to kneecap the Post Office, as we all know, which has provided the opening for conservative lawyers to question the security of drop boxes such as Ben Ginsberg did today. However, in Ohio the Secretary of State Frank LaRose outlined that the drop boxes have 24/7 security cameras and are emptied by a bi-partisan team every day. Listening to the other respective election officials in Michigan (Jocelyn Benson) and North Carolina (Karen Brinson Bell) they have been working in the same vain to ensure ballot integrity. No secretary of state in either party wants to have the vote in their state mismanaged - that's failing democracy on your watch - and you don't want to go down with that on your record, no mention that your career is basically over at that point.

For average voters, let us, it's essential to be factually informed on the election laws of your state and yes, to plan your vote but outside of that right now you can't worry about what you can't control.

 

Panel: Janai Nelson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Education; Michael Waldman, NYU Law School; Clint Watt, fmr. FBI agent and NBC security analyst

8.30.20: Whiners Never "Own the Moment"

Earlier this week, the column spoke to a Californian, center-right independent voting friend for some perspective on the two presidential candidates. And while, he said he didn't disagree with many of the president's policies, but also said that the president showed no leadership combating the pandemic. The conversation was very much a referendum on Mr. Trump's presidency as he simply quipped, "Oh yeah, Biden could totally run the country." In the end, he said the one thing that bothered him the most, the deal-breaker, was that the president constantly whines and blames others, and not "owning up to things" (and using some derogatory words inappropriate for the column), as he put it.

So when Congressman and co-chair of the Biden campaign Cedric Richmond (D-LA) said that the president "has to own the moment," he makes a point. Any other individual who abdicated this much responsibility would be the object of universal scorn, but not Donald Trump. It's such an odd moment when you say that the President of the United States, the richest and most powerful country in the world, isn't man enough to take responsibility for his own policies, never "owning the moment." But as they say, here we are.

And where we are is that this week, a white police officer in Kenosha, WI shot Jacob Blake, an African-American man 7 times in the back. There are no excuses that can justify that action. Mr. Blake may not be the most model citizen and he didn't have a gun. Two "trained" police officers can not deescalate the situation or subdue an individual without shooting or killing the person? the 65-day sprint

In the ensuing protests in Kenosha and Portland, Trump supporters clashed with Left-wing rioters and three people were shot dead, and one other severely injured. Neither the Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, or fmr. North Carolina gov. Pat McCrory specifically called out the shooting in Kenosha by the teenage vigilante, but did refer to the killing in Portland of a Patriots Prayer member, a right-wing group in Oregon. Mr. McCrory said the condemned all "bad shootings," which washes over some very disturbing facts.

The reason Republicans won't address it is not because they're afraid to answer that first question: Do you denounce a teenage vigilante taking the law into his own hands and killing two people? No, it's the follow up question that blows a hole through the "support of law enforcement" argument, hence the president's message. And that question is: How come the Kenosha police didn't stop and question a minor walking the streets with an AR15 while others are yelling to the police that he shot two people? Or why didn't the police do anything but say that they appreciate him being there and offering him water? 

Why? 

KellyAnne Conway, as a parting gift before leaving the administration, said that the violence in the streets is good for President Trump's campaign, which Hallie Jackson confirmed that the campaign is doubling down on this message as it thinks it's a positive one for Mr. Trump. Michael Schmidt of The New York Times described Mr. Trump running as if he is not in charge of the country and called his an unprecedented approach to the presidency. He's not only running as if he's not in charge, but he's governing this way as well making ideological policy decisions without caring about the negative effects. Just as President Trump said about the administration's pandemic response that he takes no responsibility at all, he's applying this more widely.

An administration with the only goal of playing only to its base will say what is necessary to placate it, despite reality, as we've seen. It was disappointing when Chuck Todd asked Mr. Meadows about what the president could do (and this is where Mr. Todd fumbled the ball, searching for the right phrase)... to make our streets safer? This gave Mr. Meadows the opportunity to filibuster with law and order rhetoric. Instead Mr. Todd should have asked what is the president going to say to the entire nation to console and bring peace? Or something to that effect.

Yamiche Alcindor of PBS explained from her reporting that leaders in the African-American community feel that the disproportionate rate at which black men are killed by the police (2 to 1 vs. white males) should be something this country can get right, yet these tragedies continue. Congressman Richmond did remind us that the president has indeed answered one question that he himself posed back in 2016. To the African-American community, Mr. Trump asked, "What do you have to lose?" African American men are getting the message that if they have an encounter with a police officer, it could be their lives. Eton Thomas, fmr. NBA player, explained that the current players are speaking out because they are worried for their sons, their community and themselves. He also went on to say that despite all the accomplishments and millions of dollars a black professional athlete might have, when they have an encounter with police they're thinking they could die at that moment.

Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Michael Schmidt, The New York Times; Pat McCrory, fmr. governor of North Carolina

A few more things...

"Let's make America great again... again." A quote from Mike Pence. He's definitely not carrying the ticket, that's for sure. Vice President Pence, we say this only to help you so please excuse this column if we come off as offending you but: You sound like a complete jackass when you say this.

A pet peeve of this column... perpetrated today by Mark Meadows... "the Democrat party..." It's the Democratic Party. We're offended by this intentional grammar error on the part of all Republicans, but we're also offended by Democrats who let this slide because the goal of Republicans is to separate the Democratic Party from anything democratic. And to hear Mr. Meadows use it repeatedly today, not to mention by all his Republic Party friends, is like putting a nail in the ear and then dragging the ear accross a chalkboard.

Lastly, despite the utterly false rosy picture painted by the administration and its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, by this time next week, the United States will be over 6 million infection cases and over 185,000 dead.

 

 

8.23.20: The Dystopia that Trump Describes is Because of His Leadership

 It's half time in the political convention game with the Democrats concluding their convention last week and Republicans readying to start tomorrow. So what's the state of the race? First, keep in mind that the polls will tighten as we get into the first week of October and we haven't had any of the debates yet, meaning that we still have a ways to go.

With that in mind, the respective interviews with Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Jason Miller and fmr. South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttegieg were instructive. The Democratic convention focused on character and the Covid crisis and was light on policy, in which Mr. Miller described it as a 'massive grievance fest,' and explained that the Republicans will present a completely different notion of what a Trump voter is from what is presented in the media. He also said that the convention will focus more on policy and their vision for the future, finishing that they would be telling a 'very beautiful story.'

The balloon that Mr. Miller was trying to blow up had already been burst at the top of the interview with Chuck Todd reminding him that 30 million people are receiving unemployment and that we're approaching 180,000 Americans dead from Covid-19. For politics and convention watchers alike it will be interesting to see how the Trump campaign addresses the pandemic because it cannot talk about the way Mr. Trump has been, painting a rosy picture when the reality on the ground is much different. 

Chuck Todd didn't ask Mr. Miller about Qanon, but he did ask about the audio recordings of the president's sister and former federal judge MaryAnne Trump explaining how the president lies all the time and has no principles. He did say it was 'shameful' that The Washington Post released the recordings a day after the president's brother had been laid to rest, but we would call it 'hardcore' instead. Ultimately, these recordings will matter little as they only reinforce what everyone... yes, everyone already knows, and it doesn't matter to Mr. Trump's base.

Conversely, to the legitimate point that the Democrats were light on policy, Mr. Buttegieg explained that it was a matter of detailing the policy plans that the Democrats put forth last week, but whether or not you want this policy vision for the country. (Mayor Pete does have a way of cutting through the clutter.) More importantly, where the fmr. Vice President Biden did give detail was in his policy for combating the pandemic. To this, Mr. Buttegieg said that as long as Donald Trump is president we will not have a national strategy or leadership on this crisis. One has to agree with this point, simply for the fact that if the Trump Administration had a national strategy, they would have already instituted it. 

Yet, the president tells us that the only thing that stands between the American dream and totally anarchy, madness and chaos is him. Spare us this very rare exception in this column, but that is total f**king bullshit. The dystopia that Trump describes is happening under his leadership. 

And this brings us back around to something that Mr. Miller said: We'll present a different notion of the Trump voter... The Trump voter, not the Republican voter. The Wall Street Journal's senior editor Gerald Seib wrote a book about this evolution of the party from Reagan to Trump and how it's moved in a populist/ nationalist direction. 

Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) said that Mr. Trump's policies have been solidly conservative citing the massive tax cut and stance on abortion as a few examples. But not on deficit spending, trade, Russia, and the country's role in the world, Mr. Seib explained and posed the question of whether Trump's Republican party is aberration or not, depending on whether he wins reelection or not. 

We'd disagree with Mr. Seib as to whether it's a aberration or not because win or lose, the Republican party as we've traditionally known it [read: Reagan or Bush] is done. If Trump wins reelection, the party is solidly rooted in Trumpism. If he loses, which most likely would put the Republicans in the minority in not only the executive branch but also in the House and Senate, leaves the Trumpist Republicans free of governing responsibility putting them firmly in grievance stance, a position in which Trumpism thrives.

Either way, the Republican party is changed forever.

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Gerald Seib, The Wall Street Journal; Scott Walker, fmr. governor of Wisconsin (R)