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
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