1.31.21: Only One Party is Interested in Moving Forward on Legislation

There is a thread that ran through today's program from the interviews with Dr. Michael Osterholm to White House Chief Economic Advisor Brian Deese to Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to the panel that is with one party being dysfunctional, divided and not interested in legislating, progress on combating the virus and an economic recovery is going to be extraordinarily difficult.

Washington Bureau Chief for The Washington Post Ashley Parker said that in the last four years, Republicans have been more focused on appearing on conservative media outlets to defend the former president and attacking Democrats than they are in legislating. Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. also pointed out that it is going to be hard for Democrats to work across the aisle when some Republican lawmakers, namely Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-GA) and Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) don't believe in the background agreement of a fairly, democratically elected president - in the very act of American democracy that just occurred. 

Mr. Kinzinger has launched a 'country first' website as a counter argument in defense of his stance and to fight against the conspiracy theories that have taken over the party thanks to the former president. Mr. Kinzinger specifically explained how the Republican party has lost its way with its condoning of the Capitol attack and the deaths of five people. He along with other current and former Republican office holders are being censured by their respective state party officials for voting for the impeachment of Donald Trump. 

God forbid that Republicans should exercise their own version of 'cancel culture' but that's how Mr. Kinzinger labeled it. Call it a purity test or cancel culture or whatever you want, but the Republican party is expelling anyone who isn't buying into the 'Big Lie,' conspiracy theories and white grievance.

Ten Republican Representatives in the House voted for impeachment and only ten Senators put together a plan to work with President Biden on Covid relief. Republican strategist Al Cardenas lamented that he wished he would see more courage from Republicans to stand up for what's right. We would add that we wish more Republicans would come to their senses and actually lead, as Adam Kinzinger described. 

Mr. Cardenas also said that it is going to very difficult for bipartisanship when Democrats have already stated that if necessary they have the votes to go it alone on a Covid-relief bill if Republicans don't come along on something. However, the larger question remains... How can one party compromise in good faith with the other when a large swathe Republicans aren't acknowledging the legitimacy of the election. He explained that Mr. Trump's continued influence on the party is going to manifest itself in the Republican primaries, but won't be beneficial in a general. Republican office holders are presented with the choice between fealty to Trump for the sake of reelection and grasping to power or to take a principled stand for American democracy and lead. Unfortunately for all of us, cynical politics wins over principle. 

Cited by the panel, in accordance with the Biden Administration's timeline, by the summer we'll know the effectiveness (success) of the administration's plan. If there are positive results, it won't matter that Democrats acted along party lines. What it will do is further illustrate how the Republican party is unable to lead America, just as Rep. Kinzinger talked about. If there were 100 Republicans in office that had his common sense, democracy wouldn't be in such a precarious state and we could move forward.

However, it's clear that's not the case and this growing extremism in the Republican party comes into starker relief as the days pass. Anyone heard the song "Bad Moon Rising?"

Panel: Amy Walter, Cook Political Report; Ashley Parker, The Washington Post; Eddie Glaude, Jr., Princeton University; Al Cardenas, Republican strategist

1.24.21: How The United States Proceeds Forward: It Depends on the Senate

As Chuck Todd said at the top of today's program, there are a myriad of challenges facing the new Biden Administration that is only four days into office. This column contends that the crises facing the country cannot be mitigated without getting the Covid-19 pandemic under control and getting the American people vaccinated. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain stated that this is the metric of which the Biden Administration will be judged. The success of the Biden Administration depends on it, but more importantly, the success of the future of the country depends on. The longer that we're unable to get the pandemic under control, the extent of long term damage to the country's overall well-being with grow.

So how does the United States proceed forward? For the Administration's part, they are putting together a nationalized central response to the pandemic, according to Mr. Klain, enacting the Defense Production Act to ramp up supplies of the vaccine and the equipment needed to administer it. In other words, it is gearing up for a massive response, 'throwing everything at it' as Dr. Fauci was quoted saying this week.

As we're well aware, effective action is going to depend on Congress, its ability to act and whether the Senate can walk and chew gum at the same time because its biggest problem aside from not bringing any legislation to the floor is multitasking.

Apparently, it will be a challenge for the Senate to hold an impeachment trial and legislate at the same time. For insights into the two sides thinking, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) expressed their views on both and the better news is that in terms of a Covid relief bill, both sides feel like they can get to a place of compromise. Impeachment, however, is another story.

On the relief package, The New York Times' David Brooks seemed to agree that a bipartisan agreement can come about reasoning that Democrats put additional measures into the package that can be negotiated out, like a minimum wage increase to 15 dollars an hour.  Chuck Todd asked Mr. Klain, Mr. Durbin and Mr. Rounds this, which came off as a bit of agenda journalism that is never received well. That specific example aside, Senator Rounds has a point that all the provisions should have a direct effect on Covid relief. This sounds reasonable and indicates how Republicans in the Senate may proceed on the bill. 

However, the Senate as to be expected is stumbling out of the gate because they cannot agree on a power sharing accommodation. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is proposing a filibuster resolution which is a non-starter according to Senator Durbin. Mr. McConnell insists as part of the rules that the filibuster can not be done away with. Mr. Durbin rightly explained that the result would be that Republicans would threaten a filibuster on every piece of legislation, hence maintaining the status quo in the chamber as a place where bills go to die.

Many say that the filibuster is a legislative relic from the Jim Crow era, including President Barack Obama, and that may be so but is the problem with the filibuster or the procedure surrounding it? Here's how it would go: The Senate Democrat would propose legislation and the Republican minority would threaten a filibuster which would essentially kill the bill. Senators are never pushed to back up their words. If they threaten a filibuster then they have to take to the floor and actually stand there speaking for however many days... That's what filibustering is! We say, call the bluff and have those octogenarians Senators stand on the floor for 18 hours, speaking. Force them to do that on successive bills and see how enthusiastic they are about filibustering after that. 

In addition to the power sharing dilemma, there is the pending impeachment trial of Mr. Trump. Here's where Senator Rounds while trying to give a moderate answer as to not discount the fairness of the election but at the same time trying not to alienate the base of his party, which is really Trump's party at the moment. He said two things that don't quite add up. One, he said an impeachment trial is a moot point because Donald Trump is not in office, hence it's unconstitutional. However, the impeachment is for actions while Mr. Trump was in office and they were grave enough that consideration of barring him from future office must be brought to a vote. Though we agree with Politico's Tim Alberta that impeachment may put Mr. Trump front and center in the media (where he likes to be) bringing him out of the obscurity where he presently resides, accountability for a insurrection against the people of the United States has to be brought to bear. Not to mention that as the days pass and more information comes out, the attack on the Capitol gets only worse. We can not just let that go without legal consequences or it will almost certainly happen again.

The other thing is that Senator Rounds called for an investigation of the November vote to illustrate to Trump supporters that the vote was fair, which is something Mr. Rounds believes. The problem with this is that the question of fairness doesn't come from evidence to the contrary, just the lies by the president and his allies. An investigation gives credence to those lies. Additionally, if a bipartisan Congressional panel investigates, it just opens the door to political grandstanding which would make matters worse and put retched people like Ted Cruz back into the spotlight. If an outside group conducts the investigation, no one will believe the results and then there are even more conspiratorial lies. Investigation: not the way to go.

So how we proceed depends on the United States Senate. That fact alone is cause for worry.

Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Tim Alberta, Politico; David Brooks, The New York Times

1.17.21: The Measure of Accountability for the Damage Wrought Over the Past Four Years.

The United States does not have laws with regard to domestic terrorism. When acts such as what we saw with Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in April of 1995, they are treated as capital crimes, not as an act of terrorism. 

They're obviously needed now as more details and images of the attack on the Capitol and our democracy are providing a clearer picture of the extent and intent of these insurrectionists. As Chuck Todd outlined, right-wing violence has been building for years, and in most recent Mr. Trump has encouraged the justification of such acts by not ever condemning the people and groups who have perpetrated them. When a lone gunman commits mass murder in El Paso, TX citing Mr. Trump's words as the inspiration, the president equivocates. 

On January 6, 2021, Mr. Trump smashed the top off of the bottle and it turns out that the genie that's not going back in is actually scores of right-wing white supremacist militias planning acts on Washington DC and multiple state capitols. Donald Trump has done everything he's could to subvert the process of a peaceful transfer of power, the foundation of our democracy, and for that he cannot ever be forgiven in the annuls of history for a disgraceful act that overshadows all the rest.

He has accomplished his goal of having Americans arming themselves to kill other Americans.

Between the seditionist incitement of the Capitol attack and the additional looming pardons including one possibly for himself, even the National Review's editor-in-chief Rich Lowry said that the Administration is losing credibility and legitimacy before our eyes. 

So where does that leave us on the pending impeachment who will be out of office come this Wednesday? 

There's no doubt that an impeachment trial in the Senate will be characterized as politically vindictive by most Republicans and if it is Constitutional given Mr. Trump is no longer president, as Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) argues. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said that it's Constitutionally dangerous if we don't proceed because it would mean that there has no accountability for the president's actions while in office. If we do not proceed, he continued, we'd be missing the larger historical picture in this instance. 

Post-presidency, it's unlikely the Senate will vote to convict Mr. Trump, however, a few variables could change that equation. One of those variables that the panel discussed today was potential pardons in these last few days. They could certainly come like a wave. NBC's Kristen Welker reported that the president is undecided on what to do about pardons, particularly for himself and his family, because of the public relations disaster it would be, not to mention the questionable legality of pardoning yourself. Pulling on that thread a bit, the bad PR could also be legally jeopardizing. A slew of pardons in these last few days, a list of potentially 20 people or more, would sour Republicans on acquittal because of any double digit number and also they know that an acceptance of a pardon is in essence an admission of guilt. For anyone who accepts a pardon, they therefore give up their 5th amendment rights as it pertains to a relevant inquiry, compelling answers. And the kicker to that is if you don't tell the truth, you're not pardoned from the perjury you just committed.

This all equals a messy impeachment trial, littered with explosive and or insane testimony.

Newly elected Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) said that she didn't vote for impeachment because due process was not followed in the House leading up to the vote. However, she also said that the president should be held fully accountable for his actions. In other words, Representative Mace doesn't disagree with the charges, just the way they're being dealt with, and that is why she is recommending censuring the president. 

[Aside: You may agree or disagree with Rep. Mace on how to proceed, but if the United States Congress had more Republicans like her who puts country over party and with whom you can disagree without being disagreeable, the complexion of the country would change.]

The only way that there isn't extreme political backlash with censure is if it contains language that bars the Mr. Trump from ever holding public office again (a big 'if'), but is it enough accountability for potentially criminal acts?

Whether the president will be impeached or censured by Congress is immaterial because there will never be the proper measure of accounting for all the damage that these four years have wrought on our country. The amount is incalculable. 

If you're well versed in Mr. Trump's career, you'll know that he's left our country like he's left so many of his businesses - bankrupt, broken, sick and wrecked with people in every direction either pissed off, unpaid, disgusted, lied to, cheated, lawyered up or all of the above.

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

A few more things...
Senator McCaskill said that she thought the Biden Administration could work on its agenda because President Biden will stay out of Senate impeachment business, essentially working around impeachment drama and the Trump Republicans in both chambers. To this point, Mr. Lowry explained that Democrats will be able to do a work around, but not Republicans. A civil war within the party is coming, he said.

Lastly, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) voiced concern that other areas of the DC metro area could be attacked given that the Capitol Campus is so heavily guarded. She explained that she has been briefed on potential attacks on Washington and across the country. There are more troops in Washington, 25,000, than there were after 9/11 and who are presently stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria combined.  Think about that...

1.10.21: Beyond Our American Comprehension/ Donald Trump is a U.S. Citizen but Not American

Where to begin this column after this week is not an easy task. So many instances and individuals to point one's anger, frustration, outrage and sadness toward all it can render is shock. 

It comes down to a simple equation: Donald Trump is un-American. He is a citizen of the United States and its president, but he's not American. He doesn't understand the idea of what it is to be American.

In its totality, there is no other way to think of it. What Mr. Trump sought to do was to overturn a free and fair election under the pretenses of a lie by inciting a crowd to storm the Capitol. Sedition leading to attempted insurrection? It's insane to even be writing these words but as with all things Donald Trump, here is where we find ourselves.

The one point that this column knew it had to comment on came from Senator Toomey (R-PA) to his credit said that Mr. Trump should resign immediately also said that no one could see what happened on Wednesday coming. However, former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson set that record straight as law enforcement should have seen this coming. 

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) outlined three paths from where we can go now, but none seem promising. The first is Mr. Trump resigning from office, and though the calls are turned up to eleven it's definitely not going to happen. Impeachment would be a futile exercise in the end because the Senate won't take up the matter until January 19th, Senator Toomey stated. And then there is the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment, also unlikely. One could argue that Vice President Pence has justification for this since Mr. Trump told rioters to go to the Capitol and when they arrived, they wanted VP Pence. Damn, that's as ugly as it gets, like cosmic ugly. The vice president wouldn't violate his oath of office and instead would uphold the law so the president told a mob of rioters to go get him. [This would all be bad movie shit if it weren't for the fact that it was horrifying reality TV produced by Donald Trump.]

All jest aside, Donald Trump statements and intentions on January 6th set one is a state of beyond understanding for the American mind. For all the service men and women for over two centuries that bled and died or came home changed forever physically and emotionally to defend this country and the Constitution and the peaceful transfer of power, Mr. Trump sought to negate all of that history and to fundamentally change the United States on that day. Secretary Johnson said seeing the Confederate flag in the halls of the Capitol was horrifying and showed a photo of an ancestor's grave, one who fled slavery. Lincoln insisted that the Capitol Building continue to be built during the Civil War. Mr. Trump called the man who brought that flag into those hallowed halls 'special.'

If you're a reader of this column you know that we're apt to present a more pragmatic [read: realistic] outcome that could come about, which would be to censure Mr. Trump to the extent that effectively leaves decisions to the vice president for the remaining days. Whether that could or would come about seems unlikely since there is never any mention of it and the main reason is that it would be insufficient to hold this president accountable. Sedition deserves much more.

According to Kasie Hunt's reporting, most Republican senators have a different sort of deep anger about this final act by Mr. Trump and from public statements we know they're open to some kind of extraordinary step. This, of course, is with the exception of senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) who if we're completely without shame would resign. If it weren't for the Democratic majority in the House, we wouldn't be living in a democracy anymore because a majority of Republican House members supported overturning the vote, lead by the minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and minority whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), both of whom should also resign (not likely) but nothing short of being taken out of leadership roles.

The depth of disgrace that the Republican party is mired in because of its continued support of a man who Senator Toomey said had 'spiraled into madness since the election' is bringing us all down.

Speaking of which, there are already reports of protests scheduled for January 17th and Inauguration Day, the 20th so we see what's coming down that road. In terms of political action against this president in the near term, it's a wait and see.

We'll leave it there this week because this 'nightmare of a week' to quote Chuck Todd has left us Americans so disoriented that we don't know if we even made any sense this week. Did we?

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Jeh Johnson, fmr. Secretary of Homeland Security

One more thing...
Fmr. White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney tried to get on the right side of history in saying that Wednesday, being something different, was his breaking point and he had to resign. He explained that this isn't the same Donald Trump that he worked for 8 months ago. Where has he been? Oh right, after falling out of favor with the president he was exiled to be the envoy for Northern Ireland, apparently without a solid internet connection.

1.3.21: Daily Damage and the Mutant Strain

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that predictably we should see a spike in Corona virus cases in the next few weeks from all the holiday travel ending today. In further explaining the state of the Corona virus fight, he also explained that while the roll out of vaccinations has been behind the stated goal, in the last 72 hours there has been much improvement and that we can avoid a nation-wide lockdown if we practice the recommended CDC fundamentals.

To unpack Dr. Fauci's diplomatic answers here, by President Trump's own admission, the federal government, who have been inconsistent with their distribution instructions, dropped off doses of the vaccine to the states and then left them to fend for themselves, without any logistical help. So of course the distribution is going to be slow because the states' resources are already stretched to the limit. Additionally, Dr. Fauci used the word 'predictable' when it came to the upcoming spike and diplomatically left out that the president is playing an active role in not encouraging best practices. Where Dr. Fauci refused to be diplomatic was in to response the president's tweet that the CDC is overestimating the counting of deaths due to the Corona virus, to which he flatly said that the deaths are real - over 350,000 Americans are dead and it didn't have to be that many. 

What's incredible is that there is no sense of that loss conveyed by the Administration and many leaders in Congress. Simply being objective about it, the Federal Government's response to the pandemic has been an utter failure and an abdication of leadership.

Good news... Dr. Fauci did say that the new mutant strain is not more deadly but it can spread more quickly, however, the vaccine seems effective on this new variety.

But more severe damage is being done by the day with the help of this mutant strain and we're not even talking about the virus.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) could only be given credit by Chuck Todd for accepting the interview because Mr. Todd wasn't having any of the senator's explanations as to why an emergency committee needed to be set up before certifying the election results in favor of Joe Biden. It was also clear that nothing of what Mr. Todd said was penetrating through to his interlocutor. After 60 lost court challenges due to lack of evidence of any fraud and all 50 states certifying their results, the president keeps lying about a fraudulent and rigged election and in a nakedly partisan party-above-country move, 12 Senate Republicans are willing to perpetuate this lie, of whom Mr. Johnson is a chief proprietor. Despite no evidence for concern about the results, Mr. Johnson who is perpetuating this lie is saying there are serious concerns. In political parlance, it's all bullshit. And these senators know it. 

Mr. Todd got into a quite telling and entertaining sparring match with the senator, in which he called him out on his perpetuating of this conspiracy theory, in fact called the senator the arsonist. Mr. Johnson shot back that the [proverbial] fire was started by the Democrats back in January of 2017 when they tried to delegitimize Mr. Trump's presidency. Whether conspiracy or not, who you believe - whatever, don't you just love it when a reporter asking a sitting senator if his committee intends to investigate the moon landing and whether it was staged or not.

Judge for yourself HERE.

We expect daily damage to our democracy Mr. Trump is inflicting on his way out the door, but this mutant strain of the Republican party is out of control. 

And of course, Vice-President Pence is encouraging this move because it means he maintains power even though on January 6th he technically only has a pro-forma role (not in the era of Trump). Peter Baker of The New York Times called it out that we're acting as if this is normal when in reality it is far from it, unprecedented in the nation's history in fact.

NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell said that a divided nation and a divided Republican party only benefit the president, which makes logical sense given the president's modus operandi. Mr. Trump is still attacking the Georgia government and its secretary of state claiming the vote was rigged in the state, which could effect Republican turn out in the senate run-off, to the chagrin of Mitch McConnell. Ms. Caldwell also reported that due to these breakaway senators there could be a Trump party and a Republican party in the Senate. More like two separate Republican caucuses in the Senate. 

And the end game? NBC's Geoff Bennett said what we basically already know, and that is Mr. Trump saving face on his way out the door.

Two viruses pummeling our democracy and our people, and the administration is actively subverting the effort to combat both.

Panel: Leigh Ann Caldwell, NBC; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Geoff Bennett, NBC News