A political blog commenting on Sunday's "Meet The Press" on NBC and the state of the country in a broader sense.
Please Note: This blog is in no way affiliated with "Meet The Press" or NBC. It is purely an opinion piece about the television program that this blog considers the "TV Show of Record."
While "Meet The Press" is still being preempted by Olympics coverage and the fact that we're in the midst of a steamy August, we thought we'd weight with a short post on the state of the candidates and the race. And the prognosis is negative. Sec. Clinton's email troubles are just getting worse with judges ordering written answers, the FBI impartiality under attack, politically sophomoric comparisons to Colin Powell, and the Republicans gearing up for another 'juicy' hearing. Not to mention the political debacle that is now the Clinton Foundation providing more smoke surrounding the notion of the 'pay for play' politics that Mr. Trump is barking about. And where there's smoke, there's a Republican hoping for fire.
Worsening troubles in the worst kind of problem because it involves email and servers. With already all the hacking we know about, this kind of political (at the least) vulnerability leaves you open to an embarrassing information drop at any moment by an agent you can not chase. But we'll also say this, in their typical short-sighted approach, Republicans think the hacking of the DNC is a political win, not ever collectively stopping and thinking that this is an attack on all of us. The sad thing is that establishment Republicans do understand this, but the conservative constituency doesn't want to hear about it.
Compounding this will be the inevitable multi-committee hearings by a Republican-controlled House thus straggling the effort to get any meaningful legislation passed in a would-be first term of a Clinton presidency.
However, within the political world we currently reside, any reasonable person will also excuse all of this (do you believe?) because her opponent is Donald Trump. Simply stated, The Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves for nominating Mr. Trump. The candidate has demonstrated in his rhetoric that he embraces the worst of our American values. With Mr. Trump, we're disgusted with what we know (what he's said) and we're also disgusted with what he hasn't said. And we're talking about his businesses.
Mr. Trump needs to disclose his tax returns because with his businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to the Bank of China, the resignation of his campaign manager Paul Manafort over his ties to Russian oligarchs and other foreign dictators, and Mr. Trump's own alleged business ties to Russian. Only his tax returns will shed light on any doubt of Donald Trump acting as president not in the best interest of the country but his business first.
Between what he's said and what we know he willfully doesn't choose to tell us or disclose and on top of the fact that we know he knows nothing about foreign policy, we feel that Mrs. Clinton can change (hopefully, has changed) the way she uses her email. In other words, we'd rather deal with the hearings.
The big "but."
It's the big "but" that keeps collective rationality in a constant state of anxiety.
Hillary Clinton leads in the polls by 8 or 9 points depending on which one you read because of her obvious superiority in knowledge and the ever more important, temperament. But, she's behind Donald Trump - a candidate, it had been calculated, tells a lie approximately every five minutes in his public speeches - in polls focused on "trustworthiness and straightforwardness."
To reinforce this notion, Sec. Clinton, herself, gave an inexplicable answer to Fox News's Chris Wallace when she said, " My answers were truthful, and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people..." Simply, not true. Sec. Clinton was not truthful with the American people, and it became a situation that required the FBI to come in and get the truth. So was Mrs. Clinton truthful with them. Director Comey has said as much.
Essentially, Mrs. Clinton wasn't truthful with the public not because of something technically illegal or unprecedented but because she fully well knew that it would be politically damaging and also play into a well established negative narrative about her and her family.
It begs the valid question of if something like this will happen when she's in office, and for all Republicans it's not a matter of if but when - a valid concern.
However, there's another "but [a huge one]," and that is Donald Trump who in our estimation is no better than Sec. Clinton on this front. And all things being equal on this, heading into the presidency, we have more faith in the fact that if a President Clinton was found to do something illegal, was impeached, and hence driven from office that she would leave the scene. We have no faith in Donald Trump accepting the penalty of an impeachable offense. How twisted is that?
Admittedly, that's a bit of hyperbole, but there is some truth in it. What is really happening - slowly and frustratingly - is that the American electorate is still wrapping its collective head around the fact that this is how our politicians are, right now [this election]. As difficult as it is to look beyond it, you see the other factors of knowledge and temperament acting as the deciding ones, in which again Sec. Clinton handily leads.
A telling reflection of this is that Republicans are clearly in an "every man/woman for him/herself" mode when it comes to dealing with Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, especially if you're up for reelection in the fall. Late week, Donald Trump formally endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), but the problem is that it was completely unconvincing given Mr. Trump's initial vindictive refusal of withholding these very endorsements at the beginning of the week. And what a disastrous week it was for Trump.
Even in the hard-hitting politics game, The Trump campaign has consistently been blowing it. Sec. Clinton in response to a poor answer to Chris Wallace followed it by using phrases like "I short-circuited" and "I need to clarify better," in response to her email troubles, which is inexcusable a year after all this scrutiny began as noted by Yamiche Alcindor of The New York Times. To know all of Donald Trump's idiotic self-inflicted wounding statements of this without having to list them is clearly a blown opportunity to turn the press's attention squarely toward your opponent. At best, Mr. Trump could possible concede a draw, but in reality he lost the week, one in which he should have won but instead turned it into a week that probably lost him the election. We tend to agree more with Joy Reid that over the 'Olympic break' these awful, but accurate, perceptions of Mr. Trump will further become 'baked in.' Conversely, Hugh Hewlitt's nicely amusing assessment that Mr. Trump has to begin 'season two' of his campaign after Labor Day; however, the certainty of that happening is highly doubtful.
With all of Mr. Trump's bi-polarity in what he says - saying one thing now and another later - it's enough to fear putting the nuclear launch codes in his hands, and issue that should never be when discussing presidential candidates, but here we are.
It's not surprising to hear Republicans yell, "Runaway, runaway!"
Panel: Joy-Ann Reid, NBC News, Yamiche Alcindor, The New York Times; Hugh Hewlitt, conservative radio show host; Mark Halperin, Bloomberg Politics
A Couple More Things...
We really didn't touch on the interviews of the day and we'd be remiss and negligent if we didn't make a few comments.
With regard to Senator Tim Kaine, the entire point that he's on the ticket is to fill the trustworthy void for Sec. Clinton. In the colloquial sense, he's a "true boy scout." He gave a cogent answer on his TPP stance, one that the Clinton campaign should stick to which was that he was for it, only if the labor and environmental protections could be and would be enforced. They were fixed so he no longer supports it - delivered reasonably.
Counter that with Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn who if you listened carefully argued for something very dangerous, which was the none disclosure of what America is doing militarily - numbers of troop deployments, target cities, etc. However, with troop numbers, in particular the American public has the right to know because it's being done in our name. Lt. Gen. Flynn supported Mr. Trump's argument that NATO members have to pay their bills, but only a more tepid stance in affirming that the United States would stand by its collective commitments to the treaty [i.e. having another country's back if it's attacked]. It was not reassuring given Mr. Trump's insinuations that the United States wouldn't honor those commitments.
And as for Governor Rick Scott (R) of Florida - inadequately handling the Zika crisis and running a pro-Donald SuperPAC - what else is new?
Rick Scott in charge on the front lines of this nation's collective health protection against a virus we haven't stopped - scary to say the least.
Let's get it out of the way right at the top, the Democrats won the conventions, hands down. What compounds the victory for Republicans is that the Democrats stole the Republican message, well documented on conservative blogs and twitter feeds. Generals and Reagan Republicans coming out against Donald Trump has given masses of moderate Republicans pause, leaving them lamenting that the Democratic convention should have been their convention.
Hillary Clinton, with a less than inspiring but base-covering appeal of a speech, went right after a key constituency not even ten miles away from the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, and that is the Main Line Matriarch. The Main Line are those old-money (and when we say old talking old corporate and colonial: Moran [Johnson & Johnson], Du Pont, Arco, Biddle), conservative women who run in those wealthy, not rich, circles. There's the influence, and given the two final choices, after Sec. Clinton's speech, you can easily surmise which way they're leaning heavily right now.
And to solidify that constituency, in the wake of Mr. Khizr Khan's convention statements, Donald Trump called out the fact that Mrs. Khan didn't speak while on stage. This callous observation of a grief-stricken gold star mother in the context of Mr. Khan's emotional statement does not go unnoticed by the aforementioned group and moderate conservative women in general.
Paul Manafort explained that Mr. Trump's criticism is not the issue, but the fact that we need to protect the homeland from would-be radicalized immigrants from countries that have been compromised by terrorism. In Mr. Manafort's rebuttal, as Mr. Trump's, he gave lip-service to the Khan's family sacrifice for this country and his larger argument of banning Muslims from coming into the United States subverts the values of America. However, on a larger point, whether you agree with Mr. Manafort's argument or not, the fact that Mr. Trump does not, or more accurately is unable to, articulate that argument in a manner that doesn't insult someone clearly shows that his does not have the qualities necessary to lead this country.
David Brookes was 'nauseated' by Mr. Trump's and then hence forth Mr. Manafort's answers; that's the decent reaction. People like Mr. Manafort, and for that matter panelist today Mr. Alex Castellanos who runs a Trump Super PAC, will continue to deflect Mr. Trump's nauseating statements, but at which point will these statements no longer continue or stand from the candidate?
A program note here: Though the three other panelists provided views of Mr. Trump that Mr. Castellanos had to defend, he shouldn't be appearing on the program as a panelist given that he runs a pro-Trump Super PAC without having an equivalent foil from the Democratic side. As an interview subject, fine, but not as a panelist.
And speaking of foils, Chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign Robby Mook didn't provide any assurances about DNC emails, and was unmemorable in his answers. To this point and in reference to the interview with Julian Assange, there is little doubt that there outside [foreign] forces trying influence the U.S. election. Mr. Assange for his part did not answer the question as to whether foreign governments had provided him with the hacked emails. In his defense he said that if a U.S. intelligence officer gave him information, he would protect that source. Yes, we understand that, but that's still an individual, NOT a government.
And Mr. Manafort's answer that Mr. Trump was just being sarcastic about encouraging Russia to conduct a cyber-espionage attack to find the rest of Sec. Clinton's emails is unacceptable. Whether being sarcastic or not, the appeal was at the least inappropriate, treasonous in intent at most. In other words, the whole thing is nauseating.
Panel: Doris Kearns-Godwin, presidential historian; Hally Jackson, NBC News; David Brooks, The New York Times; Alex Castellanos, Republican strategist
One More Thing...
Paul Manafort completely lied about the fact that the Trump campaign, specifically him, influenced the party platform on its stance on Ukraine. Republicans, because of Mr. Manafort and his lobbying ties to fmr. Ukraine president and Putin stooge, Viktor Yanukovych. The motives are clear and coupled with the suspected Russia hacking, it stinks.
It's half-time of the political party convention game, and the second half belongs to the Democrats. Appropriately aiding in this transition, Chuck Todd interviewed first Donald Trump on the heels of his convention and Bernie Sanders leading into the Democratic get-together in Philadelphia this week, the site of this week's program. (And yes, we agree with Mr. Todd that Philadelphia is a beautiful city.)
Mr. Trump characterized his speech as an optimistic one overall. He said that he explained the problems and followed with solutions, but "I, alone," is not a solution Saying that we're going to just 'win' is not a solution. Fmr. RNC Chair Michael Steele said that the Republican based (the convention) is in fact hungry for a strong man, to which we would simply ask, "What are these people thinking?!" The concept of compromise has been demonized to such an extent in our body politic that one of our major parties has nominated an individual that has rhetorically relied on threats as a way of getting things done.
Mr. Trump said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is "100% wrong" on NATO. The Republican nominee reiterated his position that the United States will not back a member country if it hasn't paid it's fair share. In that context, Andrea Mitchell's point that anyone in Poland hearing that is not happy is valid, and downright scary for the Poles. This certainly opens the door for aggressive Russian advances toward Poland (e.g. military exercises on the boarder; 'creating' a military incident for justification) during a Trump administration with no repercussions to be felt from the United States. Mr. Trump's obtuse endorsement of Mr. Putin and his actions is deeply troubling.
Even of immigration, Mr. Trump said that he would suspend immigration from any country compromised by terrorism and that includes France, another member of NATO by the way. Not only has Mr. Trump taken an adversarial stance toward China and Mexico, and with statements like from today's interview, he's alienating some of our most steadfast, long-time allies. Meet The Press as well as countless other programs have pointed out that Mr. Trump like to create controversy and a bit of chaos to bolster his image, and you can imagine what we'll say next. You guess it: This is in no uncertain terms the way in which to run the most powerful nation in the world.
The last bit about Mr. Trump from today's interview is that he said he would probably be setting up SuperPACs to attack Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Governor John Kasich (R-OH) for their outspokenness in opposition of the nominee. Why? Mr. Trump has already won, beaten both of those individuals in the election so to go back after the victory to drive them down further does show the vindictiveness of a strong man, but a cowardly one let's face it. And again, vindictiveness is not a quality that should motivate the President of the United States.
Mr. Trump is really relying on the "I, alone" because he's attacking everyone, and to make sure no one is left out, we transition to the Democrats, in which Mr. Trump's attack on the newly-named Democratic VP pick, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) will focus his receiving of gifts as governor of Virginia, his closeness with the banks, and his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
"His politics are not my politics," Bernie Sanders said of Senator Kaine on the eve of the Democratic convention. This, coupled with Wikileaks leak of DNC emails showing that it favored Mrs. Clinton do not bode well for a smooth start to the proceedings, especially with Senator Sanders speaking on the first night.
Whether you like Mrs. Clinton's choice or not, we respect the candidate who picks someone that he/she feels most comfortable working with. With all the external battles that an administration has to fight during its term, it doesn't make any sense to wantonly fight battles internally. And for that reason, Mrs. Clinton picked a center-left Democrat instead of a firebrand progressive like Elizabeth Warren, as Senator Sanders stated he would have liked.
Conversely, Mr. Trump's pick of Governor Mike Pence is of convenient conservatism, an individual it's rumored that Mr. Trump wasn't all in. So far, Gov. Pence has been trying is best to represent his conservative credentials, but given that he was in for a tough gubernatorial reelection fight, he's been simply glad to be along for the ride. And really, Mr. Trump seems to feel that his best partner is himself. "I, alone."
About the DNC e-mails: First, as we said way back at the beginning, it was a mistake to make a Congressperson the chair of the party, and Ms. Wasserman-Schultz has done a terrible job in that capacity. Simple example: Today, Chris Matthews called the debate schedule 'absurd,' and one that heavily favored Mrs. Clinton. There's the notion out there that Russia who hacked the DNC server gave the emails to Wikileaks to influence the election in favor of Mr. Trump who has shown deference to Mr. Putin. Either way, it's no coincidence that they were leaked just before the convention.
Ultimately, the emails only give fuel to Senator Sanders' supporters, adding to the amount of leverage that he holds to either bring the Democrats together or in attempting the rip the whole thing down. However, in this particular email instance, Mrs. Clinton is not to blame and won't be too badly hurt.
But make no mistake, Senator Sanders holds a lot of the keys in making the Democratic convention one that moves the party forward or backward. A lot will be made of what Senator Sanders doesn't say, like how many times he says Mrs. Clinton's name, etc.
There's also no doubt that Mr. Sanders will not have a Ted Cruz moment because of his feeling that there has been a no more dangerous candidate for president in his lifetime than Donald Trump. And there hasn't.
Panel: Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews, NBC News; Michael Steele, fmr. RNC Chair
Terrorist attacks in Instanbul (June 28) Dhaka, Medina, (tragic) Nice and (devastating) Baghdad, the last of which killed over 300 people, along with a near military coupe in Turkey, and Syria's civil war still full-on would be enough. No, not enough... Let's couple all that with police unjustly killing more African-American men in Baton Rouge and Minnesota, the protests that have followed across the country, despicably lethal revenge against the police in Dallas and back to Baton Rouge on this very day. For good measure throw on the most divisive and frankly weird presidential campaign ever in our collective memories and there you have it - the hottest ever July on record. And it's literally killing us.
We disagree with Glenn Beck in his throwing around of the word 'corrupt' so cavalierly in his interview today, but we completely understand his frustration though a bit hyperbolic and slightly misguided. His underlying point, as well as the panel's, is that the federal government and the campaigns are not acknowledging what's going on in this country, a tone-deafness, and we agree but with a significant caveat. And it applies to the fact that Mr. Trump's rhetoric during this campaign has been divisive to the point of breaking open the fault line of this country singling out people's races and religions. By being so rhetorically flammable, Mr. Trump is effectively breaking down the rule of law, one of the very things he said he would uphold.
Where we agree with Mr. Beck is in his assessment of Reince Preibus and his place and statements in all this, as the ultimate Trump enabler. With regard to Mr. Trump evolving into a more mainstream candidate, Mr. Priebus said that the candidate has "come around a lot since a few months ago." He called it a 'fantasy land' idea for Republicans to vote for anyone but Mr. Trump. It can only make one shake his or her head, but Mr. Beck also said that Mr. Priebus surely knows better and doesn't really believe what he's saying. On this point, we not so sure.
Chuck Todd brought up the Republican 'autopsy' from the last campaign and confronted Mr. Priebus about the fact the no action was taken on it, to which the RNC chairman did the customary bob and weaver around the questions. The Republicans' current platform doesn't consider that 'autopsy,' which called for more outreach to minorities and women among other things. You know who didn't care about or read the 'autopsy?' The candidate, Donald Trump, that's who so we might as well just stop asking about it.
Tom Brokaw said that it's not the Republican party, it's the DonaldTrump.com Party.
As for the 'black swan' of an event as Hugh Hewlitt described the upcoming Republican convention, moderates and party onlookers can only hope for a 'it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be' type of assessment at the end of it. With this sort of expectation from conservative commentators like Hugh Hewlitt going in, it's hard to see how Mr. Trump's campaign gets the customary bump in the polls post convention. The reason for this is the fact that Mr. Trump's campaign in fact offers no positive message for the country. The candidate himself offers no positive message, which inexplicably is infrequently discussed by the pundits. "Make America Great Again" isn't a message, it's a slogan.
And if you evidence on how inspiring Mr. Trump can be, below is a tweet Mr. Trump wrote during the course of writing this blog.
This is what the Republican nominee thinks about the country he apparently aspires to lead.
...
You know what? It's too hot to get worked up any more because after seeing that tweet it was like a new layer of icing was smeared over our stale loathing cake.
Here's to hoping we all cool down for a moment, in our hearts and in our heads.
Panel: Sara Fagen, CNBC Contributor; Joy-Ann Reid, NBC News; Hugh Hewlitt, Salem Radio Network; Tom Brokaw, NBC News
We'll get the all the foreign policy craziness later.
Getting a thoughtful column together is
simply daunting when your only thoughts are "where to start" and
"where does this all end?"
In the face of this uniquely American
tragedy, we're stuck on this: Philando Castile, the Minneapolis man, was shot
to death by a white police officer due in part from his fear that Mr. Castile
had a legal firearm in his car. Mark Hughes, in Dallas, was falsely accused of
being a suspect in the Dallas police shooting because he was legally and openly
carrying his AR-15 during a protest. In both cases, these men were exercising
their 2nd Amendment rights, but because they were black the first inclination
on the part of police was to label them either 'dangerous (or criminal)' and
'suspect.'
(Never mind that this column is pretty firm in its belief that our modern,
civil American society has no use for a law that allows its citizens to carry
loaded military style weapons in public streets.)
This implicit racial bias as Senator
Cory Booker (D-NJ) described is all too real, and we say that because there are
many that do not believe it exists. And then there are those, like Republican
strategist Mary Matalin, who know it exists but refuse to acknowledge and
discuss it. Her argument was that the economic conditions play more of a role
in this kind of violence than race does. But that's an argument that sees only
what it wants to see and denies so much reality. Colloquially, it doesn't even
explain the example we outlined above.
Did she not hear the Secretary of
Homeland Security Jeh Johnson say at the very top of the program that
"tensions are high?" The man who heads the agency sworn to protect
all of us is afraid for his son's life in terms of police encounters, admitting
to Chuck Todd that they've had 'the talk.'
On the other hand we have to applaud
Michael Gerson, a voice of conservative reason in the time of Trump, for, we
feel, thoughtfully misspeaking when he said that both sides (whites and blacks)
should show empathy toward one another. It should actually be 'sympathy'
because 'empathy' suggests equal understanding but clearly whites in the U.S.
do not fully understand what it's like to be black in America; whites should
sympathize. But 'empathy' is appropriate because his emphasis is on the 'equal'
part of the definition.
In terms of Black Lives Matter, that
movement is an effect of causation. The movement exists because too many
African-Americans, men in particular, are being killed unjustly by police (the
cause), compounded by the fact that guilty officers haven't faced appropriate
legal charges and punishments. If this killing didn't happen with such alarming
frequency then perhaps the movement wouldn't need to exist. Demonizing Black
Lives Matter as Rudy Giuliani does, and despicably how the executive director of
the National Association of Police Organizations William Johnson did, is an
attempt to deny the reason for its very existence, but clearly there is a need
for its being.
There is also a need for the
reformation of the criminal justice system, the 'war on drugs' as Senator
Booker explained that disproportionately affects the poor and minorities,
police training as fmr. police commissioner Charles Ramsey described and
frankly gun laws.
With all that said, imagine being a
police officer and having to always presume that the person you're encountering
is armed with a gun. Think about the 98% of police men and women who do their
jobs cautiously, competently, professionally and honorably living with that
certain possibility. If there were less guns in public, there would be less
violent incidents with police, it’s simply math.
The comments of Texas Lt. Governor
weren't discussed on the program but we're compelled to make this mention
because in them among other things, he said that the Black Lives Matter
demonstrators were hypocrites because they denounce the police, but ran to them
for protection when the shooting started. What a sad and narrow-minded comment.
Would the Lt. Governor rather the Black Lives Matter supporters fought the
police? During a peaceful protest, in which police were there to insure the
safety of the marchers and taking photos with them, shooting started and the
marchers had the inherent trust in the police to protect by instructing them
what to do and where to go in a time of crisis. If anything, it illustrates
overall respect for the institution of the police while demanding change in the
face of tragic errors. That's not hypocritical, just American.
Lastly, on the political end of things,
particular cudos go to Senator Cory Booker on essentially calling B.S. on the
very segment he was asked to participate in, which posed the question of how
can either two of these so divisive candidates bring Americans together
[racially]? The New Jersey senator accurately said that on the matters of race
and religion, Hillary Clinton is not divisive at all. Politically, one
can argue she is divisive, but on these matters, no. We agree. She has not
called for banning Muslims from coming into the United States or rounding
people up and deporting them while calling them rapists and drug dealers,
unlike Donald Trump who advocates for both. Whomever you agree with is a matter
of prerogative but the fact remains is that we all know Mr. Trump repeatedly
says these things and they are divisive and offensive to American common
sensibilities: words matter.
Panel: Michael Gerson, The
Washington Post; Mary Matalin, Republican strategist; Eugene Robinson, The
Washington Post; Michael Eric Dyson, author and Georgetown University professor
It's simply perplexing to us why a country that has played a leadership role in the world culturally, geographically, philosophically and linguistically for the past, say, five centuries would now willing decide to abdicate that responsibility and become small, and diminish itself. That's exactly what Britain did with their "Brexit" vote this week.
In these first 48 hours since the vote, the fall-out has sent shock waves through the British government, set global stock markets reeling, and has every world leader scratching their heads wondering what is going to happen next.
One thing that may happen next is that Scotland, which overwhelming voted to stay in the European Union, may have another referendum on whether or not to declare independence from England. If they vote to divorce England, they'll stay in the E.U. and then have leverage over an even further diminished England. Does Northern Ireland follow suit, essentially ending what is known as Great Britain?
Predominantly England felt they could recreate the past as opposed to charging into the future only to now realize there's no going back. Stupid. But as presidential historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin outlined, David Cameron did this to himself. He courted England's extreme right, which he didn't need to do, promising an E.U. vote and the result for him was his resignation. Way to go.
Though The New York Times' Helene Cooper warned about making too many parallels between "Brexit" and sentiments here in the United States and how they play to the Trump campaign's strengths, don't be fooled. Paul Manafort on today's program was making them very forcibly, but what he and Donald Trump are arguing for is xenophobic isolationism. (Note: read Mr. Manafort's Wikipedia page and decide whether you want such a person advising an American presidential candidate:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manafort.) Even though Mr. Manafort called David Miliband, fmr. Labor-Party member of Parliament arrogant, Mr. Miliband was accurate when he said that the friendship between The United States and Britain will always be there, but the partnership would be subordinated. The E.U. is a bigger trading partner to the United States than Great Britain and the U.S. should rightly prioritize the former over the latter.Don't blame the U.S. for that.
Mr. Manafort refused to answer Chuck Todd's question as to whether or not "Brexit" is good for the United States. We know it's good for Donald Trump, personally, because he said as much from his new golf resort in Scotland that a weaker pound will make him more money. Speaking of which, the Trump Corporation as illustrated by Mr. Todd today makes money off of the Trump Campaign. And Republicans are O.K. with that?
So even if Donald Trump the candidate loses the election his corporation which he'll then go back to running will have made a profit.
Say what you will about the establishment and your/our varying degrees of rejection of it, but the result of low-informed or dis-informed voting is not the answer - that's what "Brexit" was. It does matter that respected Republicans and conservatives are rejecting Donald Trump (Brent Scowcroft, fmr. National Security Advisor; Henry Paulson, fmr. Treasury Sec; George Will, conservative columnist). If America is thinking that we can recreate the past or shut out the rest of the world, abdicating global leadership, and that's it's a good idea, you're simply being foolish. America now has a view through the window to what the future may hold we decide to elect Donald Trump and it isn't pretty. In other words, you really want to live in fear then vote for Trump.
Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Kimberley Strassel, The Wall Street Journal; Doris Kearns-Goodwin, presidential historian; Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post
One More Thing...
We don't really have that much interest in the speculation game of who will be the respective Vice-Presidential candidates so we'll let you know what we think of the choices once they're made.
No matter the motive or the affiliation, the ease in which an individual in this country can obtain, legally or illegally, a mass killing machine is a failure of our society.
An assault weapon. Sold for what purpose? To hunt dear during the season in the forests of Pennsylvania? No, any hunter true to American traditions would never use an AR-15 for dear, and yet some would go as far as to say that hunting with any thing other than a bow is not really hunting. So if we don't assault animals with the assault rifle, what it is meant for? The only reason to own one is for the purpose of killing multiple individuals, quickly and easily - assaulting them.
For home protection, how about a shotgun?
For target shooting, how about a pistol?
This idiotic religiosity of guns, especially military style ones (the AR-15 is a civilian model of the military M-16), has to end.
We as an American society have failed to act in any responsible way when it comes to public safety and firearms. When obtaining a firearm in America, it's no questions asked. The questions only come after it's used to commit the largest single mass murder in American history - a terrorist hate crime, a new hybrid motive for massing killing. And why? Because it is all too easy to accomplish.
At the Pulse night club in Orlando, there was an Orlando police officer working security at the club, yet 50 people have died and another 53 were wounded, status pending. Pardon our cynicism, but the good guy with the gun didn't stop the bad guy with the gun.
That disingenuous reasoning was enough for cowardly politicians to hide behind after 20 elementary school children were gunned down with an AR-15 subsequently taking no action to prevent such carnage from happening again in the future.
Well, the future is now, our hearts have been assaulted once again. What's left of them go out to the families who have directed suffered in this tragedy.
And for those politicians we referred to earlier, those who still oppose any kind of regulation on assault weapons should have to answer directly to the victims' families. The shamefulness and callousness of these people is despicable. (For God's sake, show some damn courage... just once.)
At a late hour in the Detroit Airport, the dads were tired as they ambled through an empty terminal with their boys. Then an airport transport cart carrying a single individual zipped by the group and when the young boys saw who was on the back they started to yell and chase after it. The man on the back leaned over to the cart driver, telling him to stop. Muhammad Ali stepped off the cart and walked toward the three excited 12 year-old boys, yelling in enthusiasm. I stood there in awe as the champ asked me my name taking my hand in his, huge yet smooth. "What're y'all doing here so late?" he asked.
"We're hockey players," my friend David answered.
"So you's is tough then," the champ responded, still holding onto my hand.
"I'm not afraid to fight you," my other teammate Chris challenged. Surprised, Muhammad Ali took half a step back, putting up his fists, giving us the subtle, signature, juke of the shoulders as the iconic smile broke across his face with this act of love.
Someone had put a paper and pen in the champ's hand and the next thing I know, he handed me an autograph. "Keep fightin," he said as he got back onto the cart and waved to us.
The paper is a little worse from wear, but the signature is still there.
Forever inspired.
Jim Brown left us with one final message today and that was that his friend "hated discrimination and racism," so it's sad for all of us that one of our nominees for president, a position that we're supposed to admire, makes racist statements toward a federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, in an effort to protect himself.
Andrea Mitchell described the Mr. Trump's statements as blatantly racist, with the same sentiment in writing from conservative author Erick Erickson to back up the point. The National Journal's Ron Fournier described Mr. Trump's statements a "racist bullhorn." If you have any doubts about these descriptions consider that the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from the same hometown as Muhammad Ali, refused to answer Mr. Todd's question as to whether he thought the statements were racist or not. He said that he disagreed with them, fine, but he couldn't bring himself to admit that Mr. Trump's statements about the judge were in fact racist. (It's a tell-tale sign of what the answer really is when a politician refuses to give a direct answer.)
This brings us to another statement that Senator McConnell made in saying that "the party of Lincoln wants to win the White House." With Donald Trump as the nominee, McConnell's statement render his party inexcusably, morally bankrupt as Mr. Trump's statements are now the Republican party's statements, and that is not the party of Lincoln. With Trump as the party standard-bearer, the moniker no longer applies. The party's leaders are so consumed with self-preservation, unable to look passed an election cycle as the Hoover Institute's Lanhee Chen suggested, that they're willing to support a bigot who is wholly unqualified to be president. Cynically, it's all about the Supreme Court appointments for the Kentucky senator, and his party-at-all-costs over country is a disgraceful stance. For Paul Ryan's part, we'll call his earlier in the week vocalized support of Mr. Trump "sad" as the House Speaker simply walked away from principle.
Jim Brown said today that Muhammad Ali showed other athletes that money is not God, that standing on principle and having integrity are more important, as Mr. Ali did with his stand against the Vietnam War which almost cost him his boxing career. Senator McConnell, from the same city - Lexington - as the champ, shares none of these qualities.
Panel: Donna Edwards (D-MD), Congresswoman; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Lanhee Chen, Hoover Institute; Ron Fournier, The National Journal
One More Thing...
In case it wasn't clear, Senator Mitch McConnell makes us shake our heads in disgust. If you dislike how Washington operates, look for no other prime example than this individual.
