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

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