Friday Talking Points -- Collective Republican Amnesia

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This is a weekly roundup column of what is going on in the political world. For the duration of the 2020 campaign, I've been instructed to post it under the "Democratic Primaries" category rather than the "General Discussion" category, whenever the primary race is discussed. This discussion may be a large part of the column, or a very small part. Just wanted to clarify this up front, to avoid any objections that most of the post is "off topic."}

Remember when Republicans were the party that stood squarely for law and order? Or for that matter, remember when they used to be the party of fiscal responsibility, chock full of deficit hawks? Yeah, those were the days....

This week it was announced the annual deficit scraped the trillion-dollar ceiling last year -- figures not seen since the depths of the Great Recession. Republicans' reaction to this news? Sounds of crickets chirping. In the same week, Republicans "stormed" a secure facility, illegally carrying in and using their cell phones, in an attempt to intimidate both the committees conducting an impeachment inquiry and the witness scheduled to appear. Republicans also had to twist their pretzel logic a few more turns to explain why their previous go-to response ("There was no quid pro quo" ) is now, as Richard Nixon would have said, "no longer operative." Meanwhile, President Trump played the victim card once again, saying the constitutionally-sanctioned impeachment process was nothing short of a "lynching," in addition to referring to a clause in the Constitution as "phony." Trump also took the time this week to hold his very own "Mission Accomplished" moment, announcing that Syria was now a wonderful paradise, and that everyone should thank him personally for this splendiferous outcome. Nobel committee, please take note.

Sigh. In other words, it was just another week in Trumpland.

Let's take these one by one, starting with the deficit. The official figure is out for the 2019 deficit, and it's a doozy: $984 billion, just $16 billion shy of a round trillion dollars. Trump took office in 2017, but to be fair you can't hold him responsible for the 2017 budget, which had already been set. The 2017 deficit was $665 billion. It has increased every year since then, as the Trump tax cut blew a gigantic hole in the federal budget. In two short years, Trumponomics has increased the deficit by almost 50 percent, and in all that time Republicans have uttered not a single peep about fiscal responsibility. This proves once again (in case anyone still harbored any remaining doubts) that GOP deficit hawks hibernate during Republican presidential administrations, only to re-emerge once again when a Democrat takes the helm. The federal debt is now more than $22 trillion, which is not exactly what Trump had promised would happen while he was campaigning for president. Remember his faux outrage at the debt and the deficit back then? Remember the idea that a businessman would know what to do and solve the problem in the blink of an eye? Republicans don't, because they have a very selective case of amnesia when it comes to Trump's campaign promises -- as well as their party's longstanding policies.

In a tactic normally seen in totalitarian governments or outright dictatorships, a group of the president's supporters used mob tactics to shut down a congressional hearing this week. While accusing Democrats of "Soviet-style" tactics, the Republicans proved once again to be severely irony-impaired. Of the 41 Republicans who "stormed" the meeting, 13 of them were actually supposed to be in the hearing anyway, since all of these hearings to date have included 47 Republican members, roughly one-fourth of the total GOP House membership. So much for all their complaints about being "secret," eh? The Republicans are given equal time to question all the witnesses, another fact that the ironically-challenged Republicans refuse to talk about. The leader of this strongarm tactic was Representative Matt Gaetz, who tweeted during the occupation: "I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions. Still inside -- more details to come." This in and of itself is admission of a crime, it should be noted, since bringing electronic devices into a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility is indeed illegal. Again, so much for the "law-n-order" Republican Party. Democrat Eric Swalwell had the best reaction to the phones-in-the-SCIF fiasco: "They not only brought in their unauthorized bodies, they may have brought in the Russians and the Chinese."

The week's biggest story was unquestionably the testimony of the chargé d'affaires to Ukraine, William Taylor. Taylor has been at the heart of the whole Ukrainian quid pro quo, but unlike the others involved, he actively fought back against the entire concept, which is why his testimony was so anticipated. Here's how Politico reported on what happened:

That last bit was amusing, since it is a pretty good dictionary definition of a quid pro quo. Taylor's entire 15-page opening statement is well worth a read, because it is so astonishing and so damning for Trump. Most-quoted reaction was that of freshman Representative Andy Levin: "All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress -- it's not even noon, right? -- and this is the, my most disturbing day in the Congress so far."

Trump, of course, was going ballistic all week long, in various different directions. The tweet that got the most attention was:



Trump also vented his spleen on members of his own party who didn't kowtow to him enough:



On the Syrian disaster he personally caused, Trump tweeted:



Trump also tweeted:



Except that, in his original tweet, he misspelled the name as "Esperanto," because of course he did. Also, he completely made up that quote, since Esper didn't say anything remotely like that.

Other Trump quotes from his "Mission Accomplished" announcement include one that was obviously written by someone else: "Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand. How many Americans must die in the Middle East in the midst of these ancient, sectarian and tribal conflicts?" As well as a few choice quotes that could only have come from the brain of Trump himself:



As is usual with any Trump statement beginning with "people are saying," nobody is actually saying that (other than the voices in Trump's own head).

The prize for the most amusing wrapup of the week goes to Anthony Scaramucci, who painted a rather colorful metaphor (as he is often wont to do), in reference to the idea that the "wheels were coming off" the Trump White House: "The wheels are not off the car. The situation is way worse than that. The car has been impounded, and we are now waiting to figure out what the fine is and to see whether or not we're going to get the car back."

Runner-up prize for most amusing description of Trump came from a book excerpt which details Trump's first Pentagon briefing -- the one where he petulantly demanded "a Victory Day" parade with "vehicles and tanks on Main Street, on Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the white House." This report ends with the pithy observation:



Some footnotes along the impeachment path: the New York Times eviscerated the theory that "Ukraine didn't know about the military aid holdup," and the Trump administration has been proposing budgets which slash -- by billions -- federal money spent on fighting corruption in foreign countries, including Ukraine. Both severely undercut two of Trump's flimsy defenses, of course. And in a late-breaking development, a federal judge has now ruled that the House Judiciary Committee is fully entitled to see the grand jury materials from the Mueller Report, which could happen as early as next week.

And one more "law and order" moment, from a court fight over Trump's taxes. Trump's attorney actually argued in court in support of one of Trump's more chilling campaign moments, when Trump bragged: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn't lose any voters." When asked about this, Trump's attorney argued that Trump could not be arrested, or even investigated, even if he were to start a shooting spree in the middle of an American city, while he was still president. "Nothing could be done, that's your position?" the judge asked, to which Trump's lawyer responded: "That's correct."

Trump's not the only one facing legal trouble, as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was found in contempt of court this week. Seems about right -- we've always found her to be pretty contemptible, personally. And New Jersey is seeking to revoke the liquor license at one of Trump's golf courses, after a patron killed someone after drinking too much and driving away.

Oh, and remember Trump complaining about rats infesting Baltimore? Well, it turns out there's a reason for that, and his name is Jared Kushner. Kushner owns a real estate company who is being investigated in Baltimore for "hundreds of thousands" of violations, including -- you guessed it -- rat-infested apartment buildings. So Trump need look no further than his son-in-law to solve this particular problem, it turns out.

Let's see, what else is going on? The Democratic presidential race is down to only (!) 18 candidates now, as Tim Ryan formally withdrew from the race. Also, Tulsi Gabbard will not be running for re-election to her House seat (a race she might have lost in the primaries). And the rules for the sixth debate (to be held by PBS in December) were released, incrementally stepping up the criteria to candidates who score at least four percent in four approved national polls or six percent in two polls held in the early-voting states. This should winnow the field a bit more.

We close this week on the stupidest thing Trump said (which is always a challenge to figure out, because there usually are so many of them -- including naming his defense secretary "Esperanto"...). He later tried to say he was joking ("Kiddingly" ) but in a speech Trump very seriously and with no attempt at humor whatsoever promised to build: "a beautiful wall -- a big one that really works, that you can't get over, you can't get under" in (wait for it)... Colorado. Yep, Trump's going to build a wall in Colorado. No word yet on whether he's got a plan to make New Mexico pay for it....





Today was a day for remembering a very impressive Democrat, as Elijah Cummings was laid to rest with two former presidents extolling his service, as well as plenty of other politicians from both sides of the aisle. Cummings was, in a word, righteous. He was a moral force within the Democratic ranks, and he will be missed in the coming days.

Among the living, the Democrats who questioned Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook's stated policy of allowing politicians to lie in ads all deserve an Honorable Mention for holding his feet to the fire. Especially notable were Maxine Waters and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

But this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week was none other than Bernie Sanders. As with all weeks with Trump at the wheel, it seems almost a lifetime ago, but last weekend Bernie held a rally in Queens, New York, where he pulled in the largest crowd yet of any Democratic candidate. Kamala Harris launched her bid in front of a crowd of 20,000 and Elizabeth Warren gave a rally in Washington Square Park which drew more than 20,000, but Bernie topped them both with an estimated crowd of 26,000 people.

That's impressive, even in New York City. What was more impressive was that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez appeared alongside him to give Bernie her official endorsement.

This was the first time Sanders had held a rally since his heart attack, but in his own words, Bernie's still ready to go:



To round out a pretty good week, Bernie just released (at 4:20 P.M., naturally) his plan to legalize marijuana. It has everything you'd expect (Bernie ran on this four years ago, so he's no latecomer to this issue). Bernie would totally deschedule marijuana at the federal level, he'd prohibit tobacco companies from becoming weed companies, and he'd shovel a whole bunch of money into righting some of the wrongs done over the course of the idiotic War On Weed. All in all it's an impressively comprehensive plan. Again, when he ran four years ago this was fairly radical stuff but these days every other major Democratic candidate is also on board with fully legalizing marijuana at the federal level in some way or another (there are competing plans to do so), except for Joe Biden who would only move weed from Schedule I to Schedule II.

All told, that's a pretty good and pretty impressive week. We're glad to see Bernie back on the campaign trail once again, and because he's had such a great week we're also going to award him this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week.

{Congratulate Senator Bernie Sanders on his Senate contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.}





One presidential candidate made a seriously disappointing announcement this week. Joe Biden's campaign let it be known that they are now open to having a super PAC collect and spend unlimited amounts of money on Joe's behalf. This is a serious flip-flop since up until this point Biden has kept to a pledge not to accept help from a PAC. From the initial report in the Washington Post:



Biden will be appearing on 60 Minutes this week, so we'll see whether he gets asked about it or not -- the only teaser clip we've yet seen shows Biden questioning the involvement of Trump's children and close family with his administration, which is something we've actually been encouraging other Democrats to do as well. But the interview may have been taped before the super PAC bombshell, so we'll have to wait and see.

By making this move, Biden shows his weakness. While other candidates had rather stellar quarterly fundraising numbers to report last quarter (including Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren), Biden's numbers were pretty modest. He also doesn't have nearly as much cash on hand as his competitors either.

Bernie Sanders pioneered the concept that a presidential candidate can indeed run a competitive campaign by just relying on small donors, and many Democrats running have followed the path Bernie carved out. This is praiseworthy indeed. Not holding high-dollar fundraisers sends a very clear message that such a campaign simply cannot be bought by the fatcat donors. In the last election, this was a stark contrast to how Hillary Clinton raised her campaign war chest.

Biden has now signaled that he cannot adequately compete with just small donors, and has opened the floodgates to dark money backing his campaign. This is more than just a little disappointing, and it's why Joe Biden is our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week.

{Joe Biden is a private citizen and it is our standing policy not to link to campaign webpages, so you'll have to search his contact information out yourself if you'd like to let him know what you think of his actions.}





Volume 548 (10/25/19)

A mixed bag this week, as we've got some points to make on the impeachment front as well as a few positives coming from the Democratic side of the aisle. And, as usual, we're going to end with a conservative ripping into Trump and all the Republican whiners who seem to be suffering from a severe case of selective amnesia.



Quid pro quo

Bill Taylor's damning testimony should be the biggest talking point for Democrats for some time to come -- unless, of course, even more damning testimony surpasses it next week.

"Bill Taylor clearly laid out the quid pro quo that Trump was offering the new Ukrainian president, in no uncertain terms. At first, Trump dangled the offer of a White House meeting in an attempt to get the Ukrainians to dig up dirt on Democrats, but later on 'everything' was tied to this quid pro quo offer, up to and including withholding the military aid Congress had already approved. The Ukrainians knew this full well, in fact. This proves false several of the defenses the Trump White House has offered up to date, in stunning fashion. One Democrat (and I apologize in advance for his profanity) even summed up the reaction in the room as a 'holy shit' moment. I fully expect in the coming days to hear other witnesses corroborate the revelations Taylor shared with the committees. No wonder the Republicans are trying strongman tactics to shut these hearings down, because each new witness has more and more detail about Trump's blatant abuse of power."



The polls show it, too

Taunt Trump on this one, because it is completely his fault -- he has reportedly resisted setting up a "war room" to deal with his impeachment defense, which is already costing him in the court of public opinion.

"Trump's abuses of his high office are already so blatant and so obvious that each new poll I see puts the public's approval of the impeachment inquiry higher and higher. The latest poll from Quinnipiac put it at 55 percent, with only 43 percent opposed. As each new revelation comes out and each excuse or rationalization from Trump is proven false, I fully expect that number to go even higher. I wonder how high it'll get before his own party starts to turn on him?"



Or maybe it already has?

This needs pointing out, fast.

"After Trump petulantly complained about Republicans not supporting his abuses of power strongly enough, House Republicans staged a comical sit-in, and Senator Lindsey Graham quickly produced a bill denouncing the House's inquiry. I guess they didn't want to be called 'human scum,' the term Trump charmingly used earlier in the week about members of his own party. Funny thing, though, if a vote were held today on Graham's bill, it probably wouldn't even pass the Republican Senate. He reportedly had to water down the language in the bill to even get as many of his fellow Republicans to support it as he did, but so far this adds up to only 44 of them. Nine Republican senators have not signed on yet: Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, Mike Enzi, Cory Gardner, Johnny Isakson, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and Dan Sullivan. Even if Trump is impeached and they all voted to remove him, that'd still only be 56 senators, which is 11 shy of what is necessary. Still, it's notable that this early in the process so many Republicans are already shying away from fully supporting Trump."



Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi!

Oh how the worm turns, at times.

"All the Republicans who are now loudly whining about secret committee hearings must have very selective amnesia. Because not too long ago, multiple investigations into the tragedy in Benghazi were held, back when Republicans were still in charge of the House. One of those investigations was run by Trey Gowdy, who wrote in his final report on his investigation, and I quote:"



"Got that? Strange how, back then, none of the Republicans were screaming about 'Soviet-style tactics' while they raked Hillary Clinton over the coals. Either they have highly selective amnesia or they're the world's biggest hypocrites -- you decide."



GOP votes for foreign interference in elections

Kudos to Nancy Pelosi for continuing to walk and chew gum at the same time.

"Few noticed one important development this week, but later on many more will -- when Democrats begin to use this vote in campaign ads, that is. The House voted this week along party lines, 227-181, on a bill which would require political campaigns to report illicit offers of political assistance from foreign governments. Think about that for a moment, if you will. Republicans just essentially voted to allow foreign governments to interfere in our elections, after ample evidence that Donald Trump has done so in the past, was attempting to do so as recently as last month, and is actively planning on doing so in the future. Democratic House member Dean Phillips summed it up the best, in language that vulnerable Republicans will soon see in campaign ads in their districts: '[Republicans] can start to work together with us Democrats to honor our sacred oath to the Constitution and keep our country safe, or they can bow down to foreign influence.'"



One more thing...

Some more good news most everyone missed.

"For the second year in a row, premiums for Obamacare health insurance plans will drop -- this time by four percent -- next year. Several states will see declines in the double digits, in fact. The Obamacare marketplace -- even with all the attacks against it by Trump and the Republicans -- is stabilizing exactly as it was always predicted to do. This is good news for consumers across the country, and bad news for the Republicans who still seek to destroy Obamacare and leave nothing in its place."



And who enacted them?

This one is precisely as satisfying as you might expect. Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is a very conservative legal expert on Fox News, explained this week to the dim bulbs who host Fox And Friends (reportedly Trump's favorite show) how the House Democrats are actually following House rules and historical precedents. This absolutely demolished every Republican talking point uttered all week long on how the big, bad Democrats were being so mean and unfair in their hearings. No, explained Napolitano, Nancy Pelosi is not just making up all the rules as she goes along. Here's how Napolitano schooled Brian Kilmeade and his pals (the hosts' questions have been edited out, because they don't add anything to what Napolitano had to say in the least):






Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
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