Friday Talking Points -- Tennis, Anyone?

[ChrisWeigant]

{Program Note for DemocraticUnderground.com readers:
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."}

The stock market is crashing daily, a pandemic is sweeping America, a tornado in Tennessee just killed two dozen people, so of course First Lady Melania Trump decided to reassure the public with a message designed to calm people in these perilous times. The message? Don't worry, everyone -- the construction of the new White House tennis pavilion was still on track. No, seriously -- you just can't make this stuff up. She even donned a hard hat (in order to look fabulous) while making this tone-deaf announcement.

The internet's reaction, as usual, was not kind. Many referenced Marie Antoinette, either directly or indirectly. Perhaps the best response: "Let them lob serves." Just another week in Trump's America, folks.

Of course, as usual, there was a not-so-hidden backstory to this little vignette -- the new tennis pavilion will replace Barack Obama's basketball court. You just knew there had to be a petty and vindictive angle to all this, didn't you?

Tennis pavilions aside, the biggest story of the week by far was the progress of the coronavirus. Sober-minded doctors and scientists issued warnings to the public and helpful advice to follow, all of which was then immediately either directly contradicted or snidely pooh-poohed by President Trump himself. The president is very concerned about the coronavirus, but not the same way everyone else is. Trump is deeply worried about two things, and two things only: the stock market, and his own prospects for re-election. If someone told him that more coronavirus cases would boost either the market or his poll numbers, then he'd be out there urging everyone to get infected -- there is no doubt whatsoever about that. Nothing like a president who feels the public's pain, is there? The even sadder thing is that if Trump did issue an insane suggestion like this, his followers would likely line up for hours in order to get infected.

Meanwhile, the people whose job it is to keep the public safe from pandemics are in a bind. Here's how one of the most prominent of such voices, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, put it in a recent interview: "You should never destroy your own credibility. And you don't want to go to war with a president. But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth." Just think about the implications of that statement for a moment: telling the truth and maintaining your own scientific credibility is walking a fine line that might just land you in a war with the president of the United States. Mind-boggling.

Here's the worst proof of this from the past week, in the form of a Trump phone-in interview with a friendly Fox News host. Trump was asked about the World Health Organization's estimate that the death rate from the coronavirus now stands at 3.4 percent and here's how our Dear Leader responded:

I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, and this is just my hunch, and -- but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot of people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor. They don't even call a doctor. You never hear about those people. So you can't put that down in the category in the overall population in terms of this corona flu or virus. So you just can't do that. So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, by sitting around and even going to work -- some of them go to work, but they get better. And then when you do have a death... all of a sudden it seems like three or four percent, which is a very high number, as opposed to... a fraction of one percent. But again, they don't -- they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number -- personally, I would say the number is way under one percent.

Now, it isn't all that surprising when conspiracy theories pop up during a crisis. During a pandemic, there will also be plenty of price-gouging and outright snake-oil salesmen peddling miracle cures (such as Jim Bakker is currently doing). But the American people generally want their president to be the one debunking such nonsense, not contributing to it.

The Washington Post pointed this out, in no uncertain terms:

As leading public health experts from across the government have tried to provide clear and consistent information about the deadly coronavirus, they have found their messages undercut, drowned out and muddled by President Trump's push to downplay the outbreak with a mix of optimism, bombast and pseudoscience.

Speaking almost daily to the public about an outbreak that has spread across states and rocked the markets, Trump has promoted his opinions and at times contradicted the public health experts tasked with keeping Americans safe.

The president has repeatedly misstated the number of Americans who have tested positive for the virus and claimed it would "miraculously" disappear in the spring. He has given a false timeline for the development of a vaccine, publicly questioned whether vaccinations for the flu could be used to treat the novel coronavirus and dismissed the World Health Organization's coronavirus death rate estimate, substituting a much lower figure and citing a "hunch."

. . .

The president's running commentary about the coronavirus, untethered to script or convention, indicates that the Trump administration's greatest obstacle to sending a clear message about the outbreak may be Trump himself.

And, of course, there is simply no problem too big to blame on Barack Obama. No, really -- you just knew this was coming, didn't you?

Trump has made several misleading claims that have forced government scientists and officials to navigate publicly contradicting a president who has placed a premium on loyalty.

On Wednesday, Trump said the Obama administration was responsible for the inability of the federal government to ensure widespread testing for potential coronavirus patients, an unsubstantiated claim that even his own administration officials could not back up.

"The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing," Trump said during a briefing at the White House in which he boasted that he "undid" that decision.

The unsupported claim, made for the first time publicly by the president, put Trump administration officials in the uncomfortable position of responding to questions about its accuracy.

When asked about this by Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reportedly said (according to Nancy Pelosi): "nothing about the prior [administration's] policy had worsened our response, and nothing about any change in policy is going to dramatically improve our response." In other words, just another bald-faced lie from Trump.

Trump is even lying about the small stuff, because of course he is. He claimed that he hadn't "touched his face in weeks," which was immediately proven false by all those photos of him touching his face over the past few weeks, including him touching his own face during meetings about the coronavirus.

But not to worry, everyone. The White House tennis pavilion is still on schedule!





The other big political story of the week came from the Democratic presidential race, which reached a crescendo on Super Tuesday. Since our article last Friday, an astonishing number of developments have taken place: Joe Biden won a commanding victory in South Carolina, capturing almost half the vote. Pete Buttigieg immediately dropped out of the race, followed one day later by Amy Klobuchar, who also announced she was endorsing Biden. Pete then followed suit, and the two of them (together with Beto O'Rourke) appeared at a Texas Biden rally in support of Joe Biden.

The moderate lane got a lot clearer as a direct result. Joe Biden then romped through Super Tuesday, winning 10 out of 14 states, although Bernie Sanders did manage to chalk up the biggest win of the night, in California. The political media went through a U-turn of whiplash-inducing force, pivoting from: "Bernie is inevitable!" to quickly replace it with: "Biden is inevitable!" O fickle press....

Elizabeth Warren then dropped out of the race, and pointedly did not endorse anyone.

All of this, obviously, led to Joe Biden having the best week of his political life. His comeback was one for the ages, and will be oft-quoted by future presidential candidates who do poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire (that's our guess, at any rate). This political resurrection also earns Biden our very own Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award. This week, there really was no other choice.

Of course, the primaries aren't over and we've already seen several radical twists and turns, so while Biden does have a slight lead in the delegate count (something nobody foresaw), the race is nowhere near over. But no matter what happens in the end, Biden's very good week was indeed one for the history books.

[Joe Biden is technically a private citizen, and it is our standing policy not to link to campaign pages, so you'll have to search his contact information on your own if you'd like to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]






Before we get to our second big award, we have a (Dis-)Honorable Mention award to hand out, to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. An abortion rights case came before the Supreme Court this week, and it is very important because it is the first one they've heard since Justice Fratboy joined the court. Abortion rights in this country are what is at stake, because if the court rules that the new state law requiring admitting privileges for abortion doctors is upheld, it will put access to the procedure at risk for tens of millions of women. And so far, the signs look pretty bad.

So the pro-choice side held a rally in front of the court. Schumer spoke, which is to his credit, but what was not to his credit was when he went too far in speaking to the two newest justices, both nominated by Donald Trump. Schumer issued what many considered to be a threat, telling them they would "pay the price" if they voted to gut Roe v. Wade. He later tried to walk this back by saying he really meant Republican senators would pay a political price (for confirming Justice Fratboy in the first place), but if you listen to his initial remarks that obviously wasn't what he was saying. Even if you insert the word "political," it kind of makes it worse because then Schumer would have been threatening Supreme Court justices with political retribution -- which is exactly what the idea of an independent judiciary is supposed to prevent.

But once again we are going to interpret "most disappointing" as "having disappointed the most people." And while Bernie's poor showing on Super Tuesday -- losing states he was predicted to win such as Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts, and Texas -- was indeed disappointing, it also came as a result of the voters themselves speaking. So while Bernie disappointed many; many others weren't disappointed, because Biden won.

Instead, we are going to award the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to Elizabeth Warren. Not only did she disappoint millions of her own voters by not even placing second in her home state on Tuesday, she then disappointed them again by dropping out. But in doing so Warren also disappointed all the Bernie Sanders voters by withholding her endorsement.

There are rumors that Team Warren and Team Bernie are in talks to secure her endorsement, but then again there are rumors that Team Biden is also pursuing it. Warren, at this point, has only three choices: endorse Bernie, endorse Joe, or remain neutral until the winner is declared. Endorsing Joe is going to be a shock to a lot of her supporters, if it happens, because it will run counter to her entire reason for running -- "dream big and fight hard." Refusing to endorse will also be seen as pretty self-serving. But even delaying an endorsement of Bernie Sanders -- the Democratic candidate whose agenda is almost identical to her own -- would be seriously disappointing for every Democrat who favors a progressive platform.

The window for Warren to endorse Bernie is closing fast. If she doesn't do so by the next round of primaries next Tuesday, then her endorsement's value is going to go way down -- especially if Bernie doesn't win Michigan. To be really effective, in fact, Warren should endorse before the Sunday morning political talk shows air. Or perhaps during one of them -- that would certainly make a news splash in the best possible way.

But for the time being, Warren is our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week, for playing the game of being coy. What happened to fighting hard for what you believe in, after all? The clock is ticking....

[Contact Senator Elizabeth Warren on her Senate contact page, to let her know what you think of her actions.]





Volume 564 (3/6/20)

For anyone thinking that that last section was a little too harsh, we're going to open the talking points with a quote Elizabeth Warren made while announcing the end of her presidential campaign. She was asked a "gotcha" question from the media, and she responded more brilliantly than I think I've ever heard any politician manage to do in such a situation. In one short statement, she pointed out the minefield nature of the question and how no matter what she said in response, it would then be misleadingly spun. In other words, she pointed out the rigged nature of the question in a way that made her look good while making the questioner look very bad. As I mentioned, this was a bit of political jiu-jitsu that should become just as memorable in the Warren legacy as the "she persisted" line has now become. It really was that good.

However, after that, we're just going to kick Trump around for the rest of the program. Because he so richly deserves it this week. To do so, we're sticking with a very simple theme, which works well for any Democrat right now, from supporters of Michael Bloomberg to supporters of Andrew Yang. Doesn't matter whether you're for Bernie or Joe, because it works equally well no matter who you imagine should sit in the Oval Office next. And because this theme is such a simple and easy one to use, we've kept them as short as possible this week, because really anything more is just icing on Marie Antoinette's cake.

Oh, we should also mention (by way of giving full credit for where this theme came from), that those of you old enough to remember the old Beach Boys song can sing the refrains in your own head.



The no-win nature of the question

As promised, though, our first talking point is from Elizabeth Warren. When asked the question of whether sexism played a part in why her campaign hadn't been more successful, Warren absolutely nailed her answer:

Gender in this race, you know, that is the trap question for every woman. If you say: "Yeah, there was sexism in this race," everyone says: "Whiner!" And if you say: "No, there was no sexism," about a bazillion women think: "What planet do you live on?"

Wouldn't it be nice?

Of course, the Beach Boys song was really just a randy teenage boy wondering how nice it would be to have sex with his girlfriend every night (after they were married, of course), but that doesn't stop it from being a powerful refrain that can be used in purely political ways.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could all believe what our president says once again?"

Remember when?

Yeah, it would be nice, wouldn't it?

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could all trust the president to do the right thing for the American people no matter what it meant for him politically? Those days are obviously gone."



It wasn't that long ago

And again...

"Wouldn't it be nice if we all knew the president of the United States spent a lot of time studying complex problems in great detail and was briefed extensively and minutely by his own experts so that he could gain sufficient knowledge about the problem to know what the correct next course of action should be? Remember that? It wasn't that long ago, after all."



Even the worst presidents were better than this

Well, except for that whole "weapons of mass destruction" thing, we suppose....

"Wouldn't it be nice if scientists could tell the truth without worrying about political retribution from the petulant man-baby that is their boss? Remember when the truth was the truth, and nobody know what the phrase 'alternative facts' meant?"



Hurricane-force petulance

Can't forget this one, of course.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have a president whose immediate response to being contradicted by scientific fact was to admit he was mistaken rather than pick up a Sharpie and try to alter reality? I remember when the White House was corrected by scientific experts, instead of the White House forcing scientific experts to lie -- in order to back up the president's claims that of course everyone could see his new invisible clothes."



Tennis, anyone?

And we'd like to end where we began.

"Wouldn't it be nice to once again have a first lady with at least a tiny shred of human empathy? One who wouldn't go visit disaster victims wearing a coat proclaiming to the world how little she cared? One who might have the slightest perception that her own husband was the biggest online bully in the entire world when she launched an anti-bullying campaign? Or maybe just one who didn't resemble Marie Antoinette quite so much? I mean, really, to ask: "Tennis, anyone?" while people are dying of a pandemic certainly reaches the "let them eat cake" level, wouldn't you say?"




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
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