Today we hit — and how sometimes we wish we actually could — ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, and Fox News Sunday to remind ourselves, if such reminders were necessary, of the fatuousness, pettiness, mendacity, obtusity, and really bad counting skills of today’s GOP.
I’m purposefully skipping CBS’ Face the Nation, for Margaret Brennan had the good sense to have Anthony Fauci, M.D., and Ambassador Deborah Birx, M.D., on the show. Both talked about the incompetents in the Trump administration (but I repeat myself) who got in their way.
Here’s a sample:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Disinformation?
AMBASSADOR DEBORAH BIRX: I saw the President presenting graphs that I never made. So, I know that someone — or someone out there or someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the President. I know what I sent up, and I know that what was in his hands was different from that. You can't do that. You have to use the entire database—
BRENNAN: Who was doing that?
BIRX: To this day I don't know. I know now by watching some of the tapes that certainly Scott Atlas brought in parallel data streams.
I’m still surprised the country made it and we’re all still here. Both Fauci and Birx look visibly unshackled since Trump stopped signing their checks.
To the matter at hand, though, and let’s begin at ABC’s This Week, with Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who, I’m convinced, was put on this earth to make Mitch McConnell the second-most-loathsome figure in the state.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Paul, let me begin with a threshold question for you. This election was not stolen — do you accept that fact?
Personally, for my money and my Sunday morning viewing pleasure, it’s OK with me if George Stephanopoulos, Chuck Todd, Margaret Brennan, and Chris Wallace ask every GOP rep this question for the next four years, if for no other reason to remind the nation with whom we’re dealing.
SENATOR RAND PAUL: Well, what I would say is that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur. We never had any presentation in court where we actually looked at the evidence. Most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, which is a procedural way of not actually hearing the question.
Actually, most of the cases were thrown out because the briefs prepared by Rudy Giuliani and the Trump legal team had all the legal cogency of a five-year-old knee-deep in finger paint.
There were several states in which the law was changed by the secretary of state and not the state legislature. To me, those are clearly unconstitutional, and I think there’s still a chance that those actually do finally work their way up to the Supreme Court.
A chance about as good as President Biden nominating Sidney Powell to the court.
Courts traditionally and historically don’t like to hear election questions.
President Gore will be happy to hear that.
But yes. Were there people who voted twice? Were there dead people who voted? Were there illegal aliens who voted? Yes, and we should get to the bottom of it. I’ll give you an example. In my state, when we had a Democrat secretary of state, she refused, even under federal order, to purge the roles of illegal voters. We got a Republican secretary of state and he purged the rules.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But Senator Paul, I have to—
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL: —difference and those things do have to—
STEPHANOPOULOS: I have to stop you there. No election is perfect. But there were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court, all were dismissed. Every state certified the results—
PAUL: Chris, not for—
STEPHANOPOULOS: —after an investigation—
PAUL: Not for — but—
STEPHANOPOULOS: —count, after investigations—
PAUL: —of evidence. They were dismissed—
STEPHANOPOULOS: —counts and recounts.
PAUL: —for (inaudible).
STEPHANOPOULOS: The Department of Justice led by William Barr said there's no widespread evidence of fraud. Can’t you just say the words, this election—
PAUL: No.
STEPHANOPOULOS: —was not stolen?
PAUL: Well, what I would suggest is — what I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections, and 75 percent of Republicans agree with me, is that we do need to look at election integrity and we need to see if we can restore confidence in the elections.
This does seem to be the line the GOP keeps trotting out, Sunday morning after Sunday morning. George, if you would?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, 75 percent of Republicans agree with you because they were fed a big lie by President Trump and his supporters to say the election was stolen. Why can't you say—
PAUL: Well, I think—
STEPHANOPOULOS: —President Biden won a legitimate, fair election—
PAUL: —I think where you make a mistake in — hey, George. George. George, where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything's a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything.
It’s not pretty when he whines, but whine he shall.
Historically what would happen is if I said that I thought that there was fraud, you would interview someone else who said there wasn’t. But now you insert yourself in the middle and say that the absolute—
Yes, by all means, there are two sides to everything. Mr. Eichmann — and thank you for coming on the show — I’ll give you the last word. Did the Holocaust happen?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well—
PAUL: —fact is that everything that I’m saying is a lie.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, because—
PAUL: (Inaudible) fact—
STEPHANOPOULOS: —Senator, I said what the president said was a lie because—
PAUL: —we’re going to.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Hold on a second. He said the election was stolen. This election was not stolen. The results were certified in every single state—
All of that is true, but Rand Paul’s fee-fees will not be ignored.
PAUL: You’re saying—
STEPHANOPOULOS: —after counts and recounts.
PAUL: —there was — you’re saying, you’re saying that absolutely it was — you’re saying there was no fraud and it’s all been investigated, and that’s just not true.
Paul then stomped his feet and hit his head on the desk. (I kid, of course, he didn’t hit his head.)
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s not what I said, sir.
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: I said the Department of Justice found no evidence—
PAUL: (Inaudible)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me finish my point.
PAUL: But you say it’s all lies—
STEPHANOPOULOS: You said something that was not true.
PAUL: You say we’re all liars. You just simply say we’re all liars and—
STEPHANOPOULOS: I said it was a lie—
PAUL: (inaudible)
STEPHANOPOULOS: —that the election was stolen.
PAUL: —premise that you’re right and we’re wrong.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
On Fox News Sunday, if you put your ear flat on the ground and left it there until your head was smashed by a turnip truck rumbling by, you could almost hear Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) call out the president for urging a mob to storm the House and Senate.
RUBIO: Well, first of all, I think the trial is stupid. I think it's counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and it's like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire.
Right. And there’s no reason to impeach the guy. It’s not like anyone’s lives were in danger — oh, wait.
Here are just some gas cans the former president brought to the mob hours before the assault on the Capitol on January 6th:
— “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
—“We want to go back, and we want to get this right because we’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that.”
—“Nobody knows what the hell is going on. There’s never been anything like this. We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.” The crowd repeatedly chanted “Fight for Trump!” “Thank you,” Trump said.
He assailed “weak,” “pathetic” Republicans who were not standing with him in his push to overturn the election results, and said “There’d be hell all over the country” if Democrats had been robbed of an election win.
“But just remember this,” he went on. “You’re stronger, you’re smarter. You’ve got more going than anybody, and they try and demean everybody having to do with us, and you’re the real people. You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down our nation.”
—“We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we’ve been forced to believe over the past several weeks.”
RUBIO: I think the president bears responsibility for some of what happened. I — it was most certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on.
And Tom Brady deserves some of the credit for the Bucs making the Super Bowl. If the senator couched his criticism any more, he’d be swallowed up in the sofa cushions.
And — and I think that's widely understood and maybe even better understood with the perspective of time. I think that's separate from the notion of "let's revisit this all and stir it up again."
It was three fucking weeks ago. There are still windows that haven’t been repaired.
If you want to hold people accountable, there's other ways to do it, particularly for a president, including, as I said, the perspective of history and even now as people are learning more about all of this.
Gotcha. Why should the Senate impeach a president who incited riot when it’s so much more effective to wait for Michael Beschloss’s next book? Rubio then reminded us of the people left behind — all, hell, let’s call it 75 million.
RUBIO: The GOP is the party that nominated Donald Trump. And the reason why it did and ultimately got him elected and he got 75 million votes is because you have tens of millions of Americans that feel this economy isn't working for people like them, that feel socially displaced, even like strangers in their own country, and who believe that both of the parties, at least traditionally, and all of politics doesn't understand or care about any of this, that they don't matter to people.
And to the 81 million who voted for Biden — we’re not talking to you people.
Over onMeet the Press, Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) toed the company line, but admitted it’s just theatre.
CHUCK TODD: Senator, I want to note something you did on a press release the day before the insurrection. You wrote, "I wholeheartedly support an independent investigation into the 2020 election. I'm interested in restoring faith, certainty, and transparency for the American voter. And unless we get to the bottom of these allegations I fear American's faith in our electoral process is in great jeopardy." Obviously, the next night, you know, colleagues of yours, including Mitt Romney, said, you know, part of the problem here with sort of appeasing this belief that something went wrong with the election is that these people were lied to. Do you at all regret this statement that basically you helped further this lie, even, even, even indirectly, by implying there should be some investigation for allegations that just didn’t, don't exist?
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS: I still believe that we should have an investigation. But — and I think it should be bipartisan in nature. 74 million, 74 million Americans supported President Trump. There's probably 50 million Americans out there that have questions about whether or not—
TODD: But whose fault is that?
ROUNDS: —the election was fair.
TODD: Whose fault is that?
ROUNDS: Well, look—
TODD: Isn’t that — I mean, they were fed a lie.
This is good, by the way, that both Todd and Stephanopoulos are reminding these charlatans why this is the case.
ROUNDS: The best way to approach this — well, see, and I think, I think Democrats should have an interest in doing this as well because in a bipartisan approach they can actually point out what they believe to be the purpose. And very honestly, I will tell you that I think if you move this through — if you move this forward and you allow for an investigation to actually look, you're going to find that the election was fair.
So he knows the election was fair, but he’s advocating for this nonsense just to convince a group of Trump supporters who will never be convinced the election was fair of its fairness?
That's my belief. But at the same time, let's show it to the American people. Let's point out that — if there's misinformation out there, which I believe there was, then let's put that out and lay it out so the people can see it.
If we know anything about the GOP, Trump supporters, and the lies that give them sustenance, the truth does not set them free.
Oh, JFC, FFS, WTF? A week after Biden's inauguration, two and a half months after Biden wins/Trump losses the election, 6 weeks after Trump and the GOP lost 60+ lawsuits, and 3 weeks after a bunch of fucknuts, instigated by other fucknuts, storm the Capitol, kill a cop, and at least 4 others died, and these guys are still kneeling in front of Trump with his zipper down?
As much as I look forward to these missives, my head is pounding in much the same way as I wish their heads were getting pounded.
Hey, Marco, let me fix this for you...
"The GOP is the party that nominated Donald Trump." True. Unfortunately, too true.
"And the reason why it did and ultimately got him elected and he got 75 million votes is because you have tens of millions of Americans that feel this economy isn't working for people like them..." Uh, the reason Biden got 82 million votes is you have at least 82 million people who feel this government ISN'T WORKING FOR PEOPLE LIKE THEM. Not the economy, not the national welfare, not much of anything, for that matter, and that includes "representatives of the people" like you and fellow Sunday morning asshats like Rand Paul and Mike Rounds, who prefer to perpetuate this BS in the hope that previously aforementioned fucknuts might vote for them. Good luck with that.
"..,that feel socially displaced, even like strangers in their own country, and who believe that both of the parties, at least traditionally, and all of politics doesn't understand or care about any of this, that they don't matter to people."
Let's unpack this for a moment, because you almost uttered a truth - that both parties don't care or understand or care about any of this... And WTF are you doing about it? How did you help The Donald "better understand" these people, huh? When was the last time you got out and talked to people, Marco, who weren't in your little bubble of bullshit in Washington or Miami? Did you explain how their cost of living was being driven up by a "dick out" trade war? What about those "tax cuts" that become tax increases in 2021 for all but corporations and zillionaires? How about why you jumped the line to get a vaccine - are you 65 or older and have a condition that puts you at higher risk? Here's a tissue, you have some bullshit on your lip.
You and your pals seem to think that if you talk long and loud enough it'll sound like something smart. GTFOH. If I wanted to hurt myself I'd climb up your ego and jump off.