When Congressman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, announced earlier this month that he would vote against President Trump’s second impeachment, he hinted that he would one day regret it.
McCaul said he wanted more time to review “the facts and evidence” about the events leading up to the Capitol uprising. He said he was against impeachment “at this point” but added, “I am really concerned that more facts will come to light in the future that will put me on the wrong side of this debate.”
That quote rattled in my mind all weekend. The public is learning new facts about three different themes of Trump’s presidency: Trump’s latest coup attempt; the uprising that caused impeachment; and his mishandling of the pandemic.
“It was worse than we knew” is the takeaway …
Dr. Deborah Birx speaks
Trump’s Covid-19 Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx gave an in-depth interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan. Portions were aired Sunday morning on “Face the Nation” and the full 89 minute interview is now online in both video and text form. Among the many newsworthy bits, she says she’s almost never seen or spoke to Trump. She says he got a “parallel set of data and images” that she was unaware of. Brennan asked if it was “misinformation”, but Birx did not answer.
Birx’s belated confessions received a lot of attention on Sunday. Dr. Seema Yasmin’s response to Reliable: “It feels like she’s on a national apology tour right now, but where was her skepticism … when she was in administration and had the platform and position, possibly at least, to be honest it audience?” Maggie Haberman also offered her insight on Twitter“A lot of reporters tried to talk to Birx while she was there. She wasn’t interested. And when she spoke in public early on, she appeared in lockstep” with Trump …
“The Skunk on the Picnic”
I think we will learn more and more about how Trump’s Covid denial has hurt the country.
Over the weekend, Donald G. McNeil Jr. of the NYT long with Dr. Anthony Fauci on life under Trump, saying of Birx, “It was much more of a painful situation for her,” because she was much more closely associated with the WH. Fauci said Trump sometimes called him to “ express disappointment in me that I was not more positive, ” and Trump surrounded himself “ with people saying things that didn’t make scientific sense, ” but he always felt it was better to his post instead of resigning. “I’ve always felt that if I walked away, the skunk at the picnic would no longer be at the picnic,” said Fauci. “Even though I wasn’t very effective at changing everyone’s opinion, the idea that they knew that nonsense couldn’t be spit out without my pushing back was important to me.” Read more…
But do these revelations break through?
Thanks to the efforts of news outlets such as the NYT, WSJ and CNN, we continue to learn about the latest sobs of Trump’s coup attempt.
We are also hearing more and more about the attack on the Capitol. Recently, I was struck by this WaPo story entitled “Self-proclaimed militiamen planned to storm the US Capitol for days prior to the Jan. 6 attack, court documents say,” as it quoted reports that one of the accused stake leaders received during the rel. When he posted a one-word ‘Inside’ message, he received admonitions and clues describing tunnels, doors and hallways, the FBI said. Directions from whom? How? There is so much we still don’t know.
Likewise, this NYT story described how a Capitol Police lieutenant scrambled to protect House’s lawmakers by stacking tables and chairs in a makeshift barricade. “He had 31 bullets for his service weapon, and he has told others he feared he would need them all.” I can’t help but wonder, is this new information sinking in? Or have most people decided on 1/6?
The view from NW PA
Maria, a regular “Reliable Sources” viewer, emailed me after Sunday’s show to say this: “In my town of Trump in northwestern Pennsylvania it’s like the uprising didn’t happen, Trump won the election, Trump was the most successful POTUS ever, and Dems are going to take away their freedoms. Besides, it was ANTIFA, not MAGA that caused the violence, the uprising. THERE IS NO TALK ABOUT THE INSURANCE OR THE PANDEMY and much credit for Trump. “This is anecdotal, of course, but it’s exactly what I see on the right radio and TV …
“They don’t even share a vocabulary.” But…
AP members Claire Galofaro and Juliet Linderman submitted a story about “bridging the political divide” that stretched from Frederick, Maryland, to Route 80 from where I grew up. The story was ridiculed by this tweeted Summary: She thinks the election was stolen from Donald Trump. He believes what dozens of courts and officials have found: that Joe Biden is the rightful winner. They’re trying to find common ground, but wonder if she – and the country – – can do it.”
I get all the criticism – namely that she believes in fantasy and he believes in reality, and the story should just say that. But I really wish people would click past the tweet and read about the topics of the profile. The story may make you more hopeful about our collective future. Yes, the profile topics “don’t agree on the basic facts. They don’t even share a vocabulary. They use the same words – truth, evidence, patriotism – but they don’t mean the same thing.” That is all true. But they are still friends. And that still matters. Read more…
The accusation will progress step by step this week
The impeachment articles will be run from the Chamber to the Senate on Monday evening. An impeachment process is likely to take up the month of February. But “what’s clear,” CNN’s Manu Raju said On Sunday, “following comments from GOP senators over the past week, there is virtually no path to 17 votes to condemn Trump – unless something changes in the process or the dynamics in the party change.”
>> “Trump is starting to believe there are fewer votes to condemn than if the vote had taken place almost immediately after January 6,” Haberman reported Sunday evening, citing people familiar with his thinking …
FOR THE RECORD
– Margaret Hoover on CNN: “Let’s be clear, there is no better chance for the Republican Party to separate itself from the conspiracy theorists and the Mafia than this impeachment trial emerging.” (Twitter)
– Speaking of conspiracy theorists, Maria Bartiromo is hosting Fox’s 7pm this week …
– David Folkenflik on Fox’s strategy: “What they are doing is trying to figure out what kind of public attitude they can adopt to maintain the greatest possible loyalty and audience …” (NPR)
– Glenn Kessler and co. on “the latest count of Trump’s presidency: 30,573 false or misleading claims – nearly half in his senior year …” (WaPo)
– The “lost cause” of electoral fraud is alive and well on talk radio, including on Rudy Giuliani’s WABC radio show in NYC, Azi Paybarah reports … (NYT)
– Another reminder that America is not quite a 50/50 country: “In his first week in the Oval Office, President Biden delivered high approval ratings for his response to the coronavirus (69%) and confidence in his ability to unite the country (57%), “according to this new ABC / Ipsos survey … (ABC)
No president should be judged on a curve …
But in many ways, Trump scored a curve during his presidency. Any period without a snide tweet was noticed. Every sign of a “new tone” was praised. The bar was low for Trump, far too low. Now the Biden team is happy to raise the bar again. As WH Chief of Staff Ron Klain said on Twitter during the weekend it was great to see Fauci on Rachel Maddow’s show – a place where Fauci was not allowed to go during Trump’s tenure – Klain said Fauci will now be seen “wherever he wants to express his opinion.” Maddow replied and thanked Klain and said, “I’ll hold you to it.” That’s the really important part – the press now has to keep the Biden team on it …