'Teflon'
It
was an eventful day on the Sunday talk shows. Big topics of the day
were, of course, Hillary Clinton's e-mails, Donald Trump's most
recent deranged rants, and how exactly Bernie Sanders can still win
the Democratic nomination. We also got what may only be
the beginning
of Republican leaders being
forced to answer awkward questions about
the fact that their party's nominee may be
an unhinged lunatic.
Senator
Bernie Sanders was on Meet The Press and Face The Nation.
Chuck Todd asked several horse race questions, and only one touching
on policy: “Do you want to say that Israel is occupying Gaza?”
Todd
asked several questions about Sanders' path to the nomination,
finally getting getting Sanders to say “Hey, look, Chuck,
California is the Big Enchilada.”
Sanders
kept trying to steer the conversation back to issues such as the
minimum wage, paid leave, tuition-free college, and climate change,
but Todd turned to Clinton's e-mails, asking “Do you think Hillary
Clinton needs a clean bill of health from the F.B.I. before she
accepts the Democrat nomination?” and
“Do you think it's
important for them to
find out what the F.B.I.'s going to do before
the vote in Philadelphia?”and if Sanders' supporters were “rooting”
for Hillary Clinton to be indicted.
On
CBS, host Jon Dickerson asked Senator Senders zero questions about substance, likewise asking about about “Hillary
Clinton's e- mails and her behavior.”
Sanders
replied, “I have been talking about are the issues that really are
the issues facing the American people, why the middle class is
declining, income and wealth inequality, why kids are leaving school
$50,000, $70,000 in debt.” Dickerson then asked if he will have a
Super PAC if he is the Democratic nominee.
Todd
also had a pointless interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will
succeed Trump as the host of a celebrity game show on basic
television. He repeatedly dodged the question of whether he would
endorse fellow Republican Donald Trump. Schwarzenegger insisted he
still a Republican, and is now focused on spending billions on
infrastructure and fighting climate change.
Senator
Ron Johnson popped
up on CBS. Asked about Trump's plan to ban 1.6 billion Muslims from
the U.S., he said, “Let's
defeat ISIS. Let's defeat Islamic terror wherever it resides. And
what we do need to do is just be a lot smarter in terms of how we do
airport security, layered defenses. We need to beef up the number of
canine units we use. No
technology can be beat the benefits of the nose of a dog.”
On
ABC, Senator John Barasso dodged on the Muslim ban, cutting Social
Security, and forcibly deporting 11 million immigrants, saying, “We
need to
talk about border security and whether
that's a physical wall on top of an electronic wall on top of
e-verify.”
Dragging
out the JV Pundit Squad on this Memorial Day weekend, Bill Bennett
said he thinks that Paul
Ryan will back Donald Trump, but, “I
don't think it will happen at the level of those ideas. I think it
will happen at the
level of even deeper ideas,
you know, Article One of the "Constitution," pro-life,
other things.”
Bennett
also added, “People have
to look at the fact that Donald Trump has moved
from
a certain place to another place.”
The
pundits are very sad Hillary Clinton didn't has an even worse week,
with the explosive revelation that she used a personal e-mail server,
which has been known for some time. The New York Times'
Mark Leibovich observed, “I mean I think this was a great week for
Donald Trump to not say anything. And, of course, I mean so much
oxygen was taken by Donald Trump to bring up Vince Foster and what he
said about the Mexican judge in
San Diego the other day. I mean this is a lot of oxygen being devoted
to an issue that, you know, frankly, could have been spent talking
about Hillary Clinton.”
It's
an article of faith among pundits that whatever Donald Trump does,
must be good, at least for Donald Trump.
Chuck
Todd said “So far, Trump appears to be a candidate coated in
Teflon. Not so much for Clinton. One difference is how each candidate
deals with their vulnerabilities. Trump almost embraces the attack.
While Clinton struggles to
explain.”
While
Jeffrey Goldberg observed, “he's
not going to stop insulting Mexicans and Native Americans, as he did
this week, because it's
working and he goes with what works.
I think that's the simple
rule.”
Conservative
pundit Kellyanne Conway astutely observed of Trump, “do you know
what he's got that Hillary doesn't have? He's actually the nominee of
his party. And she's not.” and that President Obama said 'eventual
Democratic nominee',
“leaving open the possibility that it may not be Hillary Clinton.
So I didn't hear him say that he's campaigning for Hillary Clinton
and he's endorsed her.”
Things
devolved from there, with Chuck Todd asking where does the none of
the above vote go? “Does it go to Greens and Libertarians and sort
of split?” With Gerald Seib adding, “You know, we shouldn't
forget, there's another place the none-of-the-above vote can go, and
that's to the Green party.”
Although
Trump is one of the most hawkish and militaristic candidates in
modern history, Chuck Todd added, “Because you look at Trump as a
non-interventionist on foreign policy, and some of those Ron Paul,
Rand Paul supporters have drifted toward Trump because they see the
main Republican party as too hawkish.”
Robert
Costa unfortunately pointed out it's all well to search for other
parties, only to find they are crazy too, noting some 'Never Trump'
Republicans “were inching close to the idea of maybe supporting the
Libertarian ticket. But then they watched these candidates,
they
watched this convention, and they realized it's an imperfect vessel.”
But
the most absurd moments came with
Jon Karl's interview with Trump
guru Paul Manafort.
Asked
why Trump is still taking gratuitous attacks on prominent Republicans
such as Susanna Martinez, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush, Manafort said
quote “Governor
Romney is jealous of the fact that the first
businessman to be nominated by the Republican
party with record numbers,
is Mr. Trump, and, uh, with a chance of winning.”
On
Governor Martinez, he said “he
was talking about the welfare system and how it's out of control in
New Mexico.”
He blasted the pundits, saying, “They said
he wasn't going to be able to win a general election, he wasn't going
to be able to unite the party. All
of these things are wrong. He's proven them all wrong.”
Jon
Karl played footage of Trump saying “I
want to debate him so badly. I'd love to debate Bernie,” then
said, “this is a
flip-flop. I mean you heard the tape.” Manafort
said “well, what changed
is he became the presumptive nominee – he became the actual nominee
of the party”
Manafort
denied saying Trump was
unlikely to choose a woman or a minority for
Vice President, because in
fact that would be viewed as pandering, even
though he did.
Asked
if thought the Trump offices are bugged, he said quote “Certainly
there are people probably would like to, because there's a lot of
good work going on there.”
On
Trump bringing up the suicide of Vince Foster, Manafort said “The
point is, trouble follows the Clintons everywhere. People are
frustrated with all of the drama around the Clinton family and the
history of the Clinton family.”
So
Trump is teflon, while Clinton struggles, because Trump goes with
what works; this will finally be the year of the Green Party and
Libertarian Party; Trump has proved he pundits wrong when they said
he wouldn't win the general election; and it's
Presidential to create drama by leveling long debunked accusations
against the Clintons because people are frustrated with all the drama
around the Clintons.
And
that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.
