Editor’s Note: Say What? is the segment of Liberty Nation Radio where we unveil some of the most wacky, astonishing, and damnable things uttered by politicians and the chattering class.
Tim Donner: There was no second debate, as President Donald Trump “just said no” to the virtual format ordered up by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The final debate is still set for Oct. 22, this coming Thursday, but we did get dueling town halls on Oct. 15 — Trump on NBC, Joe Biden on ABC. And Trump was predictably subjected to the inquisitorial questioning of Savannah Guthrie, as she jumped in early with the usual accusation about Trump and white supremacists, after the president did not, in the eyes of the left and the Trump-hating corporate media, sufficiently condemn them at the debate back in September.
Savannah Guthrie: You were asked point blank to denounce white supremacy. In the moment, you didn’t …
Donald Trump: No, you always do this, you’ve done this to me and everybody …
Guthrie: My question to you is: why does it seem like …
Trump: I denounced white supremacy. Okay?
Guthrie: You did two days later.
Trump: I denounced white supremacy for years. You didn’t ask Joe Biden whether or not he denounces Antifa. I watched him on the same basic show with Lester Holt, and he was asking questions like Biden was a child. Are you listening? I denounce white supremacy. What’s your next question?
Tim: Well, the next question was about QAnon, some obscure right-wing group that nobody seems to know much about, as Guthrie betrayed a very thinly veiled hatred for the president.
But over on ABC, Stephanopoulos was persistent in finally dragging an answer out of Joe Biden, kicking and screaming, on whether he would announce his position on packing the Supreme Court, following the likely confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.
Joe Biden: You know, if I had answered the question directly, then all the focus would be on, “What’s Biden going to do if he wins?” Instead of on “Is it appropriate what is going on now?” I have not been a fan of court packing …
George Stephanopoulos: So you’re still not a fan?
Biden: Well, I’m not a fan. It depends on how this turns out, not how he wins, but how it’s handled.
Stephanopoulos: What does that mean, how it’s handled?
Biden: It depends on how much they rush this.
Stephanopoulos: If they confirm before the election, you are open to expanding the court?
Biden: I’m open to considering what happens from that point on.
Stephanopoulos: But don’t voters have a right to know where you stand?
Biden: They do have a right to know where I stand, they’ll have a right to know where I stand before they vote.
Stephanopoulos: So you’ll come out with a clear position before Election Day?
Biden: Yes.
Tim: So right there, Joe Biden committed, finally, to revealing his position on court packing before Nov. 3. We’ll see. But Biden was not asked about an explosive report in the New York Post on emails appearing to prove that, contrary to his repeated denials, Biden actually met with his son Hunter’s handlers at Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden some 50 grand a month, while his father was vice president and in charge of Ukraine policy. This, after Biden had for months used the Sergeant Schultz defense: He knew nothing.
Reporter (during primary season): How many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas and business dealings?
Joe Biden: I’ve never spoken to my son about his overseas business. I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.
Reporter (later in primary season): Do you stand by your statement that you did not discuss any of your son’s overseas business?
Biden: Yes, I stand by that statement.
Reporter (two weeks ago): Do you think it was wrong for him to take that position …
Biden: No.
Reporter: … knowing that it was really because that company wanted access to you?
Biden: Well, that’s not true. You’re saying things you do not know what you’re talking about.
Tim: A lot of people are talking about this, but incredibly Facebook and Twitter actually removed all postings that included the New York Post story and even suspended the Trump campaign account for a time. And on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) vowed to get to the bottom of it.
Ted Cruz: This is election interference and we’re 19 days out from an election. It has no precedent in the history of democracy. Nobody on Twitter and social media shut down anything about Trump and Russia.
Lindsey Graham: And the attempt to rig an election, which is what we’re seeing here by monopolies, is unprecedented in American history.
Josh Hawley: They have a lot to answer for, and I hope that we’ll subpoena both Twitter and Facebook.
Tim: These moves by Facebook, and particularly Twitter, could be the last straw for these giant media platforms as the calls to remove their protection in the law through the now-famous Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act are growing louder by the day and now approaching a fever pitch.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a story that would otherwise and rightly dominate the news if it weren’t for the election is producing an excellent result for Trump and the GOP, as they stand at the precipice of a six to three majority on the Supreme Court: the confirmation hearings of the cool, calm, and collected Amy Coney Barrett.
Amy Coney Barrett: I believe deeply in the rule of law and the place of the Supreme Court in our nation. I believe Americans of all backgrounds deserve an independent Supreme Court, that interprets our Constitution and laws as they are written.
Tim: And that’s what’s driving the left crazy, that commitment to actually following the law as written, instead of predetermining a preferred outcome. Among the traps the Democrats set for Judge Barrett was declaring that she should recuse herself from rulings that might come before the court about the election, since she was appointed by Trump. But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham used logical questions to shoot that right down.
Lindsey Graham: But do you own a gun?
Amy Coney Barrett: We do own a gun.
Graham: Do you think you could fairly decide a case even though you own a gun?
Coney Barrett: Yes.
Graham: All right. You’re a Catholic.
Coney Barrett: I am.
Graham: The tenets of your faith mean a lot to you personally, is that correct?
Coney Barrett: That is true.
Graham: Can you set aside whatever Catholic beliefs you have regarding any issue before you?
Coney Barrett: I can.
Tim: Coney Barrett was, by most all accounts, a smash hit in her hearings, always seeming to be one step ahead of the senators, not just in her knowledge of the law but because of her persona — on full display, when she, the mother of two adopted children from Haiti, was asked how she reacted to the killing of George Floyd.
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL): Have you seen the George Floyd video?
Amy Coney Barrett: I have.
Durbin: What impact did it have on you?
Coney Barrett: Senator, as you might imagine, given that I have two black children, that was very, very personal for my family … I think it is an entirely uncontroversial and obvious statement that racism persists in our country.
Tim: So ACB, as she’s now called, is killing it, her nomination well on track to full Senate confirmation by the end of this month, barring unforeseen circumstances, which in 2020, of course, do seem to be an everyday occurrence.
Now the most bizarre SAY WHAT of the week has to go to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appearing on CNN, where she was shockingly dressed down by Wolf Blitzer on a coronavirus relief bill that she has stalled in the House. Here is Pelosi’s remarkable conclusion when ol’ Wolf invoked the people still struggling with the downdraft of COVID-19.
Wolf Blitzer: Can you look them in the eye, Madam Speaker, and explain why you don’t want to accept the president’s latest stimulus offer? They really need the money right now, even members of your own caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion.
Nancy Pelosi: What I say to you is: I don’t know why you’re always an apologist, and many of your colleagues apologists, for the Republican position.
Tim: I pretty much guarantee you that that was the first and last time CNN will ever be accused of being an apologist for the GOP. It’s so incredible that it qualifies as what Chevy Chase, in the famed movie Christmas Vacation, called a “head sewn to the carpet” moment.
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Read more from Tim Donner.
