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Last Tuesday, Donald Trump had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Ye’s new brother-in-antisemitism Nick Fuentes.
While the Chicago rapper was all too happy to release a video about the dinner, saying Trump was “impressed” with Nick Fuentes, Trump tried his best to do that dance where he denies knowing who Fuentes is without actually condemning either of them.
And the Republican Party’s response? Mostly silence.Even from Ron DeSantis.
You know it’s bad when Ben Shapiro actually has a good take on this situation.
But not everyone could do that, so let’s take a look as a few GOP politicians were asked to respond on the Sunday shows.
Asa Hutchinson on CNN’s ‘State Of the Union’
Dana Bash asked Arkansas GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson about Trump’s dinner, and he condemned it, while also seemingly trying to act like it was an issue unique to Trump and not his entire party:
HUTCHINSON: Well, I hope, someday, we won’t have to be responding to what former President Trump has said or done. […] No, I don’t think it’s a good idea for a leader that is setting an example for the country or the party to meet with an avowed racist or antisemite. And so it’s very troubling, and it shouldn’t happen. And we need to avoid those kinds of empowering the extremes. And when you meet with people, you empower. And that’s what you have to avoid. You want to diminish their strength, not empower them. Stay away from them.
BASH: Trump has released multiple statements. What he’s doing is, he’s denying knowing Nick Fuentes, but he’s not condemning his views, let alone condemning Kanye West’s history of antisemitic comments, recent history. So it’s a pattern.
HUTCHINSON: Well, I mean, you could have accidental meetings. Things like that happen. This was not an accidental meeting. It was a setup dinner with Kanye. And so this happened. But you certainly have every occasion that the question of white supremacy or neo-Nazism, or denying the Holocaust comes up. You have got to be absolutely clear in your communication that this is not acceptable dogma, it’s not acceptable conversation, it’s not acceptable history, and you have to disavow it. […] And that’s what you have got to distance yourself from. And he failed to do that.
While this statement from Hutchinson is good, Bash kinda pointed out that we should not kid ourselves to think it also isn’t a bit self-serving, noting that Hutchinson is making noises about also running for president in 2024.
Good luck with that.
GOP Rep. James Comer on NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’
Chuck Todd asked Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer to comment on Trump’s dinner with Ye. Comer gave the bare minimum condemnation while trying to quickly change the subject, but, in a rare moment of journalism, Todd asked a followup question.
COMER: Well, he certainly needs better judgment in who he dines with. I know that he’s issued a statement and said he didn’t know who those people were. But at any rate, you know, my focus is going to be on investigating the current administration as the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee. […]
TODD: I understand thinking he should have better judgment. I assume you condemn this, like you would not take a meeting with this person?
COMER: I would not take a meeting with that person, no. I wouldn’t take a meeting with Kanye West either, but that’s – that’s my opinion.
While we criticize Chuck Todd’s bad journalism often, we also have to give him kudos when he does the right thing.
Todd had other great moments in the Comer interview, such as when he pointed out actual gun crime statistics, which Comer was unprepared for.
Comer brought up mental health and fentanyl to talk about “crime” and the “border crisis” rather than guns. Of course, the GOP doesn’t care about solving those issues either unless it means more cops or filled for-profit prisons.
Comer tried to get away with a talking point:
COMER: Well Chuck, you talk about this a lot on Meet the Press, but when you look at cities that have the most strict gun laws, like Washington DC, Chicago, these are the cities with the highest rates of crimes committed with guns. So you know, just simply passing more bills isn’t going to solve the problem.
What Comer wasn’t counting on was Todd being ready to debunk that myth.
Well done, Chuck Todd!
Martha Raddatz on ABC’s ‘This Week’
The fates giveth and they taketh away when it comes to good journalism on the Sunday shows, so we conclude with Martha Raddatz really holding GOP Reps. Mike Turner’s and Michael McCaul’s feet to the fire.
Nice to see another graduate of the “Wolf Blitzer School of We’ll Have to Leave It There” thriving in the amazing world of “both sides journalism.”
Have a week.
P.S. If you’re in Georgia, like me, get out there and early vote to block Herschel Walker and re-elect Reverend Raphael Warnock!
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