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This week’s Sunday shows were full of contradictions, sycophancy, and stupidity, so basically nothing special for the holiday.
Let’s dive in.
On the eve of the final sail of his houseboat to the Grey Havens, outgoing West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin gave a lengthy interview to CBS’s “Face The Nation” reflecting on his career and the future of politics.
Host Margaret Brennan treated it with all the gravitas Manchin’s contributions to our country deserve.
BRENNAN: Late last week we spoke with retiring West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, known for playing a pivotal, sometimes frustrating, role with Democrats in many of their legislative achievements. The full interview is on our YouTube channel and website. For the broadcast, we looked to next year when Republicans are fully in charge of Washington.
That’s right! Joe Manchin’s full interview, which we are sure he thought would air in full, got punted to YouTube and wasn’t even broadcasted.
Even Semafor gave his partner-in-obstruction Kyrsten Sinema more respect than that. So we see no better poetic justice than to follow CBS News’s lead and not give Manchin any more space in public discourse. Good riddance, you corrupt coal baron masquerading as a Democratic senator.
Ever since Elon Musk called for a government shutdown unless a funding bill met his preferences (like canceling cancer funding for children), Republicans have been in disarray. They followed Musk’s (and Trump’s belated) orders and killed the funding bill, only to then kill the bill Musk DID want to pass. Even after a funding bill passed averting a shutdown, Republicans have remained confused about who’s in charge of their party. Even Trump notices this perception.
If he’s talking about it on stage at Charlie Kirk’s big fascist party, it’s bothering him a lot.
On “Face The Nation,” Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales seemed to say the quiet part when Brennan asked about Musk’s role in all this governing chaos.
BRENNAN: But I want to ask you about the dynamic here because it’s confusing, frankly. I mean, Elon Musk is tweeting against bipartisan deals negotiated and led by the speaker of the House. What role exactly is he playing here?
GONZALES: It’s kind of interesting. We have a president. We have a vice president. We have a speaker. And it feels like – – as if Elon Musk is our prime minister. And I spoke with Elon a couple of times this week. I think many of us…
BRENNAN: Unelected.
GONZALES: Well, unelected. But, I mean, he has a voice.
You read that correctly. A United States congressman just referred to an unelected South African-born billionaire as the “prime minister” of our country. With ZERO pause on the admission of ceding our democracy to oligarchs.
Meanwhile, over on “Fox News Sunday,” Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was taking umbrage at host Shannon Bream pointing out that people see inherent conflict of interests in a billionaire who shaping US policy to his benefit.
Bream read headlines like these:
Bream then read a section of this statement by Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, pointing out Musk likely killed the bipartisan funding bill because it would have required screening from US investment in critical sectors in China. Which makes total sense when Musk’s “Shanghai plant is Tesla’s largest car manufacturing facility – the Chinese gigafactory produced about 50 percent of Tesla’s global automobile output over the last year,” according to DeLauro.
Mullin, rather than responding to this very obvious conflict of interest, went into a “whataboutism spiral.” He spouted about President Joe Biden’s reportedly diminished capacity, while somehow he is also a mastermind in charge of a corruption ring involving Hunter Biden. At this point, this is the political rhetoric version of a washed-up band still playing their one hit at the county fair.
Let it go, Mullin. It’s over.
We conclude with ABC’s “This Week.” They featured two interviews that made for an interesting side-by-side.
First, Jonathan Karl interviewed now congressman, and Utah’s next senator John Curtis. He was one of the 38 House members who refused to go along with Musk’s Trump’s demands this past week.
While we hesitate to praise a Republican, both on principle and generally not wanting to fall for the “Susan Collins” trick, Curtis made it clear he intends not to be a Trump lackey as a Senator. While time will tell, his current attitude seems to show he’s not impressed with Trump or threats about being primaried by his toadies.
KARL: You do hear some of your colleagues, your future colleagues in the Senate that say, ‘He won. He’s got a mandate, he deserves, you know, everybody that he’s chosen.’ […] So in other words, rubber stamp.
CURTIS: Yeah, I heard that from my son, by the way, at Thanksgiving. Yeah.
KARL: He said that?
CURTIS: He did. […] And my response to him was a couple of things. One, in kind of a joking way, I said, ‘You know, I did get more votes than him in Utah. Does that give me a mandate?’
Trump is not gonna like someone pointing out that their vote margin is bigger than his. Curtis is pulling some old-school John McCain energy with that statement.
Karl then interviewed Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who has been a general disappointment for a while now.
Fetterman spent as much time praising Trump’s “undeniable political talent” and making excuses for people being offended by the word fascism as anything else.
We might be losing Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, but by God, John Fetterman will fill the douchecanoe void they’re leaving behind.
Have a Chrismukkah Week!
Follow Michael Mora on Bluesky and Threads. (If you are still on Twitter, I’m also HERE)
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