If you didn't watch last night's 60 Minutes segment, where Rep. Kevin McCarthy basically shows the world he doesn't do his homework, know one thing: Kevin not only doesn't do his homework, but rather than admit he's wrong, or adjust his views when confronted with new information, he just changes topics. Check this out.
When asked about President Trump effectively using the power of his office to extort campaign help from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, GOP Minority Leader McCarthy muffed the question. The conversation with CBS's Scott Pelley went like this:
PELLEY: What do you make of this exchange? President Zelensky says, “We are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.” And President Trump replies, “I would like you to do us a favor though.”
MCCARTHY: You just added another word.
PELLEY: No, it’s in the transcript.
MCCARTHY: He said- “I’d like you to do a favor 'though'”?
PELLEY: Yes, it’s in the White House transcript.There was a brief exchange where Scott Pelley tried to get Kevin to acknowledge that Trump was trying to secure political help from a foreign government in exchange for promised military aid (a quid pro quo), but Kevin quickly tried to change the topic.
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From the released transcript; Ukraine's President Zelensky asks about securing promised - and paid for -
military weapons. President Trump responds with his not so cleverly couched "favor" (request for help)
on an invented conspiracy involving "Crowdstrike" and the Bidens.
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Seeing what was going on, Scott Pelley interrupted the GOP leader by lightly scolding Kevin for using the White House's talking points on the topic (which were accidentally sent to Democrats in Congress).
Kevin immediately denied seeing any White House talking points, but then ignored Pelley's suggestion that Trump was (again) trying to secure the help of a foreign government for his presidential campaign (as this timeline strongly suggests), which the Mueller Report indicates he did in the 2016 election. More specifically, the Mueller Report leads one to believe - in part because of obstruction efforts - that "while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
As we know, many people were indicted or went to prison for Trump's "non-exoneration".
It was clear Kevin didn't like being exposed by Scott Pelley for not knowing what was in the released - and very public - transcript. Nor did he like being reminded that he is simply doing the bidding of the Trump White House by sticking to the inadvertently released White House talking points.
(But being unprepared is old hat for Kevin. He wasn't prepared for our surprise "debate" on The Ralph Bailey Show two years ago here in Bakersfield, which you can access by clicking here and here.)
Here's the larger point. Donald Trump learned nothing from the Mueller Report, which did not exonerate him. Proof of this is that Trump is now soliciting, and is prepared to accept, help from foreign governments in his re-election bid. And he is prepared to turn America's foreign policy commitments into a mob-like racket in order to get it.
Worse, he now has the full support of the GOP's Minority Leader and his party colleagues. They don't care that Trump wasn't exonerated by the Mueller Report, and could care less if he continues doing business as usual.
And, yes, this is going to get worse before it gets better.
Sigh ...
- Mark
UPDATE (10-2-19): The reviews are in on Kevin's 60 Minutes performance. Peter Wehner, who served in the Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II administrations, referred to Kevin McCarthy as "weak and pathetic" while Raw Story makes it clear that Republicans are afraid of looking "like Kevin McCarthy on 60 Minutes."
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