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. Here is the latest episode:
Tim Donner: As we enter the slowest month of the year – though there’s rarely a slow news day anymore since Donald Trump took to using Twitter on a daily basis – special elections like the one in the 12th district of Ohio this past week get outsized attention and the result provided something for everyone. The Republicans got a victory and the Democrats can point to the fact that they only lost by one point in a district Trump won big as evidence of an impending blue wave, but what is the Democrat’s strategy beyond hating on Trump, which will attract about a third of the country and repel another third?
There is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party between traditional liberals and resistance progressives, and we go to one of the thought leaders on the left, Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of the leftist Daily Kos, who says, beware to Democrats who aren’t down with the socialist cause.
Markos Moulsitas
Markos Moulitsa: The country has a real choice at stake here. Whether you’re going to support a President who is a traitor to our country and a party that backs up that treason, or do you want a party that actually puts Americans and America first. We are watching our potential 2020 field very carefully and we’re going to judge them in large part on how strongly they were with the Resistance from day one and through the 2018 election. I think a lot of the energy right now is with Elizabeth Warren. It’s with Kamala Harris. I think those are the people that are getting a lot of attention. Joe Biden’s kind of been out of the game for the last several years. When you really look at what that so called socialist platform is… you either embrace the label and own it and be a player,
Or you can be like Andrew Cuomo, and be off in the sidelines, irrelevant.
Tim: So, if you’re nothing more than a traditional liberal who doesn’t necessarily want to fundamentally transform America into the leftist Utopia promised by Barack Obama, that just won’t do for the base of the Democratic Party, which makes an overlooked statement by Democrat Congressmen Sean Patrick Maloney of New York that much more compelling. He says his party is a mess.
Sean Patrick Maloney: We have been failing miserably. The Democratic Party better get its backbone back and better get off the couch and in the game. We are losing the Supreme Court. We’ve been getting our butt kicked in Washington. And so these elections have enormous consequences. What I’m saying is that, that is the result of getting
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney
rolled on Merrick Garland, which was a disgrace. this is a result of losing the Presidential election, right? That is a result of losing our way as Democrats, of acting like a bunch of jerks who can only talk when a pollster tell us what to say
Tim: I feel certain that congressmen Maloney was taken to the woodshed by the Democratic Party leadership for that, but he speaks the truth. A truth the party thinks it will reverse in November, but for a blue wave to happen even in a midterm election where the President’s party almost always loses seats the Democrats have to decide how to present themselves, as a party of the increasingly outspoken hard left or a party that can out-Trump Trump with the working folks. And I can tell you, the Socialists are now clearly at the heart of the party.
All over the nation, far left candidates are challenging traditional liberals. The most famous these days is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but another high-profile leftist trying to topple the party establishment is Cynthia Nixon. Certainly no relation to the former president. She’s challenging New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and wearing the socialist banner boldly.
Cynthia Nixon: The establishment is terrified of that word “Socialism,” but if we learned one thing from the Obama years, it’s that Republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do. So, we might as well give them the real thing.
Tim: Oh, and they fully intend to, but some Democrats are getting it from both sides. The Democrats defending 23 of the 33 seats being contested in the Senate this November, and 10 of them are in states won by Donald Trump, including West Virginia. A state Trump won by 40 points where Joe Manchin is considered the most moderate, most pro Trump Democrat, but he’s still a Democrat, so the Republicans are going after him with commercials like this:
Ad Voice: When did it happen, Joe? When did you change from West Virginia Joe to Washington Joe? When did you leave here for year $700,000 D.C. luxury yacht there? When did you choose your new friends, Hillary and Obama? When did you decide to oppose tax cuts and building the wall? Joe Manchin’s no longer one of us.
Tim: That’s from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. As Manchin tries to walk that tight rope between showing support for Trump in the single most pro-Trump state and defending his record of voting consistently for Democratic programs, the left continues to do any and everything it can to cast the President as a criminal. It’s been 15 months since special counsel Robert Muller began his work and no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia has been found, and we’d know if it had because it would have certainly been leaked by now. And Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, was cornered about collusion on CNN of all places and continued to insist that there is a there there.
CNN Host: Can you agree that there has been no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy that has been presented thus far between the Trump campaign and Russia?
Adam Schiff: No, I don’t agree with that at all. I think there’s plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight. Now, that’s a different statement than
Adam Schiff
saying that there’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a criminal conspiracy. Bob Mueller will have to determine that, but of course, the entire meeting in Trump tower-
CNN Host: Right, so you acknowledge that the FBI has not presented it thus far?
Adam Schiff: We haven’t seen what Bob Mueller has produced in terms of the evidence yet, so in terms of FBI proof, they’re not going to present proof to the congress. We’re doing our own investigation and we revealed evidence. I think that it certainly goes to the issue of conspiracy and collusion.
Tim: Note what he said at the end there – the weasel words “It goes to” the issue of conspiracy and collusion. That’s the best he can do, because nothing, absolutely nothing has been proven about Trump and collusion, but the story stays alive.
