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: Democrats had one final chance to hit the debate stage before the first votes are cast in Iowa on Feb. 3, but it seems none of the candidates took advantage of the opportunity to separate him or herself from the rest of the crowded pack in a race that has one guy running at the top of national polls and other candidates leading in some of the earliest contests.
And as if the disappointing debate performances were not enough, the evening was punctuated by a hot mic episode right after the debate ended, which has now turned into an open internet feud between the top two candidates from the socialist wing of the party, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Warren earlier in the week had accused Bernie of saying a woman couldn't win the presidency this year. Bernie denied it, and when he went to shake Warren's hand after the debate, she pulled back her hand, and then this:
Elizabeth Warren: I think you called me a liar on national TV.
Bernie Sanders: What?
Warren: I think you called me a liar on national TV.
Sanders: Let's not do it right now. If you want to have that discussion, we'll have that discussion.
Warren: Any time.
Sanders: You called me a ... You told me. All right, let's not do it now.
Tom Steyer: I don't want to get in the middle of it, I just want to say hi, Bernie.
Sanders: Yeah, good. Okay.
Tim: That was the hapless Tom Steyer sticking in his nose at the end before being summarily dismissed by Bernie. So in a debate where these presidential candidates were supposed to make their final pitch to voters in Iowa, the only headline coming out of it was war between two socialists -- in a week where Trump scored more victories with the first phase of his China trade deal and the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Add to that, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) celebrating an impeachment nobody cares about by handing out impeachment pens from a silver tray, after the articles of impeachment were signed and sent to the Senate for a trial she has no chance of winning, and to say it was a disastrous week for Democrats would be the understatement of the young decade. And this is not just me saying this. The chorus of disappointment and even despair from the left after Tuesday's debate was unmistakable all over the airwaves. Start with Van Jones, self-professed communist but also a keen and honest political observer on CNN.
Van Jones: Well, I'm thinking people I think about every day, places like Oakland and Philadelphia, whatever. Can any of those people get excited about what I saw tonight? I don't see it. I have to be honest about it, I don't see it -- tonight for me was dispiriting. The Democrats got to do better than what we saw tonight. There was nothing I saw tonight that would be able to take Donald Trump out.
Tim: Meanwhile, over at MSNBC came wailing and gnashing of teeth from longtime leftist and rabble-rouser the Rev. Al Sharpton for the entirely uninspired display of what's supposed to be the best Democrats have to offer.
Rev. Sharpton: If you can't take on and take charge in the debate, what gives people the confidence you can do that with Donald Trump? You cannot stand up and be, just go along to get along, and think you're going to be the next president. You don't become champion by just saying, "I'll get by this round." You got to take the title and I didn't see anybody on the stage last night or in the ring that really said, "I'm taking charge. I can be president. I can take on Donald Trump."
Joe Scarborough (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
Tim: Now, Jones and Sharpton are avowed leftists, but the other concentration of Trump hatred is among the so-called never-Trumpers, Republicans and conservatives who've made their bed with the left because, even though Trump has done the things they've claimed to support for their entire lives, they just don't like his personality. Foremost among them, Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, who begrudgingly admitted that those vaunted Trump rallies are a whole lot more inspiring to ordinary Americans than the naysayers sitting around tables on camera harping at the president or the Democrats running for president.
Joe Scarborough: The people around the table are scolds. Everybody that's watching this guy, it's like Sinatra at the Sands in '65. It's like you said coming on, happy warrior.
MSNBC commentator: He's having a blast out there.
Scarborough: That's what they're saying. Democrats have to understand that and they have to figure out how to meet him on the political battlefield and take him on. I saw no evidence last night that anybody up there knew how to do that.
Tim: Now, last week we played you the comments of Michael Moore, far-left filmmaker and keen observer, who called Trump's win in 2016 early on. And you'll recall his remarks on how Trump is even stronger this time around. Well, this week, Moore lamented the other side of the equation, the weakness of Democrats and the feud between Bernie and Liz Warren, which will have drastic repercussions.
Michael Moore: The night that that happened, my first thought was, they will mark this day, Jan. 13, as the day Donald Trump was re-elected. Because once again, the Democrats, the liberals, the left, couldn't get it together, couldn't figure out instead of ... So happy to get right in there and fight each other like this, and I'm like, "When are we ever going to learn?" This is on us. This is not on the Russians. It's not on the Republicans. It's on the Democratic Party for not getting its act together and not using its head.
Tim: And there you have it, from the left about the left. Open panic about their chances of taking down Trump in a party that has clearly lost its way.
But what if Sanders can somehow prevail, win the nomination, and beat Trump? Well, socialist influence would overtake the country more than ever. But what would that mean? Well, if you want to be scared, really scared, listen to a Sanders field organizer in Iowa, Kyle Jurek, caught on camera by an undercover reporter working for filmmaker James O'Keefe. And I'll warn you, some of it is truly shocking.
Kyle Jurek: The only thing that works, the only thing that fascists understand, is violence. So the only way that you can confront them is with violence.
Undercover reporter: So if Trump gets re-elected, what?
Jurek: (Beep) cities burn. We're going to make 1978 look like a (beep) girl scout (beep) cookout.
Reporter: What does that mean?
Jurek: Remember what happened when McGovern got (beep) in Chicago in 1978? Riots. (Beep) people getting beaten by the cops. The cops are going to be the ones that are getting (beep) beaten in Milwaukee … Do you know how many people have suicided themselves that have been related to the Clintons in some way or another? It's (beep) insane.
Reporter: Killing Clintons?
Jurek: Maybe. Revolution.
Reporter: Killing Clintons?
Jurek: The revolution is on. No, we don't got to kill the Clintons. We'll make them kill themselves.
Reporter: How's that?
Jurek: Reign of terror … You walk into that MSNBC studio, drag those (beep) out by their hair and light them on fire in the streets.
Tim: That is the dark underbelly of the socialists who want to take over the country. And again, that was no rank-and-file Bernie supporter. It was a campaign field organizer for the Sanders campaign in Iowa.
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