SAY WHAT? How Iowa Changed Everything

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: In the two weeks since it happened, the most infamous example of incompetence at the national level of politics in recent memory, the Iowa caucuses, changed everything in the Democrats' race to unseat President Donald Trump. And here's why: They changed the entire conversation, the entire narrative, and the entire focus from Trump and his sins to the Democrats being unable to get their own house into any sense of order. And on top of that came one of those Southwest Airlines moments -- you know the ad where someone says or does something so embarrassing and there's no escape -- and the voice says, "Want to get away?" Just days after a strong showing in New Hampshire that pole-vaulted her into the top tier of candidates, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) went on Spanish-language Telemundo and was asked about the Mexican president.

Telemundo interviewer: Sorry to ask this, but do you know who he is? Do you know his name?

Klobuchar: I know that he is the Mexican president.

Telemundo interviewer: But can you tell me his name?

Klobuchar: No.

Telemundo interviewer: Don't you think it would be important if you're running for president to know who the president of Mexico, the country to the south of the United States, is?

Klobuchar: Yes.

Telemundo interviewer: (turning to Pete Buttigieg): Can you tell me who the president of Mexico is?

Pete Buttigieg: Yeah, President López Obrador, I hope.

Telemundo interviewer: You're the only one that's been able to tell me that today.

Buttigieg: Really? Wow.

Tim: Ouch. Want to get away? At least Mayor Pete knew the Mexican president’s name, and even he sounded unsure. But this personal incompetence on top of the collective incompetence unmasked in Iowa is yet another favorable turn of events for Michael Bloomberg, the stealth billionaire you see only on TV and online, never in person, like he's some sort of avatar. He is skipping the first four contests as he carpet-bombs the 14 states voting on Super Tuesday, March 3, spending at last count an unprecedented, unheard-of $385 million on ads, to the point where he's now actually running out of places to run ads. So as Bloomberg becomes all the rage in a party desperate for someone, anyone, to save them from themselves, so do increasingly disturbing statements from his past and allegations that now pile up as the klieg lights shine on the former mayor of New York.

So let's drill down on this guy. An old video was uncovered last week of Bloomberg saying his stop-and-frisk policy amounted to finding young, dark-skinned men, throwing them up against the wall, and frisking them. That match lit a tinderbox, as we learned last week of persistent allegations of sexual harassment filed against Bloomberg during his years running his company before he was mayor. And then came a report that when a saleswoman employed by Bloomberg in the 1990s told him she was pregnant, he allegedly responded with great insensitivity:

Lawyer of pregnant woman: She thought he would be pleased that she was pregnant. She said that to him and he said to her, "Kill it."

Tim: Now that plays right into the narrative of Bloomberg being a soulless, technocratic control freak, but you want soulless? Here's more: Bloomberg discussing farmers.

Mike Bloomberg: I could teach anybody, even people in this room, so no offense intended, to be a farmer. It's a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water. Up comes the corn. The information economy is fundamentally different. You have to have a different skill set. You have to have a lot more gray matter.

Tim: Translation: farmers, stupid. Anyone could do it. Online wizards like him, much smarter. Sounds like basket of deplorables 2.0. Of course this wasn't supposed to be happening at all, because Bloomberg was crystal clear early in 2019 that he was not running for president. And he took the opportunity to reveal more of his character by ridiculing a beloved former president.

Bloomberg: At some point, you've got to say, look, I would be 79 years old when I took office. People say, Ronald Reagan was 80 when he left. Yeah, when he was 80, they carried him out gaga.

Tim: Wow. That's really funny. And they say Trump is petty and mean-spirited. But then there's Bloomberg's craven apology at a church, when he decided to change his mind and run for president, for his stop-and-frisk policy, which he advanced and defended for 12 years as mayor.

Bloomberg: I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I didn't understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities. I was totally focused on saving lives, but as we know, good intentions aren't good enough. I now see that we could and should have acted sooner and acted faster to cut the stops. I wish we had. I'm sorry that we didn't. I realize back then I was wrong and I'm sorry.

Tim: Wrong for 12 years during which he kept saying he was right. And notice even when he's pandering, he still defends his policy by preceding the apology with he was just concerned with saving lives. But not just his policy but what he said about it is leading establishment Democrats to rethink their decision to promote his candidacy just to undercut Moscow Bernie. Listen to the quintessential Democrat establishment voice, Donna Brazile, on Fox News.

Donna Brazile: I am uncomfortable with his policies in New York. I understand he's apologized. I get that. I'm for forgiveness, but I am extremely dismayed at the information I read over the weekend about the sexist work environment. It's one thing to have this so-called top law enforcement policy of stop and frisk. It was ruled unconstitutional, and it has taken him years to say I'm sorry about that.

Tim: So now Bloomberg is trying to fend off attacks from both wings of the party, the socialist wing and the liberal wing. But Bloomberg will be in the debates going forward as his numbers rise in a party that is looking for a lifeline, anyone who can beat Trump no matter his or her record or beliefs. Which makes the latest news about Bloomberg all the more inexplicable, that he's seriously considering as a running mate, wait for it, Hillary Clinton. Trump's chief strategist from 2016 Steve Bannon says that is a sign of the Democrats' apocalypse.

Steve Bannon: There are clearly discussions going on. You really haven't had a denial from the Bloomberg camp, and you certainly haven't had a denial from the Hillary Clinton camp. And I think this goes back to the heart of why the Democratic Party has lost its way. The Democratic Party does not understand today, eight months from Election Day, why they lost 2016. They don't understand about managed decline of our elites. They don't understand why Donald Trump won. They don't understand the message of Donald Trump. They've spent three years trying to destroy him. They failed to destroy him. Eight months from the election, they have nothing. So now they have a moderate Republican mayor oligarch of New York combining with a globalist multi-time failure presidential candidate to try to do a combination. And I think that this shows really the personal vendetta that the Clintons and Michael Bloomberg have against President Trump.

Tim: It's all personal on the left with Trump, and that's why their collective Trump derangement syndrome leads to the possibility of Hillary rearing her head again. Trump must be salivating.

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Read more from Tim Donner.