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: Fifty states, 50 governors, 50 different plans for trying to reopen the economy after this blight, which has cost the nation and the world so dearly, to the point where many of us are overcome with anxiety and wonder over what the post-COVID world will look like. One of the governors who has decided to end the lockdown of his state at the end of this month is Ron DeSantis of Florida (R), who says his approach has offered the right blend of health and the economy.
Ron DeSantis: You go back six weeks, everybody was saying Florida was going to be worse than New York. Obviously, we have a very elderly population. If you look at what's happened, that's not true. New York, for example, has about 25 times the number of fatalities of Florida, even though we have two million more people. People said our hospitals were going to be overrun. We've actually increased hospital bed space and ICU bed space during the pandemic. So there were fewer beds available in Florida in February than there are now. You can do both … You can continue to fight COVID-19, but also get people back to work and have society function again.
Tim: But it's become increasingly clear that this whole COVID crisis has now descended into a political battle, with President Trump and most GOP governors prone to accelerate reopening, while the left attacks them for heartlessness and wants to keep the shutdown going for many more weeks or months. In fact, the most famous young leftist in the country, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), goes even further.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: We talk about this idea of reopening society. Only in America does the president, when the president tweets about liberation, does he mean go back to work ... I think a lot of people should just say no. We're not going back to that. We're not going back to working 70-hour weeks just so that we could put food on the table and not even feel any sort of semblance of security in our lives.
Tim: So what AOC just said is that people shouldn't have to actually work to put food on the table, even as we watch health care workers on the front lines risk their lives every day. But let's cut through the niceties here. AOC and her fellow travelers on the left are appearing to enjoy the fact that the economy built during the presidency of Donald Trump is tanking -- because, of course, that gives them a better chance to unseat him in November. But the problem, really, is their own candidate. If anything, Joe Biden's cognitive issues seem to have worsened. This week, he was interviewed for 17 minutes and never looked at the camera on his home computer. But what will haunt Biden for the duration is his recent inability to even repeat the most basic element of the Declaration of Independence.
Joe Biden: We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by the ... You know the thing.
Tim: Yes, we know the thing. The problem is, we're not sure if you do. And rest assured that the Trump campaign is ready to absolutely eviscerate the former vice president for his endless string of gaffes. And this one, from recent days, is likely to be prominent.
Joe Biden: You know, there's a ... During World War II, where Roosevelt came up with a thing that was totally different than a, than the ... He called it the World War II. He had the war production board.
Tim: Yes, folks, that guy wants to be your next president.
One more thing before we move on. Remember the investigation by Attorney General Bill Barr and investigator John Durham into FISA abuse and spying on the 2016 Trump campaign by the Obama Justice Department? Yeah, you probably forgot about it, but it's still very much alive, according to Barr, appearing on the syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show. And the fact it's an election year won't stop the momentum.
Bill Barr: As far as I'm aware, none of the key people whose actions are being reviewed at this point, by Durham, are running for president. In its core, the idea is you don't go after candidates. You don't indict candidates or perhaps someone that's officially close to a candidate, that it's essentially the same within a certain number of days before an election. But I don't think any of the people whose actions are under review by Durham fall into that category … Failure to follow the guidelines and the requirements in preparing FISA applications is very disturbing, and we shouldn't proceed with FISA unless we have safeguards and ensure that the law is being scrupulously followed by the FBI.
Tim: The question now is, with all the water that's passed under the dam since the whole impeachment business ended in January, and the nation in the midst of a public health crisis, will people still care about spying on the Trump campaign and flagrant abuse of the FISA process four years ago? We'll find out.
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Read more from Tim Donner.
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