GOP Debate Recap; Latest on Dr. Fauci and Government Shutdowns
GOP Debate Recap; Latest on Dr. Fauci and Government Shutdowns
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The Republican Party held its second debate last night with the front runner again a no-show. The debate was another lackluster disappointment. I watched it so you don’t have to subject yourself to an all-out snooze fest. Here's what happened:
Fox News was again the host and again was not up to the task. I really can’t fathom what they think they are doing. Another introductory report by Brit Hume that we’d all just as soon skip. Next background footage and reporting from the moderators before the first question. Between these two, it was over 5 minutes from the start of the program until we heard from the first candidate. Does Fox News think we’re tuning in to watch Fox News? We’ve tuned in to hear from the candidates - just open the show with the first question! Second, the moderators were poor, with the lone exception of Dana Perino who should have hosted on her own. Stuart Varney was terrible, stumbling through questions he was directly reading from a book and offered no pushback to the candidates. It is also unfair but must be said: the third host, Ilia Cameron from Univision, was ineffective because her accent was so thick she was hard to understand. Chris Christie seemed to be straining to understand her twice. And among the three moderators, she was the one that candidates were able to interrupt most successfully. Finally, the moderators lost control of the debate with unintelligible cross-talk through significant portions of the two hours - again. Why didn’t Fox News have a plan to fix this the second time around?
As far as the candidates go:
Ron DeSantis improved from his decent performance last month and did well. He was able to attack Trump about deficit spending while touting his own record, having the #1 ranked economy and the #1 ranked education system in the Free State of Florida. I honestly don’t understand why more voters don’t prefer his record to some of the more flashy candidates’ talk. Mr. DeSantis also came off as a strong leader, shutting down another kindergarten debate exercise attempted by Fox News, a Survivor-style vote. Mr. DeSantis interrupted to shut that down as he did last month’s “show of hands” question. He still suffers from that pained smile he flashes after a good answer. He nonetheless did well and struck me as the winner of the debate.
Nikki Haley came out firing and attacked just about every other candidate on stage. She had some good one-liners and really went after Vivek Ramaswamy, who I am sure she sees as the next step in the ladder. She took a shot at DeSantis on fracking but he brushed it off pretty well. I just don’t think her globalist-light neocon positions on Ukraine and other issues will be winning angles for today’s Republican electorate. At the same time, she is a strong woman unwilling to back down on a male dominated debate stage and if Trump is any indication the Republican voters reward fighting words. She could be a strong force if she were able to break out of some of her past positions and lean towards the America First agenda that has swept up the Republican Party.
Doug Burgem did surprisingly well. He was the first to jump into the debate before he was called on and delivered a number of concise, well thought out descriptions of the issues and his solutions to them. Once he successfully jumped in like that though, the whole debate ran off the rails. He’d be a great addition to a cabinet, which at this point should be the aim of his campaign.
Chris Christie joined Doug Burgem on the list of “people who will never win but did well at the debate.” In fact Mr. Christie is a life-long member of this list. Governor Christie was best when he was attacking Donald Trump for his policies (mostly $7T deficit over 4 years) and Mr'. Trump’s failure to show, calling him “Donald Duck.” It was a poor amalgam of Mr. Trump’s nick-naming and came off as a high school debate strategy.
Tim Scott improved his performance from last month (which was a snooze fest) but I don’t think he did enough. After Mr. Burgem’s first interruption of the flow, Mr. Scott led the league in interruptions and pleas to the moderators to speak. Someone must have told him he should try to interrupt every other candidate every time. It did not work; if anything it made him look weak and desperate. While Mr, Scott at times was able to repeat his stump speech employing soaring and eloquent language, he didn't make enough impact and he is probably close to done.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who many believe won the first debate, was not as good this second time around. I couldn’t stop looking at his new blown-out hair nor listening to his flip-flop regarding his competitors. The rest of the candidates took him to task on a host of issues, including his treatment of them at debates, his ties to China and his inexperience. Mr, Ramaswamy performs extremely well in long-form speeches or discussions, but has not mastered these debate sessions. He sounds like he’s reading from a script, and last night sounded pandering and desperate. He is loosing steam.
Mike Pence was boring, condescending and slow. The poor guy just needs to quit.
So by at the end of the night this debate was extremely disappointing. No candidate had the sort of night that might propel them into a closer race with Donald Trump. In fact, after watching I began to have a terrible feeling that many have already predicted: Donald Trump is going to be the nominee. Despite Governor DeSantis’ points that “polls don’t elect Presidents, voters do,” this night will not change any polls by much. These candidates need to shake things up within the next 2 months, or they will lose.
Public is reporting that Dr. Anthony Fauci not only prompted the “Proximal Origin of Sars-Cov-2” paper that claimed COVID was likely from natural origins and was published in Nature magazine (and has been since thoroughly called into question) but that Mr. Fauci diverted many agencies away from the Lab Leak theory. Indeed, after it was revealed that the CIA paid bonuses to researchers in order for them to change their view and state they believed in the natural origin theory, Public’s story now quotes direct sources that show Mr. Fauci on a campaign to discredit the lab leak theory early in the Pandemic. This is Public’s quote of a CIA whistleblower:
“Fauci’s expert opinions were a significant consideration and were part of our classified assessment…His opinion substantially altered the conclusions that were subsequently drawn.”
With this reporting, and the knowledge that Dr. Fauci lied directly to Congress and the American public about his funding of gain-of-function research and that he was likely developing these bioweapons on behalf of the military (DARPA), and one wonders why Dr. Fauci has not been identified as a person of interest in the case of over 1 million COVID deaths. Are Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents - with 2 Special Prosecutors assigned - more important than uncovering a potential conspiracy to make bioweapons and then cover it up when they leak from a lab and kill millions?
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has rejected a CR passed by the Senate yesterday and rightfully so. We should not allow and this government can not continue to function with $2T debts and no legislative process for appropriations bills. Get ready for a shut down.