New York Times Op-ed: ‘Let’s Scrap the Presidential Debates’

The New York Times published an op-ed Monday morning titled “Let’s Scrap the Presidential Debates,” arguing that they play too great a role in helping voters choose the president. Journalist Elizabeth Drew assures readers that she is not worried that Biden will lose the debates. “This, by the way, isn’t written out of any concern that Donald Trump will prevail over Joe Biden in the debates; Mr. Biden has done just fine in a long string of such contests,” she writes. The point, she says, is that the debates are meaningless — “that ‘winning’ a debate, however assessed, should be irrelevant, as are the debates themselves.” She argues: Nervous managers of the scheduled 2020 presidential debates are shuffling the logistics and locations to deal with the threat of the coronavirus. But here’s a better idea: Scrap them altogether. And not for health reasons. The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership. In fact, one could argue that they reward precisely the opposite of what we want in a president. When we were serious about the presidency, we wanted intelligence, thoughtfulness, knowledge, empathy and, to be sure, likability. It should also go without saying, dignity. Yet the debates play an outsize role in campaigns and weigh more heavily on the verdict than their true value deserves.

Drew calls Trump “the most disastrous president in our history” and complains that the 2016 presidential debates “became simply another tool in his arsenal.” Others on the left have also argued that former Vice President Biden should not debate Trump. Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote last month that Biden should not debate Trump without real-time fact-checking — though Biden has a long history (in 2008, and 2012) of factual errors in debates. Joe Lockhart, a former press aide to President Bill Clinton, advised Biden last week at CNN.com: “Whatever you do, don’t debate Trump.”

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/08/03/new-york-times-op-ed-lets-scrap-the-presidential-debates/

Let’s Scrap the Presidential Debates

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/opinion/trump-biden-presidential-debates-2020.html

https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_debates,_2020

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/27/opinions/biden-trump-presidential-election-lockhart/index.html

Trump fires Tennessee Valley Authority board members over outsourcing controversy

President Trump is removing two members from the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest U.S. public power company, amid criticism the company is outsourcing jobs. “So, let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board. If you betray American workers, then you will hear two simple words ‘you're fired. You're fired,’” Trump said. Trump announced the decision to remove TVA board Chairman James Thompson and board member Richard Howarth at the White House on Monday, during a meeting with U.S. Tech Workers, a nonprofit organization urging limits on H-1B visas to foreign workers. That group recently slammed the TVA for laying off at least 64 U.S. workers while expanding its use of H-1B visas. “If the TVA does not move swiftly to reverse their decision to rehire their workers, then more board members will be removed,” Trump said. “We have the absolute right to remove board members.” In response to Trump’s remarks, TVA said it supported an executive order Trump signed on Monday requiring federal agencies to prioritize U.S. workers in federal contracts. That executive order specifically criticized TVA for saying it would outsource 20% of its technology jobs, which the order said could cause more than 200 U.S. workers to lose their jobs and cost the local economy tens of millions of dollars.

“All TVA employees are U.S. based citizens,” the power company said in a statement. “All jobs related to TVA’s Information Technology department must be performed in the U.S. by individuals who may legally work in this country.” The company added that its board members “serve at the pleasure of the President,” and the board can “continue its oversight function with the loss of one or more of its members.” Trump on Monday also again slammed TVA CEO Jeff Lyash for being “ridiculously overpaid” with a salary of $8 million per year. He said any new CEO of the power company should be paid no more than $500,000 a year, “which is still a significant amount more than the president of the United States.” The incident isn’t Trump’s first tussle with the TVA. In April, Trump said he’d support reducing “by a lot” Lyash’s salary, quipping that he “has to be the highest-paid man in any government.” And in 2019, the TVA’s board voted to approve the closure of two coal plants, bucking direct requests from Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to keep them running. Lyash, in an interview last September, told the Washington Examiner the decision was about economics and not “about whether coal is good or bad.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/trump-fires-tennessee-valley-authority-board-members-over-outsourcing-controversy

'Double standard': Lisa Murkowski pledges to oppose Supreme Court nominee in 2020

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski won't support a potential "double standard" for Senate Supreme Court confirmations. With the 2020 general election only 91 days away, Senate Republicans are grappling with whether or not they would fill a vacancy on the high court. Some Republicans, such as Murkowski, feel the GOP should adhere to a 2016 precedent set by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which prevented a Supreme Court confirmation during an election year. “When Republicans held off Merrick Garland, it was because nine months prior to the election was too close. We needed to let people decide. And I agreed to do that. If we now say that months prior to the election is OK when nine months was not, that is a double standard, and I don’t believe we should do it,” Murkowski told the Hill this week. “So, I would not support it.”

Murkowski has repeatedly diverged from the consensuses among her Republican colleagues in the past, voting "present" during Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation in 2018 and opposing his nomination earlier on. The Alaska senator also said earlier this summer that she is "struggling" with whether or not she will support Trump in the upcoming election. Garland, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was President Barack Obama's nominee in 2016 to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. However, McConnell declined to allow the Senate to vote on his nomination, saying the new president should have the ability to fill the vacancy. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the president pro tempore of the Senate, said his decision, in abstract, would be consistent with his choice in 2016. “In the abstract, I would do the same thing in 2020 that I would in 2016," Grassley said. However, he later said that the decision is ultimately up to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Graham, who is up for reelection in South Carolina, said he would be "willing" to confirm a judge to a Supreme Court vacancy but would like to get further input from his GOP colleagues. “We’ve got to see where the market is, what other senators think,” Graham said. Other Republicans, including Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, have declined to entertain the scenario. “We do not have a vacancy on the Supreme Court. All nine justices are alive,” Collins said. “I’m not at a point where I have something to say," Romney also said.

Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate and would not have room for more than three defections within their party should a nominee be voted on and all Democrats resist the president's selection. However, McConnell, the party leader, said he expects the Senate would fill a Supreme Court vacancy regardless of time. “Oh, we’d fill it,” the Kentucky Republican told the Hill. During an appearance on Fox News in February, McConnell said that filling the vacancy would be consistent with his decision to block a vote on Garland in 2016. "I said you'd have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy on the Supreme Court, occurring during a presidential election year, was confirmed by a Senate of a different party than the president. That was the situation in 2016. That would not be the situation in 2020," he said. "If you're asking me a hypothetical about whether this Republican Senate would confirm a member of the Supreme Court to a vacancy created this year — yeah, we would fill it," he concluded.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/double-standard-lisa-murkowski-pledges-to-oppose-supreme-court-nominee-in-2020

Obama releases 'first wave' of 2020 endorsements

Former President Barack Obama released a list of politicians he's endorsing for the 2020 election cycle. Obama, who released similar lists prior to the 2018 midterm elections, posted his endorsement list on social media on Monday morning. The list included more than 115 Democratic candidates running in races in 17 states. The post was deemed his "first wave" of support.

"I’m proud to endorse this diverse and hopeful collection of thoughtful, empathetic, and highly qualified Democrats. Together, these candidates will help us redeem our country’s promise by sticking up for working class people, restoring fairness and opportunity to our system, and fighting for the good of all Americans — not just those at the top," he said of the group. "They make me optimistic not just about our party’s chances in November, but about our country’s future long after that. So if you’re in one of their districts or states, make sure you vote for them this fall. And if you can, vote early — by mail or in person," Obama added.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obama-releases-first-wave-of-2020-endorsements

Obama First Round

https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1290301921673134082

Obama announces 'first wave' of 2018 midterm endorsements

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obama-announces-first-wave-of-2018-midterm-endorsements

Seems as though Obama is treating this like a March Madness Game