Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere
Today’s Hot Topics:
1) The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, decried what he called a “radical tantrum” on Saturday after his home in Kentucky was vandalized with messages apparently protesting against his refusal to increase Covid aid payments from $600 to $2,000.
The attack followed a similar one on the home of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, in San Francisco.
Democrats under Pelosi supported the move to increase payments but McConnell blocked it, despite its origin in a demand from Donald Trump.
2) Continuing to pursue unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and some of his fellow GOP senators announced they would vote to reject the certification of Electoral College votes for the presidential election unless an emergency audit is conducted.
In a joint statement released Saturday, Cruz and the other senators cited “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law” to back their vow to object to the certification vote set for Wednesday. Republican claims of election fraud in swing states have been discredited with election officials and U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr saying there was no evidence of widespread fraud that could have swayed the results of the presidential election.
The senators, led by Cruz, called on the appointment of an Electoral Commission to conduct a 10-day audit of the election results in “disputed states.” The statement does not list which states should be included, nor does it mention any specific cases of fraud.
"We are not naïve. We fully expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise,” the statement reads. “But support of election integrity should not be a partisan issue.”3) Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected Sunday as speaker, giving her the reins of Democrats’ slender House majority as she and President-elect Joe Biden set a challenging course of producing legislation to tackle the pandemic, revive the economy and address other party priorities.
“We accept a responsibility as daunting and demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced,” the California Democrat told the chamber as she accepted a fresh two-year term in her post, perhaps her last. Citing the 350,000 Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 and the millions who’ve lost jobs and livelihoods, she won a standing ovation when she said, “Our most urgent priority will continue to be defeating the corona virus. And defeat it, we will.”
Yet even before House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ceremonially handed her the speaker’s gavel — a normally genial moment — he provided a stark reminder of the partisan divide coloring Congress.
4) President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act.
The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”
At another point, Trump said: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
He later added: “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Today’s Guests:
1) Steve Moore, Trump Economic Adviser, FreedomWorks Senior Economic Contributor – joins the show to discuss the economic strategies and implications of the election results.
2) Chad Rogers, Ringside All-Star, Publisher, The Dead Pelican – Talked with Jeff about the hot topics of the day and his pessimistic view on the nation’s future and take callers.
3) Ron Kennedy, author of "The South Was Right" - calls in to talk about what secession means to him.
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