Sunday morning talking heads

I can’t understand why Trump continues to let Rudy Giuliani go on TV, make a spectacle of himself, and set fires that the White House will eventually need to put out. Neither can some members of his own cabinet. Mike Pompeo, for one, is reportedly tearing his hair out at having to navigate Giuliani’s daily Ukraine messaging. Other Republicans are complaining to the media both on and off the record that Rudy needs to shut his cakehole already. It won’t happen today, though: Giuliani is the star guest on this morning’s Sunday shows, set for appearances on “This Week” and “Face the Nation” where he’ll answer questions about what he’s been telling the Ukrainians for the past six months, whether he ever tried to extort them over U.S. military aid at Trump’s behest, and why he thought it’d be a good idea to give a paid speech to a Kremlin-backed conference in the middle of all this before media scrutiny forced him to back off. He’s likely to make news, and not in a good way for the president.

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Maybe Trump’s reason for letting Rudy’s circus act proceed is as simple as him enjoying Giuliani’s relentless belligerence on his behalf. Rudy swings wildly but he always aims his roundhouses at Trump’s enemies. The president surely appreciates that, even when some of those wild punches end up landing on Team Trump instead.

Liddle’ Adam Schiff will also be on this morning, of course, where he’ll chart the path forward on impeachment and try to decipher what the hell Trump was talking about here in explaining Schiff’s nickname. He’s set for “This Week” and “Meet the Press.” The Democrat most worth watching, though, may be freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who’s an interesting player in the Ukraine matter for all sorts of reasons. She used to work at the CIA, just like the whistleblower. She’s one of the seven Democratic freshmen with natsec backgrounds who wrote the influential WaPo op-ed earlier this week endorsing impeachment that ended up finally convincing Pelosi. And she happens to represent a majority-Republican district in Michigan, one that broke for Trump in 2016. By taking a lead role in the impeachment melee, Slotkin’s taking her political life in her hands.

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She also made this interesting comment after Pelosi announced the formal start of an impeachment inquiry a few days ago. An impeachment inquiry is what Jerry Nadler has claimed all along to be conducting, in which case what exactly did Pelosi accomplish? Slotkin doesn’t know the answer to that question and was blunt about it:

She’ll be on “State of the Union” this morning to address all of that. Cory Booker will be on the same show, no doubt to emote about Trump’s alleged crimes and offer a hint about whether he’ll be dropping out of the race 48 hours from now or hanging in there.

If you’re already bored with impeachment try “Fox News Sunday,” where Trump immigration czar Stephen Miller will be on to defend the administration’s new cap on refugees. Expect Chris Wallace to press him on Christian refugees in particular: Trump promised two years ago to give them priority in refugee admissions, but the new cap of 18,000 total refugees annually is so low that only a relatively tiny number — Christian and otherwise — will be admitted. Christian refugee resettlement groups have noticed too and aren’t happy about it. The full line-up is at the AP.

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David Strom 6:40 PM | April 18, 2024
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