Democratic voters, it seems, are an easily spooked bunch. A few bad polls and some seem ready to all but throw in the towel on the November midterms. But now is not the time for that sort of thinking. As discussed on today’s BradCast, there is simply too much at stake this year — Constitutional freedoms, democracy itself, survival on Planet Earth, just to name a few — to get sidetracked by despair. To paraphrase Obama, don’t boo-hoo! Vote! (And make sure everyone else you know does the same!) [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
It was always gonna be an uphill fight this year. It still is. But it makes no sense to wallow. It does make sense to get to work. As President Biden correctly noted this afternoon, “Today we face an inflection point, one of those moments that only come around every several generations where there’s so much change happening — technologically, politically, and socially — that the decisions we make now are going to determine the future of our nation and the future of your generation for the next 30 or more years.”
With all of that in mind, these are among the stories covered on today’s program…
- Breaking just before airtime: Special Counsel John Durham — tapped by Donald Trump and Bill Barr to investigate the investigators who investigated Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — is now 0 for 2 in Court. Igor Danchenko, said to have been a primary source for the so-called “Steel dossier”, was charged in Durham’s probe with five counts of lying to the FBI. He was acquitted today by a jury on all charges. He was the second to be indicted by Durham and then fully exonerated at trial. Even more humiliating for Durham: he personally handled most of the argument and questioning in court and reportedly ended up being rebuffed by his own witnesses who provided support for the defense. Worse, Danchenko, a Russian citizen living in the U.S., was reportedly “a treasured FBI informant” whose indictment “hurt U.S. national security.”
- Last week we detailed the five U.S. Senate seats that could plausibly be flipped this year from Republican to Democratic (in PA, OH, WI, NC and FL) and the two Democratic seats that could plausibly be won by Republicans (in NV and GA). At the end of yesterday’s show, however, we added another to the Plausible Red to Blue list when the “gold standard” Des Moines Register poll over the weekend found Iowa‘s 89-year old, 7-term Republican Senator Chuck Grassley to be just three points ahead of his Democratic challenger Mike Franken. Today, there’s yet another Republican Senate seat said to be in jeopardy — in deep red Utah of all places! According to two different polls, independent candidate Evan McMullin is said to be in a dead heat with GOP Senator Presidential election theft enthusiast and not Trump “bootlicker” Mike Lee. On Monday, the two sparred in their only debate. It didn’t go all that well for Lee.
- On Monday, the Biden Administration opened its student loan forgiveness program at StudentAid.gov. The process has reportedly already served some 12 million applicants who may be forgiven for as much as $20,000 in debt. The process to apply reportedly takes no more than five minutes. All that is needed is a name, birthdate and social security number. The government will supposedly take care of the rest. At the same time, Republicans are suing to block Biden’s program, created via Executive Order. But if they believe it’s truly illegal, as Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern observes today, they should introduce a bill to force those who received debt forgiveness to pay the money back. Do you think Republicans will do so?
- On Tuesday, President Biden spoke at a DNC event and vowed to codify the Constitutional rights and freedoms previously guaranteed by Roe v. Wade into federal law as his first order of business in January, after our corrupt, stolen and packed Republican Supreme Court majority took privacy rights and reproductive freedoms away from Americans last June. We share Biden’s remarks today. But, in order to enact those protections, as he points out, Dems will need to hold their House majority and pick up at least two more Democratic Senators willing to reform the undemocratic Senate filibuster rule in November. If that happens, not only can abortion and privacy rights be protected by federal law, but voting rights can be expanded and protected, and the corrupt Supreme Court itself can be expanded and un-corrupted. But, again, if that’s what you’d like to see, you better to get to work between now and November 8!
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on how GOP rollbacks to climate policies made things worse for Florida; how the Pacific Northwest is facing record heat and wildfires in mid-October(!); how FL’s Sen. Rick Scott wants the government to do less for disaster victims; and how a can of soup and a priceless Van Gogh have sparked debate over climate protest tactics…
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
10/18/2022
Don’t Boo(-Hoo)! Vote!: ‘BradCast’ 10/18/2022 | UT's Sen. Lee in dead heat; Biden Admin begins student loan forgiveness; Biden vows to codify 'Roe' if Dems hold House, increase Senate majority; Also: Trump/Barr's dumb Special Counsel Durham loses another case... · · · · · Don’t Boo(-Hoo)! Vote!: ‘BradCast’ 10/18/2022 | UT's Sen. Lee in dead heat; Biden Admin begins student loan forgiveness; Biden vows to codify 'Roe' if Dems hold House, increase Senate majority; Also: Trump/Barr's dumb Special Counsel Durham loses another case...
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Good coverage of the Mike Lee debate. I was also glad that McMillin went after Lee’s lies so aggressively.
Nobody can say I haven’t tried to help my party this year. I’ve already knocked on over 500 doors for the Democrats – not so much for the party in general, but more because we could lose our honest election official’s office of the last 30 years to a guy who spoke at a “Stop The Steal” rally put on by none other then Tina Peters, of Colorado election software theft fame. The man also thinks democrats are “commies and Marxists”.
Our legislature also gerrymandered the heck out of Salt Lake County this year, so yeah, I’m freaked out.
99% of all the people who answered the door were very nice, even at the doors marked, “NO SOLICITORS” which was sort of surprising. I’m not sheepish about being a democrat although I wish they had been able to push back more strongly against obvious abandonment of democracy by the party that lies about their man winning and has been lying about “voter fraud” for decades to justify outright theft.
I will say Bush lost in 2000 till the day I die, but that’s because he did!