It’s Monday, it’s a new week, and we can only hope that the fallout from last week’s thoroughly wearisome Roseanne scandal will not find new life this week. While we wait to see whether or not something reanimates the corpse of that conversation, let’s see what happened on America’s other favorite sitcom this week, shall we?
Today on The View, our panelists dedicated the Hot Topics section to a number of items: the confidential memo President Donald Trump’s lawyers had sent to Robert Mueller claiming that Trump could legally “terminate the inquiry” and/or pardon himself; Trump’s own tweet about having the right to “PARDON” himself; and Rudy Giuliani’s latest unintelligible television appearance defending the constantly changing stories about who wrote the damn memo in the first place.
In response, Meghan McCain, still there, said that Trump has an 87 percent approval rating among Republicans in part because of the low unemployment rate (yes, she also mentioned Trump’s favorite talking point, black unemployment), but also, people can’t handle and understand all the news stories related to the president. Via Raw Story:
“I think there is just this cacophony of information, and it’s hard for even me to follow, which I’m open and frank about on this show,” McCain said. “I think people are just, like, well, you know, if somebody happens, maybe.”
Sure, the sheer amount of information and scandals coming out of the White House is overwhelming, but as Joy Behar pointed out, none of it has been flattering for Trump:
“What is so hard to follow about ‘grab them by the genitalia?’” Behar asked. “Why is it hard to follow the insult against your father? Why is it so hard to follow the fact that he attacked Gold Star families?”
McCain countered by essentially making the same point again, rather than answering the question. This time she included Giuliani:
“With the investigation and, like, I could possibly pardon myself,” McCain said. “Again, what crime are you talking about? We’re, like, collusion is not a crime. What exactly are you talking about? I think (Rudy) Giuliani to a point, I don’t think he is a great surrogate, but we were talking about it this morning. You guys do because he is sort of like shifting the blame in this way where nobody is really understanding what’s going on.”
Again, just because there’s a clear attempt to distract people and shift the blame away from Trump in any possible way does not mean that the attempt works. Donald Trump doesn’t have a 87 percent approval rating from Republicans because Giuliani garbling nonsense on TV has obscured what’s really happening at the White House. Republicans know what’s going on and are on board.
After Sarah Haines reminded McCain that Giuliani literally posited that Trump could shoot former FBI director James Comey and not be prosecuted, McCain conveniently switched the conversation to midterms and touted Bill Maher’s “genius” suggestion that Democrats find a slogan that fits on a hat. Nice.
Oh and later, Michael Eric Dyson appeared on the show because he’s got a new book coming out. Among other things, he said that Republicans could win over black voters if they weren’t so racist, but when asked if he really thought all Republicans were racist, he clarified that it was #NotAllRepublicans, but “enough of them to make a difference, enough of them who don’t speak up.”
Almost immediately after, McCain said that as a Republican who believes that #NotAllRepublicans are racist, she finds that “that kind of blanketing is dangerous.” Even though Dyson had just said he didn’t believe all Republicans were racist. Like right before she started talking. Business as usual!!