Republicans are busy acting like Republicans and Andrea Mitchell and her Thursday panel of guests on MSNBC are beside themselves. From abortion, not giving minors puberty blockers, not teaching elementary students about sexual orientation, guns, the Commission of Presidential Debates, to redistricting, she warned about the GOP’s “hard right turn.”
On abortion, Mitchell held out hope that Republicans would go too far:
...let me just also point out moments ago Florida’ governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks. Yesterday, in Kentucky, Republicans overrode Governor Beshear’s veto of a sweeping abortion bill, and earlier this week Oklahoma's Republican governor made abortion a felony. So, the—the-- question here is would this ultimately fire up Democrats and independents instead just firing up the Republican base?
Unfortunately for Mitchell, USA Today’s Susan Page did not come with good news, reporting “we haven’t seen signs of that yet.”
Not deterred, Mitchell switched gears and asked Politico’s Eugene Daniels why the GOP doesn’t like “marginalized” people, “Eugene, there's a new law in Alabama. Again, this goes back to Kay Ivey making a gender-affirming care a felony and nationally more than 300 bills targeting the LGBTQ community have been introduced this year alone, so, why this relentless focus on an already marginalized group?”
For Daniels, the answer is that the GOP needs to create “a boogeyman” to motivate their voters and declared: “Some of the bills, you talk about like the Don't Say Gay bills that are out there, there's not a lot of teaching, if any, of third graders about sex and gender, right?”
On guns, Mitchell turned to The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes:
With all the gun violence just this week, of course, with the shooting, a legal gun being used, allegedly in New York on that subway. Georgia Governor Kemp signing bill to allow Tuesday allowing residents to carry handguns without a license. This amid rising gun violence nationally. How is that playing, likely to change key states like Georgia?
Sykes also brought bad news, claiming that Republicans believe guns to be a winning issue and that Democrats need to fix the perception that they are in favor of defunding the police.
Moving on to breaking news, Mitchell asked Page about the RNC “voting against participating in the 2024 debates if they are led by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has led these debates in a bipartisan way for decades.”
Page decried the news as “really terrible” and feared the potential loss of “not having the two candidates who are vying to lead our nation being forced to stand side by side and answer independent-minded questions…this is bad news for our democracy.“
Ignoring examples like the infamous Candy Crowley debacle in the 2012 presidential debate between then-President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, Mitchell portrayed GOP opposition as a Trumpian grievance, “And it just reinforces, Charlie the extent to which the Trump, Donald Trump has taken over the Republican Party.”
Finally, Mitchell got around to redistricting and more subtle accusations of racism, “And Eugene, finally Governor DeSantis putting his imprint on redistricting, rejecting a Republican-led legislature's plan, which was favoring Republicans and instead superimposing his own plan, which apparently they're now, you know, going to ratify, which is to create four additional Republican-leaning seats and eliminate at least eliminate two districts, congressional seats held by black Democrats, which are minority-led districts, so this would be pretty dramatic in Florida, which is all important.”
Daniels wrapped up the marathon segment by tying redistricting to previous topics, “we talk to experts, they have concerns about this. Susan has used the word undemocratic. They feel like that is also dangerous and puts us onto that same road and feel it's all connected with some of the things we’ve been seeing from the Republican Party that is chasing after, at the very least, what they think Donald Trump would want.”
This segment was sponsored by Cadillac.
Here is a transcript of the April 14 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
4/14/2022
12:50 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: And just moments ago, by the way, let me just also point out moments ago Florida’ governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks. Yesterday, in Kentucky, Republicans overrode Governor Beshear’s veto of a sweeping abortion bill, and earlier this week Oklahoma's Republican governor made abortion a felony. So, the—the-- question here is would this ultimately fire up Democrats and independents instead just firing up the Republican base? After that long question--
SUSAN PAGE: Well, Democrats have—Democrats have-- been counting on abortion to—to-- get their base excited in anticipation and dread, dreaded anticipation of a Supreme Court decision that will make it much easier for states to limit abortions. But, you know, the fact is we've seen these state actions in anticipation of that Supreme Court decision. And it has failed so far to really move the needle. We see Democratic voters not enthused about voting and not engaged in this election while Republicans are all riled up and so perhaps we’ll see a Democratic reaction, but we're just seven months out and we haven't seen signs of that yet, Andrea.
MITCHELL: And Eugene, there's a new law in Alabama. Again, this goes back to Kay Ivey making a gender-affirming care a felony and nationally more than 300 bills targeting the LGBTQ community have been introduced this year alone, so, why this relentless focus on an already marginalized group?
EUGENE DANIELS: What it appears to be happening is creating a boogeyman, boogeywoman, boogeyperson for Republican voters like Susan said to get them even further riled up than they already are on the Republican side as we head to the midterms. Some of the bills, you talk about like the Don't Say Gay bills that are out there, there's not a lot of teaching, if any, of third graders about sex and gender, right?
But when you think about the way that this world works, kids are constantly seeing, as a gay kid myself, I was watching Disney movies seeing girls and boys kiss, right, so is that teaching them about sex and gender and gender roles? And so when you talk to LGBTQ advocates, they’re really worried, like Charlie said, they are expecting and hoping that Democrats fight more about this, but I will say when it comes to Republicans, they do miss the possibility—the possibility-- of turning off voters that are most likely to make a difference in a midterm, right?
People in, people that are in the suburbs, suburban women and men who see these culture wars quote-unquote and have concerns about that. There's also the question about the future of the party, right? You talk to young Republicans and they will tell you some of the stuff turns them off and makes them not excited about where the party is going.
So, Democrats, if they take the opportunity to really paint Republican as anti-LGBTQ and anti-women as some of them tell me they're going to be to doing this year and tell their own story of accomplishments, they may be able to stem some of the bleeding we may see this year, but Republicans have made it clear what they're going to be talking about as we move forward.
MITCHELL: But Charlie, it's also the issue of guns. With all the gun violence just this week, of course, with the shooting, a legal gun being used, allegedly in New York on that subway. Georgia Governor Kemp signing bill to allow Tuesday allowing residents to carry handguns without a license. This amid rising gun violence nationally. How is that playing, likely to change key states like Georgia?
CHARLIE SYKES: Well, again, the Republicans think the gun issue works for them. Here in Wisconsin I argued against the idea. I was in favor of concealed carry for people who had—who had-- training in the use of a gun, who had background checks. This new push though gives you an indication of how extreme it's going. Look, guns are going to work for Republicans in—in-- swing states. Democrats need to understand the way the crime issue is playing out. I know that a lot of Democrats think they can address the rise in crime issue by talking about guns.
That is important that they do it but it's not sufficient. And I think what you're seeing in a lot of cities around the country, including New York, is Democrats realizing that they have a problem with this. This is a wedge issue and that they're going to have to find a way to counter the Republican surge on immigration, on the border, and on—on-- issues like rising urban crime. I don't want to relitigate the whole Defund the Police movement, but clearly I think the Biden White House understands they have an issue. What they need to do is find a way to establish their credibility on this—on-- in a way that they, perhaps, didn't have over the last several years.
MITCHELL: And Susan, there's news now from Ronna McDaniel and the RNC. The RNC is just voting and we've heard preliminary steps towards this, voting against participating in the 2024 debates if they are led by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has led these debates in a bipartisan way for decades. Objecting to the choices of moderators, to the format, to the other decisions made in 2020. Now, we know there's a long way down the road and we don't know who's in charge of the Republican National Committee and what’s going to happen in the midterms, and a lot of other things. But they're staking a claim against what they have lodge been criticizing, which is the Commissions on Debates.
PAGE: This is really terrible news, I think because The Commission on Presidential Debates was formed to take control of the debate process in presidential elections, to force, to set up an infrastructure that made it hard for candidates of either party to refuse to debate and if we're going to go back to the kind of wild west we had before then, where you had endless negotiations and different organizers trying to host debates, you run the risk of not having presidential debates, of not having the two candidates who are vying to lead our nation being forced to stand side by side and answer independent-minded questions. So I think this is—this has been a long time coming. Republicans have long been unhappy with the commissions. But this is bad news for our democracy.
MITCHELL: And it just reinforces, Charlie the extent to which the Trump, Donald Trump has taken over the Republican Party.
SYKES: Yeah and I don't think you can over—over-- state that. I know there's been a lot of wish casting about maybe his grip is loosening, but the reality is he's calling the shots and what he’s doing is, he’s forcing the party not simply to embrace the Big Lie but to embrace the most extreme versions of that and so you see his impact in one state after another and it will be interesting to see whether or not, if Republicans win in the midterm elections, they see that as some sort of a validation and that Trump sees that as a validation, but people should not be under any illusions the Republican Party is anything other than a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump World.
MITCHELL: And Eugene, finally Governor DeSantis putting his imprint on redistricting, rejecting a Republican-led legislature's plan, which was favoring Republicans and instead superimposing his own plan, which apparently they're now, you know, going to ratify, which is to create four additional Republican-leaning seats and eliminate at least eliminate two districts, congressional seats held by black Democrats, which are minority-led districts, so this would be pretty dramatic in Florida, which is all important. As we know Florida, Florida, Florida.
DANIELS: Right, no, exactly. Every single year, every single election. You know, one of the things real interesting, you talk to critics and they talk about the fact that just get rid of those two minority-majority districts and—and-- those members of Congress. But it's also something that’s really interesting is—is-- the power that DeSantis now holds in his state, right? The way it was set up is the state legislature would handle how this would be drawn and this was, you know, and they were just sign off on it. And now you have a governor and governor's team who are doing the opposite, who are taking control over what the redistricting process looks like and we talk to experts, they have concerns about this. Susan has used the word undemocratic. They feel like that is also dangerous and puts us onto that same road and feel it's all connected with some of the things we’ve been seeing from the Republican Party that is chasing after, at the very least, what they think Donald Trump would want and they are, because they are not hearing from—hearing from-- him as much. And so, that's something to keep your eyes on as the Republican Party moves forward.
