Timothy Birdnow

I caught National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Meet the Press this morning. He was asked a series of questions, all of which had "gotchA" potential and Waltz was smart enough to filibuster and avoid many of the traps, and he aquitted himself well. But there are things I would have said. Here's the gist:

Kristen Welker asked Waltz if Musk had any business auditing the Pentagon since he has done business wiht them. Waltz hemmed and hawed a lot, pivoting to the accomplishments of Trump. But I would have answered this "who cares?" What Mr. Musk is doing is AUDITING these agencies. He himself is cutting nothing and Trump can choose not to take his advice any time. And Musk is not REDIRCTING any money - merely recommending cuts. He has no conflict of interest because he isn't influencing how the money is spent, just how much of it.

This argument is rather like saying a priest cannot do marriage counseling since he isn't married, and suggesting it's improper because the priest might have a vested interest in getting the couple divorced so he can jump the woman. It's a ridiculous argument.

She moved on to USAID and pushed the shibboleth that foreign policy is dependent on it and that the world is safer for America by it. Waltz pointed out the waste but failed to mention details - like attempts to create transgender mice, or funding drag shows, or a host of other things that would disgust Americans to the core. And he failed to mention that USAID was funding media outlets and more of that appears all the time. Probably NBC, home of Meet the Press as well.

And I would point out USAID was funding the NGO's that have facilitated the invasion of America by illegal aliens. I would have pointed out that USAID helped facilitate revolutions around the world, some which have come back to bite us (like in Ukraine). Waltz did mention the Taliban - and he should have stressed how the Taliban got USAID money as has no doubt Hamas.

And I would have pointed out the Democrats who are howling about this probably had money laundered back to them from USAID.

She moved on to the Palestinians and complained about Trump's plan. Waltz defended it well enough, but he should have pointed out that nobody WANTS to resolve the situation there and that we have to go it alone because everyone else wants this thing to burn on. (Her main complaint was Trump was disregarding international institutions and other governments.) I would point out that NOTHING we have done up to now has fixed anything there.

She spoke about Canada and Trump's idea of annexing them. Waltz said many Canadians would love to be annexed, and that is no doubt true. But I would have pointed out WHY they wanted to be annexed and why it would be in our interests to annex them (I don't think it is but he represents the Administration, after all.) I would mention socialized medicine and explain the Canadians would love to have a free medical system where they could actually receive treatment when they are sick.

She got into the gotcha game, insisting on "yes or no" on a series of policy questions and Waltz explained he wasn't going to answer them. She insisted and he refused, making HIM look like he was ducking when in fact she knew full well he couldn't answer questions of policy that is as yet undecided by the President.

He did well enough, but I wish our side would come prepared to smack back at these jerks. They need access to draw viewers and we can dictate things to them - like a list of questions in advance.

I was a Boy Scout and our motto was "always be prepared". Republicans need to do likewise.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:03 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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