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Sunday show round-up: North Korea, the gun debate

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:30:00 +0000

North Korea:

Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation: Sunday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., expressed concerns about the U.S. escalating tensions with North Korea into an unwanted war. "More than once wars have started by accident and this is a very serious situation,” said McCain. The senator commented that were a full blown conflict to take place, the U.S. is well-positioned to defeat North Korean attacks, but that the collateral damage in South Korea would be catastrophic. "South Korea would win, we would win, if there was an all-out conflict, but the fact is North Korea could set Seoul on fire and that would obviously be a catastrophe of enormous proportions," he said.

During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said that "the onus is on North Korea to take the step back."

Meanwhile Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman called Kim Jong Un "a crazy man." Hunstman did stress, however, that the heightened tensions with North Korea provided a rare opening for the U.S. to work with China toward a common goal: "This is a huge opening, believe me, with China, because our interests, for the first time in a long while, are aligned. We both want to get something done and bring the level of tension down on the Korean peninsula," he said.

Sunday shows haven’t learned

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 19:09:00 +0000

Happy tenth anniversary, Iraq War! To celebrate, America's Sunday Shows got you a Nearly Complete Absence of Any Sense of Responsibility or Indication That Any Lessons Were Learned. Here's what we got instead, today: Scaremongering about North Korea and Iran, great excitement about our new pope, and terribly unenlightening endless fact-free arguments about dueling federal budget proposals.

The big three Sunday Shows were all very budget-focused today, and on each of them everyone competed to be the most Serious about Balancing the Budget, which is obviously a self-evidently Good goal and not a totally unnecessary one. Not a single moderator came close to articulating the mainstream (in terms of economics, not politics) view that the government doesn't have to balance its budget. (It was not that long ago that the government was running a surplus and conservatives and economists kept saying on the TV that that was a bad thing, right?) Instead, they pressed their guests (usually one Democrat elected official and one Republican elected official) on how "serious" their party's proposals were, with "seriousness" measured in terms of how likely it was that a proposal would get passed by Congress and signed by the president. Alas, neither the Senate Democratic Budget nor the Ryan Budget came close to meeting the Seriousness standard. (Fun fact: The House Progressive Caucus budget does not exist. No one mentioned it on any of the three shows.)

Sunday show round-up: Tea Party “unlikely” to challenge McConnell

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:24:00 +0000

This week's Sunday shows were all about the looming automatic budget cuts known as the sequester, with a side note from Rand Paul on the division (or lack thereof) between the Republican establishment and the tea party. Here are the highlights:

On sequestration:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told Fox News' Chris Wallace that sequestration is "a bad idea all around" and said there should be a combination of spending cuts and closing tax loopholes to avoid it. "It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem. We have a budget deficit problem that we have to address," she said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he might not be opposed to new revenues in order to avoid the cuts. "We've got to avoid it, we've got to stop it," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "Would I look at some revenue closers? Maybe so. But we've already just raised taxes. Why do we have to raise taxes again?"

But House Republicans were adamant that new revenues would not happen. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he opposed any new revenues. "We can't be raising taxes every three months in this town," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Sunday show roundup

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:27:00 +0000

While both the president and VP were sworn in for their second term in intimate ceremonies ahead of the public extravaganza Monday, the debates du jour continued on the Sunday talk shows.

Gun control:

The head of the National Rifle Association David Keene, in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," was confident that efforts to ban assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition weapons would fail.

"I'm willing to say that guns in this country have as much influence as they always have, and perhaps more," he told host Candy Crawley.

Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) -- a Congressman with strong NRA support -- urged an approach to curtailing gun violence that does not focus just on guns. "If you're just going to say it's all about guns, and we need gun changes and bans, then you're wrong," he said, noting that he and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would be sponsoring a bill to launch a commission on "mass violence," which would look at cultural depictions of violence, mental health care as well as gun control.

Obama's senior adviser David Plouffe, who made the talk show rounds Sunday, told "State of the Union" that he believed there to be "consensus on Capitol Hill" over gun control. "We think we can get 60 votes in the Senate and 218 [votes in the House],” Plouffe said.

Sunday morning show roundup

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Conversations about the debt ceiling and gun control continued to dominate this week's Sunday political talk shows, as they no doubt will for the coming weeks. Details from the shows, below:

Debt Ceiling

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for a reexamination of U.S. tax codes, citing taxes as a source of untapped revenue. The Democratic congresswoman said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” “We’re talking about looking at the tax code, closing loopholes and special subsidies for Big Oil – that’s $38 billion right there.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., argued that "the tax issue is over." "Well, it certainly underscores the voracious appetite for more taxes on the other side. The tax issue is over. We resolved that a few days ago," McConnell said on the same program. Instead, McConnell is focused on "our spending addiction," as he said on ABC's "This Week."

Sunday show roundup: Obama braces for impact

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:45:00 +0000

In clearest sign yet that President Obama has abandoned hope of averting the so-called fiscal cliff in the next 48 hours, he used a rare-Sunday show appearance to come out swinging at Republicans, something he’s so far avoided doing so as to not poison relations with his negotiating partners.

On “Meet the Press” today, all pretense was gone and diplomacy jettisoned as Obama placed the blame for a potential cliff dive squarely on Republican intransigence. “The only thing I would caution against, David, is I think this notion of, ‘Well, both sides are just kind of unwilling to cooperate.’ And that's just not true,” Obama told host David Gregory.

“I mean if you look at the facts, what you have is a situation here where the Democratic Party, warts and all, and certainly me, warts and all, have consistently done our best to try to put country first,” he added, paraphrasing John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan. The clear implication: Republicans have not put country first, prioritizing ideology instead.

Sunday show roundup: LaPierre wants you to call him crazy

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 16:40:00 +0000

NRA head Wayne LaPierre finally had his chance to “Meet the Press” after refusing to take questions at his Friday press conference, and he used the opportunity to invite the world to call him crazy. "If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” he told the NBC show’s host David Gregory. The conservative New York Post had no problem going there, slapping LaPierre on its cover Saturday under the blaring headline, “GUN NUT! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown.”

“It's the one thing that would keep people safe,” LaPierre continued of his plan, “I said what I honestly thought and...what hundreds of millions of people all over this country believe will actually make a difference." All the evidence available suggests putting armed guns in school is actually not a particularly effective idea (there was an armed Sheriff’s deputy in Columbine High School on the day of the shooting, for instance).

Sunday show roundup: Gun defenders mum

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 18:40:00 +0000

David Gregory, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," told viewers Sunday morning that not a single pro-gun rights senator accepted an invitation to appear on the show following the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday.

"A note here this morning: We reached out to all 31 pro-gun rights senators in the new Congress to invite them on the program to share their views on the subject this morning," he said. "We had no takers."

Since Adam Lanza shot 20 children and 6 adults dead with a semiautomatic, few defenders of gun rights have spoken publicly as cries for greater gun control have amplified. On Sunday, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was the lone pro-gun voice to grace the talk show circuit. He said on "Fox News Sunday" that Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung should have been armed:

"I wish to god she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said.

Watch Gohmert's comments, via Fox News:

Sunday show roundup

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner made the rounds on all five major political talk shows this morning to discuss the president's proposal addressing the fast-approaching "fiscal cliff." Though debates of the fiscal cliff dominated, Republicans and Democrats also discussed U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's possibility of being nominated for secretary of state.

Fiscal Cliff

Geithner emphasized the importance of Republican support in navigating away from the nation's impending "fiscal cliff." Regarding whether or not America will go over the fiscal cliff, Geithner put the ball in the GOP's court, saying on "Fox News Sunday," "That's a decision that lies in the hands of the Republicans that are now opposing increases in tax rates."

"It's going to be very hard for them," Geithner said. "You've heard them, for the first time, I think, in two decades now, acknowledge that they're willing to have revenues go up as part of a balanced plan. That's a good first step. But they have to tell us what they're willing to do on rates and revenues. That's going to be very hard for Republicans."

Sunday show round up

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 18:05:00 +0000

As Congress investigates what the Obama administration knew, and when, about the Benghazi consulate attacks, the topic once again took up considerable Sunday show focus.

Benghazi:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the top Republican in the Senate Intelligence Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" that he expects Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will testify before the Senate about the Benghazi attacks. "At some point [Rice] needs to come in and say what the president or the White House directed her to say," Chambliss said.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," host David Gregory also pushed chair of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), on whether the White House and Rice had misled the public in saying early on that the attacks were spontaneous protests, while intelligence pointed to a terrorist plot.