Thursday on the RealClearPolitics radio show — weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website — Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon discuss today’s celebration of Juneteenth, a leadership shakeup in the DNC, and Chicago’s unbelievable debt crisis. Also, attorney Wendy Murphy on the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti. *** First, the gang discusses appalling takes from both sides of the aisle about today’s celebration of Juneteenth, America’s newest federal holiday. On the left, Amelia Robinson wrote in the Palm Beach Post: “Millions of Americans Will Get Thursday Off Work to Observe Juneteenth, Millions of Americans Don’t Deserve It” “This is kind of a new low in the polarization of America,” Carl Cannon said. “This author is claiming that if you don’t agree with her on politics, you don’t deserve to celebrate a holiday. You can see where that will go.” On the right, Wade Miller wrote in The Blaze: “Why I Won’t Celebrate Juneteenth” “When I was a young reporter in my 20s, the Martin Luther King holiday was controversial,” Cannon said. “There were Republican holdouts who said federal workers are lazy, they don’t need another holiday. Jack Kemp finally broke the logjam… he gave an evocative speech on the House floor where he said this is a holiday for all Americans, not just black Americans. If that’s the spirit of Juneteenth, great. If they want to divide us more, they should probably shut up.” *** After that, at minute 7, a review of the Senate Judiciary hearing yesterday on President Joe Biden’s mental acuity, or lack thereof. Was anything accomplished by this hearing? “Aside from the theatrics, I do think there are important questions that should be answered here,” Tom Bevan said. “Whether it was 5% of the time or 50%, there were people around Biden who were lying about his condition to insulate him and protect him, and to hold on to power. They were making decisions on his behalf, and that should be investigated. That’s not something we should just wave away.” “The one guy I want to hear from is the White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who has been asked to sit for an interview on June 25 with Comer’s committee,” Andrew Walworth added. “The 25th Amendment was put in place for a reason. The fact that people would rather play politics and hold on to power rather than use that… he quit the campaign, he admitted he couldn’t do the campaign, but he can still do the job. That never really made sense to me,” Bevan said. *** In the next segment, at minute 13, major upheaval at the highest levels of the Democratic National Committee, with Vice Chair David Hogg being ousted on a technicality and the resignation of longtime union leaders Randi Weingarten and Lee Saunders. Politico wrote this morning: “‘Weak,’ ‘Whiny’ and ‘Invisible’: Critics of DNC Chair Ken Martin Savage His Tenure” “We talked the other day about the leak of this meeting, where Ken Martin was whining and complaining that he wasn’t given the opportunity to show the leadership he needed to because of David Hogg. We kind of panned him for looking small and weak — and apparently, that’s pretty much how most of the leaders of the DNC saw it,” Bevan commented. *** After that, at minute 22, Tom Bevan talks to Austin Berg, executive director of the Chicago Policy Center and co-author of “The New Chicago Way,” about the unique politics of Illinois, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker weighs Chicago’s debt problem and Mayor Brandon Johnson focuses on race and immigration issues. “It’s clear Pritzker has presidential ambitions… and he’s facing the most critical test of his governorship in the post-COVID era, involving the insane finances of the city of Chicago,” Berg explained. “Chicago has the worst debt crisis in the nation, we’re hovering right above ‘junk’ status. We have seven of the 10 worst-funded pensions. The city has more pension debt than 43 states,” he said. “The entire strategy of Mayor Johnson and the teachers’ union seems to be to borrow and spend into oblivion and then try to force Gov. Pritzker to bail them out — because he has presidential ambitions and wouldn’t want to piss off labor. So they’re making extraordinarily reckless financial decisions in hopes of a bailout that is not likely to come.” *** Finally, at minute 33:30, And finally, Andrew Walworth talks with lawyer and Boston Herald columnist Wendy Murphy about the Supreme Court’s decision on U.S. v. Skrmetti – a case they spoke about last month involving states banning transgender medical procedures for minors. “It’s more important what they didn’t decide, but first, this was a Tennessee law that blocked certain medical treatments related to gender dysphoria and transgender issues for minors,” Murphy explained. “The court ducked the real question the transgender community wanted answered, which was whether the equal protection clause fits trans people. Are they a class? And if so, what kind of review do courts have to use to address discrimination against them? The court didn’t say!” “They won the lowest tier level of rational basis scrutiny,” she said. “The Supreme Court didn’t say they’re at the bottom because trans people aren’t important, but because the court said this law does not classify according to sex or trans or anything else, it classifies according to children… They said the government is allowed to decide whether certain medical treatments are safe or not, and that’s not discrimination.” “The Skrmetti case was a problem for women in a sense, because the trans community was arguing that transgenderism is immutable, and the reason they said that is so it would be seen the same as sex. They wanted to say if you’re trans, it comes with you when you’re born and is its own category. The Supreme Court in a concurring opinion said, of course, transgender is mutable, that’s the very nature of being trans — that you can go from male to female and back, and in fact, the lawyer admitted as much to Justice Alito in the oral argument. So the court saying transgender is mutable is good for women, in a sense, because it didn’t threaten our ability to argue consistently when we’re still righting for the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) that women deserve strict scrutiny,” Murphy explained. “Because as the court has said, sex, like race, is determined at birth and is immutable.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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