Monday 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 the Democrats’ review of what went wrong in 2024, the release of new documents about “Russiagate” by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Democratic Socialist candidate for Minneapolis mayor Omar Fateh, and President Trump inserting himself into the construction of a new stadium for the Washington Commanders, which he says can go forward if they go back to calling the team the “Redskins.” And then finally, RCP contributor Maggie Miller talks to RealClearInvestigations writer Ana Kasparian about Los Angeles’ ballooning police overtime budget and the unintended fallout from efforts to defund the LAPD. *** First, the Democratic Party’s 2024 postmortem. What lessons were learned? What’s going to change? “One year ago this week, legacy media was so happy when Biden stepped aside. The Democrats had spent the last three weeks trying to get rid of him. Buttering him up was their main strategy. ‘You’re George Washington,’ they told him,” Carl Cannon recalled. “The problem with Kamala Harris was she had better poll numbers at the outset. Her numbers actually declined. So they spent all this money, a billion dollars, and got negative net votes. So they’re doing a postmortem, but they don’t want to point fingers.” “It’s interesting how politics ebbs and flows. When Obama was elected in 2008, everyone thought it was the end of the Republican Party,” Tom Bevan added. “Trump throws out the script and tries something new, and now we’re talking about the Democrats being a ‘regional party’ unless they get their act together.” *** Next, around minute 10:30, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard published a new report accusing former President Obama of organizing “essentially a years-long coup against President Trump” by manipulating intelligence to tie him to Russia. Top Democrat on the Intel Committee Jim Himes called this “dangerous lies.” What’s in these documents, what have we learned, and is anyone going to jail? “What’s most disappointing is how the legacy media swallowed one narrative whole-cloth-never questioning motives, never raising the illegality of leaking classified documents, never asking why all the leaks ran in the same direction,” Cannon said. “They regurgitated the leaks without even asking how the information was obtained.” “The innuendo about Donald Trump being a Russian asset or agent, and all of that crap that just flowed, basically hamstrung his presidency from the beginning. He had to battle against it for the entire time he was in office,” Tom Bevan said. “People whose dream is to see Barack Obama frog-marched out of his mansion in Kalorama and thrown into a van… That is not going to happen. But, it looks like John Brennan perjured himself in testimony when he said the Steele dossier was not part of the assessment. There is a possibility there could be some accountability.” “They like to say no one is above the law, but I think in this instance, Barack Obama might just be above the law,” Bevan added. *** In the next segment, starting at minute 21, the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party of Minnesota has nominated Democratic-Socialist Omar Fateh over incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Is this another tea leaf that Democrats are moving further left in response to losing the 2024 election? “You couldn’t be more progressive than the current mayor, Jacob Frey, but he may be the wrong color for big city Democratic political machines. It’s a very interesting race,” Cannon commented. “It shows the trend within the Democratic Party. I would have given Jacob Frey my same advice I gave to David Hogg: transition as soon as possible,” Bevan joked. *** After that, at minute 27, President Trump has staked a position on bringing back the Washington Redskins, saying he won’t let them build a new stadium if they don’t get rid of the “Commanders” name. Same for the Cleveland Indians. “The Washington Post commissioned a poll. Were Native Americans in this country offended by the name? Turns out they weren’t. Overwhelmingly not offended by the name,” Cannon recalled. “And then they changed the name to the Washington Football Team, which was really stupid.” “That was my favorite!” Walworth joked. “That was the appropriate name for a bureaucratic, faceless organization.” “They didn’t name the team the Indians because they wanted to make fun of them or denigrate them. It was elevating them; it’s putting them at the center of your city’s culture. People love their teams,” Bevan added. *** Finally, at minute 32, Maggie Miller is joined by Ana Kasparian to break down her latest investigation into LA’s ballooning police overtime budget – an unintended consequence of efforts to “defund” the police. Despite cutting thousands of officers since 2020, the city is now spending more on police – paying them extra for working overtime. Staff is stretched thin, and response times are worsening. With the World Cup and Olympics coming up, LA’s public safety model is facing mounting scrutiny. *** 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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