Friday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon, and Andrew Walworth discussed the president attempting to issue a pardon to someone convicted by the state of Colorado for allowing people to access voting machines to look for “fraud.” They also consider the consequences of Indiana Republicans voting against gerrymandering their congressional districts, and the latest details about the massive Minnesota welfare fraud scheme. After that, they discuss Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson calling the shooting of two National Guard troops in D.C. last month an “unfortunate accident.” Finally, the latest updates on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to implement a “head tax,” charging all businesses a flat fee for every employee in their downtown offices. You can listen to the show live each day at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** The show opens with President Trump announcing he wants to pardon Tina Peters, a county clerk serving nine years in prison for an unsuccessful attempt “to expose voter fraud.” But she was convicted by the state of Colorado. Could Trump argue a federal pardon applies because her case had to do with a federal election? “She snuck a retired California surfer in to look at the Dominion voting machines. As far as I know, she fully believed it was a conspiracy and Trump won in 2020,” Cannon explained. “There should be a better way to deal with this than keeping a 70-year-old woman in prison for nine years, or screwing with the Constitution.” “I don’t think you can call her a political prisoner, but she is someone who was punished perhaps unnecessarily harshly and not shown any mercy or lenience,” Tom Bevan said. “She did let these people in. But it is part of politics now, everything seems to be weaponized, and that is unfortunate, and she’s gotten caught up in that.” *** After that, around minute 9:30, the panel turns to the intensifying state-by-state redistricting struggle. The president is upset that a majority of Republicans in the Indiana state senate voted against a new map that would have given the party more safe seats. “There is a scenario in which this single decision may cost the Republicans the House in the midterms — they’re going to be that close,” Walworth warned. “I don’t think this has everything to do with Trump. I think Indiana is a place where you have responsible governance,” Cannon said. “If they lose the majority by one vote and it’s the Indiana seat they didn’t steal by doing the same nefarious stuff my buddy Gavin Newsom did…” *** Next, 21 minutes into the show, CBS has obtained a trove of files and photos of extravagant spending by the defendants in a major welfare fraud case in the Minnesota Somali community. Is this a political problem for Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Democrats or just one of a thousand examples of waste and fraud? “We have a $ 39 trillion debt. If we’re just pumping money out the door and 30% of it is fraud, that adds up pretty darn quickly,” Bevan said. “What is particularly egregious about the Minnesota fraud is this group of immigrants found shelter in America, and what do they do? Immediately start figuring out how to manipulate the system and scam U.S. taxpayers.” “It’s going to make fiscal conservatives out of people,” Cannon said. “But to have this government that is so incompetent and clueless and cavalier about taxpayer money, that these Somalis come over and just fill out these forms, and they send them millions of dollars. I mean, how is that even possible?” *** After that, at minute 31, the group tries to make sense of Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson calling the shooting of two National Guard troops in D.C. last month an “unfortunate accident.” “Well, he meant to say ‘incident’ instead of ‘accident,’ apparently,” Cannon explained. “Well, I don’t know where you came up with the idea that he was trying to say ‘incident.’ I don’t know that there’s any proof of that whatsoever. That’s you projecting your facility with words onto a congressman who may not have that same facility,” Bevan suggested. *** Finally, around minute 38, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson still wants to implement a “head tax,” charging all businesses a flat fee for every employee they have in their downtown offices. “It was originally $ 21 for companies that have 100 or more employees. And that absolutely hit a brick wall,” Bevan explained. “So he comes back with $ 33, but only for companies with 500 or more employees.” “He’s literally clueless about what this tax will do, how it’s going to work, and what the consequences are going to be,” he said. “Literally, Ken Griffin’s Citadel building is down to like two floors. The amount of revenue the city has lost in tax revenue just from that one building is like tens of millions of dollars. And meanwhile, that money has to come from somewhere, and it’s coming from property taxes.” *** Plus, at minute 43, the group gives their picks for the weekly “You Cannot Be Serious?!” roundup of entertaining headlines. *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
RealClearPolitics Videos