Here & Now

Political Panelists Touch on Washington politics

Frederica Freyberg:

We return to now to the topic of the wild week in Washington. And for that we bring in our wild political panelists, conservative analysis Bill McCoshen and liberal political strategist Scot Ross. Thank you for being here.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:

I’m going to ask you each right off the top, your reaction to this whistleblower complaint and the transcribed phone call? I’ll go first to you, Bill McCoshen.

Bill McCoshen:

It’s pretty similar to the whole Mueller Report, right? That was James Comey leaking to a friend who wanted to create a special council. So this was all created by hearsay. This whistleblower didn’t actually sit in the room. Didn’t read the transcript. Had no first-hand knowledge of what was said or what was done. It was all hearsay and that led to a big national story to the point where the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who had been the adult in the room for the last nine months, finally says they’re going to open an impeachment inquiry before she’d even read the transcript or the whistleblower report. So I think it’s all politics.

Scot Ross:

The president of the United States solicited a foreign country to interfere in our 2020 elections and he utilized a promise of a meeting and financial aid in order to do that. It’s absolutely one of most, the grossest appalling displays of lawlessness we have seen come out of politics or government. The fact is, I appreciate where Bill’s coming from. He’s got the talking points. But the fact is —

Bill McCoshen:

I got the facts.

Scot Ross:

The fact is, the whistleblower came forward. Spoke to the intelligence committee’s Inspect General. The Inspector General went out and said this is credible, did the investigation and came back with that. It is not simply a “he said, she said.” It is not. It is absolutely not. He had direct and indirect knowledge of what was going on. Corroborated by numerous government officials and I think the case is incredibly strong and I think we’re seeing it because the president is reacting so harshly.

Bill McCoshen:

I think this is the flimsiest evidence in history for the establishment of an impeachment inquiry. By the way, on a process, they didn’t actually form an impeachment committee, which gives them additional powers to subpoena things. Things the president couldn’t block with executive privilege. So what they did was one step short of that. The reason is, all politics again. Nancy Pelosi did not want those 35 Democrats who won seats that were won by Donald Trump in 2016, these Democrats won those seats in 2018, which helped Democrats take the House. She did not want them to take a vote. Ron Kind’s on that list.

Scot Ross:

There are 12 Democrats who have not formally said, “I think he should be impeached.” That’s it. The Democrats are united in this because they are tired of the reckless lawlessness of Trump. O.J.’s book was “If I Did It.” Trump’s is “When I Did It.” He admitted that he had the call.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about that?

Bill McCoshen:

He gave up the transcript.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why did he?

Bill McCoshen:

He gave up the transcript. I mean I’ve read the transcript. It’s — there’s no there there. It’s the flimsiest evidence in history.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. So speaking of this kind of acrimony, does this trickle down to the namely the 7th Congressional District race we’re about to embark upon? Do you think it does?

Bill McCoshen:

If it does, it’s a positive way. That’s Trump country. Donald Trump did better in the 7th District percentage-wise than any other district in the state of Wisconsin. There’s no evidence that that’s changed. The most recent Marquette poll still shows him very popular up north. I would expect Tom Tiffany, the front runner in that race and Jason Church, the new entrant into that race, to be strong supporters of Trump and the Trump supporters will turn out on December 30th.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think about voters in that district?

Scot Ross:

Couple things. One, for 40 years, until again, the maps were rigged in that place. But for a long time that was Dave Obey country. That was solid economic, Democrat, progressive country. The fact is that Tom Tiffany has been a nonstop advocate for policies that are hurting the people of the 7th CD and both of them are going to the — the two entrants in the primary are going to have to out-Trump each other.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well right because Tom Tiffany is a big backer of Trump and supporter of Trump.

Bill McCoshen:

Yeah, no question about that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is Trump a safe bet at this point for Republicans?

Bill McCoshen:

There’s no question he’s a safe bet. He is a safe bet in the 7th Congressional District and the Duluth district across the border. He’s turned that Republican. In my entire lifetime, growing up in Superior, that was as Democratic as it got.

Frederica Freyberg:

I want to ask about this. Robin Vos today demanded that the governor change the date for primary in that race because Governor Evers set it for December 30, which is Hanukkah. What do you think of this?

Scot Ross:

I would say this. The idea that Robin Vos is now pious in terms of religion when we’re thinking about, sorry, when thinking about the fact this election needs to happen and Governor Evers wants the election to happen as soon as possible because he wants to put democracy in the hands of the voters. Unlike Republicans who want to take it out of the hands of voters. The fact is the Legislature is scheduled to be in session on the two actual highest holidays for the Jewish people: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is the biggest ruse that we’ve seen out of Vos and that’s saying something.

Bill McCoshen:

I don’t agree with the governor’s dates here. He made a political calculation on December 30th. Had he waited and called that primary in and moved it into next calendar year, it would have had to have lined up with the presidential primary and the general. So in February and in April when clerks are working anyway. So I don’t think Vos’ point is the right one to make today. The governor’s office did made a conscious political decision to have that primary in December of this calendar year so the dates didn’t have to line up with the Supreme Court and presidential primary in April.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right you guys. Thank you for being here. Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross.