Dunces of February: The Month’s Dumbest Politicians and Pundits
The Search for Unintelligent Life in the Political Class
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An awful lot of our politicians and pundits (and even one major athlete who strayed into punditry) dedicated themselves to proving the veracity of the “Dunces” motto: “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
Still, you’d think some of our political dummies would have muzzled themselves in the face of the worst international conflict in decades. Normally, world crises lead to national unity. With Ukraine, that has not been the case.
Time to End the Bromance, Donald
Former President Donald Trump ignored common decency and generations of Republican Party beliefs when he repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and his “strategy” in Ukraine.
Trump started wasting his breath by calling Putin “savvy,” “smart, and “genius,” on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on Tuesday, Feb. 22 (you can read a full transcript here). By that point, Putin had recognized the independence of two separatist Ukrainian regions, and Russian troops had already entered those territories in Eastern Ukraine, purportedly as “peacekeepers.”
Trump’s comments immediately fed the Russian propaganda machine, including an article titled “Donald Trump: Putin’s move is smart and genius” on the home page of the pro-Putin Pravda Report on Wednesday, Feb, 23.
The home page of Russia's Pravda Report (pravda.ru) website on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, includes an article highlighting how former U.S. President Donald Trump described Putin's early moves against Ukraine as "smart" and "genius."
Despite that and receiving prompt criticism for the comments, Trump doubled down later on Wednesday, in a speech during an evening fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago club.
“[Putin is] taking over a country for two dollars’ worth of sanctions,” Trump said. “I’d say that’s pretty smart. He’s taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in.”
Almost simultaneously, at 10 p.m. EST (3:00 a.m. GMT), Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine. Widespread Russian shelling began, and by 11:30 EST, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia had launched “a full-scale invasion” of his country.
Nowhere in any of Trump’s comments was there empathy for the 44 million Ukrainians who were losing their independence. Nowhere did he express concern for the likely thousands of casualties. Nowhere did he consider the consequences of one of the worst violations of international law in recent memory, including the inevitable refugee crisis. Trump would rather waste his breath celebrating an authoritarian by calling him “savvy” and “smart.”
Trump finally tempered his Putin praise in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Saturday, Feb. 26. By then, of course, he had seen the growing death toll and widespread worldwide condemnation of the invasion. "The Russian attack on the Ukraine is appalling,” Trump said. “It's an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur."
THE DUNCE RATING
By kissing up once again to the former KGB colonel and not immediately retracting that praise, Trump deserves:
“The Vice Presidency Isn’t Worth a Pitcher of Warm Spit”
Kamala Harris is doing a good job of proving that FDR’s first vice president, John Nance Garner, was right when he demeaned the second office in the nation in a conversation with Lyndon Johnson.
The current vice president has had what’s been described for months as a “frustrating start” to her term.
Her performance at a news conference at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, Feb. 20, just fed fuel to the fire. She had traveled there to help secure a united front with Europe in preparation for a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pose for photographs before a meeting at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 19, 2022. (Andrew Harnick/AFP/Getty Images)
"I mean, listen guys, we are talking about the potential for war in Europe," Harris said. "I mean, let's really take a moment to understand the significance of what we're talking about."
The sophomoric phrasing didn’t help, nor did what she followed it up with. “It’s been over 70 years," Harris continued. "And through those 70 years … there has been peace and security. We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe.”
Harris seemed to ignore that the past 70 years in Europe included the Cold War, the wars in the Balkans, Russia’s invasion of Georgia, and Russia’s prior military moves against Ukraine in Crimea and the Donbas region.
Even before the vice president’s unfortunate comments, Sen. Ted Cruz had slammed the Biden administration for sending her, arguing that she was unqualified for the mission and was only being sent to burnish her credentials with a photo op.
THE DUNCE RATING
For not being up to the task as the drums of war were getting louder, Harris deserves:
When Ratings Matter More Than Reason
“Why do you hate Vladimir Putin”? That question, asked by Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson, was just one in a slew of mind-boggling statements about Putin, Russia, and Ukraine that emanated from isolationist pundits on the “conservative” news network.
Carlson denied Ukraine was a democracy, called the country “a pure client state of the United States State Department,” and even dismissed the initial Russian advance on Ukraine as a “border dispute.”
His outrageous comments, clearly aimed at nationalist and isolationist viewers for ratings, were rebroadcast with Russian subtitles on Russian television.
The sad irony is that the younger Tucker Carlson, a conservative who wrote for The Weekly Standard and hosted Crossfire on CNN two decades ago, would never have been soft on Russian aggression.
The same is true for his Fox News colleague Laura Ingraham.
On what was Wednesday night, Feb. 23, in the U.S., Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a powerful last-ditch appeal for peace directly to the Russian people.
Shortly after, Ingraham called the speech a “pathetic display.”
Less than an hour later, on Shannon Bream’s “Fox News @ Night,” the network’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier, sharply differed with Ingraham. Baier celebrated Zelensky, urging viewers to watch his speech. By harshly contradicting Ingraham, Baier starkly highlighted the struggle within Fox News between journalists and the pundits.
I should note that Carlson backpedaled from his pro-Putin stance after the wider invasion. “I don’t think anybody approves of what Putin did yesterday,” he said on Thursday. “I certainly don’t.”
THE DUNCE RATING
For defending the indefensible and doing so repeatedly, Carlson and Ingraham deserve:
When It Fits the Narrative, Who Cares About Facts?
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Mehdi Hasan exemplified one of the most troubling trends emanating from the echo chambers that pose as cable news networks.
Jumping on a report that a federal court had unsealed documents showing individuals from the United Arab Emirates had funneled funds to the 2016 presidential election, the two pundits quickly fired off tweets slamming the Trump campaign.
One small problem. The UAE contributions went to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. At least Hasan was quick to correct himself.
THE DUNCE RATING
For jumping to conclusions, not checking the facts, not counting to 10 before they tweet, and letting bias overtake journalistic instincts, Hayes and Hasan deserve:
Gazpacho? Gestapo? Who Knows the Difference?
One answer to that question is “not Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
In an interview with the One America News Network on Wednesday, Feb. 9, the Georgia congresswoman mixed up the cold tomato-based soup with the brutal Nazi secret police. “Not only do we have the D.C. jail which is the D.C. gulag, she said, “But now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress."
You really can’t make this stuff up.
But MTG wasn’t finished there. Later in the month, on Friday, Feb. 25, she addressed the white nationalist America First Political Action Conference, as did Rep. Paul Gosar.
The conference was organized by Nick Fuentes, described by the ADL as a “white supremacist leader … who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.” For perspective, people at the conference praised both Putin and Adolf Hitler. Just before MTG was introduced, Fuentes asked for “a round of applause for Russia” and the crowd erupted in a chant of “Putin, Putin.”
Former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed MTG for “associating with antisemitic neo-Nazis.” Sen. Mitt Romney put it best. “There’s no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It’s simply wrong,” Romney told CNN. “Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar — I don’t know them, but I’m reminded of that old line from the ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ movie where one character says, ‘Morons. I’ve got morons on my team.’”
THE DUNCE RATING
Confusing “gazpacho” and “Gestapo” would only have earned MTG one “dunce.” However, for shamefully and publicly embracing hate and the alt-right, she and Gosar deserve:
Loose Lips Sink Ships
One of golf’s all-time greats, Phil Mickelson, just proved the accuracy of the adage that says it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Mickelson normally wouldn’t qualify for the “Dunce” list, but some recent controversial comments earned him the designation as a pundit, albeit a very bad one.
Golfer Phil Mickelson reacts on the 17th hole during day two of the PIF Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on Feb. 4, 2022, in Al Murooj, Saudi Arabia. (Oisin Keniry/Getty Images)
The golfer is involved in creating the Super Golf League to compete with the PGA Tour. The new league is being financed by Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with biographer Alan Shipnuck that was just released, Mickelson trashed just about everybody, especially the Saudis, his partners.
“They’re scary motherf-----s to get involved with,” Mickelson said. “We know they killed [Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi] and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
Mickelson apologized, but it was too late. Major sponsors lined up to cut ties with the golfer, including KPMG, Amstel Light, Callaway, Workday, and American Express.
THE DUNCE RATING
For hypocrisy and putting money before principle, Mickelson deserves:
Dishonorable Mentions
I wasn’t kidding when I said February had too many dunces to count. This column has gone way too long, but a few others need mentioning:
Picking Trump over Conscience. The Republican National Committee shamefully censured GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the committee investigating 1/6 riot at the Capitol. As Sen. Romney, the uncle of the head of the RNC put it, "Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost."
Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed are just some of the hypocritical politicians who had pontificated about mask mandates but then went maskless in public settings in February. Garcetti defended himself, saying he held his breath. Dumb dee dumb dumb.
Inflation Is Everybody’s Else’s Fault. Here’s a tweet from Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Giant corporations are making record profits by increasing prices, and CEOs are saying the quiet part out loud: they’re happy to help drive inflation.” Huh? Hadn’t she and Democrats blamed inflation on COVID? Now it’s corporations? Come on, Senator, you know better.
THE DUNCE RATING (for all of them)
The next edition of “Dunces” for the month of March will be published, appropriately, on April Fools’ Day.
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Cover photo: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) smiles at Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 7, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Greene and other Republican House members held the news conference to describe the alleged treatment of January 6th defendants in DC jail. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Artwork by my wife, Julie Good.