Dunces of January: The Month’s Dumbest Politicians and Pundits
The Search for Unintelligent Life in the Political Class
Want to read a balanced perspective on the news? Please subscribe to A View from the Center for free, get new posts delivered to your inbox every week, and see past pieces. Also, keep up with me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap,” Napoleon said.
American politicians and pundits prove him right almost every single day.
That was certainly the case in January, giving me plenty of fodder for the first in what I hope will be recurring columns on the dumbest politicians and pundits of the month, awarding them "dunces" based on A View from the Center's rating system.
We have a full assortment of dunces, from Sarah Palin to Alec Baldwin. I’ll start with the top of the food chain, the current president and his predecessor.
No Wonder Biden Dodges Giving News Conferences
On January 19, President Biden finally gave what’s only his second solo presser since taking office. His performance probably left his supporters thinking he should hold news conferences even less frequently.
First, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t have much choice but to invade Ukraine. “My guess is he will move in,” Biden said. “He has to do something.” Making things worse, Biden appeared to give Putin a bit of a pass, saying, "It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, etc."
The White House started walking back those comments as soon as the news conference ended.
Biden made another big gaffe when asked about the integrity of the upcoming 2022 elections. “I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit,” Biden said. And he didn’t say it just once. He repeatedly said things like “I think it [the midterm election] easily could be illegitimate.”
Oops. In his mission to get voting rights legislation passed, he didn’t realize that raising questions about the fairness of American elections made him start sounding like former President Trump.
Enter White House damage control. It would take too long to explain the pretzels White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki twisted herself into in her failed attempts to explain Biden’s comments. Judge for yourself. Here is a tweet thread:
Those tweets might have earned Psaki a place of her own on this list.
The reality is that an increasing number of Americans lack confidence in U.S. elections. In fact, a new CNN poll found 56% of respondents said they have little or no confidence that elections will reflect the will of the people, up from 52% in September and 40% in January 2021.
The Dunce Rating
For seemingly dismissing the significance of a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine, and by further undermining confidence in the American electoral system, Biden well deserves a rating of:
Trump and Truth: Never the Twain Shall Meet
A series of polls indicate that a large majority of Americans reject the violence that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. An overwhelming majority (72%) believe that those who participated in the riot at the Capitol threatened democracy, according to an ABC/Ipsos survey.
Don’t tell that to former President Trump. Referring to the rioters at a rally in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, he said, “If it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”
Mind you, he is not talking about people who protested peacefully and, of course, haven’t been charged. He’s referring to the hundreds who attacked police, ransacked the seat of American democracy, threatened the life of the vice president and members of Congress, and tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
What happened to Republican support for police and law and order? The hypocrisy is endless.
Pardoning anyone who gets convicted of those charges would be yet another assault on the American system and further encourage violence and anti-democratic behavior.
As if the comment about pardoning violent rioters weren’t enough, Trump issued a statement on Sunday, January 30, where he claimed that former Vice President Pence “could have overturned the election.”
Forget about the fact that the vice president has no such legal authority. Step back and understand the insanity of it: 155 million Americans voted, but Trump wants one person to arbitrarily override that, just because he didn’t like the result.
Pence himself debunked Trump in a speech on Friday, Fed. 4, 2022.: “Frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president,” he said.
THE DUNCE RATING
For intentionally minimizing one the worst assaults on the Capitol in U.S. history, disrespecting the American judicial system, and undermining confidence in elections, Trump earns:
The SCOTUS Justice Who Needs Arithmetic Lessons
The numbers of COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over the last two years are shocking and require no exaggeration.
Don’t tell that to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
During a hearing on Jan. 7, 2022, on the legality of vaccine mandates for large employers, SCOTUS records show that Sotomayor claimed, “We have over 100,000 children, which we've never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators."
Talk about a whopper.
Common sense and loosely following the news should tell you that tens of thousands of kids couldn’t possibly be on ventilators. The story would be leading every newscast and headlining every paper.
As CNN reported, when Sotomayor said that, fewer than 5,000 people under the age of 18 were hospitalized in the U.S. for COVID, and it was “overwhelmingly likely” that not all of them were in serious condition.
Sotomayor never corrected herself publicly.
THE DUNCE RATING
The justice’s comment was probably unintentional, but it gave ammunition to the anti-vaxx and anti-science contingents who mistakenly believe the government conspires to restrict their freedoms, earning Sotomayor:
She Just Can’t Help Herself
If we had a Dunce Hall of Fame (maybe we will, someday), Sarah Palin would almost certainly be elected on the first ballot.
In New York for her defamation trial against the New York Times, the unvaccinated Palin flouted the city’s dining mandate requiring people dining indoors to show proof of vaccination, when she ate out at Elio’s restaurant on Saturday, Jan. 22.
Then, on Monday, Jan. 24, the Times revealed that the trial would be delayed because Palin had tested positive for COVID.
So, you’d think Palin would have followed the guidelines to remain isolated for five days, right?
Nope. The former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate proceeded to dine in the outdoor section of Elio’s on Wednesday, Jan. 26.
THE DUNCE RATING
For intentionally ignoring COVID guidelines and putting other people at risk of getting sick, Palin deserves:
It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To
Arizona’s Democratic Party censured Sen. Kyrsten Sinema because she opposed changing the filibuster, which prevented Democrats from advancing voting rights legislation. The party claimed she had failed “to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy.”
That’s even though Sinema arguably did the opposite, taking a position unpopular among Democrats, cognizant of history and concerned that a rule change "would deepen our divisions and risk repeated radical reversals in federal policy, cementing uncertainty and further eroding confidence in our government."
It's no surprise that a party caters its base and disrespects a leader for voting according to her conscience and beliefs (the RNC will make the Dunce List for February).
What is somewhat surprising is the short memory many Democrats seem to have. Do they not remember the consequences of Harry Reid’s “nuclear option”? Reid managed to get the Senate to eliminate the filibuster for all presidential nominees except those to the Supreme Court. When the GOP took over the Senate, Republicans turned the tables on the Democrats and eliminated the filibuster for SCOTUS nominees too. Ergo, Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.
THE DUNCE RATING
For putting politics over democracy, the Arizona Democrats deserve:
Alec Baldwin Is No Jack Ryan
If Tom Clancy had known what would become of the first actor to play his iconic Jack Ryan character, Alec Baldwin would never have gotten the job.
First, the Sarah Palin of actors actually did something nice, donating $5,000 to the family of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, one of the 13 service members killed protecting refugees in the attack at Kabul’s airport on Aug. 26, 2021.
But then, Baldwin learned through an Instagram picture that the Marine’s sister is Trump supporter who attended the 1/6 rallies. Apparently furious, he allegedly lashed out at her in private Instagram messages and reposting her photo, even though records indicate she had nothing to do with the assault on the Capitol.
Within minutes of Baldwin posting the picture, she was allegedly flooded with hundreds of hateful messages. She has now filed a $25 million defamation suit against the actor, accusing him of calling McCollum family members insurrectionists.
Baldwin’s lawyers must be awfully busy.
THE DUNCE RATING
For not learning to count to 10 before posting on social media, and possibly hurting the family of a Marine killed on active duty, Baldwin earns:
RFK Jr. Is No RFK
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s anti-vaccination crusade has had a long list of negative consequences, since well before COVID, leading even two of his siblings and a niece to write an editorial in 2019 calling his misinformation “dangerous” and “tragically wrong.”
At a rally last month in Washington, D.C., Kennedy implied life in the U.S. is tougher than for people who suffered under the Nazis. "Even in Hitler's Germany, you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank did,” Kennedy said.
Suffice it to say that even his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, tweeted that the comment was “reprehensible and insensitive.”
THE DUNCE RATING
Kennedy apologized. However, for ignoring the basic rule that nothing should be compared to the Holocaust (a lesson Whoopi Goldberg also learned in January), plus his damaging anti-vaccine efforts, RFK Jr. deserves:
Cheering Contracting COVID
If you think you’re going to get intellectual consistency from pundits, you probably think you can squeeze water from a stone.
Many on the right have been justified in expressing outrage over how some on the left have celebrated when anti-vaxxers died of COVID. For example, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece headlined “Mocking anti-vaxxers’ COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes – but may be necessary.” Also, a whole website is dedicated to highlighting anti-vaxxers who have contracted COVID and died.
That didn’t stop Fox News Pundit Laura Ingraham from clapping as she announced that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley tested positive. The general is no favorite of Trump supporters.
Milley only ended up with minor symptoms, but that doesn’t make Ingraham’s actions much less objectionable, especially because of her anti-vaccination message.
Ingraham often speaks about Christianity and a Christian booking agency offers her as a speaker, mentioning her Catholicism and advocacy of “Christian conservative values.” They may want to look at the definition of the latter.
THE DUNCE RATING
For ill will toward others that promotes an anti-vaccine message, Laura Ingraham receives:
That’s it for January. If you have any nominees for February, please add them in the comments section below or on my Facebook page.
Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. You can also do so on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/antoniomoraTV1/). Please subscribe (it's free) and share the link: https://aviewfromthecenter.bulletin.com/subscribe.
Cover photo: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin arrives at a federal court in Manhattan on Feb. 3, 2022, to resume a case against the New York Times after it was postponed because she tested positive for COVID. Palin sued the Times claiming an editorial in the Times defamed her. The editorial was later partly retracted. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Artwork by my wife, Julie Good.