The Sessions Debacle, the Travel Ban SNAFU, and Trump's Residency Between Your Ears: Matt Welch on Red Eye
Watch Fox News at 3 a.m. for some unkind words about Elizabeth Warren, the new attorney general, and people with cracked iPhones
Congratulations, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Jeff Flake, Marco Rubio, and every other Republican senator who has previously championed either criminal-justice or immigration reform, or both! With your unanimous party-line vote this evening, arguably the leading Senate opponent to your efforts in these key areas will now be marshaling the significant powers of the U.S. Department of Justice at his considerable discretion.
Tonight at 3 a.m. on the popular Fox News comedy/politics program Red Eye w/ Tom Shillue, I will be asked to comment on the Sessions confirmation theatrics through the lens of last night's conflict between Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.), over the all-important (and immediately forgotten) Rule 19. I may along the way point out that Sessions (just like his boss!) is abysmal on civil asset forfeiture, which is a polite term for describing "cops stealing your stuff because they can."
Speaking of Sessions and libertarian-leaning Republicans on Capitol Hill, here's a very different take from Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.):
Just a few of my concerns about AG Sessions. Note that he shares these anti-liberty positions with AG Lynch, AG Holder, and Pres. Obama. https://t.co/Manmojqa2c
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) February 9, 2017
Anyhoo, I am joined on tonight's program by the always entertaining comedian Jimmy Failla, gadget-loving tech gal Katie Linendoll, and Seth Meyers warmup man Ryan Reiss. We talk about, among other things, the executive-order travel ban, Donald Trump's bizarre police-association speech from this morning, whether and how the president is living rent-free in Americans' heads, why you should never trust a journalist's fresh tweet about some terrible thing about Trump, and more.
