The Daly Weekly (6/6)

Elon vs. Trump, Trump vs. the Federalist Society, Age Limits, and more!

Hi everyone.

Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw at me.

Let’s get right to it…

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John: I am of the opinion now more than ever that we need rules to govern the tenure of elected officials. Specifically, we should have term limits for house representatives (6 terms) and senators (2 terms), along with an age limit of 75 for any federal position, including the Supreme Court. The argument against term limits is that the public can decide for themselves if a candidate is too old, in decline, etc. My counter to that, as pointed out by Jake Tapper in “Original Sin”, is that the public is easily misled. We think of these national politicians as highly visible and recognizable, but their lives and public appearances are heavily managed, staged and scripted. Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, Strom Thurmond, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg all served far longer than they should have. We have at least 20 House and Senate officials who are over the age of 80. Chuck Grassley is 91 years old now and chairs the Senate Budget Committee. Do we need rules to put an end to this American gerontocracy? — Steve R.

Hi Steve. I think there are strong arguments to be made for both congressional term limits and age limits. I’m more open to age limits, since that goes directly to fitness to serve. Here’s what I said about term limits the last time I was asked about the topic in for the Daly Weekly:

Frankly, I would take a serious, effective legislator who’s been in office for 20 years any day of the week over a fresh face who spends all their time trying to get on cable news, and pursue a dream of becoming a celebrity-firebrand.

I still hold that view, but yeah, age is a different matter.

Also, while I agree with your broad point that the public is easily misled (there are endless examples of this), I’m not sure Joe Biden is a great illustration. Yes, his inner-circle had some success in insulating him, but a significant majority of Americans (including a significant majority of Democrats) still believed Biden was not mentally fit for a second term… even before that terrible debate performance. But again, I agree with your broader point.

John: Pres Trump being now disappointed with the Federalist Society amongst many others when decisions don't go his way, and stating publicly they hate him, is this showing an unbalanced maturity in a man of his age? To the point of being a fault and seemingly pathological? It is scary to many, as this behavior clouds the mind. — Sharon H.

Trump is everything you describe him as (and more), Sharon. Additionally, it’s hard to miss some glaring irony in situations like this.

Just about everyone on the political right agrees (from traditional conservatives like me, to hardcore-MAGA types) that Trump’s biggest achievements in his first term were his judicial selections and a strong economy (I’d put Operation Warp Speed up there too). Yet, Trump reliably trashes the people most responsible for handing him those victories, whether it be Paul Ryan and Gary Cohn on the economy, or Mitch Mitch McConnell and now the Federalist Society on judicial picks.

Trump’s loyalists like to vent at people like me for not sufficiently praising Trump’s achievements, but I’d argue that I’ve been far more appreciative and complimentary of them than Trump has.

Maybe I shouldn’t cross the streams (Ghostbusters reference) with my question, but I’m going to anyway. I watched your Reagan Caucus interview with Kevin Carroll, and came away with a very bleak picture of our country’s national security situation. I don’t doubt that there are still serious people like Kevin working in our intelligence and defense services (though I suspect many have been sidelined for not being MAGA-pure), few such people are in top leadership positions, and one-time hawks in congress don’t seem to care. Do you fear something really bad is going to happen to us in the next four years due in large part to government negligence/incompetence? — Alex D.

I’ve been worried about this since 9/11, Alex. As I said in the interview, I think George W. Bush was the last U.S. president who (after 9/11) took our nation’s security seriously (or at least with an adequate level of seriousness). Kevin believes that Obama did as well, but only after an attempted plane bombing.

I do think there is going to be a price to pay for putting so many completely unqualified people in top leadership positions. What that price will be, I don’t know. People have rightly been opining on how bad it would have been if an incapacitated Joe Biden found himself having to deal with a major terrorist attack, or a nuclear-bomb attack somewhere. I have the same worry over having a cable-news-host Defense Secretary, for example, who seems far more concerned with culture battles than our national defense, or a Director of National Intelligence who thinks very highly of brutal dictators who are enemies of the United States.

It sounds like Ukraine didn’t give Trump notice of their planned drone-attack on Russian bombers. Does that surprise you? — Ben G.

Maybe a little, but I totally understand it. Ukraine doesn’t trust us right now, and we all know why. It’s a shame we’re no longer a reliable ally to them, but that’s the reality.

Hello Sir John: Apparently, there was a Christian worship service that angered a lot of militant LGBTQ people in Seattle. Here’s a video of what happened. Any thoughts on this? — “LGBTQ People Showing Tolerance By Assaulting Christian Worshippers In A Public Park” regards from The Emperor

You forgot to include a link, Emperor, so I’ll assume you’re referring to this incident. This piece provides some broader context of what happened, and I know the FBI is investigating the matter, but without adequate knowledge of who started what, I’ll just say, as I always do: violent protest is wrong, assault is wrong, and targeting people over religious, ethnic, racial, gender, etc. differences is wrong.

John! In the Trump/Elon break-up, whose side are you taking? Are you surprised this happened? — Stan W.

Neither. It’s a clown show. Americans should feel embarrassed that our national politics have been reduced to grown men of consequence spatting like teenage girls on social media (while cable news pundits practically tear up in reaction), but that’s where we’re at.

I’m guess I’m not terribly surprised this happened, but I must admit that Musk effectively accusing Trump of being a pedophile caught me off-guard.

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Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.