Special Election GA-Sen Debate Night: Warnock vs Loeffler – The Progressive Wing

JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site.

Home→2020 Elections→Special Election GA-Sen Debate Night: Warnock vs Loeffler

Not often does one southern state other than FL has garnered so much attention for a senate race. In this case, it is Georgia. It determines whether or not Mitch McConnell continues to hold the American economy hostage.

Georgia has not seen a Democrat in the Senate since Sam Nunn, and that’s over 20 years ago. I don’t count Zell Miller since he became a turncoat.

CNN is televising the debate tonight between Rev Raphael Warnock and Sen Kelly Loeffler. What do they have in common? Both are from Georgia, the Peach state, and neither has previously run for the US senate. As you may recall, Kelly Loeffler took over the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson, who announced over a year ago that he would resign from the Senate effective December 31, 2019, due to his health. Gov Brian Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to fill the seat until November 2020 special election. Neither Warnock nor Loeffler garnered 50% or more of the popular vote; hence, there is a runoff.

According to CNN, Loeffler did not get a lot of support from Herr Drumpf, who continues to make the election all about him as he has exhausted most options in finding votes or hoping he can appeal to the SCOTUS.

On Saturday night, Trump stumped for Loeffler and Perdue at a Valdosta, Georgia, rally, but once again falsely claimed he won the state and warned without evidence that the runoffs in January could be rigged. CNN has previously reported that Republicans were concerned that Trump could depress turnout among his base if he continued to rail against Georgia’s election system. At one point, Trump welcomed Loeffler and Perdue to the stage for very brief remarks at the rally, but both senators were immediately interrupted with chants of “Stop the Steal” and “Fight for Trump.”

To watch:

C-Span and CNN will carry the debate live, along with GBT-TV. It will be livestreamed on CNN.com and the Atlanta Press Club’s Facebook page. According to CNN’s website:

CNN’s apps for iOS and Android with a log-in to a cable provider. It can also be viewed on CNNgo (at CNN.com/go on your desktop, smartphone, and iPad, and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku and Samsung Smart TV). The debates will also be available on demand to subscribers via cable/satellite systems, CNNgo platforms and CNN mobile apps.

Benny’s Bar will be open, and so will our comment thread.

Eggnog Screenshot 2020-12-03 175802.jpg

Eggnog Screenshot 2020-12-03 175802.jpg

Mocktail 2020-09-08 213703.jpg

Mocktail 2020-09-08 213703.jpg

Update: here’s the YT of the event.

newest oldest most voted

This is an open thread…have a drink or a mocktail.

Benny's Bar Midtown 2020-11-03 171651.jpg

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Thanks Benny. The drinks look yummy. Think I’ll join in.

SCOOP — Joe Biden will nominate Xavier Becerra, the attorney general in California, to be the next HHS secretary, a victory for the Cong. Hispanic Caucus, which he used to lead, and had pressed for more high-profile Latinos in the cabinet. w/@SherylNYT https://t.co/UyWU9lAdDI
— Michael D. Shear (@shearm) December 6, 2020

Another thing about Becerra is that he is a good California liberal who will work within an entrenched bureaucracy to get us to a public option. But he's def not the dude who is gonna set the bridge on fire on his personal crusade to abolish private insurers.
Thats on us!
— Yung Fred (@WaywardWinifred) December 7, 2020

on “us.” these kids. so hopeful.

but in a way, i’m almost wary of this kind of talk anymore. it breaks hearts and turns people away, in the end. we are not going to move Becerra to “abolish private insurers.”

better to steer people to M4A organization and identify where efforts might actually yield results, not send people off to die on a hill. picky, picky, tonight.

Beats the pants off that atrocious governor of RI.

def.

https://twitter.com/GarbageApe/status/1335754829461921794?s=20

https://twitter.com/GarbageApe/status/1335755274704052224?s=20

a diff view

This is why we need you to become a supporting subscriber here: https://t.co/BXWo3EK60g
We're grassroots funded, so when you subscribe, you help us hire more reporters. If everyone who sees this tweet subscribes RIGHT NOW, we can hire an entire newsroom to do this reporting. https://t.co/VIcue0PECo
— The Lever (@LeverNews) December 7, 2020

From WaPo:

Becerra’s selection is a break from a pattern in which the president-elect is selecting people as his right-hand advisers who have lengthy working relationships with him from earlier in his career, including his eight years as Obama’s vice president. But Becerra, 62, has been under consideration for three possible positions in the Biden Cabinet, including attorney general, according to one individual familiar with the selection process. He also was a potential successor to Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris when she leaves her spot in the Senate.
The idea of Becerra as HHS secretary “all picked up late in the week. It started to snowball,” according to the individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they lacked authorization to discuss the transition’s personnel goings-on.
Another person familiar with the selection, also speaking on the condition of anonymity about matters that are not public, said that Biden offered Becerra the HHS secretary’s job Friday.
According to this person, the president-elect chose him because he regarded the attorney general of the country’s most populous state as someone who has used that platform and earlier roles to expand access to health care.
HHS is one of the government’s largest departments, with several agencies within it that are crucial to the federal response to the pandemic, which has sickened nearly 15 million people in the United States and killed 281,000. In addition to the CDC, they include the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The department contains many other units, such as the agency that oversees welfare, that are less central to the pandemic response.
In a transition that has had orderly rollouts in the past two weeks of Biden’s senior national security team and then his economic team, the question of who would become HHS secretary has appeared more complex. A few people who initially were widely regarded as contenders ended up not being among the finalists. One of them was New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D). The person familiar with the selection said she was considered for several Cabinet roles but ultimately chose not to join the incoming administration because of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in her state.

at least he is for the public option. apparently.

I would imagine this bill will come up in the debate. Mark Warner and Susan Collins give a pitch in WaPo.

The framework includes money for small-business loans and another round of much-needed PPP funds, targeted to those small businesses that are suffering most due to covid-19, such as restaurants and live entertainment venues. It will provide $35 billion to help health-care providers struggling under the weight of a record number of cases and hospitalizations, and billions more for testing, contact tracing and vaccine distribution. It also provides billions for rental assistance and unemployment benefits for Americans who have found themselves jobless through no fault of their own, and it relieves student borrowers by allowing them to continue deferring federal loans.
It includes $160 billion to keep state and local governments from laying off teachers, first responders and sanitation workers in the middle of the pandemic, as well as funding for broadband, education, nutrition, agriculture, airlines, motor coaches, Amtrak and mass transit. It also invests in the low-income and minority communities that have been hardest hit by covid-19 by setting aside funding for community-based lenders that have a demonstrated history of getting capital into underserved communities, with the goal of staving off a wave of Black and Latino business closures.
The total package of $908 billion is much smaller than the $2.2 trillion sought by Democrats in the House, and much larger than the $500 billion plan Republicans put on the floor in October. Our package is a common-sense compromise that includes the best ideas from both Republicans and Democrats and focuses on areas where there is consensus.
We fully acknowledge that parts of this agreement — as well as items not included — will be difficult pills for some senators in both parties to swallow.

So, how does the bill help with student debt? I don’t see any money given to those who are crushed with the debt? I don’t see any relief checks for those who can’t work because they got sick from COVID.

Not addressed in that op-ed is the liability shield, to make a case for it.

Another way to watch:

https://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/528975-watch-live-georgia-senators-debate-in-atlanta

There is a link to USA Today, which is also airing the debate.

Thanks for this thread, Benny

I’m going to watch at least the first few minutes.

be back if there’s anything interesting to say.

The Easy Way for Joe Biden to Save Lives

There’s an on-the-shelf policy the Biden administration could enact unilaterally that would save millions of American lives, without costing the government a single cent on net.
That policy, one pushed for but never implemented by the Trump administration, is eliminating most nicotine from tobacco products. It would not render cigarettes illegal; they would still be available to adults, and the smoking experience would remain much the same. But the product would no longer be so addictive. Researchers have estimated that this policy change would enable 5 million adult smokers to quit within a year. The share of adults who smoke regularly would drop from roughly 15 percent to just 1 percent; 33 million fewer people would become smokers by the end of the century. It would save 8.5 million lives by 2100, at little public cost.
“I am always a bit suspicious of silver bullets in public health,” Michael Fiore, one of the country’s leading experts on tobacco use and smoking cessation, told me. “Things are rarely silver bullets. But reducing the nicotine in cigarettes to near-zero is as close to a silver bullet as you get.”
He’s right, and there’s nothing I know of in public policy remotely like it. Changing laws, medical advances, and social mores have saved millions of lives by suppressing tobacco use. With nothing more than a few pen strokes and a standard regulatory process, Biden could save millions more.
As smoking has disappeared from television screens, planes, bars and restaurants, and other public spaces, the smoking rate has dropped to a third of its peak of 45 percent in the mid-1950s. The share of high-school students who have smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days is down too, falling from 36 percent in the mid-’90s to just 6 percent today. That latter figure is considered crucial among public-health experts, as most adults who are dependent on cigarettes, and who ultimately die from the habit, start smoking as kids.

Anyone remember the Tavern league along with other tobacco lobbyists screaming their heads off how profits would drop for bars and resturaunts–it never materialized

fave band and song. back in the day. prolly mostly song, but i remember liking some other ones of theirs.

Power struggle sparks tensions among Senate Democrats

Senate Democrats are mulling new limits on leadership positions and plum committee posts as long-simmering tensions about the balance of power within the caucus are spilling into public view.
What started as a fight over Democrats’ top spot on the Judiciary Committee has instead turned into a sprawling debate about concerns that there’s a bottleneck to climb the seniority ladder.
It’s a rare point of public division in a caucus that has prided itself on unity over the past four years. But Democrats, who failed to win the majority for the fourth cycle in a row, say the debate is a long time coming.
“My belief is that we were going to have this discussion over seniority rules regardless. … I think there’s a lot of frustrated members who have been here for 5 years or 10 years that think that we shouldn’t be the only caucus that operates by strict seniority,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) described herself as in listening mode before making a decision.
While she said that she would “like to see more opportunities for people,” she added that any changes also needed to be “fair.”
The divisions boiled over when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) created a vacancy by announcing that she would step back from the Democrats’ top spot on the Judiciary Committee next year.
Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), who was recently reelected as Democratic whip for the next Congress, immediately threw his hat into the ring to succeed her. Durbin is third in seniority among Democrats on the committee behind Feinstein and Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), who previously chaired the committee and is the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
But the move drew grumblings because Durbin already holds the No. 2 position in the caucus and Democrats’ top spot on the Appropriations subcommittee for defense spending, an influential post that gives him sway over the Pentagon’s $700 billion budget.

I’m about to head in for tonight’s #GASenDebate! Tune in tonight at 7pm ET to CNN, Georgia Public Broadcasting, or livestream at https://t.co/Asw5BASb2W.
Let’s do this. #VoteWarnock pic.twitter.com/AGJHzI1LCn
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) December 6, 2020

There are 3 rounds.

Two questions each. Loeffler gets first question, and it’s about whether or not Loeffler supports Trump’s claim about the election being rigged.

Loeffler supports Trump’s right to challenge, and manages to say that the election is about socialism.

Warnock is asked about navigating between pulpit and “state”.

Warnock acknowledges the passing of one of Loeffler’s staffer.

Warnock answers the question about good policy, such as good policy. Making people the center of policy, Washington is not doing enough for ordinary people.

Loeffler already on the attack. Warnock responses that his life’s work is about bringing people together, Loeffler doesn’t have a good record to defend.

Loeffler uses time to put in phrases such as liberal radical socialist.

Warnock not getting as many opportunities to respond to Loeffler’s claims such as using the Bible to justify abortion.

Loeffler claims Warnock is registering voters from NY.

Loeffler says Stacy Abrams is a conspiracist.

Round 2 – candidates get to ask each other question.

Warnock asks about why Georgians shouldn’t get more money when she knew about the seriousness of the pandemic and profited from it.

Loeffler asks if Warnock is a Marxist.

Warnock responds with his family’s history with small business, says he believes in free markets.

Loeffler is using Karl Rove tactic, using the phrase for the 5th time, “liberal radical socialist Warnock.”

#RobotKelly

Warnock asks Loeffler about whether or not Trump won the election in GA.

Not certain that is a good use of questions.

OTH, the media is harping on this point, so maybe he’s on to something. They pointed out she refused to answer the question when asked multiple times.