Morning Briefing: Bernie is Running, Trump Gets Sued, and Klobuchar Angles for the Middle

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 19, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 19, 2019 |

As expected, Bernie Sanders announced this morning that he would be running for the 2020 Democratic nomination, proving that he really can’t read a room. And again, I don’t want to disparage the ideas that came out of Bernie’s 2016 campaign. He pushed the party to the left. Medicare for all and free college tuition are on the table because of Bernie. He’s a great ideas man, a terrible politician, and more than any other Democratic candidate, Bernie divides the party. But, you know: Bernie’s gonna Bernie. But I don’t hate what he’s pushing:

Sanders' 2020 agenda, per aides:
- Medicare 4 All
- Green New Deal/climate
- $15 min wage
- Criminal justice reform
- Free college
- Break up biggest banks
- Gender pay equity
- Paid leave
- ⬇ Drug prices
- Expand Social Security
- Save unions
- DREAM Acthttps://t.co/CyM52Cw2pf

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 19, 2019

This also means that Joe Biden is basically the only major candidate who has not yet announced, and if Amy Klobuchar keeps going the way she’s going, he may not, because Klobuchar may take up the center position on the board. She’s not running on a Medicare for All platform; she’s running to fix Obamacare. She’s not running for free college education for all, and she thinks that the Green Deal is pie in the sky. From CNN:

“I have to tell the truth. We have this mounting debt that the Trump administration keeps getting worse and worse. I also don’t want to leave that on the shoulders of all these we’ve got to do a balance.”

And that’s fair. She’s being more pragmatic, and in doing so, she may be able to neutralize both a potential Biden campaign and keep Howard Schultz out of the race. Honestly, I don’t know if this makes her more electable or not.

Meanwhile, the guy that the Democrats are competing to run against, President Trump, has been sued by 16 states for invoking emergency powers to build the wall. The lawsuit cites EIGHT Trump tweets against the idea that building a border wall is an “emergency.” Stephen Miller has also apparently weakened the President’s case.

Likewise, a group of Democratic Senators (including several running for President) have introduced legislation to block Trump from using disaster relief funds to pay for the wall.

Finally, Roger Stone posted a photo to Instagram of the judge presiding over his case with her name and crosshairs over the photo. And then he deleted it, writing “The photo has been misinterpreted and in no way did I mean to threaten the judge or disrespect the court. [It] is a random photo selected from the Internet and was posted at my direction. Because it was open to misinterpretation I have ordered it taken down.”

It was just a random photo of a judge, y’all, and it just happened to be the judge overseeing his case. What are the odds?

His lawyers sent an apology letter to the judge.

Now: Roger Stone formally apologizes to Judge Amy Berman Jackson for an Instagram photo showing her face next to crosshairs https://t.co/lB5oq4dkXx pic.twitter.com/loX4j5tKeQ

— Mike Scarcella (@MikeScarcella) February 19, 2019

Idiot.