John Fund is national-affairs columnist for National Review
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Freddy Gray talks to National Review and Fox columnist John Fund about the Democrat HR 1 bill on voting practices. Will it pass, and could it be an existential threat to American democracy?
From our US edition
On Wednesday night, Speaker Nancy Pelosi dragooned all but one Democrat into voting for her total rewrite of the nation’s election laws: House of Representatives Bill 1, or HR 1. The final vote was 220 to 210. The bill now goes to the Senate. Republicans promise a filibuster there to stop it. Every American should hope they succeed. HR 1 would cement all of the worst changes in election law made in blue states in 2020 and nationalize them. Federal control of elections would be the norm, with states relegated to being colonial outposts that carry out Washington DC’s mandates. Two amendments to impose yet more federal controls failed before final passage.
From our US edition
There is a reason Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called her 791-page bill, stuffed as it is with her favorite election-related changes, House of Representatives Bill Number 1 or HR 1. It’s that important to her. She has convinced or pressured every single House Democrat to co-sponsor it as it comes up for a vote this week. That means it will likely pass narrowly given that Democrats have a 219 to 211 majority. It faces more debate and a tougher road in the Senate, which is split 50 to 50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris as tiebreaker. It can be stopped. It must be stopped. It is the worst piece of legislation I have even seen in my 40 years reporting from Washington.
In a matter of two weeks, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s reputation has slid from that of smug Emmy Award winner to mastermind of a cover-up of Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes. The state’s political world was rocked earlier this month when Michelle DeRosa, the governor’s top aide, was recorded telling state legislators that the Cuomo administration had stonewalled their demand for the real number of nursing-home deaths. DeRosa admitted that 'basically, we froze' out of fear of a US Justice Department investigation into how thousands of nursing home patients had died. A ProPublica investigation had found that Cuomo’s 25 March mandate that state nursing homes admit coronavirus patients was akin to 'introducing fire to dry grass’.
From our US edition
For the duration of the COVID pandemic, New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been the living embodiment of hubris. As early as last July, he released a commemorative poster touting his handling of the crisis. It resembled a liberal version of Soviet-style propaganda posters from the Cold War era. He eagerly accepted an International Emmy award for his 'masterful' daily briefings on the pandemic. 'He effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,' Emmy Award CEO Bruce Paisner explained. And in October, Cuomo released his book American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
From our US edition
Kamala Harris’s selection as the Democratic vice presidential nominee has been touted as the remarkable success story of a daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. It is that. But it also represents the dramatic ascendency of a subset of the Democratic party that used to be dismissed as the ‘loony left’ of politics: the ‘San Francisco Democrats.’ The phrase ‘San Francisco Democrat’ was coined by Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan’s UN ambassador, who brandished it as a weapon at the 1984 GOP convention in Dallas. San Francisco was where the Democrats nominated Walter Mondale to challenge Reagan.
From our US edition
The left is demanding 'defund the police' in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. President Trump’s allies are hunkering down with calls for 'law and order.' Both miss the plot. When pressed, the left really wants a new Great Society. Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza told NBC's Meet the Press that 'defunding police' is really about 'increased funding for quality of life of communities who are over-policed and over-surveiled.' But the Great Society didn’t work, and a new one would also be ill-fated. For its part, the right fails to acknowledge real problems with our criminal justice system. President Trump addressed some of them in a much-praised federal sentencing reform bill last year.
From our US edition
Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee. Yet many Democrats have 'buyers’ remorse' as the COVID virus has driven Biden off centerstage and into a hastily-built basement studio in his Delaware home. Biden has tried to remain relevant to the public through TV broadcasts, but those appearances have been gaffe-prone and interspersed with lapses in lucidity. Last Friday, he announced on CNN that 'I speak to all five of my grandkids,' which must make his very much alive sixth grandchild feel a little neglected. Dave Catanese of McClatchy found his interview last Monday painful to watch: 'Joe Biden struggled mightily at the top of his MSNBC interview where he looked to be reading from notes to answer a question.' Democrats openly worry about the lack of enthusiasm for Biden.
