A Tale Of Two Sundays

It's your post Super Bowl Sunday show rundown!

When it comes to the Sunday political shows, “the best of times” are far outnumbered by “the worst of times.” But, as your dutiful and loving Wonkette, we provide this service of watching so YOU don’t have to.

Let’s dive right in.

The Ghost Of Failed Presidential Bids Past

There once was a time when Marco Rubio, Republican US senator from Florida and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was on CNN’s “State of The Union’ with Jake Tapper.

Tapper played a clip of Trump bragging he would not come to a NATO ally’s aid in his trademark “shame if anything were to happen to your lovely Montenegro…” junior mobster extorsion tone. Rubio, being the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would normally be expected to condemn this type of rhetoric.

But being an invertebrate coward like most in his party, Rubio instead twisted himself to excuse Trump.

RUBIO: Well, that's not what happened. And that's not how I view that statement. I mean, he was talking about something, a story that he talked about happened in the past. […] But he's telling a story. […] He doesn't talk like a traditional politician. And we have already been through this now. You would think people had figured it out by now. What he's basically saying is, if you see the comments, he said NATO was broke or busted until he took over because people weren't paying their dues. And then he told the story about how he used leverage to get people to step up to the plate and become more active in NATO.

Guess this is one of those convenient “don’t take him literarily, take him symbolically” moments that Republicans afford to Trump and no one else.

Tapper then moved on from foreign policy to foreign aid, namely a package that the Senate was set to vote on (and advanced as the Super Bowl was happening) for aid to Ukraine and Israel. But Rubio, while trying to dodge whether he supported aid for Ukraine, pivoted to the “border crisis” and Tapper pointed out his party’s hypocrisy, in light of the failed bipartisan bill they torpedoed.

TAPPER: So, I totally hear what you're saying that you want there to be a tougher border. […] The National Border Patrol Council, which is the union for Border Patrol agents, which is a very conservative group, they support this legislation. [The NBPC] union that endorsed Trump strongly in 2020, consistently criticize President Biden. Go check out their Twitter feed. They mock him all the time. They say this is better than nothing; it should become law. Are you saying that the Border Patrol Union is wrong?

RUBIO: Yes. If that's what they still believe, they're wrong. It's not better than nothing.

But with how often these people pose for photo ops and praise border patrol agents, it’s funny to see the same hollow and feckless “thank you for your service” sentiment we thought the GOP reserved only for active military and veterans.

Like Rubio shrugging off Trump attacking the service Nikki Haley’s husband, who is deployed as a major with the South Carolina National Guard.

RUBIO: I think they're part of the increasing nastiness of this campaign and every campaign in American politics. I mean, they're calling him a grumpy old man.

Tapper tried to point out how bad a false equivalence that was, only for Rubio to use an even dumber example.

TAPPER: Just a reminder, folks, the comments you made in 2016, when Biden -- I'm -- when -- I'm sorry, President Trump, then-private citizen Trump said John McCain wasn't a war hero, you said those comments were offensive, ridiculous and a disqualifier as commander in chief. […]

RUBIO: Yes, I was running for president against Donald Trump.

TAPPER: Right. No, but...

RUBIO: Because we were in a campaign.

TAPPER: But Major Haley...

RUBIO: I mean, Kamala Harris basically said... Kamala Harris basically suggested Joe Biden was a segregationist, and then she became his vice president.

We don’t know what’s worse: cynically admitting you only have principles if politically advantageous or not knowing the very clear difference between policy disagreement and besmirching genuine sacrifice for your country.

The Ghost Of Failed Presidential Bids Present

Speaking of Nikki Haley, she was on CBS’s “Face The Nation” to continue her quixotic quest to beat Donald Trump for the GOP’s presidential nomination.

While we totally Haley’s desire to defend her husband in light of these personal attacks from Trump, at this point we are just saving these moments for when Haley eventually endorses Donald Trump. Like Rubio and Ted “Trump said my wife fugly and my dad killed JFK” Cruz, we have seen this play out before.

The Ghost Of Failed Presidential Bids Yet To Come

Speaking of JFK (coincidentally), we conclude with anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on technically a Sunday show (wink, wink).

While Americans were enjoying a great game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, an RFK Jr. super PAC spent $7 million for a 30-second ad in which they repurposed a John F. Kennedy presidential ad for RFK Jr.

The original:

The Super Bowl one:

This was not only disgusting for strangers but disrespectful to Kennedy’s own family.

And while he did apologize to his family on his Twitter…

… the fact he made it his pinned tweet (and still so as of this writing), shows that RFK Jr. is as cynical a lying scumbag as any Republican. Wonkette will have a full post on this incident this afternoon.

Have a week!

Follow Michael Mora on Bluesky and Threads. (If you are still on Twitter, I’m also HERE.)