'Thoughts And Prayers' To Our Kurdish Allies

It's your Sunday Show Rundown.

Between Donald Trump giving Turkey the go-ahead to invade Northern Syria and Rudy Giuliani and his League of Extraordinary Dipshits , it's been a really long week marked by a total lack of integrity.

Let's begin with a returning guest to this column but in a different format: Kellyanne Conway, appearing with her trademark dishonesty on Maria Bartiromos' Fox News safe space, "Sunday Morning Futures." Conway attacked Joe Biden for his son's foreign business ties after Hunter Biden announced (belated!) plans to step down from the board of a Chinese private equity firm:

CONWAY: Yes, well, he should have done this quite a while ago. In fact, he probably shouldn't have been on the board to begin with. He hitched a ride on Air Force Two with the vice president of the United States, also his father at that time, came back with sweetheart deals, and I am really disappointed in so many members of the mainstream media stretching their necks to defend Hunter Biden, saying -- and we must say that there's no -- there's no wrongdoing here, nothing illegal. […] This is a part of how Donald Trump won in the first place, saying that we're going to get rid of these sweetheart deals, we're going to make sure that we clean up the -- the axis of power in a place like Washington, D.C., where someone like Hunter Biden can get a $50,000 a month retainer for a Ukrainian energy company when everybody knows that he doesn't have that skill set.

Conway also decided to preview the next set of attacks against Elizabeth Warren (and the Democratic Party) if Biden continues falling in the polls:

CONWAY: I do think it's funny that in a party that says "we're woke" and "we're going to be transformational," they're not backing the African-American woman, they're not backing the African-American man, they're not - - they're not backing the gay man, the mayor, you know? We're going to have people who are different as our -- they could do that. Those are Democratic primary voters, and they've got the -- the three white people at the top of the polls.

Now the level of dishonesty and lack of self-awareness form Conway is astonishing. From Ivanka's Chinese trademarks to Don Jr. and Eric gallivanting through foreign countries for deals to J ared Kushner's unqualified ass being in charge of Middle East peace to Trump himself having foreign leaders at his resorts (not to mention his towers in Turkey, which are causing some questions right now), Conway's charge of nepotism and the impropriety is laughable. The idea that the most discriminatory and least diverse administration would lecture Dems on diversity or race is mind-boggling. Take a look:

Over on NBC's "Meet The Press," Chuck Todd made the same point to Wall Street Journal columnist (and Kellyanne Conway's final form) Peggy Noonan, but she was unable to fully pull off the shameless liar mode:

NOONAN: This is a story that at least half the American people understand the Hunter Biden story as a story of the swamp, the elite, buddy-buddy-ism, using your family influence to do well in life. The American people don't like it. They have never liked it. And it is --

TODD: So how does it come from the Trumps though? Like, it's sort of an awkward charge coming from the Trumps. But you say with a Cheshire cat smile.

NOONAN: Well, was that a Cheshire cat smile?

TODD: Yeah --

NOONAN: I'm so relieved to hear it was. That's an interesting question, I think is how I'd respond to your question.

 #NEW:  @WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan warns the Hunter Biden side of the Trump impeachment narrative is the more persuasive “story of the swamp." pic.twitter.com/1c2lthI6os 
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) October 14, 2019 

Noonan, unlike Conway, didn't have enough self-control to contain herself when Todd pointed out her hypocrisy:

Girl, bye. Peggy Noonan wasn't ready for that lightning-speed clapback when she hopped right over the swampy Trump family's self-enrichment + conflicts of interest to attack Hunter Biden. The best way to avoid hypocrisy is to think b4 ya speak. #PSA #MTP   pic.twitter.com/UK4M2pjYSY 
— Shareefah Hoover (@shareefahtoday) October 13, 2019 

Earlier on "Meet The Press," Todd had an interview with former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. Appearing to state his concerns about Turkey massacring the Kurds with our go-ahead (and promote his book on "leadership"), Mattis was once again asked about speaking out about Trump. And once again Mattis showed his "leadership":

MATTIS: Well, Chuck, I have a lot of faith in the American people. They know how to vote. They don't need military generals telling them that they think this political assessment is the one they should go with, or the other one is, that sort of thing, especially as corrosive as the political debate has grown in the country.

This sentiment would be great if not for two things: One, Mattis is not a general anymore. He retired and his role in the administration was as the CIVILIAN Secretary of Defense. So using his former military title as a shield for his civilian and administration position (which makes it inherently political) is cowardice. The second point is that Mattis had ZERO problem, as a retired general and civilian, criticizing President Obama as he did in 2015 and even in his "leadership" book.

Mattis is not an inherent racist or scumbag profiting from misery like John Kelly, but that's a nonexistent bar. Mattis loves to set himself up as a super patriot and often quotes George Washington. But as IAVA founder and veteran Paul Rieckoff explains, this excuse is full of shit:

Mattis needs to stop using his former service as a shield for moral cowardice. https: //t.co/gC3FDokXkX 
— 🇵🇷Mic-HELL MORGUE-a🇵🇷 (@MichaelRMora) October 14, 2019 

Speaking of Secretary of Defense, over on "Fox News Sunday," Mark Esper painfully explained the dichotomy between "We have not abandoned the Kurds now, let me be clear about that" on Friday and the reports of atrocities that began to trickle out Sunday .

Even Chris Wallace was a bit confused at this abdicating to Turkey's president Erdogan:

WALLACE: But do you think that with 50 US troops on the border, acting as a tripwire, and with US -- complete air superiority over the border, do you really believe that President Erdogan and the Turks were going to just come through the border, perhaps create a conflict with the United States, if we had stood firm?

ESPER: Well, I think it's how you define standing firm. First of all, as I said, 50 service members are not going to stop a Turkish advance. And I'm not one to --

WALLACE: But wait--

ESPER: Well, let me finish -- to classify them as a trip wire and sacrifice them, if you will.

WALLACE: Well, you only sacrifice them if Turkey goes ahead, sir. If Turkey says, you know, we're not going to take on the US, we're not going to take on US fighters overhead, maybe we would've stopped them.

 Republicans suddenly forgot about "red lines" in Syria once it wasn't convenient to Trump Towers Instanbul  was decided that we were going reduce our troops in the Middle East. Or are we?

WALLACE: But while we are in the process of pulling troops at least back in Syria, maybe not out of Syria, though the president has talked about that, you just announced on Friday the president is going to send another 1,800 troops into Saudi Arabia. So are we trying to get out of the Middle East? Are we trying to get out of endless wars or not?

Guess with Trump as president and Erik Prince's sister (Betsy DeVos) in the administration it was only a matter of time before our troops were turned into Blackwater: America. Trump even said as much as Joy Reid on "AM Joy" brilliantly points out in this final clip:

 @amjoyshow perfectly summarizing Trump's foreign policy and ideology: Everything, including America, is for sale. pic.twitter.com/xqn2IzOE2E 
— 🇵🇷Mic-HELL MORGUE-a🇵🇷 (@MichaelRMora) October 14, 2019 

Have a week!

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