Appearing on CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham had a warning for former Rep. Liz Cheney. Meanwhile, both Cheney and Jen Psaki had warnings for America. Email not displaying correctly?
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** OPINION
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** ‘Sleepwalking into dictatorship’: This week’s Sunday shows stirred up the strong takes
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Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, speaking with CBS News’ John Dickerson. (Courtesy: CBS News)

You needed a reliable remote to keep up with all the morning news shows on Sunday. A few moments stood out.

Let’s start with South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who had a warning for Liz Cheney, the former GOP representative. Cheney has a book coming out this week called “Oath and Honor” ([link removed]) that pulls back the curtain on how some Republicans reacted on Jan. 6 in their support of former President Donald Trump. In addition, Cheney has warned Americans how dangerous another Trump administration could be to the country.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Graham started by telling host Dana Bash how a Joe Biden reelection would be bad for the country, particularly when it comes to topics such as immigration and the wars in Ukraine and Israel. He said, “I think Liz’s hatred of Trump is real. I understand why people don’t like what he does and says at times, but in terms of actions and results, he was a far better president (than) Biden.”

Then Graham added his ominous line: “If we have four more years of this, Liz Cheney, then the world will be truly on fire.”

Let’s keep going with the Sunday morning theme …


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** Speaking of Cheney …
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Cheney was featured on “CBS Sunday Morning” ([link removed]) and gave correspondent John Dickerson her view on Trump: “He’s told us what he will do. And I think that it’s very easy to see the steps that he will take. … People who say, ‘Well, if he’s elected, it’s not that dangerous because we have all of these checks and balances,’ don’t fully understand the extent to which the Republicans in Congress today have been co-opted. … One of the things that we see happening today is a sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the United States.”

Cheney added, “If you look at what Donald Trump is trying to do, he can’t do it by himself. He has to have collaborators. And the story of (House Speaker) Mike Johnson is a story of, of a collaborator and of someone who knew then and knows now that what he’s doing and saying is wrong, but he’s willing to do it in an effort to please Donald Trump. And that's what makes it dangerous.”


** Speaking of Johnson …
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MSNBC host Jen Psaki, talking on her show about Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. (Courtesy: MSNBC)

MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, on her show “Inside with Jen Psaki,” commented on the expulsion of New York Republican Rep. George Santos. Actually, she didn’t comment as much on Santos as she did the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.

Psaki said, “But as the scandal engulfing George Santos continues to get a whole lot of oxygen and a whole lot of attention, I think we need to spend less time talking about the no-name, now ex-congressman from New York, who never had any real power to begin with, and certainly doesn’t now, and more time talking about the man who is currently second in line for the presidency.”

Psaki went on to talk about Johnson writing the foreword for (and publicly promoting) the 2022 book “The Revivalist Manifesto.”

Psaki said, “Now, this is a book — in case you haven’t read it and you probably haven’t — that gives credence to baseless conspiracy theories like the pizzagate hoax, which falsely claimed top Democrats were involved in a pedophile ring mysteriously in a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. And it implies that Supreme Court Chief John Roberts was connected to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The book also defends podcaster Joe Rogan from racism charges after he used the N-word, repeatedly insults Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him a, quote, queer choice — very subtle there — for the cabinet position, and it refers to low-income voters as unsophisticated. And in a foreword for this book that propagates all of those awful things, Johnson wrote that the author, quote, presents a valuable and timely contribution, because he has managed here to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing.”

Psaki would add, “Now, I wouldn’t exactly call conspiracy theories and homophobic insults valuable and timely, but apparently, our House speaker would. And Johnson doubled down on his support for this book and what it stands for, saying on this podcast, quote, I obviously believe in the product, or I wouldn’t have written the foreword. So I endorse the work. Mike Johnson’s views are dangerous. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. So, even though all of the details surrounding George Santos are kind of funny and very salacious and a little weird, we all need to stop paying as much attention to Santos and start paying more attention to Mike Johnson. Trust me: It’s going to matter a whole lot more moving forward.”


** Playing dodgeball
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC where he repeatedly played dodgeball with moderator Kristen Welker, who did a solid job trying to pin DeSantis down on various topics, including whether he would drop out of the race if he did not win or at least come in second in the Iowa caucus in January.

DeSantis told Welker, “Well, we’re going to win the caucus. We’re doing everything that we need to do. We’ll continue to build support.”

Welker appropriately followed up with, “But what if you don’t, governor? What if you don’t?”

DeSantis said, “I’ve said, from the beginning, we are — we are going to win the caucus. But even apart from that, there have been people that have won Iowa and not won the nomination and vice versa. You need to win a majority of the delegates. And so we’re committed to doing that through the whole process to win the majority of the delegates.”

When Welker asked DeSantis if Iowa was “do or die” for him, he said, “We’re going to win Iowa.”

When Welker asked DeSantis about Donald Trump using the loaded word “vermin” to describe political opponents. DeSantis said, “I don’t use the same rhetoric that he does. I conduct myself in a different way. I think I conduct myself in a way that’s more effective as a leader. Part of what you have to do is you have to be strong, you have to deliver big results. But what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to alienate people for no reason. And I think some of the reasons why he struggled electorally is because it’s not even about the policy. It’s about some of these other things.”

But when Welker asked if he condemned the use of the word “vermin,” DeSantis dodged her again, saying, “I don’t use the term. But what I don’t do is play the media’s game, where I’m asked to referee other people. He’s responsible for his words. He’s responsible for his conduct. I’m responsible for mine. But I will tell you, more important than the choice of words is: Why are you running? If he’s running for personal retribution, that is not going to lead to what we need as a country. You’ve got to be running for the American people and their issues, not about your own personal issues. And that is a distinction between us. I am focused on the folks. I am focused on what they want to see done for this country in a positive direction. I’m the vessel, but ultimately, it’s not about me.”

In even more dodgeball, DeSantis told Welker that, if he becomes president, he would replace the Affordable Care Act, saying, “Obamacare hasn’t worked. We are going to replace and supersede with a better plan.”

But DeSantis didn’t provide any details, saying his campaign would likely roll out his plan in the spring, assuming he is still in the race by then.


** Finally …
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Maybe you were fed up with the Sunday shows, tired of all the controversy and fighting. So, perhaps, you turned over to ESPN to just watch some sports and chill out.

Well, that probably didn’t work out. There was yelling there, too.

On Sunday, the committee selecting the four-team College Football Playoff picked its teams and there was major controversy. Undefeateds Michigan and Washington both made it, as expected. So did one-loss Texas. That left three teams fighting for one spot: undefeated Florida State and one-loss teams Alabama and Georgia. Alabama beat Georgia in the SEC Championship on Saturday, so that effectively eliminated Georgia, meaning it pretty much came down to Bama and FSU, which lost its starting quarterback two games ago and has looked mediocre since then. Then again, it hasn’t lost, either.

In the end, the committee decided to take one-loss Bama and snub undefeated FSU.

That led ESPN analyst Booger McFarland to go off on the committee ([link removed]) , saying, “This is a travesty to the sport! Because we go out on the field and we play the game. And regardless of whether it looks good at the quarterback position, regardless of whether we win with the offense, whether we win with defense, the name of the game is to win. And that’s a reason never before has this not been done. Winning a Power Five conference, going undefeated and not getting into the playoffs.”

Podcaster Jemele Hill, the former ESPN writer and on-air personality, tweeted ([link removed]) , “Florida State fans have every right to be upset but ….. the committee got it right.”

Is Alabama better than FSU? I think so. Did FSU deserve to go instead of Alabama? Absolutely. Why else do we even bother playing the games?

And since we’re on the topic of the College Football Playoff, here are some smart pieces worth checking out:
* The Washington Post’s Jerry Brewer with “The four-team playoff’s final grift: A ridiculous stiff-arm for Florida State.” ([link removed])
* ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit weighs in ([link removed]) with his thoughts.
* The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman with “Why college football’s identity crisis resulted in Florida State being cheated.” ([link removed])


** Debatable
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Megyn Kelly, shown here in 2018. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

The Republicans have another debate this week. It’ll be Wednesday and televised on NewsNation. Moderators will be NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas, Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson and a surprise pick: Megyn Kelly. I wrote about this ([link removed]) when the announcement was made.

The moderators were picked by the Republican National Committee, not NewsNation. As I wrote last month, “… it’s not out of line to ask if (Kelly) can still be considered a journalist, if she ever really was one at all.”

These days, Kelly’s work is on a podcast where she can say whatever she wants. But she does say some controversial things, including “(Expletive) you, Dr. Fauci.” (That’s just one example of the many pro-conservative, anti-liberal things she says.) Then again, Kelly does have extensive debate experience. When she was at Fox, Kelly was a part of five debates, including the infamous 2015 Republican debate when then-candidate Donald Trump made gross remarks ([link removed]) about her the next day.

On Sunday, Semafor’s Max Tani wrote ([link removed]) , “Kelly’s return to the debate stage represents a major victory for her, in a career that had been largely deemed dead after her implosion at NBC News. It also shows the shifting balance of power in media, and represents another indication that in a fractured attention landscape, a famous YouTuber can command as much attention and value for politicians as a traditional news organization.”


** Media tidbits
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* Former Sports Illustrated sportswriter Austin Murphy with “The Fall of Sports Illustrated.” ([link removed])
* And Josh Tyrangiel, The Washington Post columnist covering artificial intelligence, with “What Sports Illustrated’s BotGate really means for journalism.” ([link removed])
* Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes with “Charissa Thompson and Erin Andrews ignore sideline reporter controversy on podcast.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* Just one Hot Type item today because I highly recommend it: The Ringer’s Justin Sayles with a fabulous podcast called “The Wedding Scammer.” ([link removed]) The seven-part series is extremely well done and highly entertaining. It’s well produced, well written and well told, with a great music score. I just finished listening to the seven-part series and it is a must-listen. It follows the exploits of a grifter who changed his name several times in pulling off what appears to be various scams involving weddings, restaurants and catering companies. Here’s the trailer ([link removed]) .


** One more thing
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