A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022
Moderated by Frances Stead Sellers
Presenting Sponsor: Abbott
Wednesday, Feb. 16 | 1 0:30 a.m.
Race in America: History Matters
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), chair,
Congressional Black CaucusJanai S. Nelson, associate director-
counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational FundModerated by Jonathan Capeha rt
Presenting Sponsor: National
Women’s Law CenterWednesday, Feb. 16 | 1 p .m.
The Path to Gender Equity:
Research and DesignSara A. Jahnke, director, Center for
Fire, Rescue & EMS Health
ResearchRowena Johnston, vice president
and director for research, amfARCatherine Sanz, executive director,
Women in Federal Law EnforcementModerated by Libby Casey
Presenting Sponsor: VERITY NOW
Thursday, Feb. 17 | n oon
World Stage: Crisis in Ukraine
William B. Taylor, former U.S.
ambassador to UkraineFriday, Feb. 18 | 9 a.m.
First Look
Moderated by Jonathan Capehart
Moderated by Michael Duffy
Tuesday, Feb. 15 | 2 p.m.
Pandemic Preparedness
Rick A. Bright, CEO, Pandemic
Prevention Institute, The
Rockefeller FoundationHelen Clark, former New Zealand
prime minister and former
administrator, United Nations
Development ProgramEllen Johnson Sirleaf, former
president of Liberia and a Nobel
Peace LaureateCORRECTION
l A M onica Hesse column in the
Feb. 12 Style section about
podcaster Joe Rogan
mischaracterized one of Rogan’s
guests, Charles C. Johnson, as a
conservative political activist. At
the time of Johnson’s appearance
on Rogan’s podcast, he was a
conservative activist, but now he
says he is a supporter of
President Biden.The Washington Post is committed to
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TALK SHOWS
Guests to be interviewed Sunday on major television talk shows
9 a.m. FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG)
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby; Colorado Gov. Jared
Polis (D); Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
9 a.m. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN)
National security adviser Jake Sullivan; Maryland Gov.
Larry Hogan (R).
9 a.m. THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Sen. Lindsey O.
Graham (R-S.C.).
9 a.m. WHITE HOUSE CHRONICLE (PBS, WETA)
David Naylor, president and CEO of Rayburn Electric
Cooperative, and Peter Londa, president and CEO of
Tantalus Systems, discuss the challenges ahead for the
stressed electric utility system.
10 a.m. THIS IS AMERICA & THE WORLD (PBS, WETA)
China expert Patricia Kim of the Brookings Institution
discusses China’s foreign policy and global impact.
10:30 a.m. MEET THE PRESS (NBC, WRC)
Preempted by coverage of the Winter Olympics.
10:30 a.m. FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA)
Sullivan; New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D); Rep. Adam
Kinzinger (R-Ill.); Mary Daly, president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Monday, Feb. 14 | 1:30 p.m.
Washington Post Subscriber
ExclusiveBrian Cox, author, “Putting the
Rabbit in the Hat” and actor,
“Succession”Moderated by Sarah Ellison
Tuesday, Feb. 15 | noon
Watergate 50th Anniversary
Dwight Chapin, author, “The
President’s Man: The Memoirs of
Nixon’s Trusted Aide”All programs will be streamed live at
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Democrats got
another harsh
reminder this past
week of what the
November
elections could
bring, which is to
say trouble. With
inflation roaring
at a p ace not seen
in 40 years,
intraparty Democratic debates
about mask mandates and
President Biden’s weak approval
ratings, the fundamentals for the
midterm elections continue to
look ominous for the party.
That is the overarching reality
even though the Republicans
spent a good part of the week
fighting among themselves. The
GOP remains a party divided
over former president Donald
Trump, the 2020 election and
what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
They are a par ty with no clear
governing agenda, yet they could
be in control of Congress a year
from now.
For several days, the big
running story was the fallout
from the decision by the
Republican National Committee
to censure Reps. Liz Cheney
(Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)
for their joining Democrats on
the Jan. 6 committee “in the
persecution of ordinary citizens
engaged in legitimate political
discourse.”
No amount of spin by RNC
Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel or
others about what “legitimate
political discourse” did not mean
could undo the unforced error —
or tamp down the ridicule. It was
a perfect controversy to feed an
always-hungry media beast.
Cable and Twitter gave it plenty
of attention, though neither is
representative of the broader
elector ate.
Democrats piled on the
criticism of the RNC, but this was
a sideshow to their main
challenge of trying to persuade
voters to look more favorably on
Biden and themselves in the
hope that they could turn around
their midterm fortunes. For all
that it said about the
Republicans — and it said plenty
about a party that has been
caught in the undertow of the
former president’s lies and
obsessions — the RNC
controversy offered only minimal
opportunity to Democrats as a
campaign issue.
Many political strategists say
the RNC’s censure resolution is
not top-of-mind for voters. It
remains an inside-the-Beltway
issue that has not and likely will
not break through to the typical
voter. This is important because
of what it signifies for the
Republicans, but there’s scant
evidence that it’s going to move
many general-election voters.
“It’s a national pundit kind of
story,” said Republican pollster
Neil Newhouse. “It’s not a story
that average voters care about.”
The investigation by the
House committee into the Jan. 6
attack on the Capitol is
something different. Revelations
keep coming that speak to how
determined Trump and his allies
were to overturn the results of
the 2020 election. Each new
piece of information underscores
the importance of producing the
most complete accounting ofevents possible. The committee’s
work will help to ensure that
happens.
But as with the 2019 report by
special counsel Robert S. Mueller
III into Russia’s interference in
the 2016 election, possible
collusion by the Trump campaign
(he found plenty of contacts but
no criminal conspiracy) and
Trump’s efforts to obstruct the
investigation, whatever the Jan.
6 committee produces will be
received through the prism of a
partisan electorate. Few minds
are likely to be changed by what
the committee concludes in its
report, however critical it might
be for Trump and his acolytes.
For Democrats who reveled in
the RNC controversy and who
would like to see Jan. 6 and the
former president’s lies about
2020 as front-line issues in the
midterm elections, Republican
pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson
has a warning: “Nothing could be
a big ger political gift to
Republicans than a focus looking
backward, litigating Jan. 6 and
continuing to bring it up,” she
said. “Inflation, cost of living,
things like crime: These are
things people think are affecting
their daily lives.”
Democratic pollster Jefrey
Pollock, acknowledging the head
winds his party faces, offered a
counterargument about Jan. 6’s
importance. “We know the
general public thinks what
happened on Jan. 6 is terrible,”
he said. “We know there is a
significant faction on the right
that thinks it was normal. It’s
those suburban voters in
particular who find the behavior
to be atrocious. That’s where the
political implications are and
why [Senate Minority Leader]
Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] is
trying to fight the fight of saying
hold on. But he’s a l onely voice.”
He was referring to
McConnell’s rebuke to the
suggestion that Jan. 6 was either
legitimate or discourse. “It was a
violent insurrection for the
purpose of trying to prevent a
peaceful transfer of power after a
legitimately certified election
from one administration to
another,” he told reporters onTuesday.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah),
who also condemned the RNC
resolution, said, “Anything that
my party does that comes across
as being stupid is not going to
help us.” But will GOP stupidity
actually help the Democrats?
McConnell’s comments
highlight divisions within the
GOP that will play out in primary
elections this spring and
summer. Democrats hope that
those Republican primaries will
produce candidates far enough
out of the mainstream to
compromise their ability to win
in a general election. But hope is
not a strategy. Biden and the
Democrats know what they need
to do; it ’s executing that is
proving difficult.
Thursday’s inflation report
that showed consumer prices
having risen by 7.5 percent over
the past year highlights the real
problem. Biden and his team
played down the threat of
inflation last year, suggesting it
was transitory. It has proved not
to be such. Biden and the Federal
Reserve are under pressure to try
to slow inflation’s pace, but there
may be no easy fix.
A number of economists say
that inflation will ease later in
the year. Perhaps. For now, Biden
is telling voters he feels their
pain while vulnerable
Democratic senators are trying
to make clear that they recognize
the financial pinch their
constituents are feeling. They’ve
coalesced around a proposal
called the Gas Prices Relief Act,
which would suspend the 18.4-
cent federal gas tax for the rest of
this year. Fourteen years ago,
during the heat of their
nomination contest, Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton took
opposing positions on doing
exactly that, with Clinton in favor
and Obama dismissing it as a
short-term proposal that
wouldn’t solve the real problem.
Months ago, the
administration sug gested the
country had turned the corner on
the coronavirus pandemic. Then
came the delta variant and, more
recently, omicron. The
administration was caught flat-footed as demands for tests
skyrock eted. Now, some
Democratic governors are
moving away from mask
mandates, joining with what
Republican governors have done.
Biden remains cautious. He told
NBC’s Lester Holt that he thinks
the lifting of mask mandates is
“probably premature.”
Is the president out of step
with the country or will his
caution prove to be wise? He is
trusting the science, he says, but
will voters conclude he was
leading or following as the
country adapts to declining
caseloads?
A newly released CNN poll
paints a gloomy picture of the
president, with his approval
rating upside down and with
many of those who disapprove of
his overall performance saying
they can’t think of anything he’s
done that they like. That might
be a gr atuitous question to ask
people who already say they
don’t like the way the president
has done his job. But it and other
items in the survey highlight the
degree to which the anti-Biden
part of the electorate is far more
passionate than the pro-Biden
portion. For Democrats, that is
especially worrisome.
Biden and the Democrats are
under pressure to find a way to
tell a positive story about the
past year, whether it is about
millions of new jobs being added,
checks being delivered to
struggling families or the
passage of the bipartisan bill to
rebuild the nation’s aging
infrastructure.
Under the best of
circumstances — meaning an
easing of inflation by early
summer and/or a return to
something approaching
normalcy with the pandemic —
Democrats could still lose the
House but might hold the Senate,
given that the Senate map is
worse for Republicans. Under the
worst of circumstances, however,
the Senate, too, would fall to the
Republicans. As it stands now,
Biden needs both a more
effective strategy and perhaps
some lucky breaks to avoid a
nasty November.GOP’s Trump battles offer little solace to Democrats
DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Worries about rising prices, differences within the party over mask mandates and President Biden’s
slipping approval ratings continue to pose threats to Democrats ahead of the m idterm elections.Dan Balz
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