Agree to Disagree: Debating Today's Biggest Political Stories
President Trump is back at it on twitter again. Did he dig his own grave with a tweet about Michael Flynn over the weekend? Nick Givas, Media Reporter at The Daily Caller, and Emma Vigeland, Politics Producer at The Young Turks, debate whether President Trump's tweet confirms that the president obstructed justice.
That tweet from President Trump came after Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn agreed to testify in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross inaccurately reported that Flynn would be testifying that it was President Trump who directed him to contact the Russians. In the wake of the false report, ABC News suspended Ross without pay for 4 weeks. Our round table debates whether ABC News did enough to remedy the situation.
While Ross's report was wrong, other sources have confirmed that senior officials on the Trump transition team asked Michael Flynn to contact the Russians. A number of those sources claim Jared Kushner is one of those officials. Vigeland and Givas discuss the likelihood that Jared Kushner is next on Robert Mueller's hit list.
Matt Hayden, vice president of govtech solutions at Exiger and a former assistant secretary of cyber at Department of Homeland Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the surprise phone call initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Joe Biden, ahead of January security talks about the rising tensions over Ukraine. "We're hoping to hear that we're able to talk about the aggression and the leadup of the Ukrainian militarization," Hayden said. "But we're also looking to hear is how the Kremlin leveraged their talking points to try to test their negotiation stance with the United States leading into this January 10th meeting."
The No Surprises Act begins implementation on January 1, 2022. The legislation is meant to curb the practice of unexpected billing for care from providers the patient was unaware were out-of-network from their insurance. Patricia Kelmar, director of health care campaigns for U.S. PIRG joined Cheddar to describe the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars charged to unsuspecting patients and how things will change under the new law. "If we are picking an in-network doctor and an in-network hospital, we should not see those added costs from anesthesiologists, radiologists, scrub-in surgeons," she said. "The other area it protects you is in air ambulances — not ground ambulances, unfortunately — but the helicopters or the airplanes you might need to transport you in an emergency situation."
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladmir Putin are expected to have another conversation surrounding escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joined Cheddar's Ken Buffa to discuss the ongoing tensions and why Putin's request for a conversation with Biden comes now. "This is very serious. This is the worst security crisis we had since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Cohen told Cheddar.
Stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, but two indexes - the Dow and the S&P 500 - ended the session with a new record. Akshata Bailkeri, Equity Analyst at Bruderman Asset Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she says there is a consensus for robust consumer spreading in 2022, especially as the Omicron variant is proving to be milder than other COVID-19 strains.
John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the retail giant is acting in accordance to President Biden's new law banning goods from China's Xinjiang region. Quelch also elaborates on the importance of China in Walmart's overall strategy.
