In this Jan. 4,(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) 2017 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden, left, watches President Barack Obama, center, at Conmy Hall, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va.
After a deluge of horrible headlines, ranging from his reported disrespect for troops to intentionally downplaying the severity of the pandemic, President Donald Trump on Wednesday attempted to change the conversation with a simple, though entirely hypothetical, announcement: future potential Supreme Court nominations.
Let's be clear — there's no actual SCOTUS vacancy at this time, but this gives the incumbent another tool in the make-'em-go-wild applause lines for his not-so-socially-distant campaign rallies. And included in the list were a few real newsmakers: Republican Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley. Within moments of the announcement, Cotton even tweeted out, "It's time for Roe v. Wade to go."
This strategy proves the media manipulation that, in part, helped propel Trump to the presidency in the first place: the ability to uniquely control — and change — the conversation on his own terms. It's a game that the campaign for Democratic nominee Joe Biden will have to contend with for the next 54 days until the election.
And Biden has a simple way to steal back the thunder on this silly story and reframe it in a way that would drive conservatives up the wall: announce a similarly-hypothetical SCOTUS nomination for none other than former President Barack H. Obama.
Just imagine the breathless outrage on Sean Hannity's opening monologue, or how the Trump Rapid Response team would scramble to respond to the unexpected "announcement" from Biden. But what, exactly, would Biden have to lose? He wouldn't actually be committing to anything, and in the process, he could steal a week's worth of cable news panels, chyrons, and pundit hot takes debating whether or not Obama might actually join William Howard Taft as the only other POTUS-SCOTUS hybrid in U.S. history.
And the arguments write themselves: at only 59-years-old, Obama on the Supreme Court could help ensure liberal longevity, and would put him even younger than Merrick Garland was in 2016. Obama was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude; he could also help uphold any of the signature policies that Obama-Biden fought for through eight years in office. And a recent Morning Consult/Politico poll found that the Obamas remain the most popular figures in the Democratic Party.
The issue has come up before: on the campaign trail, Biden was asked in Iowa if he would ever consider nominating his former boss to the high court; he responded, "If he'd take it, yes."
But aside from the merits of the choice itself, the short-term strategy to such a move would be clear: play the media like a fiddle the way Trump does. Stealing back the spotlight with non-announcement-announcements would show that the Biden campaign is willing to fight and aggressively frame headlines on its terms. Donald Trump's undeniable showmanship makes him an unrivaled force in national politics, and Joe Biden can't miss his windows to show a bit of media pizzazz himself to compete against the headline-creating incumbent.
Not to mention, it would be a good opportunity to restate the obvious: a Biden White House would fight for the preservation of Roe v. Wade.
The opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of Cheddar and Altice USA.
The school shooting in Texas that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead has reignited the debate over gun control.
The tragedy in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade and marks the latest in a string of mass shootings in the country. Jared Moskowitz, Broward County Commissioner and candidate for Congress in FL-23, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss why gun control measures are stalled in the Senate, and where legislation can move forward from here.
Police and detectives are still investigating the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two adults. Cheddar News was joined by Kirk Burkhalter, professor at New York Law School and former NYPD detective to gain some insight on what investigators are looking for and what comes next.
Texas authorities say the gunman who massacred 21 people at an elementary school was in the building for over an hour before he was killed by law enforcement officers.
Join Cheddar News as we break down the top headlines for Thursday, May 26 including updates on the Texas school shooting, President Joe Biden's executive order on police reform, and a recount in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia rebuked words from the FDA commissioner that could have been construed as blaming parents for stockpiling baby formula exacerbating the shortage.
Cheddar News reporter Megan Pratz brings the latest from the scene of yesterday's horrific school shooting at a Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with 19 children and two adults killed, Pratz goes into comments by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, details about the deceased shooter, and reactions from members of the community.
The Robb Elementary School mass shooting killing 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas pm Tuesday was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and came just 10 days after the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York. Nelson Vergara, the founder and CEO of 360 Protective Solutions, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to discuss. "Right now what law enforcement is concentrating on is trying to trace his steps as to what motivated the gunman to act the way he did. What it boils down to just trying to figure out what led to his motivation to do such a horrific act.”
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
