May 18, 2019

Fernand Amandi joined Joy Reid's panel on Saturday right after Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin spoke to Reid. Rep. Rasking discussed the increasing number of Dems in Congress coming around to the side of being in favor of impeachment hearings for Trump. Amandi, like many, MANY other Democrats, asked, "What the hell are we waiting for?"

In a forceful assessment of Democratic leadership, Amandi respectfully pointed out that the cognitive dissonance of Congressional leadership is hurting Americans here, and that the world is watching. He made the on-point prediction that if we're waiting for the election to settle things, the premise is faulty because the 2020 election is NOT going to be a normal election. We already KNOW there are ongoing attempts to mess with the electoral systems and no moves effectively to combat it on a national level. He predicted Trump wouldn't even APPEAR in the debates.

Furthermore, one of our staunchest allies seems to be no longer steadfast. Angela Merkel has listed the UNITED STATES as a country against whom Europe needs to unite. She put us in the same category as Russia and China. Let that sink in.

JOY REID: When you look at public opinion in general, do people tend to to move toward strong leadership that is exhibiting that kind of strength, or toward rapprochement, people who are more conciliatory? Because Democrats seem to believe that being the most conciliatory they can be, that is how they secure 2020. Do you as a numbers guy believe that?

FERNAND AMANDI: Absolutely I believe the American people respond to strength, the American people respond to reasonable leadership that reacts to the moment, and when, what's obvious is, with all due respect to Congressman Rankin, he seems to be suffering from what the Congressional Democratic leadership seems to be suffering from which is this delayed cognitive dissonance, and dissonance story from recognizing this idea that, unprecedented, admittedly in the American experience, that the United States of America is under attack by the sitting president of the United States. That is very difficult, I think, for them to understand and believe but they need to face the facts that after two years where we are seeing nothing but evidence in our faces — now confirmed by the Mueller report — that speaks to illegal obstruction, that they are either bordering on a dangerous dereliction of duty at worst, or dangerous naiveté at best, and this idea of punting to the 2020 election and letting it resolve also under the very naive idea that the 2020 election is gonna be normal. Let me share a dirty little secret with the American people. Donald Trump is not going to act like a normal president in the seeking re-election in the campaign. He is probably not going to participate in a single debate. For people who say, "Oh, wait until the nominee gets him to debate." That's probably not gonna happen. He has already weaponized the Department of Justice to intimidate, threaten and perhaps even jail his political opponents.

The answer to this is to use the powers that the Founders gifted us through the generations in the Constitution, which is impeachment. A couple of other very quick points. The world is also watching, Joy. This week, a chilling thing happened. Angela Merkel made a statement that Europe and Germany need to unite against global rivals China, Russia and the United States. What may be prompting that thinking from Angela Merkel is the lack of action, real action, use of real power by Congressional Democrats to oppose the administration. If you don't believe me, I think you'll maybe need to ask Supreme Court Justice Merrick Garland about what the wisdom is of waiting for an election to decide what should be done for the American people.

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