RUTHFULLY YOURS

When a CNN anchor warns that “it’s a fine line to walk between being a blank canvas and an empty vessel,” a pretty-boy, Kennedyesque empty-suit progressive candidate, already recognizable by his first name alone, is in trouble.

Beto looks like a beta, if we are to judge by the Washington Post’s account of his “lengthy” interview with Post writer Jenna Johnson.  The title gives away the verdict: “Beto O’Rourke’s immigration plan: No wall but no specifics.”  The lead paragraphs are no kinder.  Jenna Johnson wrote:

In a digital ad that recently went viral, Beto O’Rourke tore into President Trump’s desired border wall with soaring footage of the Rio Grande Valley and an explanation of what the wall would do: cut off access to the river, shrink the size of the United States and force the seizure of privately-held land.

It noted that most undocumented immigrants [sic] who arrived in the United States in the past decade came not over the border but on visas that then expired.

So what should be done to address visa overstays?

“I don’t know,” O’Rourke said, pausing in a lengthy interview.

The vacuity was so obvious that even CNN anchor Brianna Keilar felt compelled to raise the alarm.  The segment is embedded below, but Tommy Christopher of Mediaite cuts to the chase:

Keilar brought up O’Rourke’s recent interview with The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson, during which O’Rourke seemed to have trouble answering several questions.

“He was asked how he would handle immigrants who overstay their Visas, and he said ‘I don’t know’,” Keilar said.  “On withdrawing troops from Syria, he said there may be a good reason, but he doesn’t necessarily understand.  He seemed to be passing on a lot of stuff, the Constitution, he questioned whether a 230 year-old document can be used as a guide for today’s issues, especially international issues.

Tucker Carlson seized on that appalling indication that he doesn’t grasp the meaning of the presidential oath of office “to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  More on that below.  But Keilar continued her discussion with CNN political director David Chalian:

“Is he ready?” Keilar asked Chalian.  “I mean, you have to be able to have something of substance and have formed opinions on these things.”

Chalian agreed it was a valid question, but added “remember, we’ve seen that question asked before, I mean, Barack Obama in 2007 was getting criticized from many in the Democratic Party for not issuing white papers.  And he made clear I wasn’t going to be the candidate of white papers.”

Chalian suggested that O’Rourke is “trying to preserve as much flexibility as possible, be a blank canvas,” but added “you better believe that is going to raise questions in Democratic circles of does he have what it takes?  And only Beto O’Rourke is going to be able to answer that in a future interviews with how he conducts himself.”

“It’s a fine line to walk between being a blank canvas and an empty vessel, right, as someone will accuse you of being,” Keilar said[.] …

Wow!  A CNN anchor speaking to the network’s political director said that.  Keilar seems to have realized the impact of the words that slipped from her lips, because:

… then [she] hastily added “Not you, you know, collectively, the ‘you.’  Just to be clear, you are a very full vessel full, of very important knowledge.”

Here is the entire segment via Grabien:

Tucker Carlson, free to speak his mind, was devastating in questioning the empty-headedness of Beta:

Rush transcript from Grabien:

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
>> Tucker: Good evening. Welcome to “Tucker Carlson tonight.” The 2020 presidential race is effectively underway and has been since the midterms in November. The most formidable candidates have not officially announced yet. They want to be fashionably late to the party. It’s obvious who they are. They are lining up donors, genning up publicity and trying to be impressive. The biggest contender in the group is Beto O’rourke. He nearly beat Ted Cruz in a Senate race this fall. Democrats love him for that. Affluent Progressives on the coast love him best. He is one of them. In the betting markets, O’rourke is the favorite to win the democratic nomination. Two years from now he plausibly could be in the oval Office. So it’s work taking Beto O’rourke seriously. What kind of president would he be? At this point we can only guess. We know like most people in his social class he is totally against border walls.
>> We will fought when necessary against a president focused on building walls.
>> No wall is going to solve legitimate security concerns. Then perhaps you can be forgiven thinking that a wall will solve the problem.
>> We in El Paso are ashamed of this now. But this is one of those moments where the folks in Germany look back on the Berlin wall or the united States looks back on the project to intern Japanese Americans in World War II.
>> Did you hear that? Berlin wall, bad. Border wall, also bad. Indeed, bad, very much like interning the Japanese direct World War II was bad. Another racist attack on the Asians from the F.D.R. Administration. Or something like that. Walls are bad. So far that has been the sum total of what we know about Beto O’rourke’s policy views. That and he went to the dentist recently. We know because he put it on Instagram. Thankfully now we know even more. O’rourke just did a two-hour long interview with a reporter from Jeff bezos’ Washington newspaper, “Washington Post,” which like O’rourke himself is a full-time mouthpiece for guilty rich people. O’rourke knew he was speaking to his own community so he relaxed long enough to explain what he really thinks about things, including border walls. Walls are bad, O’rourke explained. Not just because they intern perfectly decent Japanese people but because they literally commit murder. Rather we commit murder when we build walls. As O’rourke put it, if you construct a barrier along the southern border, “You will ensure death. You and I as Americans have caused the deaths of others through these walls.” Let that settle. Whoa! We killed people. We didn’t even know it. That is pretty heavy. How many people did we kill? Should we turn ourselves in to the authorities or prepare for life on the lam? Do we need passports? Extra security? Does Paraguay have extradition treaty? So many questions. But the real question is what the hell is Beto O’rourke talking about? It’s not like he is pretending to know. He makes it perfectly clear he has no idea what he is saying. That is okay. He is not embarrassed about it. When the “Washington Post” asked O’rourke what he would do about illegal aliens oversaying their Visas, a huge part of the immigration crisis he answered this way. “I don’t know.” Thank you, Mr. Specoli, please take your seat. He is not in details. He’s in to ideas. Big ideas. Ideas of the future. Sweeping panoramic truths about being, personhood and new modes of authentic express. The — authentic expression. He is bigger than that of a micro guy. He is a transformer. What he wants to transform next is nothing less than the United States of America, starting with the belief the country was founding on. That is what he told Jeff bezos’ newspaper. Does this still work, he asked? “This” being America. He wasn’t so sure. So he asked a question that future his historians will recognize as a pivot point in the life of this country. Can America “Still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago?” That is not a small question. The principles he refers to would include “Bill of rights” freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and right to self-defense and fair trial. Does any of that still matter? Or are all of those old ideas, stumbling blocks preventing people like Beto, good and brilliant people who went to Columbia and have beautiful weekend homes from getting the power they need to turn the place to a truly awesome country? A country where the skateboards outnumber S.U.V.S, and everyone is thin and has quality child care. A nation that values hot yoga above football. Place WHE insensitive thoughts are banned and punished appropriately. Beto doesn’t know the answer to the questions right now but he is thinking about it.