CSI: American Carnage (Sunday, January 12, 2020)
NEW YORK – Joe looks out over the group of rally-goers and a clutch of reporters. The Times guy, assigned to the rally, says, What about Iran Mr. Vice President? Joe smiles broadly. He says, Times, right? The Times guy nods, Yeah. Joe puts his arm around the shoulders of the Times guy and says, See, I’m going to hold off on commenting on the news until we know more, but there is one thing I will say: Jill and I are keeping our troops and Americans overseas in our prayers. We hope you’ll keep them in yours. The Times guy says, That’s it? Joe says, Look, we need more information. When President Obama came to me and asked me for advice, I gave him advice, but I cautioned him, I said, Here’s the thing, you know, if we have all the information we can have, and then we need to get McConnell, because before Trump was in office, it was possible to get Republicans on board, which I am going to do, we need more than normal. Normal’s not enough. Normal — in fact, we have to move beyond normal. We have to build on what we had started in our administration, and that’s been interrupted very badly, number one. Number two, with Trump out of the way, it’s not going to change things in a fundamental way. But what it will do is it will mean that we’re in a position where he’s not going to be able to intimidate the base, his base is not going to be able to intimidate those half a dozen Republicans we may need in other things. That’s where I stand. And there’s no question about it. The Times guy struggles to pull away from the Vice President’s grip. Joe says, You need your wheaties, son. Ha ha. You know the President and I used to wrastle, that’s right, in the old White House bowling alley. He’d say, Joe, you think you’re ready to take me on? And I’d say to him, Right here. Right now. I can whup you good. And son of a bitch, we’d go out behind the bar at the front of the bowling alley, and we’d strip off our shirts and kick off our shoes, and we’d wrastle. Ha ha ha. The Times guy, still struggling to get away from Joe’s arm around his shoulder, now finds that Joe has wrapped his leg around his ankles and is pushing him down in an old schoolyard maneuver. The Times guy finally breaks free. Joe says, Son of a bitch. Nice move. The Times guy says, On the Iran thing, what about no war with Iran? Wouldn’t that be your position? Joe says, Number one, Neither I nor President Obama provided funds for Iranian missiles. And number two. I will say that the deal that I negotiated, with Obama, was preventing any of this dangerous consequence. Joe beams again. Hey, Didn’t we meet up in Wilmington a year ago? – Sunday, January 12, 2020