The Joe Cunningham Show airs 3-4 p.m. every weekday on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL. The daily show notes offer you a look into the topics of the day and the links to the top stories and Joe's own writings on the state of politics in Louisiana and around the country. Follow Joe on Twitter at @JoePCunningham and Like the Joe Cunningham Show on Facebook. You can also subscribe to the Joe Cunningham Show podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or Amazon.
“Cause of Death”
There is an absolute must-read piece at the Washington Post (paywalled, sorry) that really breaks down the failure of the federal government to ever really combat the fentanyl crisis in the United States. I broke some of it down here, too.
One of the reasons that the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, happened was the failure of different government agencies to talk to each other. In an investigation that looked into the systemic failures of the different federal law enforcement agencies that had intelligence on what was coming. Those agencies each had a piece of the puzzle, but none of them saw the whole picture because of bureaucratic turf wars that kept lines of communication closed. With the fentanyl crisis, the same thing is happening. The DEA has not coordinated with DHS, and the CDC is using data that is a year old while the executive branch’s drug czar has a separate set of data no one sees.
It’s also a mess because it’s non-partisan. It’s a failure of administrations belonging to both parties. Without real government reform, there is no chance that this crisis will be handled correctly.
President Tim Scott?
Tim Scott is one of my favorite U.S. Senators, and apparently, there’s a growing number of his colleagues who are intrigued or even excited about a potential bid for President. Via Politico:
Joni Ernst is “very excited” about a potential Tim Scott presidential run. John Cornyn would “advise him to go for it.” And John Barrasso said it “doesn’t get any better than Tim Scott.”
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, who spent much of Donald Trump’s presidency sticking to his side, said he’s intrigued by the possibility of a Scott presidential bid in 2024 and wants to see “what Tim does” before he makes any endorsements.
Scott would “bring something to the table on day one,” Graham said, adding his South Carolina colleague has “one of the most compelling stories of any Republican out there.”
[…]
Scott “is increasing in national prominence and [within] the party,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “I want to see what the first quarter shapes up to be in terms of people. Anyone who is serious about it is probably going to make a decision by the end of April. … Having somebody like Tim in the mix is positive for Republicans.”
I would love to see Scott gaining prominence in the GOP. But, I am not sure I want him to run for President. I’ll explain why during the show.
The Twitter Files
I haven’t talked much about the “Twitter Files,” which are a multi-part series of stories about pre-Musk Twitter and how it handled censorship, Donald Trump, and more. Today, journalist Bari Weiss released the latest Twitter thread on the subject, which went into the removal of Donald Trump from the site. The information there is pretty serious: Twitter violated its own policies in order to ban Trump, and while a small handful of employees questioned it, the vast majority appear to have been working as activists within the company to make it happen.
Headlines of the Day
Mississippi State Coach Mike Leach Hospitalized Sunday (KPEL)
The Hunter Biden Defense Force Has Been Activated, and It's a Chaotic Mess (RedState)
Parents file lawsuit saying their kids are addicted to Fortnite (Fox 5)
U.S. to announce fusion energy ‘breakthrough’ (Washington Post)
The Beginning of the End of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’? (The Free Press)