Stephanopoulos Scores, Blake Dives, Superb Super Bowl | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

On Sunday’s episode of This Week on ABC, George Stephanopoulos scored substantive interviews with key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

In a notable exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Stephanopoulos challenged him about his shifting attitude towards former President Donald Trump ever since the events of January 6th.

The anchor questioned Graham if he would support Trump running for president again in 2024, and the senator replied “it’s his nomination for the taking in 2024, if he wants.”

Graham added that Trump is “hurting his chances” if he keeps looking back at the 2020 election, which Trump continues to falsely claim was stolen from him.

Stephanopoulos quoted several insults that Trump had lobbed Graham’s way, and said to him, “you said that the president will have to change if he wants to be competitive in 2024. He doesn’t really show any signs of changing.”

Stephanopolous also confronted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) about comments from Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who affirmed her support for the slogan “defund the police” earlier this week, and claimed to be feeling pressure from Democratic colleagues to change her rhetoric.

The Speaker flatly rejected that Bush was speaking for the entire party. “With all due respect in the world for Cori Bush, that’s not the position of the Democratic party,” Pelosi said.

The Sunday shows don’t need to comply with a strict partisan quota in order to be good journalism, but it is good to see two influential members of Congress from both major parties on the same show, facing tough questions.

A writer for CNN argued that the controversy over Joe Rogan’s history of using the N-word is comparable to the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Yes, really.

John Blake, a senior writer and producer for CNN, published a column on Sunday that admits “some might say that comparing a podcaster’s moronic musings about race to January 6 is hyperbole,” but then goes on to claim that allowing Rogan to get away with his racial epithets breaks American sociopolitical norms just like the storming of the Capitol did.

“The podcaster Joe Rogan did not join a mob that forced lawmakers to flee for their lives,” wrote Blake. “He never carried a Confederate flag inside the US Capitol rotunda. No one died trying to stop him from using the n-word. But what Rogan and those that defend him have done since video clips of him using the n-word surfaced on social media is arguably just as dangerous as what a mob did when they stormed the US Capitol on January 6 last year.”

We’ll agree with Blake and many, many others that the N-word is vile, Rogan shouldn’t be using it, and many of his defenders seem to be missing the racist history forest for the free speech trees.

But there is a huge and vital difference between words and actions. Rogan is not encouraging his listeners to engage in violent hate crimes. More importantly, he has apologized, and said that his past use of the word now makes him “sick” to hear. That’s a far cry from the baseless claims of election fraud that former President Donald Trump and his allies continue to promote — including various calls for action.

There are fair criticisms to be made of Rogan and his defenders. But Blake’s argument was hyperbole, plain and simple.