that 2022 doesn t become 2020 too. joining me to break down all the most important issues of 2021, my year ender panel, renee graham, at the boston globe, tara setmire, former republican congressional communications director, and senior adviser to the lincoln project, and john bresnahan, co-founder of punch bowl news. thank you, all, very much, for coming back to the sunday show. all right, renee, for you, biggest news story of 2021? jonathan, we got the biggest story of the year, six days in to 2021. the insurrection. and for me it is twofold. it is the depth and the planning involved on the part of elected officials and members of trump s cabinet. it is so much worse than a lot of people imagined. and we can t even get our heads around what we still don t know.
the tension between members, i mean, i started covering congress in, you know, pre-newt gingrich era and it was so toxic then. it is not even it is not even comparable. today, what we have is an order of magnitude greater by several orders of magnitude greater. they generally they generally house democrats are generally some are generally afraid of their republican colleagues, that they are a physical threat to them. i just there are still metal detectors outside the house chambers. so could i say it is better? or worse? i think i don t know. i think a year later the level of distrust is bad as it has ever been and, you know, just scratch the surface and it is right there. so, tara, i m reminded of something mitch mcconnell said earlier in the year when there
know, political out there on the republican side, but don t think they will try to impeach joe biden or kamala harris or both of them at the same time. they have no interest in governing. the republicans are a nongoverning party. they want to own the libs and put forth authoritarian means to win elections. that s not a joke. we see it happening. i m glad you brought that up. on the house side, if you do get a speaker jim jordan, a speaker marjorie taylor greene, let s be fanciful here, speaker madison cawthorn, it is not going to happen, but if the house if republicans take over the house, doesn t tara have a point, that all hell s going to break loose and they could file articles of impeachment against the president and the vice president? okay, can i just say, first, jonathan, speaker jim jordan? hush yourself. don t even put that out into the universe. tara, don t play mean.
democrats fault. we can go through the what was just said, but that wasn t true, but the fact is his supporters, his base believe that that s the problem, that s why you don t hear more republicans speaking out against any of this. because what we have seen in recent elections, mark sanford, losing his seat, in the primary, just for speaking out against the president, you know. that is why you re not seeing any republicans, not enough republicans step forward. that s a shame. there should be. republicans are supposed to be the firewall here. as you know, tara, heading into the midterms, every member of congress is facing pressure from the voters on immigration, right? and finding a solution and what are you going to do about daca and the dreamers. it was largely overshadowed with the other things he said, but significant that the president made clear that he wasn t going to sign and approve this relative compromise bill that
believes, he was completely right in firing james comey. we also know he told npc nbc net was because of this russia thing, the russia probe. do you think the president did a great service to the american people by firing james comey as he asserted this morning? the issue when it comes to obstruction of justice is intent. and if the president fired james comey because he deviated from policy and hurt secretary clinton, that would be fine. but as you stated, that s not what the president said. he went on national tv and said he fired james comey because of the russia investigation. that is textbook obstruction of justice. thank you very much, the mueller probe continues. looking at potential obstruction. we ll see what happens. congressman ted lieu, appreciate your time this morning. joining me here is tara setmire and joe trippi.