As we noted yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows, and though much of the banter revolved around Dick Cheney's criticism, Amtrak Joe also pushed back at Mayor Bloomberg, who's done an about face on holding the 9/11 terror trials in NYC. The city estimates that holding a multi-year terror trial could cost $200 million a year, and he wants a guarantee that Washington will cover the full cost. Yesterday Biden challenged Bloomberg's math on Face the Nation:
The mayor came along and said the cost for providing security to hold this trial is X hundreds of millions of dollars, which I think is much more than would be needed. The elected officials, Democrat and Republican, said, 'We don't want this tried here in New York. That creates a political dimension to this.
Well, duh. As a companion to Jane Mayer's excellent New Yorker article on all this political wrangling, today the Times runs a great profile on Attorney General Eric Holder and his "political ear." Holder tells the Times, "I have to do a better job in explaining the decisions that I have made. I have to be more forceful in advocating for why I believe these are trials that should be held on the civilian side." It's a little late for that, but apparently Holder's not to blame for his low profile; the White House sidelined him last winter for calling the United States a “nation of cowards” for avoiding open conversations on race.
President Obama is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks regarding where to hold the trial, and it looks like they really are seriously considering the original plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in federal court—in NYC or anywhere. Yesterday Biden did not rule out a military tribunal, telling Bob Schieffer, "It is a possibility, but let me put this in perspective. There have been three people tried and convicted by the last administration in military courts. Two are walking the street right now. There have been over 300 tried in federal courts by the last administration and by us. They're all in jail now...So this idea that somehow if you get tried in a military court the punishment is greater, and if you get tried in criminal court it is less, is the opposite."
City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) was quick to call Biden out for questioning the cost of security, telling the Daily News, "Our police commissioner is perhaps one of the world's foremost experts on public safety, and Joe Biden treads on dangerous waters when he believes he knows more about the safety of New York City." With Congress considering legislation requiring Mohammed be tried by a military commission, and the Senate threatening to block funding for a federal trial, Obama's hands may be tied. As Holder tells the Times, "You always have to be flexible."
Below, the full video segment of Biden's appearance on Face the Nation. It's pretty good:
