Trump’s Imaginary Helicopter Friends and Bacon Emergency
Three quarters of the way through yesterday’s Trump presser, Meghan McCain RTed a clip Aaron Rupar posted and predicted “Vice President Harris is going to win.”
In Rupar’s clip, Trump was, for the second time in an hour, lying about how big his crowds were. Parts of answers taking up six minutes of the 1:04 press conference (marked in blue below) were dedicated to lying about his crowd sizes, and claiming the Vice President’s were smaller — by an order of magnitude — than they actually are.
Over six more minutes (marked in red) — as well as one claim in his opening statement — were lies about how well he’s doing in the polls.
Another six minutes (marked in green) were dedicated to lies about how unfair his own prosecutions are, except the one before the “brilliant” Aileen Cannon, through whose intervention, he “won” his stolen documents case.
For much of the rest, Trump couldn’t decide whether Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were stupid, or they were super smart for managing to steal the 2020 election.
And that’s before Trump confused Black former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with white former Governor Jerry Brown and then invented a dangerous helicopter trip he shared with one, on which whoever it was badmouthed Kamala, something both Willie and Jerry, along with Gavin Newsom, who was probably on the trip Trump lied about, disavowed. Newsom told the NYT that they had discussed “everyone else.”
The subject of Ms. Harris, with whom Mr. Newsom had enjoyed a friendly rivalry, did not come up on the helicopter, he added. “We talked about everyone else, but not Kamala,” he said with a laugh.
Given the close relationship Newsom’s former spouse, Kimberly Guilfoyle, currently has with Don Jr, that “everyone” may well suggest that Trump confused Kamala with his son’s long-term partner.
It was a shitshow.
And yet, aside from that story busting Trump for confusing Willie and Jerry Brown, outlets like the NYT have largely memory holed what a shit show it was. The press conference itself appeared on neither the dead tree front page nor the digital front page (the very good story on the Willie and Jerry confusion didn’t make it into the paper, nor does it currently appear on my digital front page).
In response to Joe Biden’s similarly awful performance at the debate, the NYT dedicated weeks to demanding he drop out.
Not Trump.
The horse race journalists have rabidly been demanding that Kamala — who has been rather busy of late — give an interview or press conference. They’ve no doubt been goaded into doing so by Trump, because both he and JD have been demanding it too.
But if yesterday is any indication, there is no imaginable value to reporting from most of these horserace journalists. They’re just props in Trump’s reality show in which he attracts the biggest crowds in history.
0:00 to 11:03: Lies about his preference to run against Kamala, lies about polls, lies about Kamala’s role as Border Czar, lies about migration. Lies that people can’t buy bacon. Misreads which debate is on September 10 (NBC rather than ABC). Attacks Kamala as “barely competent.” Lies about prisons being emptied out into the US. Accuses Kamala of being nasty to Biden. Claims “the presidency” was taken away from Biden. Lies that he’s leading. Lies about cherishing the Constitution. Falsely claims that Biden is a very angry man. Attacks Pelosi as crazy. Lies that Kamala was “appointed to head the border.” Cites Project 2025 source Tom Holman.
11:03 to 13:18: Explains that he hasn’t recalibrated strategy at all. Claims Kamala destroyed San Francisco and California. Claims Bob Tisch, who is dead, would hate what San Francisco has become. Claims Kamala is weak on crime but then claims “they” weaponized law enforcement against him. Lies that he “won” the documents case and complains that nobody wrote about it. Calls Aileen Cannon brilliant. Claims that Biden lost his documents case because he didn’t have Presidential immunity and Presidential Records Act, neither of which relate to why Cannon dismissed the case. States that Kamala could not pass her bar exam.
13:18 to 14:53: Claims he’s getting other voters (this appears to be a question about how Kamala’s entry in the race affects his support).
14:53 to 15:45: Claims Josh Shapiro is a terrible guy. Lies that Kamala was worse than any of her VP candidates.
15:45 to 16:13: Follows up on debates and states that CBS will do a VP debate. Claims JD Vance is doing a fantastic job.
16:13 to 20:18: Starts by scoffing, “give me a break.” Lies about crowd sizes. Claims Kamala had only 2,000 people on Wednesday. Lies about crowd size some more. Claims his crowds are 30 times bigger. Claims he’s happy the reporter asked the question. Claims Republicans, and he as the candidate, have the enthusiasm. Claims that if all cars were electric, you would have to rebuild every bridge in the US. Claims he has had the biggest crowds in history. Lies that he has hundreds of thousands at his rallies.
20:18 to 21:49: Claims he got Brian Kemp elected, but doesn’t know whether they can repair their differences. Lies that he’s leading in GA by a lot and PA by a lot. Complains that Kemp doesn’t like him even though he got him elected. Claims that given his margins in AL and SC, it’s impossible he lost GA. Lies that all he wants is honest elections.
21:49 to 22:38: Claims that Biden didn’t say Trump wouldn’t allow the peaceful transfer of power if he loses. Claims Biden doesn’t know what he said. Claims Biden should have brought this up at the debate.
22:38 to 24:26: Complains, “what a stupid question.” Makes excuses for why he’s not campaigning. Lies that he’s leading by a lot. Claims Kamala is not smart enough to do a press conference. Claims Russia, China, and North Korea don’t respect us anymore. Describes going to Montana (he first says it’s Wyoming) to help Tim Sheehy win the Senate race.
24:26 to 25:18: Trump applauds Elon Musk for endorsing him. Claims a lot of people are talking about the show.
25:18 to 26:06: [Possibly a follow-up on Xitter] Trump assures he’ll great along great with Xi Jinpeng. Describes there used to be a sofa where he has made journalists stand up. Claims China was taking advantage of the US.
26:06 to 28:17: [a question from Maggie Haberman] Claims people aren’t talking about January 6 and January 6 defendants were treated unfairly. Claims they weren’t there through him. Claims January 6 was the biggest crowd he’s ever spoken to. Claims it’s hard to find a picture of the crowd, and lies there were pictures of the “very small number of people” who went to the Capitol. Lies that he spoke in the same place that MLK Jr spoke and his crowd was bigger.
28:17 to 30:11: Implies that Kamala’s pick as the nominee violates the Constitution. Repeats his claims about Biden being forced out of the race. Calls her “the first loser” again (referring to her dropping out of the 2020 race first). Asserts that Biden regrets picking Kamala and claims she turned on Biden.
30:11 to 30:46: Asserts that Hillary was far superior, in terms of intelligence, than anyone else he has run against. States that Hillary was her own worst enemy.
30:46 to 34:59: After instructing yet another journalist to speak up, points out how big the room is, then asserts Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million (a misrepresentation of what Judge Engoron has ruled). Lies that the abortion issue is “tampered down.” Lies that “they” wanted to bring abortion back to the states, “and I did that.” Claims 82% of Republicans do believe in exceptions. Claims that abortion will be a very small issue in the election. Lies that Democrats do abortions after birth, claiming that Walz supports that. Then raises Glenn Youngkin (seemingly confusing VA and MN). Calls Walz and Kamala “progressive,” then claims no one knows what it means. Repeats that abortion is not a big factor anymore. Repeats again that “that issue” is very much subdued.
34:59 to 37:17: Claims you can’t take away guns, they need weapons for protection, entertainment, and hunting. Suggests that Chicago’s shooting rates are due to its tough gun laws. Claims Afghanistan doesn’t have shooting problems. Calls Afghanistan the worst embarrassment to the history of the country. Calls Milley incompetent. Claims DOD “took out the soldiers first.” Claims the Afghans who fell off a transport plane fell from a height three times higher than the World Trade Center.
37:17 to 38:56: Lies that Ka-Mala [which he pronounced correctly earlier in the press conference] is not in favor of giving Israel weapons. Lies that Kamala has been very very bad to both Israel and Jewish people. Mispronounces Ka-Mala again, and claims that Jews who vote for her should have their head examined. Claims he gave “them” Golan Heights and the Capitol of Israel, Jerusalem, built the embassy, gave them no Iran deal. Claims he would have had a deal one week after the 2020 election. Claims he hit Iran a couple times. Returns to what he gave Israel, the Abraham Accords. Repeats that any Jewish person who votes for Ka-Mala and her new friend ought to have your head examined.
38:51 to 39:09: States that the FBI has done a very good job with the investigation into Thomas Crooks and “this other lunatic they have in custody” (probably a reference to Asif Merchant).
39:09 to 40:02: Claims to know Willie Brown very well (he’s confusing Willie Brown with Jerry Brown, and even still inventing a close call). Invents a false story about almost dying in a helicopter with him. Lied that Willie Brown told him terrible things about Kamala. Claims Willie Brown had a big part in what happened with Ka-Mala. Lies that Willie Brown was not a fan of Kamala at that point.
40:02 to 40:40: [I missed one single answer question here.] Defers telling what his vote on the abortion referendum will be. Claims he’ll hold a press conference to announce how he’ll vote. Predicts it’ll go in a more “liberal” way than people expect.
40:40 to 42:38: Asserts his tax cuts were the biggest in history and included generous support for childcare. States the tax cuts “are coming due.” Lies that not renewing them creates a four times tax increase. Lies that Democrats would offer no security. Repeats “transgender” several times. Repeats his plan to eliminate taxes on Social Security and tips.
42:38 to 44:10: Agrees that Steve Bannon’s prosecution was politically motivated. Claims again “they” have weaponized government against him. Lies that Biden’s DOJ was behind the NY cases. Attacks mail-in ballots.
44:10 to 45:01: Makes excuses for Elon Musk.
45:01 to 47:20: Lies that there are polls that show he’ll win in a landslide. Exaggerates inflation. Claims people are paying $5 to $7 to pay for gas. Claims the Strategic Reserve has never been this low. Claims oil will soon be at $100 a barrel. Mispronounces Ka-Mala again and repeats his claim that she’s not as smart as Biden.
47:20 to 47:50: Dodges a question about mifepristone. Repeats that you have to give a vote on abortion.
47:50 to 48:09: Claims Kamala is not as smart as Biden again.
48:09 to 49:01: Observes that Kamala is a woman and “represents certain groups of people.” Lies that Kamala is going way down in the polls. Calls Gavin Newsom, “Gavin New-Scum.” Repeats her claim that Kamala destroyed California. Compares her to prosecutors who’ve prosecuted him.
49:01 to 49:50: After asking four different journalists to help him hear what a journalist asked, mocks the idea of doing a daily press briefing. Promises total access. Promises more access than you want.
49:50 to 52:33: Lies about his encouragement of “Lock her up” chants and his efforts to prosecute her. Attacks her for a claimed non-response to a subpoena. Claims he thought it was bad to consider putting Hillary in jail. Attacks Hillary for being “pretty evil.” Lies that the MAGA base is 75% of the country. Describes that China and Russia are natural allies but they have combined, along with Iran.
52:33 to 54:50: Claims he wants the election to be about policy. Accuses Kamala of being incompetent. Claims Kamala can’t do better than Biden. Jokes that Biden was never the brightest bulb in the ceiling. Claims Kamala wants to defund the police. Repeats his claim that guns are about self-protection.
54:50 to 56:21: Claims that if he loses there will be a Depression. Lies about his the debt incurred in his administration. Claims he had the perfect number on inflation. Notes they sell hats and claims that proves he’s been right about everything.
56:21 to 58:12: [A second Maggie question.] Claims there was a process behind his pardons. Describes that some of the people he pardoned were harshly treated. Repeats again that “for the most part” his pardons went through his pardon commission. Claims that he let out a lot of low income people who weren’t backed by insiders. Claims that, “for the most part,” he didn’t pardon people involved in killings.
58:12 to 59:15: States that the Federal Reserve gets things wrong a lot. Claims Jerome Powell works on gut feeling. Claims they get along fine. Asserts that the President should have a say in rates cuts. Asserts he has better instincts than Powell.
59:15 to 59:51: Addresses cannabis legalization.
59:21 to 60:42: Directs a reporter to ask Kamala something about her race. Notes that he once supported her. Claims Kamala is being disrespectful regarding her identity.
60:42 to 61:18: States that he’s pretty much recovered from the wound to his ear. Asserts he’s a fast healer. Shows where the injury was, misdescribes it as the “lobe” of his ear. Points to his scar on the top of his ear.
61:18 to 62:31: Promises the largest mass deportation in the history of the country. Claims local police “know everything about the people.” After claiming that both Biden and Kamala are stupid repeatedly, Trump asserts they’re not stupid because anyone who (he claims) can cheat in elections like they do is not stupid. Lies that Democrats are trying to get immigrants to vote.
62:31 to 63:46: Disclaims any plans to dismantle Social Security. Promises to eliminate taxes on Social Security and tips again.
63:46 to 64:32: Attacks sanctuary cities. Boasts about property in California. Lies that the country has become a crime-ridden mess.
And Trump said actually during the shit show, “There are people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon.”
Not sure I can top that non sequitur.
Com’on, give it a try.
Like how about there are people living healthier lives because they can’t buy bacon.
A delicious non sequitur. Does he mean some families are so poor, they can’t afford bacon, an item that used to be a staple? Does he mean they are “dying financially” because Trump isn’t in office to save their bacon? Only his therapist would know for sure. It’s a word salad. His brain is in disarray.
How are MAGA fiscal conservatives going to repay the $2.2 trillion covid socialist bailout from Trump?
I can easily imagine Trump thinking this worked — “It got folks talking about me, and it makes her look scared because she won’t take questions!”
I can also imagine the Harris team thinking “For the moment, let’s just keep our candidate talking to big crowds and not do a presser. Trump will probably double down, and hold another press conference to ‘make her look bad’.”
Willie Brown’s reaction was vintage Willie Brown, where he said in essence “I never took a helicopter flight with Trump, nor one where there was any worry about crashing. You reporters know I much I love telling stories, more than anyone else in San Francisco. If what Trump said happened, can you imagine me *not* telling this story to anyone for years?”
And every SF reporter had to have laughed and nodded in agreement.
(But you know, to Trump all those Brown people look alike.)
And IF it happened Trump would have been crying about crashing.
Willie Brown was mayor of San Francisco from 1996-2004 before trump’s political career. He (trump) traveled to Paradise (he called it Pleasure) in Butte County, California in 2018 with Governor Jerry BROWN. He visited the (Sacramento county) wildfires devastation in September 2020 with Governor Gavin Newsom. Both those locations are far, far removed from San Francisco. Likely, trump traveled by helicopter to those sites, but there were no “near accidents” that I remember as a California resident.
It’s simple. Trump has Willie Brown on the brain because of the old slur they dredged up about Harris “sleeping” with Brown WHILE HE WAS MARRIED TO ANOTHER WOMAN!!! OMG! (he’s still married to he and they’ve been separated for decades, and were separated when they dated back in the 90’S IIRC). It’s odd that all the Trump campaign has come up with are ancient smear campaigns. “Tampon Tim” is as creative as they’ve gotten so far. A weird detail in a weird campaign.
Chris LaCivita, meanwhile, is busy attempting to resurrect the “greatest” campaign smear he’d ever come up with, Swiftboat Veterans for Truth.
There’s a fairly salient question here: Are there any Republicans of note suggesting that Trump should drop out? I find it unlikely. It doesn’t seem like their schtick. I think that if there were, that if say, Lindsay Graham were talking privately about getting him to drop out, and saying in public, “It’s his decision”, there would be stories. But they don’t do that, in part out of fear of MAGA, but also out of habit. They also understand the office of president differently, I think. Strangely, for an authoritarian party, they see the president as a public facing, political figure that doesn’t need to be on top of his game (you know, like the last years of Ronald Reagan) as long as he staffs well, and listens to the right people, which a Chief of Staff will make sure of.
Pence himself directly said Trump should not be president.
The narrative from the establishment press is that the GOP has unified behind Trump while they endlessly chase the “Dems in Disarray” story. Both of these are wrong, and people operating in good faith should call this out. The implications for an absolutely critical election are obvious – Trump cannot afford the cracks in his support becoming public – but what’s happening with the press narrative is the equivalent of the kinds of deceptive close focus photo editing Rayne wrote up.
Yeah, that doesn’t seem like the same thing, though. Of course Pence doesn’t support Trump. That’s old news.
There’s a whole phalanx of Republicans who aren’t voting for Trump. Is anybody directly engaged with him saying, “Man, he’s kind of lost a few steps! Maybe he should not be the candidate?”
It’s possible that this performance might well set a bit of that off, but it’s after the convention now. They don’t have good options available.
“Doesn’t seem like the same thing” is the kind of microscopic parsing that tools like Ross Douthat engage in when they argue that technically 1/6 wasn’t a coup if it happened a few days before Trump was locked out of the White House
Promoting a message of GOP unity is not only false, it hurts what Trump’s opponents should be doing
MW has constantly pushed the reality that Trump desperately needs to promote an image of absolute control over the GOP because so much of his base desperately needs a strongman. For reasons known only to dopes like the Sulzbergers, Joe Kahn, Carolyn Ryan and Patrick Healy, the insider press has been collaborating with this messaging from 2015 until now with diner safaris and breathless convention coverage.
Trump’s coalition is a fractured mess, and liberals looking for ways to explain that away should ask themselves why they are swallowing so much of what the Washington Post and NY Times are selling. Understand the fault lines and expose them, don’t find ways to write off fractures that would be seen as an existential crisis if they were happening to Democrats.
Fight.
Trump “unifies” people the same way Stalin unified people; join him or you’re out. Although Trump hasn’t gotten to the “join him or I have you executed” part yet.
I keep hearing stories that Republicans are privately telling Nancy Pelosi that “Trump MUST be defeated.” Now, while I admire Pelosi’s skills as a political tactician, it would be wonderful if some of these same Republicans came out of hiding. It is not Pelosi’s job to rescue Republicans from themselves. They need to start a whisper campaign (they’re good at that) about Trump’s serious cognitive decline, how old he looks and sounds, and how confused he is. Then make it a “speaking out loud campaign.” Hell, they did it with Biden. They should just do the same.
Telling Pelosi is “safe”, because she isn’t the Speaker or the minority leader in the House.
Funny how Pelosi’s abusing that opportunity and spending her time continuing to trash Biden after he’s left the race.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/08/nancy-pelosi-biden-election-campaign
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/07/nancy-pelosi-joe-biden-dropped-out-reelection-campaign/
She needs to shut her mouth and get back to hustling for the House — and the announce her retirement.
Not exactly a GOP’er of note, but Kyle Rittenhouse (yes, that one) said he’d not vote for Trump. As a result, QAnoners launched a “transvestigation” into him, basically bullying him to toe the line within 12 hours.
Source: dailydot .com/debug/kyle-rittenhouse-trans-qanon-conspiracy-theory/
But if Trump drops out, who the hell would be their candidate? Vance??
Would the MAGA crowd actually come out and vote for someone-other-than-Trump in November?
No Republican that presently holds a Federal office would ever suggest Trump should drop out. It would be political suicide.
The GOP in 2024 is a cult, no different then The Peoples Temple, The Branch Davidians or Scientology. Donald Trump is the Leader of the Cult. From an article in Scientific American:
The followers of former President Trump really do believe he is infallible. Every politician with ambition who oppsed him are now bending the knee in ritual humiliation (Niki Hailey)
Clue in today’s NYT crossword: Blind worshipers. Answer: Idolaters. How timely!
Reading that is like scraping my eyes on a blackboard.
Remarkable piece of work.
Someone around here must be able to make AI-based real-time fact checking a reality. The software pieces already exist, at least for the most part.
Though making sense of his utterances will be a challenge, even for the best algorithms
AI is the last thing you want exposed to this drivel.
Can you imagine AI using this presser as part of its machine learning? “This is how real people answer questions like these, so I’ll add this to my algorithms when I am asked to answer questions like this.”
Exactly. We don’t really need any help making sense out of nonsense, do we?
Ummm the idea would be to have it listen to Trump as he speaks, and as he utters an identifiable lie to refute it in real time. I’d have a human make a call on each statement, to guard against AI’s fabulist tendencies.
Asking it for a response to Trump’s drivel (even if it weren’t trained on it) would just generate a verbose equivalent of “cofeve”. Garbage in, garbage out.
Oh, wait — have I cracked the code? /s
Fact checking only works for people who care about the truth. As we’ve seen time and time again, MAGAs do not care about what’s true. They get perverse pleasure watching their leader spew lies and insults and calling it free speech and owning the libs. This is one deranged cult.
please cancel this reply; my mistake
Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. There are a substantial portion of MAGA’s who sincerely believe Trump’s lies. Believing what the leader says, no matter what, is a characteristic of a cult and that’s part of what makes them so dangerous.
The real (and uneventful) helicopter trip with Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom was to Paradise, the town that was devastated in the Camp Fire in 2018. While they were in Paradise, Trump referred to the town (more than once) as “Pleasure.”
Here’s what he said while talking to survivors of the Camp fire blaze:
“I was with the President of Finland, and he said: ‘We’re a forest nation’ and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem.”
For his appalling lack of empathy, knowledge, and listening skills, he became the butt of Finish social media jokes.
“Invents a false story about almost dying in a helicopter with him.”
I have north of 500 hours logged from 5 years of 2-3 hour flights riding shotgun in an MD500 twice per week. The so-called “emergency landings” Trump is doing his best stolen valor routine about? These are actual procedures helicopter pilots train for all the time. I’ve lost count of how many actual “emergency landings” I’ve been through, but most of them were drills. No one is “almost dying” here except me, from laughter.
I believe I spotted one true statement, at 30:11-30:46: “Hillary was her own worst enemy”.
The “basket of deplorables” statement and telling W. VA coal miners she was going to put them out of work are two examples that support its veracity.
And you think the “basket of deplorables” and WV coal miners might have been persuaded to vote for Hillary.
Oh fer cute. *eye roll*
Coal miners, sure, if she talked more about creating jobs in the alternative energy sector and less about eliminating jobs. Anyway, myriad other examples of sub-optimal campaign strategies made her the enemy of herself at least as formidable as Comey and Russian disinformation. So I stand by my statement.
The “deplorables” to this day wear the term as a badge of honor. It may have at least motivated more of them to go out and vote against her.
Ahem.
https://www.npr.org/2016/05/03/476485650/fact-check-hillary-clinton-and-coal-jobs
“We’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people,” Clinton said. “Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.”
Sorry, but many other politicians have tried to talk to West Virginians about other lines of work and been roundly rejected. It’s easy and facile to critique Clinton’s “misstatements” (the popular versions of which are all selective subsets and out of context) but none of them decided the election.
Ten people are sitting at a table. A Nazi comes up spouting deplorable ideas. No one at the table pushes back. They invite him to sit down. Now you have eleven Nazis.
This is the Republican Party.
God forbid anyone understand what anyone, much less Hillary Clinton, says in context:
https://www.npr.org/2016/05/03/476485650/fact-check-hillary-clinton-and-coal-jobs
Additionally, she said that to a crowd in Ohio, not West Virginia.
And I assure you, coming from a state where any goober can buy a “Friends of Coal” license plate, the coal industry is ridiculously oversized in political influence for its economic impact, which is marginal. In fact, coal hasn’t employed over 1% of Kentucky’s work force in nearly two decades now.
Like I commented back in May, the public & press reaction to her “basket of deplorables” comment was anger-inducing.
Trump made many comments that were far worse in 2015 and 2016, and Clinton got pilloried for one off-color comment. The double standard was appalling, and in retrospect it seems her remark had an element of truth in it.
I would say it was not off color. It was spot on. There are a basket of deplorables
who make up at least 30% of the Republican base. They consistently vote in every election. The party is perfectly comfortable with having them at their table.
Same folks who still believe professional wrestling kayfabe is real.
Trump doesn’t know his ass from his earlobe.
Didn’t he say “they call it an earlobe”?
Who is they?
I can’t listen to Trump speak for more than a few minutes. My hat is off to Dr. Wheeler.
Phila Inquirer has been consistently anti-Trump.
E.g.,
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/donald-trump-former-supporter-veteran-now-democrat-20240703.html
McCaffery is now facing a disciplinary hearing by the local Repub committee for saying he won’t support Trump.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/richard-nixon-anniversary-50-watergate-gop-donald-trump-20240808.html
What are the chances that the same week Kamala is credibly accused of taking a $10M bribe from Egypt she does not get asked about it at a press conference?
If it was a dime, they’d be demanding answers.
I woke this morning expecting to see versions of the post-debate columns from all the thumbsuckers who opined the day after that Biden should withdraw, only this time saying it about trump.
I mock. Except for, perhaps, Peggy Noonan (!), not one has stepped up.
But Trump is a spring chicken at 77 years “young “. He’s got spring in his lies.
It would be hard for Trump to “recalibrate” a re-election strategy he doesn’t have. As in 2020, his strategy boils down to re-elect, better yet, reappoint by acclaim Donald Trump. It’s the least he deserves.
His presser wasn’t really a press conference. It was a rant interrupted by questions he claimed he couldn’t hear, but which he answered anyway. (Viewers definitely couldn’t hear them.) That and insults, such as telling reporters the room they were in at MAL was absolutely beautiful, like the couch a few of them were sitting in – well, not then because reporters were sitting on it. I assume that couch was almost as attractive as the carpet found in a room along with some of his stolen documents.
Some people, a lot of people, are saying that JD Vance has already slipped in to that couch’s DMs.
That was Garrett Haake of MSNBC asking this question, fwiw.
The concocted near-death experience in the helicopter reminds me of Brian Williams who invented a near-death aviation accident for himself as a story to tell. Willie Brown, Jerry Brown, Paradise, Pleasure, what’s the diff to someone who has spent his life passing fiction off as fact? (The most recent famous helicopter crash is the 2020 crash of Kobe Bryant and his daughter in January 2020, but unfortunately everybody died in that one…)
Thanks, Marcy, for your usual insightful analysis. I highly recommend Lawrence O’Donnell’s righteous exposition last night about what the press and networks and and didn’t do at that Trump event. Scandalous and depressingly familiar.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-stupidest-candidate-trump-did-not-answer-reporters-questions-216787525948
apologies for not proofing carefully enough: “…what the press and networks did and didn’t do…”
Trump’s mental condition is waning at an increasing rate. He’s being sentenced September 18th and the stress as we approach that date he will cause him to be even more unhinged. He couldn’t remember Tim Walz’s name or game any position Walz had, only to say they were unbelievable. By the first of October, he will be so far out of his gourd, even his supporters will see it and he will make unforced errors.
p.s. Jesse Watters thought the presser was “flawless” and the Dems won’t be able to mine anything useful from it.
p.p.s. Typo: “great vs get”… “great along great with Xi”
As @Matt___B points out, the mifepristone/abortion question was posed by Garrett Haake of NBC news, who tweeted part of the transcript here. https://x.com/MasaccioEW/status/1821764156086788141
Read it for yourself.
Michael Scherer of the WaPo called the answer noncomomittal; the link is in the tweet. I think Scherer doesn’t know what the word “noncommittal” means.
I agree that the both sides folks should have been after Trump to drop out before this. Now, though, I don’t think it’s possible. There’s just too many ballot access deadlines too soon. The Republicans are stuck with Trump and Vance.
a interesting read from Mastodon…
https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/07/trump-mental-health-linguistic-analysis-suggests-potential-cognitive-decline-experts-say/
I’d be the same knowing that in a few days I’m going to have all kinds of my appeals denied and going to have to pony up $100 million to E Jean, sentenced in criminal trial in a month, got a VP who makes me look worse than I look, stock of my company tanking , knowing that if I make one little mistake with the government documents I’m still holding, etc.
With all that and more on his mind, how can he get a second of sleep and not be exhausted to even look somewhat decent?
Quick question for anyone who cares to answer it…
When is anything Trump’s associated with NOT a shit show?
And whatever else you do, do NOT take the shovels out of Trump’s and Vance’s hands.