I’m not going to recap that runner-up debate last night because it’s completely irrelevant and you missed nothing. (I did watch it and that’s two hours I’ll never get back.) The only thing of note that happened in this primary yesterday was Chris Christie’s speech dropping out of the race which is only worth mentioning because he said a lot of things that Republicans need to hear (not that Fox carried them, needless to say.) But it is important to hear what Trump is saying because he is going to be the GOP nominee and he is a danger to all of us. He had a competing town hall last night. A few highlights: Well, actually, he’s answered it many times: Trump has said the town hall was wonderful and congratulated the Fox moderators for being very professional. In other words it was a love fest where he felt very safe and cozy. Nonetheless, he did say the quiet part out loud a number of times.
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It’s not just pandemic recovery. Job creation under Biden has outstripped Trump’s (and every president in the last 60 years) in every way. Unfortunately, Trump has convinced Americans that his economy was the best the world has ever seen by lying about it constantly and it’s permeated the minds of even those who can’t stand him.
Chris Kise asks for permission to have Trump speak. Engoron, “Do you promise to just comment on the facts and the law?” Trump starts talking immediately without agreeing. “This was a political witch hunt; we should receive damages for what they have taken our company through. They have no documents—they have nothing!” The only thing they have, Trump concedes, is the triplex, which was a mistake. “I am not sure the dollar amount would have been that far off, if you want to know!” But Trump continues, “I am an innocent man. I have been politically persecuted. . . . This statute is vicious.” “What has happened here is a fraud on ME. . . . The amount of taxes I have paid over this period is close to $300 million. They don’t want me here anymore. I have a problem; they want to make sure I don’t run again.” Trump goes on — without any interruption from Engoron or her team — and attacks James, accusing her of election interference. “You have your own agenda,” Trump angrily says to Engoron.
I thought I had heard it all but I’d never heard this before today. It’s from 2015: As JV Last pointed out in the Bulwark a couple of days ago, this is what Trump means when he says he “negotiates.” Trump simply demands what he wants, over and over, in different venues, and offers nothing in return except that if you give him what he wants, he’ll let you have peace. For a time. It’s the tactic of a spoiled child. Which is what he is. And he has another spoiled bully-boy tactic that works for him very well: “I know you are but what am I.” It’s a maddening form of gas lighting that he’s deployed forever but uses pretty adroitly in his political life, mainly because the media just throws up its hands and retreats to “both sides” coverage because it’s easier.
Senator Brian Schatz tweeted this yesterday: He made these remarks today: People didn’t take Hitler seriously either. Once they realized he meant it, it was too late.
In the waning days of 2023, a banner year for Christian nationalism, Oklahoma State Representative...
MAGA’s vision for America What sort of America do you want? That question will not appear on fall ballots but will be there nonetheless alongside whether we continue the American experiment in democracy. Gover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, famously hoped to return conditions in these United States to those of the late-Gilded Age McKinley administration (1897 – 1901). Upton Sinclair savaged conditions in the American meatpacking industry in “The Jungle” a few short years after McKinley. Today’s second Gilded Age MAGA Republicans are onboard. Indiana state Rep. Joanna King (R) this week introduced a bill that would exempt children at least 14 years of age and who have completed the eighth grade from attending school to work (with parental permission) on a farm during school hours. King is treading a wider path blazed last March by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas (BuzzFeed): Under the new law, children under 16 no longer have to get permission from the state’s Division of Labor to get a job, nor will they need to have their age verified or submit things like their work schedule for a permit.
The government can afford it, can’t it? And a tad more discipline, just maybe? Associated Press this morning from the West Bank: Video appears to show the Israeli army shot 3 Palestinians, killing 1, without provocation Washington Post this morning from the West Bank: Settlers killed a Palestinian teen. Israeli forces didn’t stop it. Associated Press Dec. 18: In Israel’s killing of 3 hostages, some see the same excessive force directed at Palestinians Associated Press Dec. 15: Israeli military opens probe after videos show Israeli forces killing 2 Palestinians at close range The response to the horrific Hamas terrorist murders is to turn Israel into a pariah state?
But it might work anyway… The idea that former President Donald Trump was performing his official duties when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” and then sat in his dining room watching them storm the building and refusing to do anything to quell the riot has always seemed to be a stretch. After he lost 60 of 61 court cases in which he tried to overturn the results of the election that he continued to exhort the top officials in the Justice Department to lie and say they had evidence of fraud hardly seems like a presidential duty either. And all the calls to local officials asking them “find” enough votes to change the outcome of their election wouldn’t normally be considered the job of a president. American elections, for better or worse, are processed by state and local authorities. Nonetheless, Donald Trump’s lawyers had filed an appeal in the US District court arguing that everything he did in the post election period were part of Donald Trump’s official duties as President and therefore he should be given immunity for all of it which is ridiculous.