Kamala Harris Made The Case: Trump's Presidency Has Failed

This Kamala Harris speech she gave this afternoon is good, not the greatest, not even that special-- except for one thing: it was carried live yesterday as Trump was getting ready to addressed the #CocaineConvention. Viewers of MSNBC, PBS and CNN have heard it all before. Fox viewers hadn't-- until today. Heads must have been exploding.

"Donald Trump," she explained to people who have never heard it before, "has failed. At it's most basic level Donald Trump doesn't understand the presidency. He thinks it's all about him. Well, it's not. It's about you; it's about all of us, the people... Donald TRump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States. He failed to protect the American people, plain and simple. Trump showed... a reckless disregard for the well-being of the American people. A reckless disregard for the danger a pandemic would pose to American lives, for the devastation it would do to our economy. For the damage it would do to communities of color who have been subjected to structural racism for generations. For the chaos that would upend of daily lives, make it impossible for many of our children to go to school; make it impossible to live normally with a sense of certainty. He never appreciated that a president swears an oath before God and country to protect America against threats seen and unseen. It's his duty; it's his obligation to protect us. And yes, he has failed, miserably.

Donald Trump's incompetence is nothing new. That has always been on full display. But in January of this year, it became deadly. Thats' when the threat on a virus that would endanger the world first emerged. Trump dismissed the threat... Trump still doesn't have a plan. He still doesn't have a plan... President Trump got it wrong from the beginning and the he got it wrong again and again. And the consequences have been catastrophic. And here's why Trump has been so unwilling-- and unable-- to deal with this crisis. First, he was fixated on the stock market... He was convinced that if his administration focussed on this virus, it would hurt the market and hurst his chances of being reelected. That mattered to him more than saving American lives. Second, right at the moment we needed Donald Trump to be tough on the Chinese government, he caved... Instead of rising to see the most difficult moment of his presidency, Donald Trump froze. He was scared and his was petty and vindictive."

While she was talking and while Trump was no doubt chopping up his Adderall for tonight's event, Change Research released a new nationwide survey showing that "The economy, jobs, and cost of living remains the number-one issue in the country and in the battleground. This issue was thought by many to be Trump’s strength and his best case for re-election before COVID-19, but majorities nationally disapprove of the job he is doing handling the economy (53% disapprove) and helping people’s pocketbooks (54% disapprove), and only 51% approve of his handling of his handling of the economy and pocketbooks in the battleground. While the shifts among Republicans were the most significant, the assessment and outlook of Democrats and independents also improved. 60% of battleground voters still rate the economy negatively, 59% still rate the US job market negatively, 51% are still pessimistic about the US economy in the year ahead, and 56% are still pessimistic about the unemployment rate. But this is also the first time that we have seen these economic metrics moving in a positive direction in several weeks."

That said, this is from our good friends at Brave New Films...