A Man Is Only As Good As His Word? So How Do Closet Cases, Like Lindsey Graham Survive In Electoral Politics?

 

I'm gay. When I realized it, I was living in Amsterdam. I went to a psychologist and told him. He looked at me oddly and said, basically, "So? You need me to give you the addresses of gay bars?" Then I flew to the U.S., for my first visit back home in 4 years, to tell my mother. Her response was to tell me I couldn't borrow her wigs. Years later my first corporate job was working for a gay man. My sexuality never held back my career and I rose to be president of the parent company. I'm glad I never went down the closet road. People in closets live a life reflexively and usually increasingly dishonest. They lie about who they are, what they are and, eventually, about everything and start living a life where serial dishonestly becomes the essence of being, more so than any semblance of honesty. It's the slipperiest of slopes to start down and so, so tragic for so many people.

It's the slope poor Lindsey Graham felt he had to go down if he was going to be a successful politician in South Carolina. And, his life has been one gigantic lie, both professionally and personally. "Everyone knows" and even colleagues and acquaintances who find him likable, simpatico and amusing, all tend to pity him. And now it may be catching up with him politically, as an unlikely Democratic opponent has him locked in a what should be an easy reelection campaign but is basically tied and too close to call.

On Saturday, Washington Post reporters Sean Sullivan and Seung Min Kim wrote that 4 and a half years ago Lindsey "sat across a conference table from his colleagues and issued them a dare. 'I want you to use my words against me,' said Graham, a South Carolina Republican with a flair for drama. Pointing with his index finger, Graham continued: 'If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.' On Saturday, Graham was singing a different tune, pledging support for President Trump in 'any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.' The stark turnabout from 2016 marked the latest chapter in Graham’s dramatic reinvention of himself during the Trump presidency, morphing from an old-school Senate institutionalist and bipartisan dealmaker into a stalwart soldier for the president’s agenda."

Democrats and other opponents of The Donald very much would like to take Graham up on his offer-- to hold his words against him. I don't know how effective this Lincoln Project ad will be with South Carolina voters, but I suspect someone will figure out exactly how to hold his words against him in a way that will cause him no end of political pain. After all, no one likes a liar... well, except for Republicans who apparently love liars:





"Graham," our Post duo reminded us, "is chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee charged with processing Supreme Court nominees, and he is in the midst of a competitive reelection campaign that could factor closely into the fight for control of the upper chamber. His comments Saturday, coming after less-decisive statements in the hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death Friday, amounted to the latest indication of how Republican leaders are rallying quickly around a strategy of seeking to fill her seat this year. That prospect has stoked widespread outrage among Senate Democrats, who are calling Republicans hypocrites for the move after blocking President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016 because they said the president chosen by voters that fall should make the pick.

“There’s no doubt everything will be sort of on the table if we’re thrown into a world where you can’t trust somebody’s word and precedents get changed at will to fit your priorities of the moment,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in response to Graham’s decision to align behind Trump and go back on what he said in 2016.

During Saturday’s call, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) used similar language, saying that if Senate Republicans move forward with whoever Trump nominates, “nothing is off the table for next year” should Democrats win control of the chamber. That appeared to be a reference to structural changes to the court proposed by liberal activists such as expanding the number of justices-- a proposal that has sparked some disagreements among Democrats.

Republican leaders appeared determined to press ahead swiftly to fill the court vacancy with a conservative jurist. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised Trump during a Friday phone call that his nominee would get a vote in the Senate, according to people familiar with their conversation who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

Trump told McConnell he liked Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit, according to two people briefed on the discussion.

“We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,” Trump wrote on Twitter Saturday. “We have this obligation, without delay!”

...Less clear is how rank-and-file Republican senators will respond, with many in tough reelection races in states where Trump is not popular. Republicans hold a 53-to-47 majority in the Senate, meaning they can afford to lose no more than three members in a confirmation vote, should the entire Democratic caucus unite against Trump's nominee.

They have already lost one.

“I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is in a tough reelection fight, said in a statement. “In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the President or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3rd.”

Collins’s reservations contrasted sharply with the comments from Graham, who is seeking a fourth term in the Senate. The contest has been tougher than many expected in a ruby-red state Trump won easily in 2016, with recent polls showing Democrat Jaime Harrison in close competition with Graham.

Now Graham will be at the center of what will likely be one of the most contentious confirmation battles in history, affording him an opportunity to demonstrate his loyalty to Trump. But some Democrats say his position could help amplify the arguments against his reelection.

“A lot of folks miss the Lindsey of old-- and that’s why this race is so competitive,” said Steve Benjamin, the Democratic mayor of Columbia, S.C. “When it comes time to do what’s right and maybe not popular,” Benjamin said, “it can be difficult for some.”

Harrison, one of his party's fast-rising African American stars, sounded similar notes. “My grandpa always said that a man is only as good as his word. Senator Graham, you have proven your word is worthless,” he wrote on Twitter.

Writing for The Atlantic, Edward-Isaac Dovere offered a glimpse into what Republican senators are saying in private and off the record. "Whispering Republicans," as he termed them, talk about how they hate The Donald and then back him in public-- to the media and, of course, with their votes. The GOP is absolutely one of the country's two spineless, jellyfish parties. "The secretly apostate Republican senators," wrote Dovere, "have two choices: They can support a president they think is a threat to American democracy while also violating Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s invented 2016 rule about not confirming justices in an election year, or they can oppose Trump, enraging both him and their progressively cultish base while giving up what might be their last chance to secure a conservative majority for a generation."

Notice The Donald's Chamber of Commerce retweet from Sunday morning, signally he's ready for war with Alaska senior Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is not up for reelection in November and is not up for giving Trump a third Supreme Court pick.

For McConnell, this is principle versus power, and the golden rule is “Whoever has the gold makes the rules.” And it’s happening as the next generation of ambitious Republicans looks to a future in which Trumpism remains a dominant force within the party no matter what happens in November.

Don’t expect many Republicans-- even those who want to stick it to Trump-- to be direct with their commitments. “If they try to shove something through, I think you’re going to see some of these Republicans who hate Trump fall on the horrible sword of ‘This country is dangerously divided right now; the hypocrisy is horrible; if we do something like this, it will tear the country apart,’” says Joe Walsh, the former Republican representative from Illinois, who briefly ran a primary campaign against Trump that went nowhere earlier this year. Based on conversations he’s had, Walsh estimates that, of the current Republican senators, “if you put a gun to their head privately, I would say more than 40 of the 53 would like to see him lose.”

Walsh insists that Republicans didn’t want this vacancy-- not now. “This is political death for the Republicans,” he told me.

This is not the time for Republicans to insist that they haven’t “seen the latest tweet.” This is where they either will or will not give Trump the boost that he needs weeks before the election. Now, more than ever, they are either with him or against him. “This,” Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democrat, said on CNN last night, “is my colleagues’ moment of reckoning.”

...Senator Joni Ernst, in a tight reelection race in Iowa, said in July that she would support a nomination process if an opening occurred. But that puts her at odds with her fellow Iowa senator, Chuck Grassley, who said in August that he couldn’t support a confirmation in an election year if he was going to be consistent with the position he took in 2016. He stood then with McConnell’s adamant refusal to give Merrick Garland a hearing after Antonin Scalia’s sudden death in 2016, though Garland was nominated nine months before Election Day. Of course, the question becomes whether Grassley will hold to his position now that the question is no longer theoretical.

...Late yesterday, I asked a former Republican House member what an anti-Trump Republican senator would do when facing a choice that sounds more out of a novel than anything Goethe might have come up with if he’d ever wandered around Capitol Hill.

“The Republican senator,” said the person, who requested anonymity to speak directly about old colleagues, “will do what they must in the name of self-preservation.”

“Guess what?” the former House member said of Graham. “He’s going to do it. You know he is. He’s up for reelection in South Carolina. He needs his base. He’ll flip on this.”

McConnell, in his Rube Goldberg–machine statement explaining why Trump’s nominee will get a vote on the floor of the Senate but Obama’s didn’t, left the door open to having a vote in a potential lame-duck session after the election.

Maybe it’ll all come down to Senator Mitt Romney, who is publicly offended by pretty much everything Trump stands for but whose spokesperson shot down rumors last night that he would oppose a confirmation before the election. Or maybe, if Mark Kelly wins his Senate race in Arizona, it will all hinge on a legal dispute over whether he would get to immediately be sworn into the seat because his opponent was appointed to it. Or maybe by then we’ll be in a country where the November 3 votes are taking weeks to count, rioters and militias are out on the streets, and, as in 2000, the election will head to the Supreme Court, which now is without a tiebreaker vote.

In 2016, from the minute he learned of Scalia’s death, Obama knew that Republicans would try to prevent him from appointing a justice and flipping the balance to a 5–4 liberal majority. He nominated Garland anyway and threw himself into the fight, daring the GOP senators to oppose a middle-of-the-road, accomplished judge whom so many had voted for in his confirmation to a lower court. Working the phones for a few senators he dreamed might buck McConnell, he pleaded with them: Don’t do this.

I remember speaking with one of the Republican senators struggling with breaking the process then. The senator, though torn, ultimately did not say anything publicly, and didn’t invite Garland in for a meeting.

Last night, Obama closed his statement mourning Ginsburg with, “As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican senators are now called to apply that standard.” Don’t hold a confirmation hearing, he said. Always an institutionalist with his eye toward history, Obama was admitting that the process breakers had won.

Now the question is, what else will Trump, the ultimate process breaker, win?

David Frum offered up 4 reasons to doubt McConnell’s power. He asked himself 4 questions:

• Does McConnell really command a Senate majority?

The polls do not favor Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, or Thom Tillis--senators from Maine, Colorado, and North Carolina up for reelection this cycle. Yet these competitors may not be ready to attend their own funerals. They may regard voting against McConnell's Court grab as a heaven-sent chance to prove their independence from an unpopular president-- and to thereby save their own seats... (Martha McSally of Arizona, however, is likely a safe vote for McConnell. The deadest of the Senate's dead ducks surely must be focused on retaining national Republican support for her post-Senate career. Mitt Romney of Utah is a more open question: His strong sense of fairness will push him against confirmation; his consistent support for conservative judges will pull him in favor.)

• Does McConnell really have a nominee to advance?

Any last-minute Trump nominee will face a gantlet of opposition in the Senate, a firestorm of opposition in the country, and probably a lifetime of suspicion from the majority of the country.

Can McConnell and Trump find an appointee willing to risk all that for the chance-- but not the guarantee-- of a Supreme Court seat? Specifically, can they find a woman willing to do it? The optics of replacing Ginsburg with a man may be too ugly even for the Trump administration. And if they can find a woman, can they find a woman sufficiently moderate-seeming to provide cover to anxious senators? The task may prove harder than immediately assumed.

• Will Trump balk?

Until now, judicial-nomination fights have mobilized Republicans and conservatives more than Democrats and liberals. The fight McConnell proposes may upset that pattern. Trump's hopes for reelection depend on suppressing votes and discouraging participation. The last thing he needs is a highly dramatic battle that could mobilize Democrats in states including Arizona and North Carolina-- even Georgia and Texas.

The smart play for Trump is to postpone the nomination to reduce the risk of Democratic mobilization, and to warn Republicans of the risks should he lose. Trump’s people do not usually execute the smart play. They are often the victims of the hyper-ideological media they consume, which deceive them about what actually is the smart play. This time, though, they may just be desperate enough to break long-standing pattern and try something different.

• Will the conservative legal establishment play ball?

The judicial status quo enormously favors conservatives. Even should Democrats win big in November, it will take many years for them to catch up to the huge Republican lead in judicial appointments. By then, who knows, the GOP may have retaken the Senate, and of course it may well find a way to hold on in 2020.

But a last-minute overreach by McConnell could seem so illegitimate to Democrats as to justify radical countermoves should they win in November: increasing the number of appellate judges and Supreme Court justices; conceivably even opening impeachment hearings against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

McConnell may want the win badly enough to dismiss those risks. But many conservative-leaning lawyers in the country may be more cautious. And their voices will get a hearing in a contentious nomination fight-- not only by the national media, but by some of the less Trump-y Republican senators. This could be enough to slow down a process that has no time to spare.

Mitch McConnell has gotten his way so often that it’s hard to imagine he might ever lose. But the political balance of power is shifting this fall, and for once, McConnell may be on the wrong side of a power dynamic.

Trump Continues Making The Pandemic Worse-- And His Moron Base Loves It

Lena Sun's report for the Washington Post over the weekend backs up fears that many have that Trump is trying to get control over coronavirus stats so that he can manipulate them for his campaign. "Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services," she wrote, "have sought to change, delay and prevent the release of reports about the coronavirus by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they were viewed as undermining President Trump’s message that the pandemic is under control. Michael Caputo, the top HHS spokesman, said in an interview Saturday that he and one of his advisers have been seeking greater scrutiny of the CDC’s weekly scientific dispatches, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [MMWR], for the past 3½ months. The adviser, Paul Alexander, has sent repeated emails to the CDC seeking changes and demanding that the reports be halted until he could make edits."

Alexander, is a smart-ass and aggressive shit bag who has accused the CDC of undermining Trumpanzee. Sun wrote that his emails "are the latest evidence of how the nation’s top public health agency is coming under intense pressure from Trump and his allies, who are playing down the dangers of the pandemic ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. 'Most often, the MMWRs are [issued] for purely scientific reasons,' Caputo said Saturday. 'But in an election year, and in the time of covid-19, it’s no longer unanimously scientific. There’s political content.'... MMWRs are written by career experts for scientists and public health specialists and are considered among the most authoritative public health reports because they provide evidence-based information on a range of health topics. The reports are independent scientific publications that undergo rigorous vetting, often with multiple drafts to check data and methodology. The reports are closely held; few individuals at the CDC have access until just before publication.

[A] report about the spread of the coronavirus at a Georgia sleep-away camp was also delayed, the former official said. That report, issued July 31, suggested that children of all ages are susceptible to coronavirus infection and may spread it to others-- a finding likely to intensify an already fraught discussion about the risks of sending children back to school.

“That report gave them a lot of grief,” the former official said. “But you can’t change facts.” The report likely was delayed, the former official said, to avoid being released around the same time Trump was calling for schools to reopen in person. The changes that were sought were not included, the former official said.

The tone of Alexander’s emails is harsh, this person said, because the CDC ignored his requests. In one email, Alexander wrote to CDC Director Robert Redfield asking that the agency modify two already published reports that Alexander said mistakenly inflated the risks of coronavirus to children and undermined Trump’s push to reopen schools.

“CDC to me appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration,” Alexander wrote in an email. “CDC tried to report as if once kids get together, there will be spread and this will impact school reopening... Very misleading by CDC and shame on them. Their aim is clear.”

The interference by HHS political appointees in the MMWR process has infuriated career scientists, who have been frustrated for months over the inability to allow scientists to fully share and explain information.

There was a similar report by a team of reporters in yesterday's NY Times noting that meddling from the Trumpist Regime is "turning widely followed and otherwise apolitical guidance on infectious disease, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, into a political loyalty test, with career scientists framed as adversaries of the administration.

The political involvement "undermines the credibility of not only the MMWR but of the CDC. And the CDC's credibility has been tarnished throughout COVID already," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who sits on the external editorial board of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports.

"The MMWR had an unblemished reputation as being accurate, objective and science-based, free from political influence," he said.

The meddling from Washington has concerned Redfield, who often pushed back when Caputo called to pester him about the morbidity reports, according to a former senior government health official with direct knowledge of the conversations.

Over the weekend-- Friday, Saturday and Sunday-- the U.S. reported 117,755 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total caseload to 6,708,458. That's 20,267 cases for every million Americans. To put that in perspective, these are the dozen worst hit (non-postage stamp sized) countries in western Europe:

• U.S.- 20,267 cases per million residents
• Spain- 12,334 cases per million residents
• Sweden- 8,555 cases per million residents
• Belgium- 7,972 cases per million residents
• Portugal- 6,279 cases per million residents
• Ireland- 6,261 cases per million residents
• France- 5,836 cases per million residents
• Switzerland- 5,443 cases per million residents
• U.K.- 5,422 cases per million residents
• Netherlands- 4,789 cases per million residents
• Italy- 4,761 cases per million residents
• Denmark- 3,431 cases per million residents
• Germany- 3,117 cases per million residents

The U.S. has had close to 200,000 confirmed COVID-deaths. The 12 European countries combined have had 175,654 deaths. The U.S. population is just over 331 million. The population of the 12 European countries comes to over 392 million-- more people, fewer deaths. Why? Trump. On Friday ABC News reported that Trump is choreographing scenes that willed to illness and death. "Amid a raging pandemic," wroteWill Steakin and Ben Gittleson, President Donald Trump has repeatedly choreographed a scene experts warn could lead to illness or even death: Thousands of supporters jammed together, mostly without masks, cheering for a candidate who mocks precautions against the novel coronavirus and has vowed to ignore his own health advisers. Fighting for reelection amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Trump enters the final stretch of the election increasingly ridiculing and ignoring coronavirus-related restrictions while holding packed campaign rallies across the country. Health experts, meanwhile, warn a bad flu season colliding with the coronavirus could be a devastating double threat to the country.

“We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter, because it’s not going to be easy,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's foremost infectious disease expert, said Thursday.

Asked during an interview with CBS News on Wednesday if it was frustrating to see Trump hold massive rallies with little-to-no mask-wearing, Fauci said, "Yes, it is."

With flu season approaching, the president’s response to the virus has again reverted to mocking health precautions and holding packed rallies with thousands of mostly maskless supporters that float local state guidelines.

The president has worked to shift focus to the economy and violent protests in the streets, looking to portray the pandemic as a thing of the past despite cases still rising in nearly two dozen states and health officials warning the fall season could be crucial to combating the COVID-19.

After briefly pausing rallies following the debacle in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, Trump has ramped up his campaign schedule to now holding multiple packed, outdoor rallies a week in airport hangars that often skirt local coronavirus restrictions.

At a rally last week in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the president in one breath urged supporters to wear masks over the Labor Day weekend while in the next repeatedly attacking his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, for wearing them, despite his own administration’s recommendations and the president himself in July tweeting a photo of himself in a mask calling it “patriotic.”

“Did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him?” Trump asked his supporters. "It gives him a feeling of security. If I was a psychiatrist, I'd say this guy has some big issues."

...Trump’s approach to the virus clashes with warnings about the seriousness of preventing spread entering the fall season.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has for months warned about the coronavirus and the seasonal flu striking at the same time this fall and winter.

"I'm asking you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and be smart about crowds," Redfield said in an interview with WebMD last month. "If you do those four things it will bring this outbreak down. But, if we don't do that… this could be the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had."

On Thursday, the president told reporters that even if "the experts" recommended a "lockdown," he would not listen, although enacting social distancing restrictions is largely a call for state and local officials.

"Whether expert or not, we're not doing any more shutdowns," Trump said.

Hospitals across the country are bracing for the looming double threat of a bad flu season combined with the coronavirus that could put significant strain on the health system.

“Flu season can hit really hard,” Leslie Gomez, a nurse in the Emergency Department at Sharp Chula Vista told ABC News. “And COVID-19 has been devastating so I’m worried that these two forces will combine and cause a really difficult fall and winter.”

As the president has taken a growing dismissive tone toward the virus, some of his supporters continue to follow his lead-- questioning the seriousness of COVID-19 and rejecting masks.

Leave It To Trump To Turn Masks Into A Divisive Political Weapon To Kill Americans

Back To School With Betsy And Donald by Nancy Ohanian

There are 22 states without statewide mask mandates. How the hell is that even possible? Well, let's begin by pointing out that of the 22 states, 20 have Trumpist Republican governors, one (Wisconsin) has a cowardly moderate Democrat who got barked at by the Republicans in the state legislature and state supreme court so he announced he was "giving up" and one (Wisconsin) has a worthless conservative Democratic governor who served in Congress as though he was a Republican anyway. Several of the states have pandemics that are completely out of control and dangerous not just for their own states but for the entire country, if not the world. These are the states without mask mandates, along with how many new cases each reported on Monday-- and the number cases they have per million residents.

• Florida +10,347 (16,780 cases per million Floridians)
• Georgia +2,452 (13,711 cases per million Georgians)
• Tennessee + 1,639 (11,678 cases per million Tennesseans)
• Arizona +1,559 (19,946 cases per million Arizonans)
• South Carolina +1,459 (cases per million South Carolinians)
• Mississippi +1,251 (14,747 cases per million Mississippians)
• Ohio +1,230 (6,519 cases per million Buckeyes)
• Minnesota +903 (8,353 cases per million Minnesotans)
• Wisconsin +703 (7,388 cases per million Cheeseheads)
• Indiana +635 (8,497 cases per million Indianans)
• Missouri +603 (5,836 cases per million Missourans)
• Iowa +527 (12,441 cases per million Iowans)
• Utah +409 (20,769 cases per million Utahns)
• Idaho +393 (8,542cases per million Idahoans)
• Oklahoma +168 (6,427 cases per million Sooners)
• North Dakota +107 (cases per million North Dakotans)
• Nebraska +264 (11,811 cases per million Cornhuskers)
• Alaska +75 (2,664 per million Alaskans)
• South Dakota +37 (8,979 cases per million South Dakotans)
• Wyoming +61 (3,779 cases per million Wyomingites)
• New Hampshire +46 (4,596 cases per million Granite Staters)
• Vermont +10 (2,180 cases per million Vermonters)

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp demands to go down in history as the worst governor of all... by suing cities and counties that pass their own mask mandates. And just as Señor T finally tweets out a picture of himself in Lone Ranger drag! That was the day after he got the crap kicked out of him by Chris Wallace in the middle of the Trumpanzee heartland: Fox News. Wallace was gentle compared to what Maddow of Chris Hayes would have done but he landed punch after punch right in that ugly face, as we noted yesterday. It must've shocked more than a few Fox viewers. "One of the greatest frustrations President Trump’s foes have," wrote Aaron Blake for the Washington Post "is how infrequently he’s called out-- in person-- on his bizarre theories and his 20,000 falsehoods and misleading claims. While journalists fact-check Trump relentlessly, there are relatively few instances in which he has received pushback to his face, in part because it takes a certain deftness and, arguably in even larger part, because he submits to so few interviews outside the Fox News and conservative media bubble." But on Sunday Wallace called him out on his lies and gaslighting.

The president has for months lodged and repeated a series of false statistics and dodgy ideas about the coronavirus outbreak. And in a matter of minutes, Wallace cast a spotlight on almost all the big ones.

Trump pushed back on questions about the ballooning number of cases we face, as he often has, by wrongly suggesting that this was a matter of increased testing. Wallace noted that the rising test-positivity rate and the comparisons we see in most other countries-- particularly Western Europe-- show our situation is particularly bad.

Trump then reverted to his fallback-- the number of deaths we’ve seen-- and things quickly went off the rails for him.

When Trump claimed the United States had one of the lowest mortality rates in the world-- or even the lowest-- Wallace made him prove it. Trump couldn’t, because it isn’t true.

The below is a lengthy exchange, but it’s worth [watching] in full:





Or not. Not only didn’t Wallace claim the United States had the worst, but Trump didn’t prove the opposite either. Wallace cut to a voice-over.

“The White House went with this chart from the European CDC, which shows Italy and Spain doing worse, but countries like Brazil and South Korea doing better,” Wallace said. “Other countries doing better, like Russia, aren’t included in the White House chart.”

So not even the cherry-picked data that the White House furnished backed up Trump’s claim. (In fact, the U.S. mortality rate ranks on the high end of all countries, according to Johns Hopkins University.)

Apparently unchastened by this, Trump later decided to repeat another false claim-- and was again exposed.

Trump again claimed, as his campaign ads have, that Joe Biden wants to defund the police. In fact, Biden has said explicitly that he disagrees with that idea.

“Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders,” Trump said. “I will get that one just like I was right on the mortality rate.”

But just as with the mortality rates, Trump promised proof that didn’t exist. As Wallace said in yet another voice-over, “The White House has never sent us evidence that Bernie-Biden platform calls for defunding or abolishing police, because there is none. It calls for increased funding for police departments that meet certain standards. Biden has called for redirecting some police funding for related programs like mental health counseling.”

Republicans have indeed tried to substantiate Trump’s claim by noting that Joe Biden called for redirecting police funding-- arguing that’s in line with the defunding movement. But even if you accept that strained argument, the proof Trump offered didn’t at all prove what he claimed.

The confidence Trump displayed in his false claims was truly something to behold. (“Ready?” “I will get that one just like I was right on the mortality rate.”) The question has often been whether he truly believes his own hype or is just committed to the lie. Either way, Wallace laid it bare.

In between these rare live fact checks was arguably an even worse moment for Trump.

Trump has downplayed the coronavirus threat from the very beginning, but rarely has his dismissiveness been revealed so plainly. Trump continued to press Wallace on the metric he argues is most important, and he challenged Wallace to show a chart on deaths. Wallace noted that we’re seeing around a thousand per day, at which point Trump reverted to another fallback: blaming China.

“They should’ve never let it escape; they should’ve never let it out,” Trump said. “But it is what it is.”

It is what it is. With nearly 140,000 deaths. Expect that to feature in some anti-Trump campaign ads.

Wallace’s ability to reinforce Trump’s constant lack of specificity stretched into a conversation about schools. Wallace asked Trump what would seem to be a pretty simple question: He noted that Trump said schools are teaching students to hate America, and he asked where Trump was seeing that.

“Now they want to change 1492, Columbus discovered America,” Trump said. “You know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did, that’s what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 Project. Where did that come from? What does it represent? I don’t even know."

The reference was to the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which has been a lightning rod in conservative circles for its portrayal of slavery’s role in our country’s origins. Wallace quickly noted, “It’s slavery,” not redefining when our nation was founded.

“That’s what they’re saying, but they don’t even know,” Trump said. “They just want to make a change.”

If that wasn’t confusing enough, Wallace later raised Trump’s attacks on Biden’s sharpness, and when Trump trotted out his claims to acing a cognitive test, Wallace was ready. As The Post's Philip Bump has noted, the kind of test Trump has bragged about is remarkably simple because it aims to ferret out obvious mental impairments. Wallace noted that he can attest to this, because he took a similar exam.

“It’s not the hardest test,” Wallace said. He noted that one question asked him to identify an elephant by looking at a picture of one.

Trump then conceded that some questions are easy but then remarkably contended that some are difficult as the test goes on: “But I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions. I’ll bet you couldn’t. They get very hard, the last five questions.”

Wallace shot back: “Well, one of them was count back from 100 by seven.” He began counting: “Ninety-three.”

In other circumstances, this could have come off as overly adversarial. But Wallace was putting his finger on the ridiculousness of the claim-- just as he had so many times previously in the interview.

These were the kinds of things that have been pointed out ad nauseam outside the audience of the president; Wallace just had the venue and the wherewithal to actually press him on them. And the result was something unlike we’ve seen thus far in Trump’s presidency.

The Chris Wallace Interview-- Fox Viewers Finally See What A Lying, Incompetent Boob They Support

Trump lied repeatedly during his interview with Chris Wallace on Fox yesterday. It amazed me that Wallace let him get away with his oft repeated distortion of how the U.S. tests more people than any other country in the world. Forget for a moment that Trump opposes testing and that it is done by states and that Trump is trying to defund those state programs. Instead let's just look at the number of tests that have been done per million residents:

• Iceland- 327,387 tests per million Vikings
• Denmark- 225,564 tests per million Danes
• U.K.- 193,109 tests per million Brits
• Russia- 169,092 tests per million Russians
• Israel- 153,507 tests per million Israelis
• U.S.- 143,759 tests per million Americans

It's important to note that many of the states with the worst upticks in new cases are the states with the least testing. These states are all having dangerous one day case increases and none of their testing rises to the level of that being done in most developed countries with case increases:

• Ohio- 97,039 tests per million Buckeyes
• Missouri- 98,386 tests per million Missourans
• Wyoming- 108,152 tests per million Trumpist fanatics
• Texas- 108,761 tests per million Texans
• South Dakota- 109,927 tests per million Dakotans
• Alabama- 116,953 tests per million Alabamans
• South Carolina- 118,560 tests per million South Carolinians
• Oklahoma- 121,190 tests per million Oklahomans

Talking Points Memo chose their 5 worst moments to focus on-- and they all were doozies! No doubt this will result in Trump going on the attack against Wallace and against Fox for "making him look bad."

Doubling down on his claim of coronavirus “disappearing” someday

When Wallace confronted Trump regarding his predictions about the coronavirus “disappearing” someday, Trump replied that he’ll be “right eventually.”

When asked about his administration’s recent efforts to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci-- which include an unnamed White House official sending a memo to news outlets last week criticizing Fauci’s past comments on the coronavirus that later turned out to be inaccurate-- Trump first replied that “we’re not” before repeating his line that although the nation’s top infectious disease expert has “made some mistakes,” he has a “very good relationship” with Fauci.

After Trump went on to call Fauci “a little bit of an alarmist,” the President argued that he will be “right eventually” about his previous claim that the coronavirus will “disappear.”

Defending the Confederate flag

Pressed on whether the Confederate flag is offensive,” Trump said “it depends.”

“It depends on who you’re talking about, when you’re talking about,” Trump said. “When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag, it represents the South, they like the South. People right now like the South. I’d say it’s freedom of, of, of many things, but it’s freedom of speech.”

Wallace then asked if he’s offended by the Confederate flag.

“Well, I’m not offended either by Black Lives Matter,” Trump said. “That’s freedom of speech.”

Piling on more attacks against Biden

Upon being shown a Fox News poll that indicates Biden leading him by eight points, Trump denied that he’s losing because “those are fake polls.”

“They were fake in 2016 and now they’re even more fake,” Trump said. “The polls were much worse in 2016.”

The President then claimed, without evidence, that he has “other polls” showing that he’s leading, before going on to slamming Biden because he “can’t put two sentences together.”

‘They wheeled him out, he goes up, he repeats, they ask him questions, he reads the teleprompter and then he goes back into his basement,” Trump said. “You tell me the American people want to have that in an age where we are in trouble with other nations that are looking to do numbers on us.”

Griping about his inability to hold rallies amid the COVID-19 pandemic

After railing against Democrats for “purposely keeping their schools closed,” Trump displayed his dissatisfaction over being unable to hold rallies in states led by Democratic governors.

“I called Michigan. I want to have a big rally in Michigan. You know we are not allowed to have a rally in Michigan?” Trump said. “Do you know we are not allowed to have a rally in Minnesota? Do you know we’re not allowed to have a rally in Nevada? We’re not allowed to have rallies in these Democrat-run states.”

Refusing to guarantee he will accept the results of the November election

After Trump doubled down on his baseless claim that mail-in voting will “rig the election,” Wallace asked if he’s suggesting that he might not accept the election in November.

“I have to see,” Trump said, before repeating his assertion when pressed on the question again.

The NY Times also published an article on 5 take-aways, although not in regard to the Fox interview-- Inside the Failure: 5 Takeaways on Trump’s Effort to Shift Responsibility. Believe me, it's related. Michael Shear reported that Señor Trumpanzee and his cronies "decided to shift primary responsibility for the coronavirus response to the states during a critical period of weeks in mid-April, eagerly seizing on overly optimistic predictions that the pandemic was fading so the president could reopen the economy and focus on his re-election... [C]ritical decisions about the handling of the virus during that crucial period were made not by the better known coronavirus task force, but by a small group of White House aides who convened each morning in the office of Mark Meadows, the president’s chief of staff. One of their goals: to justify declaring victory in the fight against the virus. In that effort they frequently sought validation from Dr. Deborah L. Birx, a highly regarded infectious disease expert, who was the chief evangelist in the West Wing for the idea that infections had peaked and the virus was fading quickly."

Shear reminds his readers that "despite warnings from state officials and other public health experts," the murderous Orange Menace "stuck to a deliberate strategy by pushing responsibility onto the states almost immediately after introducing reopening guidelines. Then he quickly undermined the guidelines by urging Democratic governors to 'liberate' their states from those very restrictions." Here are two of the take-aways Shear included:

Trump’s handoff of responsibility had consequences

The president’s bizarre public statements, his refusal to wear a mask and his pressure on states to get their economies going again left governors and state officials scrambling to address a leadership vacuum that complicated their efforts to deal with the virus.

In one case, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California was told that if he wanted the federal government to help obtain the swabs needed to test for the virus, he would have to ask Mr. Trump himself-- and thank him.

After offering to help acquire 350,000 testing swabs during an early morning conversation with one of Mr. Newsom’s advisers, Mr. Kushner made it clear that the federal help would hinge on the governor doing him a favor.

“The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, had to call Donald Trump, and ask him for the swabs,” recalled the adviser, Bob Kocher, an Obama-era White House health care official.

Mayor Francis X. Suarez of Miami, a Republican, said that the White House approach had only one focus: reopening businesses, instead of anticipating how cities and states should respond if cases surged again.

“It was all predicated on reduction, open, reduction, open more, reduction, open,” he said. “There was never what happens if there is an increase after you reopen?

The White House was slow to recognize it had been wrong

Not until early June did White House officials even begin to recognize that their assumptions about the course of the pandemic had proved wrong.

In task force meetings, officials discussed whether the spike in cases across the South was related to crowded protests over the killing of George Floyd or perhaps a fleeting side effect of Memorial Day gatherings.

Digging into new data from Dr. Birx, they soon concluded that the virus was in fact spreading with invisible ferocity during the weeks in May when states were opening up with Mr. Trump’s encouragement and many were all but declaring victory.

Even now, there are internal divisions over how far to go in having officials publicly acknowledge the reality of the situation.

It's Monday Morning And Trump Is Still Promulgating Policies That Will Kill Tens Of Thousands Of Americans

I bet Trump wishes he could gracefully back down from his utterly boneheaded, pointless, dysfunctional position on masks. But he's not the kind of person who can admit he was wrong. Over tech weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a piece by Caitlin McCabe, Face Masks Really Do Matter. The Scientific Evidence Is Growing. With Trump still wedded to his foolish position on masks-- and unable to escape from it-- she wrote that "masks are emerging as one of the most powerful weapons to fight the novel coronavirus, with growing evidence that facial coverings help prevent transmission-- even if an infected wearer is in close contact with others. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he believes the pandemic could be brought under control over the next four to eight weeks if 'we could get everybody to wear a mask right now.' His comments, made Tuesday with the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed an editorial he and others wrote there emphasizing 'ample evidence' of asymptomatic spread and highlighting new studies showing how masks help reduce transmission." Trump's response? Cutting the CDC budget by billions of dollars.

His comments are the clearest message yet from the CDC, amid fierce debate over facial coverings, fueled initially by shifting messages from federal and global officials about their necessity and then by those espousing individual liberties.

Researchers from around the world have found wearing even a basic cloth face covering is more effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19 than wearing nothing at all. And many are now examining the possibility that masks might offer some personal protection from the virus, despite initial thinking that they mostly protect others.

Experts caution that widespread masking doesn’t eliminate the need to follow other recommendations, like frequent handwashing and social distancing.

In the absence of widespread availability of N95 masks-- considered among the most effective but typically reserved for health-care workers-- transmission can still be reduced with simple and affordable face coverings, the research shows. In a study published last month in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that, of the readily accessible facial coverings they studied, a well-fitted homemade stitched mask comprising two layers of cotton quilting fabric was most effective for reducing the forward spread of droplets. The research was conducted using a mannequin’s head, an air compressor and a smoke generator that mechanically simulated a cough.

The study found that aerosol-size droplets expelled from the mannequin with the double-layered cotton mask traveled forward about 2.5 inches on average, and that most of the leakage escaped from gaps between the nose and face. Loosely fitting facial coverings, including a folded cotton handkerchief with ear loops, as well as a bandanna were less helpful, the study found. With those masks, droplets traveled on average about 1.25 and 3.5 feet, respectively. In contrast, the study found droplets traveled about 8 inches on average with an off-the-shelf cone-shaped mask.

Meanwhile, droplets from an uncovered cough traveled around 8 feet on average, though the study found that they could travel up to 12 feet—double the currently recommended social-distancing guideline of 6 feet. Leakage from a common disposable surgical mask wasn’t studied, though two of the study’s authors, Siddhartha Verma and Manhar Dhanak, said they are working on it.

“It was surprising in a good way to see that a homemade mask could do so well…that we don’t have to get a very fancy mask,” Dr. Verma said. “A cotton mask can be washed at home and dried. Reusability is becoming important as we go into this for the long haul.”

They are also in the process of putting a laboratory apparatus together to test how much protection various masks might offer to the person wearing them.

The amount of virus exposure might influence degree of sickness, according to a review of viral literature and Covid-19 epidemiology by Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She and her co-authors posit in the research, expected to be published this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, that masks provide an important barrier and could lead to a milder infection or even prevent one altogether. While cloth and surgical masks can widely vary, she believes some masks can likely filter out a majority of large viral droplets.

Amy Price, a senior research scientist at Stanford’s Anesthesia Informatics and Media Lab, maintains, in contrast, that the primary benefit of wearing a mask is to protect others and reduce Covid-19 transmission. She believes that, excluding N95 masks, multilayered masks with a slightly waterproof outer layer best minimize spread. She said rubbing the outer layer of the mask with a latex glove before donning it creates static electricity-- which Stanford researchers believe can better prevent virus particles from passing from the mouth to outside of the mask.

Researchers are hopeful that more evidence about the personal protection masks could lead to more use in coming weeks. The CDC said the use of cloth face coverings while in public in the U.S. increased to 76.4% in mid-May, compared with 61.9% in April, according to internet surveys sent to roughly 500 adults each month.

Some Americans who have resisted wearing masks have cited health concerns. However, leading medical groups said in a joint statement Thursday, “Individuals with normal lungs, and even many individuals with underlying chronic lung disease, should be able to wear a non-N95 facial covering without affecting their oxygen or carbon-dioxide levels.” Exemptions should be at the discretion of a physician, the groups said.

Researchers say the benefits of widespread mask use were recently seen in a Missouri hair salon, where two stylists directly served 139 clients in May before testing positive for Covid-19. According to a recent report published by the CDC, both wore either a double-layered cotton or surgical mask, and nearly all clients who were interviewed reported wearing masks the entire time.

After contact tracing and two weeks of follow-up, no Covid-19 symptoms were identified among the 139 clients or their secondary contacts, the report found. Of the 67 who were willing to be tested, all were negative for Covid-19.

According to recent projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. would rise to more than 224,000 by Nov. 1. The number is based on expectations that Covid-19 mandates will continue to be eased until rising cases prompt shutdowns again in some places. Almost 140,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the country so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Yet if 95% of the U.S. population began wearing masks, the expected death toll would drop by more than 40,000 cases to about 183,000 people, according to IHME.

Wearing a mask is “one of the most urgent things we can do to get our country under control,” said Melanie Ott, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology. “We’re all waiting for the vaccine, we’re waiting for therapeutics, and we’re not there.”

“We have masks, we have social distancing, and we have testing,” she continued. “But there’s not much more in the toolbox here.”

This is especially important politically because all recent polls are showing Trump losing badly in voters' minds regarding his response to the pandemic. Two big polls were released Sunday, one by Fox News and one by ABC News and the Washington Post. The Fox poll shows that Trump's overall disapproval at 54%. When asked who reposndents trust more to handle the pandemic, 51% say Biden but just 34% say Trump. When asked if they approve oh how various people or entities have responded to the pandemic, Fauci has a 74% approval (and 20% disapproval), while Trump has a 43% approval (and a 56% disapproval). Also, 59% favor a national stay-at-home order and 71% favor a national mask mandate, both of which Trump vehemently opposes.

The ABC poll pegs Trump's overall job approval at 39%-- with 57% disapproving. The poll shows voters preferring Biden over Trump overall and on nearly every issue. When it comes to the pandemic, 54% prefer Biden and just 34% prefer Trump. On top of that...

A trio of Washington Post reporters noted over the weekend that "Halfway through the year-- and halfway through the summer season when officials once hoped warmer weather might speed the coronavirus’s retreat-- the pandemic is only intensifying in much of the country. Major school districts are bucking federal pressure to say they won’t reopen classrooms in the fall. Infections have been reaching record heights in the South, West and Midwest. More than 20 states are reporting seven-day averages in coronavirus-related deaths higher than at the end of June, underscoring the turnaround since May and June when deaths declined nationally-- a development President Trump had touted as a sign of progress. The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in an upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday. The administration is also trying to block billions that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the people said... Arizona on Saturday reported a single-day high in new deaths, another sign that the surge in fatalities health officials had warned about is underway. And North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Missouri announced record-high new cases." Sunday's new case reports among the worst-hit states (along with cases per million residents):

• Florida +12,478 (16,298 cases per million Floridians)
• Texas +8,709 (11,699 cases per million Texans)
• California +8,116 (9,898 cases per million Californians)
• Georgia +3,251 (13,480 cases per million Georgians)
• Louisiana +3,116 (19,727 cases per million Louisianans)
• South Carolina +2,374 (13,593 cases per million South Carolinians)
• Arizona +2,359 (19,732 cases per million Arizonans)
• North Carolina +1,858 (9,517 cases per million North Carolinians)
• Tennessee +1,779 (11,438 cases per million Tennesseans)
• Alabama +1,777 (13,667 cases per million Alabamans)
• Nevada +1,288 (11,611 cases per million Nevadans)
• Ohio +1,107 (6,413 cases per million Buckeyes)

"It is unconscionable," Ted Lieu (D-CA) told me yesterday, "that the United States of America-- the most powerful and wealthiest nation in the history of the world-- is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. There is no excuse for the Trump Administration's botched response to this crisis. The scale and scope of the challenges that face us are almost unimaginable. Since the early days of the pandemic, I have argued for sustained and substantial direct federal support for American families. The House has passed the HEROES Act. Before all is said and done this will likely not even be enough. But it is shameful that Senate Republicans and the Trump Administration continue to hold up this vital support for our people during a time of crisis. Also-- please wear a damn mask in public. Thanks."


 

Trump's War Against... Fox News

Yesterday's New York Times carried a rather spectacular quote about Trump from Robert DeNiro, who knows a little something about organized crime. "[T]hat’s what he is. He’s a petulant little punk. There’s not one thing that I see in him or his family, not any redeeming qualities. They’re out on the take. It’s like a gangster family."

This slide up top, from a Fox News poll last week, indicates that just 41% of Americans think Trump should not be impeached. Half think he should be impeached and removed and another 4% think he should be impeached but not removed. So... 54% (to 41%) agree that the House should impeach him, which they will likely do on Wednesday. But it wasn't this poll that Señor Trumpanzee was screeching about over the weekend. Fox News in general was though.

Like Louis XIV, Trump actually believes he is the state and that the apparatus of the state belong to him and is there to serve his purposes. Trump isn't an educated man and has no idea what the constitution says and no interest in finding out. I'd say something like 40% of Americans agree with him-- either actively or passively and would embrace an authoritarian form of government. It speaks to what Fox News is that Trump also believes they are also there to serve his needs-- part of his team-- and act not as a legitimate news outlet, not even part of the time, but as a propaganda arm of his government. So... over the weekend he let loose with this tweet:

And then a few minutes later, obviously obsessed, this one:

Comey and Schiff were both Chris Wallace's guests on Fox News Sunday, where they gave Fox viewers the opportunity to get a glimpse of the real world outside the Trump propaganda bubble. Trump hates Wallace and calls him names and has tried to get him fired. Any glimmer of independence for a tyrant is intolerable. Wallace's speech to Newseum on Wednesday probably didn't soothe Trump's feathers. This is worth watching:





Wallace: "I believe that President Trump is engaged in the most direct, sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history... He has done everything he can to undercut the media, to try to de-legitimize us... I think his purpose is clear: to raise doubts when we report critically about him and his administration that we can be trusted. Back in 2017, he tweeted something that said far more about him than it did about us, quote: 'The fake news media is not my enemy. It is the enemy of the American people.'"