"You don't call facts ‘fake’ and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you're unhappy,” @POTUS says in Philadelphia, referring to Trump. “That’s not statesmanship. That’s selfishness.” pic.twitter.com/Ou87DxFiKV
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 13, 2021
Trigger warning: News of the latest books on TFG’s maladministration, below the fold…
So good. When Fox News called Arizona for Biden, Trump erupted in a fury and demanded that his aides call the Murdochs and pressure them to reverse it.
Rudy urged Trump to declare victory.
Excerpted from the new book by @CarolLeonnig and @PhilipRucker:https://t.co/XrBsxj8Sag pic.twitter.com/2TnpSKOcNj
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 13, 2021
… House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been working toward this night for four years. For her, election night in 2016 had been a nightmare, and she was determined not to allow a repeat in 2020. “That night was like getting kicked in the back by a mule over and over again,” she said in an interview. The California Democrat recalled thinking that night about Trump’s surprise victory: “It can’t be true. It can’t be happening to our country.”
Pelosi added: “You understand that this is not a person of sound mind. You understand that. You know that. He’s not of sound mind …
One Trump confidant who mostly stayed out of the Map Room was Rudolph W. Giuliani. That’s because the president’s personal attorney had set up his own command center upstairs on the party floor. Giuliani sat at a table in the Red Room with his son, Andrew, who worked at the White House in the Office of Public Liaison, staring intensely at a laptop watching vote tallies. The Giulianis made for an odd scene, as partygoers swirled around them. After a while, Rudy Giuliani started to cause a commotion. He was telling other guests that he had come up with a strategy for Trump and was trying to get into the president’s private quarters to tell him about it. Some people thought Giuliani may have been drinking too much and suggested to Stepien that he go talk to the former New York mayor. Stepien, Meadows and Jason Miller took Giuliani down to a room just off the Map Room to hear him out…
Giuliani’s grand plan was to just say Trump won, state after state, based on nothing. Stepien, Miller and Meadows thought his argument was both incoherent and irresponsible.
“We can’t do that,” Meadows said, raising his voice. “We can’t.”…
William P. Barr had the same feeling. The attorney general had shown up for Trump’s election night party, even though he had thought for months that Trump was destined to become a one-term president. Trump didn’t seem able to get out of his own way and deliver a disciplined message. Barr hung around the party for a bit, but a little after 10 p.m. decided to call it a night. He went home to get some sleep…
[NB: Meadows and Barr hope for a future that doesn’t involve personal and professional shunning.]
Shortly after 2 a.m. on Nov. 4, “Hail to the Chief” played at the East Room party. Out walked Trump, followed by Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence. Stephen Miller and the speechwriting team had prepared remarks for Trump to deliver, but the president veered from his teleprompter script to instead deliver stream-of-consciousness thoughts.
“We were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off,” Trump said. He added, “Literally, we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good.”…
“This is a fraud on the American public,” the president said. “This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment. This is a major fraud in our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay? It’s a very sad moment. To me, this is a very sad moment, and we will win this. And as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.”
This was an extraordinary accusation for any political candidate to make about any election, much less for a sitting president to make about the country’s most consequential election. Trump was telling the 74 million people who voted for him not to trust the results…
Pelosi watched Trump’s speech in horror. “It was just a complete, total manifestation [of] insanity,” she recalled in the interview.
“It was clear over that four-year period that this was not a person who was on the level — on the level intellectually, on the level mentally, on the level emotionally and certainly not on the level patriotically,” she said. “So for him to say what he said, I wouldn’t say was [as] surprising as it might have been if we hadn’t seen the instability all along.”…
"[SecDef] Esper was a lifelong Republican and had worked at the conservative Heritage Foundation as well as for Republican senators …. But … as he watched TV news anchors cover the election results, he found himself rooting for the Democrat."https://t.co/zG918hmocP
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) July 13, 2021
Michael Bender’s Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost:
Then-President Donald Trump said whoever "leaked" info on his stay in the White House bunker during protests should be "executed," a new book claims https://t.co/1KLmXjZ3fZ
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 13, 2021
I mean… https://t.co/XkLXRc2Uhp pic.twitter.com/8qFSiyGPyx
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 14, 2021
Michael Wolff’s Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump White House:
… Books like this usually burst out of the gate with a few newsmaking anecdotes, and Wolff does provide some of these. Trump believed that the Democratic Party’s elders would pull Biden, sure to lose, at the last minute, and replace him with a ticket of Andrew Cuomo and Michelle Obama. He toyed with the idea of using the pandemic as a pretext for indefinitely postponing the election. The most notorious line in his speech to the incipient mob on Jan. 6 — “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” — was an ad-lib, not in the text his staff had prepared. But the strength of “Landslide” comes less from these stories and more from a coherent argument that Wolff, in partnership with his sources, makes about how we should understand the period between Nov. 3 and Jan. 20. Most quickly produced books about political events don’t do that…
More than all this, though, the quality of Trump’s that best explains what happened is that he commands a vast, enthusiastically loyal following that may represent as much as a quarter of the voting public, or even more, and a majority of the people who vote in Republican primaries. Nobody holding an appointed position has this, and very few elected officials do either. Wolff says the people around Trump believed he had “magical properties,” based on “a genius sense of how to satisfy the audience.” Everyone knew from firsthand observation how incompetent a chief executive he was: “Beyond his immediate desires and pronouncements, there was no ability — or structure, or chain of command, or procedures, or expertise, or actual person to call — to make anything happen.” Therefore they assumed that his postelection lunacy would have no consequences, and that it was safe to avoid any public argument with the president that might arouse the Republican base. Essentially the only nefarious misdeed he was capable of pulling off was the one he did pull off, not entirely wittingly: the power to incite a violent, democracy-subverting mob of his devotees.
Trump’s election, his term in office and the manner of his departure have reawakened a dormant debate about the essential health of the American political system. Are there too many barriers in the way of voting? Is the public misinformed? Do billionaires and other elites control the system? Do the Electoral College and the way congressional representation is apportioned overempower underpopulated rural areas? Wolff raises a more fundamental and frightening possibility: that the lesson of Trump is that in a democratic society, a malign and dangerous “crazy person,” especially one with a deep instinctive understanding of public opinion and the media, can become genuinely popular. Millions of Americans love Trump. As Wolff points out, after Jan. 6, his standing in the polls went up..
ronno2018
It is like a car crash and I cannot look away…
SiubhanDuinne
Reading these two books back to back. I’m now about 2/3 of the way through Michael Wolf’s Landslide, and I’ll move straight on to the Rucker-Leonnig book when I’ve finished this one. The joys of pre-ordering and midnight Kindle downloads on publication day.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So it sounds like August 1st Trump will be at the gates of the White House screaming to let him in because he is president again, for reasons.
Anotherlurker
Off topic, please forgive me.
I was watching the All Star Game and they ran a commercial by the Republican National Committee. The spot featured a bald Black Man wearing glasses saying that the All Star Game was moved from Atlanta to Denver because Democrats want to hurt Black People. This spokesman said that moving the event to Denver hurt Black People and that most of those hurt were in favor of voter ID and other voting “reforms”.
I didn’t think it could happen, but my loathing of Fox “News” and “conservatives” is even greater.
H.E.Wolf
Michael Wolff is almost 70 years old. That’s old enough to have heard of Adolf Hitler, and the danger to democracy posed by an unbalanced populist demagogue.
“Raising the possibility”? Either he’s an ignoramus, or he thinks his readers are. [ETA: Which is a gross underestimation of beloved commenter and bibliophile SiubhanDuinne.]
Color me unimpressed.
Ruckus
@ronno2018:
It’s a max sized airliner that took off on autopilot, has no crew, and has run out of fuel, over a major city.
The person supposedly in charge is mentally a extremely narcissistic 4 yr old in an adult sized suit who isn’t potty trained, has an IQ of 30, and absolutely no idea what the real world is like and throws tantrums when people don’t do exactly what he wants, even though he can’t tell them and his vocabulary and mental limits are what he learned from a KKK member.
phdesmond
off-topic haiku:
remarkable flight
texas house delegation
fifty paul reveres
dmsilev
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I thought August 13th was Reinstatement Day. Did it get moved?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@H.E.Wolf: here is the “democrats” of the Weimar Republic in action during the Kapp Putsch of 1920
dm
On top of all his other problems, I’ve been wondering for a while if Trump wasn’t suffering from some of the mental health effects that have been reported in some COVID-19 survivors.
Kent
What…did he get Covid in 2010? Because he has been insane for at least that long.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Sorry, my mistake. The new Leonnig-Rucker book, I Alone Can Fix It, isn’t due out for another week. The one waiting in my queue is Bender’s Frankly, We Did Win This Election.
@H.E.Wolf:
There’s no question that Michael Wolff is a sensationalistic and often sloppy writer (interesting and snarkalicious for all that — my inner ten-year-old has been giggling at all the Rudy fart jokes scattered throughout Landslide). But the line about “raising the possibility” is from Nicholas Lemann’s NYT review of his book, not from Wolff himself. I haven’t finished the book yet, so I don’t know how loudly he sounds the alarm about the Hitlerian parallels. (Thank you for the nice compliment.)
dmsilev
@Kent: Truly, a man ahead of his time.
mrmoshpotato
LOL! That’s fucking adorable!
smike
@phdesmond:
Very nice.
phdesmond
saw Bender and Wolff on msnbc this eve. it’s upsetting to relive those months, so soon after. but it would be worse to repress, i suppose.
sdhays
OT: I assume this is going to be a big topic tomorrow, but apparently the Senate Democrats have a deal on $3.5 trillion budget resolution. They seem pretty confident that it’s going to pass, at least something close to it. And the bipartisan infrastructure deal is apparently still coming together, despite McConnell’s bitching.
Feeling good about what’s possible tonight.
phdesmond
@H.E.Wolf:
Wolff’s final comment on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show was “Trump was deranged.”
NotMax
“We need more red Sharpies. Stat!”
//
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
It always gets moved, when the date approaches with no sign that anything at all is going to happen. It started in February, was moved to March, then to April, then to May, and now to August. Unless/until Once & Future POTUS Trump is marched off to the hoosegow, I expect Reinstatement Day to get moved at least all the way to Election Day 2024.
phdesmond
@smike: thanks
dmsilev
@sdhays: Also, I imagine that if McConnell manages to convince enough of his caucus to filibuster the ostensibly bipartisan bill, the Democrats will simply fold everything into the reconciliation package and say ‘we tried to negotiate in good faith, but they walked away.So be it.’
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: Yes, it’s exactly like the various cult leaders predicting that Judgement Day is coming in
JanuaryMarchJuneby Thanksgiving at the latest for sure.West of the Rockies
I LOATHE the way Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to [pitch rising, nasality growing] the CaaAAApitol…”
“…and I’ll be there with you…” Liar. The grotesque traitor hid back in his office.
CaseyL
I’m not astonished that people sold their souls in service of Trump.
I do continue to be astonished that they did so for a person that does not give even the tiniest of shits about them. Barely even pretends to.
ian
@Anotherlurker:
They do that from time to time. It doesn’t win them black voters. It is an appeal designed to get low-info low-enthusiasm white voters to think both parties are the same/equally terrible.
It’s in the same vein as ‘get off the Democrat plantation’. Does it cross their minds to think black people might be offended by calling their political beliefs a plantation? They don’t care.
Amir Khalid
There’s something strange going on with YouTube. After I watch a video I have trouble going back to my home page; YouTube insists I am not connected to the Internet, and that I must reconnect first. YouTube is the only tab that gives me this grief. All my other tabs on Firefox work just fine. Is anyone else having this problem?
Anotherlurker
@ian: Good point. I didn’t think of that.
Keeping up on this stuff is exhausting.
HumboldtBlue
I think we’ve reached and crossed the tipping point.
I won’t be around in 30 years, and I don’t think this nation as we know it now will be either.
Tony Jay
Trump’s entire lifestyle encapsulated in one grotesque image. Don’t like the result? Cause a fuss. Scream and shout and lie and threaten, get on the phone to people you think ‘need’ you and demand they fix this. Just make yourself enough of a problem that weaker wills will fold and let you have what you want just to shut you the hell up.
He’s their New Lost Cause. They’ll never turn the volume down.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
It’s inappropriate to compare Hitler with Dump. Hitler was a decorated veteran, while Dump had “bone spurs”
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Et tu, Rupert
smike
@HumboldtBlue:
Or any other nation on earth.
HumboldtBlue
@smike:
Indeed.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
With regards to Arizona, Fox’s statistical unit held off on announcing the Biden call for an hour.
Martin
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: It was actually a sketchy call. Biden won by 11,000 votes. Fox’s statistical unit had it wrong, but fortunately they weren’t so wrong that Biden didn’t still inch out a win. They got lucky.
Trump wasn’t wrong to be upset by that call. Not that it matted – even without AZ Biden won.
Amir Khalid
@Martin:
It’s in the nature of desperation: I’m sure TFG believes that had Fox not called Arizona for Biden, Biden would not have got his momentum going, and he (TFG) would have would have won Arizona and the other states that ended up going for Biden.
it sounds totally absurd, but I do believe that this is how TFG thinks.
Chetan Murthy
@Amir Khalid: I think it’s also in the nature of the grifter mindset. The grifter doesn’t think about *value*: he thinks about *flow*. So a bad investment, that throws off cash short-term but eventually craters, is better than a good investment that doesn’t throw off short-term cash but long-term becomes really valuable. The grifter is fundamentally short-term. He can’t understand that every vote that was counted, had already been cast and thus it was just the *counting*: he thinks that somehow he can influence the votes by his efforts *after* the voting has ended.
it’s all madness, but then, you would expect nothing less from a con-man.
James E Powell
Many times Trump has demonstrated that he doesn’t know how things work.
sab
@Amir Khalid: I am in N America, and Youtube has always made difficulties in allowing you back to whatever else you were doing on the internet before you went down some rabbithole to Youtube. That’s why I avoid Youtube. Back out immediately when some jackal links to something cute on Youtube without warning us.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: Even reading the excerpt made me anxious and angry. I don’t know how I could make it through two entire tomes.
germy
Gin & Tonic
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: What reason is there to believe that Wolf’s account is actually true?
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Trump shouldn’t be flushed down the memory hole, because it’s important to understand how he came to power. Your ability to read as much as can about the monster is pretty amazing, and I’m anxious to read your synopsis.
Gin & Tonic
@Barbara: This. The only way I could imagine reading even one is if they strapped me in like Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
Suzanne
@CaseyL:
THIS THIS THIS. OMG.
I get that the Trump diehards feel status threat, are unattractive and can’t get laid, were bad students, feel looked-down-upon…. but, then, why didn’t they nominate one of their own?! They nominated a dude who holds them in contempt. Their failure to do so makes me think that they aren’t very smart.
JPL
@Suzanne: January 6th showed those seeking trump’s endorsement, what he is cabable of doing. They don’t want to be on the receiving end of the riots. They’re cowards.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Gin & Tonic:
Truth? What does truth have to do with it. This is politics.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@germy:
Meh. Come next year Act Blue will be carpet bombing enemy targets up and down the Nazi rat lines
JPL
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: trump and family are trying to get their hands on that pile of money.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Trust me, they don’t believe he holds them in contempt. He validates the things they already believed, so it doesn’t matter what he thinks of them personally. They believe he really cares about the U.S. because he thinks the same way they do about things, and they really care, so it’s “obvious” to them that he cares too. “He cares about people (white Christian straight) like me” is what they say.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Stupidity + ego = one hell of a drug
Woodrow/asim
@Amir Khalid: I watch YouTube on Firefox multiple times a week, and have for months, now. I have never encountered an error such as you describe.
That said, it has been an issue for years that YouTube uses an old API in the design of YouTube, one that Chrome (coincidentally, I’m sure…) supports as a first-class implementation, but slows down on Firefox. This page has more, including a potential Firefox extension to help (I do not use that extension myself, so cannot speak to its usefulness in your situation).
NotMax
@Woodrow/asim
Ditto. I use Firefox exclusively and have never experienced anything remotely close to the description.
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
They nominated Trump, who is “…unattractive, can’t get laid [without paying for it], was a bad student, felt looked-down-upon” — so I think they did nominate one of their own. Trump is exactly like that!! He does hold them in contempt, not sure why they can’t see that, perhaps just that unable to perceive reality?
But reading your comment about the Trumpists, realized that description fits Trump to a tee.