“And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.”
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The Amulet of Samarkand
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If you can get into the FT story linked in this tweet it’s worth it, and free reads are allowed on the FT: In 2012,
Read the full article…
The first generation of charismatic leaders. From the start, democracy internalized a new form of Caesarist Temptation
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Exclusive: White House to lure U.S. firms to Latam from Asia in nearshoring drive, senior adviser says Reuters. Important!
Will Trump’s warning about election fraud backfire?
President Donald Trump.
File Photo (zz/KGC-375/STAR MAX/I)
The past week was not a good one for President Donald Trump.
The number of COVID-19 deaths passed 150,000. Nine states set one-day records for COVID-19 cases. Eleven set single-day records for deaths. Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain died of the coronavirus not long after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
There was more.
Donald Trump Jr. was temporarily restricted on Twitter after posting a video — a video that Trump retweeted — of a doctor who said masks are unnecessary and that hydroxychloroquine is a cure and that diseases are caused by sex with demons. And the second-quarter economic report was awful. (All this laid out in an opening monologue by Chuck Todd on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”)
Normally, any one of those stories would be the headline of the week, if not the month. But all those stories happened in a span of days. One story bled into the next, a new controversy overshadowing the last one.
And yet none of them was the biggest Trump-related story of the week.
The major news story was Trump asking in a tweet if the election should be delayed because of problems with mail-in voting. Some say Trump was merely trolling the media. Others believe it was to distract Americans from all the horrible news mentioned above. Others think it was just another attempt to delegitimize the election. Or maybe he was actually serious.
On CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” host Brian Stelter compared Trump’s comments about the election to Trump driving a car.
“Either he wants to go off-roading, or he wants the car all to himself, or he doesn’t know where he’s going,” Stelter said. “Something’s going on with the driver. He’s trying to crash the car, but all of us are along for the ride.”
Whatever the reason behind the tweet, was it a smart strategy? No, according to much of the conversation on the Sunday shows.
Todd said, “President Trump made the most un-American and un-democratic of suggestions: proposing to delay the election, insisting again — without evidence — that mail-in voting will result in a fraudulent election. Mr. Trump's delay-the-election gambit had the scent of a president who was seeking a distraction from the terrible economic news, a president whose desperation makes him even more unpredictable. … In short, a president who expects to lose. Ultimately, Mr. Trump increasingly looks like a man who believes that the more the virus spins out of control, the more his presidency does, too.”
And on ABC’s “This Week,” Axios Jonathan Swan called it a “puzzling effort” and “potentially self-defeating.”
Swan said, “Who do you think are the people who are going to be persuaded by the president saying mail-in voting is a fraud, it’s completely illegitimate? It’s not gonna be Democratic voters. They don’t listen to him. They tune him out. They believe everything he says is false. It’s Republican voters.”
Swan added Republicans are noted for their “incredibly effective mail-in voting program.” Swan pointed out that many Republican voters — seniors, especially — rely on mail-in voting, and now Trump is telling them not to trust it.
Swan said, “The Republican party better hope for nice weather on election day or a diminished virus. They could see this really backfire.”
Swan added that based on his reporting, he believes Trump’s purpose is to say the election was stolen if he ends up losing in November. Swan warns that there could be a scenario in which Trump takes an early lead in the election because Republicans vote in-person but then his lead would slip away as mail-in votes are tabulated. At that point, Trump could claim, “See, I told you mail-in voting was rigged” and then fight the results in court.
“I think that’s where this is heading,” Swan said.
By the way, Swan’s much-anticipated interview with Trump is scheduled to air tonight on HBO at 11 p.m. Eastern. (Technically, 11:06 p.m.) Early word is Swan did a superb job.
Closed to the press?
Donald Trump introduces
his wife Melania Trump during the first day of the 2016 Republican National
Convention in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
So is the Republican National Convention going to be closed to the press? It looks that way. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Frank E. Lockwood originally broke the story, reporting that the events scheduled for Aug. 21-24 in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be closed to the media. A GOP spokesperson told Lockwood in a statement, “We are happy to let you know if this changes, but we are working within the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events.”
But then Republican National Convention communications director Michael Ahrens told CNN, “No final decision has been made and we are still working through logistics and press coverage options. We are working with the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events.”
If the press is banned, it would be the first time in the history of Republican National Conventions.
Is this a big deal?
Associated Press White House reporter Zeke Miller, who is president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, tweeted, “This is an ill-advised decision that the @GOP @GOPconvention should reconsider. The nomination of a major party presidential candidate is very much the business of the American people. @whca”
On one hand, Trump is not expected to give a big acceptance speech in Charlotte. Reports are that he’ll merely go to thank delegates privately and make a big speech at a later time. In addition, many of the state delegations are expected to stay home because of the coronavirus. With no real pomp and circumstance and balloons, there really might not be anything much to cover. And a lot of news outlets likely wouldn’t send anyone anyway because of the coronavirus.
But I get the complaint: Any press restrictions are troubling, and this would set a potentially dangerous precedent if the press is banned from whatever festivities there are.
The Democrats are expected to hold their convention Aug. 17-20 in Milwaukee. Like the Republicans, it will be a much scaled-back event. For now, media will be allowed, however not as many inside the convention hall as there would be in normal times, according to the DNC website.
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CAREERS: The news comes days after board member Mark Lennon resigned, and a week after a number of allegations regarding icare and its workers’ compensation scheme were aired. |
