President Donald Trump skipped his daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday, tweeting later that it was "not worth the time and effort."Here is his tweet:
All along, Trump has been bleating about his "great ratings" and did so even here. The reporters weren't asking Trump questions when he started riffing about disinfectants and issued his Clorox Challenge, suggesting that doctors consider injecting disinfect into people's bodies (the medical term for that is "embalming"). Trump didn't suggest shining high-intensity UV light into people's bodies in response to any questions.
No, that was all on Trump. He's been glorying in his "briefings", claiming that they allow him to speak directly to the American people (the briefing are carried live on cable TV). Trump thought that the briefings were a good thing, until he said stuff that was so irredeemably stupid that even the hosts of Fox shows couldn't shrug it off.
Quite possibly, Trump realized that he had handed the Democrats the sort of footage that will fall neatly into attack ads that will portray Trump as being everything from mercurial to as dumb as a creosoted post.
But will Trump stay away? Don't bet on it. He's been watching Andy Cuomo's briefing and he'll start getting jealous. So he'll hold briefings again and as sure as the tides flow, Trump will say something almost as equally stupid. Because Trump can't not be Trump.
Noble prizes...and this is coming from a man who claims he doesn't drink.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for him with the briefings is that they lack the self-selection process of his rallies, where his bleach and UV claims wouldn't have been problematic, and might even have been applause lines.
ReplyDeleteLuckily for us the general public can still be made to recoil at pronouncements such as those from the president of the United States.
The question that I don't want to see answered is whether that would still be true after a second term.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Don't necessarily want to say it, but next is 'fireside chats'.
ReplyDeleteTrump being stupid won't lower any Republic Party members approval of him. In order to recognize a blatantly foolish and ignorant trump statement you first need to be a non-stupid person. And intelligent trumpites are rare. Kruger-Dunning means you are too dimwitted to accurately judge your own competence. This makes judging trump's
ReplyDeletemoronic statements impossible too. They just don't have the mental ability. The Republic Party has become stunningly stupid and ignorant as more moderates leave the party to be replaced by even more of the dimwitted. There is no hope for them. The GOP needs to vanish like the Whig party. The Democrats need a loyal opposition party, not this bunch of greedy, treasonous Russian puppets.
Fireside... My worry is what or who he might burn.
ReplyDeleteEck!