It's a refrain I hear often & attempt to debunk regularly.
CNN's Kaitlyn Collins was assigned to the front row in yesterday's W. H. Press Briefing. She regularly embarrasses Trump. Usually by just asking him about things he's said.
1/
Trump did not want CNN in the front row. He tried to have Mrs. Collins moved to the back. She asks tough questions & likely had a few lined up about injecting bleach.
Due to the rules inside the WH Press Room, the WH doesn't control what press is present or where they sit.
2/
Both Collins and the reporter who was told by the WH to switch seats refused to do so.
At this point, based on multiple reports, the Secret Service was invoked to attempt to get Mrs. Collins to move to the back.
3/
The Secret Service refused. Collins kept her front row seat. Trump spoke for a much shorter than usual 25 mins or so. Then he left without taking questions & subsequently tweeted that the briefings are pointless because the news asks hostile questions and gets big ratings but
4/
...America gets nothing but fake news
He tried to exert his authority to embarrass a female reporter. A simple rule prevented him from doing so. The secret service refused to get involved in his lunacy. He cut his briefing short and left in a huff, retreating to Twitter...
5/
...to attempt to reframe his powerlessness as victimhood, his pettiness as justice, and his cowardice as strength.
He closed his remarkably obtuse & self-absorbed tweet with "Not worth the time & effort!" His justification for the proclaimed abandonment of his own...
6/
...government-funded daily campaign events, which negatively impact his polls and constantly expose his weaknesses. A political gift of a must-run crisis management communication platform irreparably damaged by nothing other than his own words and opinions.
7/
This is exactly what he will do when he is beaten, powerless, ashamed, and afraid come January 2021.
Give up and complain to the world about it until he believes we believe it was his choice.
8/
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
- Hanlon's Razor
When you use a loaded weapon to intimidate, you are the threat.
Liberty comes with responsibility.
Those who fail to recognize that, who abuse their freedom to frighten and demand to be recognized through force and fear rather than reason and persuasion...
1/
...are more responsible for advancing the suppression of liberty than any activist or politician.
A responsible gun owner who uses a weapon to protect others and save lives is to be celebrated for their bravery and instinct.
2/
Lives saved by those who recognize the gravity and responsibility attached to their freedom are the single greatest argument in defense of gun rights.
3/
There has now been a recession in the first term of every single Republican president for the past 111 years.
In the past 73 years, there have been 11 "official" recessions, including 49 recessionary quarters.
41 of those quarters occurred under Republican presidents.
1/
This year, the cumulative budget deficit since Trump took office is expected to surpass $5 trillion. Greater than any 4 year period in U.S. history.
2/
Almost half of the benefits of Trump's tax cuts and programs have gone to the wealthiest 5%, while the number of corporations paying $0 in taxes has doubled.
3/
The only thing more amazing than how often Larry Kudlow's predictions are dead wrong is that he keeps making them.
March 1993: Clinton's taxes will ruin the economy. (90's economic boom)
1/
February 2000: Things will pick up again. Not even Greenspan can stop this internet economy. (Internet bubble burst)
June 2002: War will elevate the stock market by 2000 points. (Down 1000 over next year)
December 2007: There's no recession coming. (There was)
2/
April 2008: Recessions are therapeutic. There's no credit crunch. It's very good. (It wasn't)
July 2008: The housing market is healthier than ever. (Nope. Collapsed within weeks)
3/
368 male Covid-19 patients were included in a nationwide study by the VA.
97 received Hydroxychloroquine.
113 received Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin.
158 received neither.
How many died?
Neither drug: 11.4%
Both drugs: 22%
Hydroxychloroquine only: 27%
1/
So the mortality rate among those taking the drugs that Trump has repeatedly recommended, and that Fox News and GOP pundits and Twitter idols have touted endlessly, is about double the mortality rate without them.
2/
At Trump's direction, U.S. government agencies have now purchased at least 30 million doses of a drug that doubles your chance of death. Using your tax dollars.
3/
I'm seeing a lot of casual jokes about people dying. You've seen them. The morbid one-liners, the R vs. D prediction commentaries and link shares, the strangers' obituaries as a political bullet point.
1/
It's so easy to share these. I don't doubt I've posted some frustrated comment or stupid joke that meets this exact criteria.
Usually, it's unnamed people in general, on the opposite side of the political spectrum, dying in these snapshots.
2/
Sometimes it's a real person we've never heard of, with a family, friends, and neighbors, and a sudden afterlife legacy of being the 'proof of concept' the "other side" passes around like a trophy.
3/
The Truth:
U.S. exports of masks *to* China rose from $1.4 million in Jan/Feb last year, to $17.6 million in Jan/Feb of this year. Roughly 35 million masks were sold to China.
That's a retail price of about $0.50 per mask.
1/
Earlier this month, the U.S. Government placed over $110 million in mask orders - with just four companies who haven't held prior government contracts, and don't manufacture masks. These orders were for a total of just under 19 million masks.
2/
That's a retail price of more than $5.75 per mask.
So our world's greatest deal maker "America first" president blames Obama for leaving the stockpile empty.
3/