If Trump so casually revealed all of this to Woodward, you know he was saying the same things to people in his circle.

He probably saw no reason to hide his view that it was better to keep the masses from panicking so that the stock market wouldn't crash.
washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-w…
My followers also knew.

I went back and checked: On Feb. 27, @mcjulie asked me if I thought Sadopopulism was at work, or if the Trump-FOX-GOP wanted a serious pandemic.

(To be fair, I have the smartest followers on Twitter)

Here's the thread I wrote answering her question ⤵️

In a nutshell, I argued that Trump was downplaying it because he had no idea how to manage a real crisis.

He only knew how to stage manufactured crises and pretend to be the strongman.
The part none of us knew was that on Jan. 28, in a top-secret intelligence briefing, Trump was warned that the virus would be a health emergency “on par with the flu pandemic of 1911, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.”

washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-w…

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More from @Teri_Kanefield

11 Sep
I finished reading @petestrzok’s Compromised.

I highly recommend it, particularly for those who want an inside look at the FBI, an inside look at the Mueller investigation, and/or an introduction to law enforcement and counterintelligence (including the difference).

1/ Image
It’s also a chilling look at Trump’s vindictiveness and destructiveness.

It’s no surprise that a president who doesn’t care how many Americans die of a virus doesn’t care if he destroys the life of anyone who crosses him or seeks to expose the truth about him.

2/
This book is partly a defense against the unhinged right-wing attacks on the FBI.

Strzok never mentions the Fourth Amendment (the amendment protecting Americans from unreasonable searches, seizures, and surveillance) but he outlines the procedures the FBI follows.

3/ Image
Read 13 tweets
10 Sep
(Thread) Lordy, There Are Tapes

We learned that Bob Woodward has tapes of Trump admitting that he knew in Jan. that the world faced a health emergency on par with the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, and lied about it.

Mindy asked:
1/ I believe the answer is no.

First, recall the arguments made by the Fox-Trump-GOP for why we should do nothing–even after we knew the virus was deadly:
2/ They said we have a choice: People die from COVID, or we “kill the country”:

They said deaths from a shutdown could exceed the deaths from the virus.
bostonherald.com/2020/04/16/dea…
Read 22 tweets
8 Sep
(Thread) The Future of the GOP: Part IV

Part I begins here:

I left off showing how working to end voter suppression in California shrank the California Republicans down to about 30% of the electorate.
1/ The states most likely to follow CA’s lead share CA’s demographics. Looking at you, Texas.

CA’s white population is about 37%. In Texas, the white population is about 42%.

Aside: Turn Texas blue with its 38 electoral votes and you end the GOP’s electoral college advantage.
2/ States with a large number of non-whites are in the South and Southwest.

Red states in the South are really voter suppression states⤵️

Makes sense, right? Shrink a white nationalist party by working on the voter suppression problem and mobilizing minority communities.
Read 29 tweets
7 Sep
(Thread) The Future of the GOP: Part III

Part I begins here:

I left off my history with the period of relative harmony between the parties, from about 1920 until the 1950s.

Then on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education.
1/ Brown is one of the most important cases in U.S. history. It declared racial segregation in schools illegal and paved the way for racial equality.

Charles Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and their team worked for decades to overturn Plessy.
2/ I’ll cite my own book as a source. Why not, right?

Brown v. Board also marked the end of the era of civility between the two parties.

Shortly after Brown v. Board was decided, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, sparking the modern civil rights movement.
Read 30 tweets
7 Sep
(Thread) The Future of the GOP, Part II

Part I is here⤵️

To have a sense of what might be in store for a white grievance party with a shrinking base, I think we need to see where we've been.

History offers possibilities and perspective.
So first, some history.
1/ The drafters of the Constitution imagined no political parties. Our two-party system developed under George Washington.

The first two parties were the Democratic-Republicans (Thomas Jefferson’s party) and Hamilton’s Federalists.

[Sources⤵️Also my Making of America series.]
2/ The Democratic-Republicans were mostly Southern and favored an agricultural economy.

They wanted a small federal government. They feared a strong central government would end slavery and infringe on individual liberty. (Yeah, I know. It’s a contradiction.)
Read 23 tweets
6 Sep
(Thread) The Future of the GOP: Part I

The GOP is on a collision course with time.

Its base of voters is aging and shrinking. The GOP has become a white grievance party fueled by fear-mongering right-wing media.

Meanwhile, the democratic coalition is expanding.
1/ These stats are from the census bureau (Screenshot #1)
census.gov/library/storie…

These stats are from Pew (Screenshot #2)

In 2018, young people had the largest increase in voter turnout.

The GOP sees this and knows that its medium and long-term prospects are poor.
2/ These stats are from Steven Levitsky’s lecture:

The GOP understands as soon as they lose power, inevitable legislative changes will make minority rule harder.

Hence, the desperation that leads to lawbreaking as they seek to solidify minority power.
Read 17 tweets

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