“I was expecting to see clarity. And I’m just very disappointed by the behavior, the lack of really poignant speaking to the issues,” said Don Hensley, 50, who develops food products. He voted for Trump in 2016 but is uncertain now if he will even vote.
Trump called the coronavirus “a hoax,” said Kathy Hoover, a 51-year-old retired teacher who supports Biden. “...he didn’t tell what actually was going on because he was afraid of a panic. He didn’t give the American people enough credit to handle whatever panic came along.”
On Trump subsidies for farmers hit by Chinese counter tariffs—
“He’s buying them off,” said Carol Kriegel, whose husband used to run a farm. She declined to say whom she will vote for but said that many of her friends and relatives support Trump.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Trump's reliance on patronage, and the conditioning of government funds on political benefit, is actually one of the clearest through-lines of his presidency.
Today, it's $13 mil for Puerto Rico, which he'd long denied more aid, to try and win Florida in 46 days:
But this is how he ran Trump Corp. and how he's approached the presidency, even from the transition period when he got IN to cough up $7m in tax breaks to save 1,000 jobs at Carrier.
The pattern was clear in 2017, when the FoxConn plant went to WI..
And it explains so much of what's happened since: the quid pro quo with Ukraine that sparked impeachment, the pandemic response, the indifference to the fires out west.
We've long known this, but just it's still striking just how much of this is all innate of one thing.
.@jonkarl, one of the "all-stars" Trump recognized at the outset today: "Why did you lie to the American people?"
Trump: "What a terrible question. I didn't lie..."
Karl: "You went out and told the American public this is just like the flu!"
@jonkarl Trump says his downplaying in March was "very simple...I want to show a level of confidence. I want to show strength as a leader. And I want to show that our country is going to be fine one way or the other..
"There was no lie here. We're leading."
@jonkarl Trump, now with the death toll nearing 200K, schools virtual and football fan-free:
"We’re rounding the final turn...we have done a phenomenal job."
Trump: "You just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence that we've seen in Portland, here and in other cities."
Reporter follows up: "Mr. Blake was shot seven times in the back."
"People are calling for structural change," Trump responds, but then says people who aren't out marching "want change also, they want law and order, that's what they want.
"They're protesters too but you don't see them walking down the street."