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29 Nov, 8 tweets, 3 min read
I spent the last four years covering Donald Trump’s presidency while also writing history. Here, in the ⁦@nytimes⁩, is one thing I learned. nytimes.com/2020/11/29/opi…
Andrew Jackson “was followed by eight presidents who served in his shadow... none of whom went on to a second term. History does not linger long on most of them... In the same way, Mr. Trump’s place in history may be overshadowed by Mr. Obama’s.”
“It is astonishing to recall how much Mr. Trump devoted his term to re-fighting the battles of the Obama years.” Yet “he neither erased all of President Obama’s accomplishments nor completed his own,” and on Jan. 20 he will be replaced by Obama’s vice president.
Some presidents “are known for their failures...Harding for a scandal, Hoover for economic calamity, Andrew Johnson for being impeached.” Trump’s term “featured scandal, impeachment and calamity, as well as a pandemic” as he reacted to “game-changing president.” @nytopinion
“The epic conflicts he generated seem perfect for future history classes. It is easy to imagine a high school history book recounting the court fight over his effort to ban Muslims from entering the United States, followed by discussion on religious freedom and the Constitution.”
“It was revealing that he publicly supported the most popular benefits of the health insurance law that he said he despised, such as protections for pre-existing conditions. His predecessor defined what health insurance should cover, and Mr. Trump accepted the definition.”
One footnote: the op-ed includes the sentence, “In my life I have met just one enthusiast for Chester A. Arthur.”
Several Arthur enthusiasts have been reaching out to be sure I know more than one. c: @LisaDNews
And this is the book that @JoeNBC kindly mentioned on the air--about Jessie and John Fremont, who were arguably more famous than most of the presidents of their time. nytimes.com/2020/01/14/boo…

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More from @NPRinskeep

Steve Inskeep Profile picture
1 Dec
DHS official @C_C_Krebs, fired for accurately saying the election was secure: “What we saw was […] what has kind of become known as a ‘perception hack,’ where an adversary could claim that the system was compromised.” That was the “biggest risk.” It came from a domestic source.
Krebs is one of a number of Republican officials at the federal, state and local levels who insisted on responding to facts within the law. He lost his job; others have been targets of scorn and threats.
On @MorningEdition Krebs: “Continuing to push narratives that call into question, without evidence that I've seen,” the secure election, is “not just damaging to the psyche of the American voter, but... doing a serious disservice to the many election officials out there.” @NPR
Read 5 tweets
Steve Inskeep Profile picture
27 Nov
News: The apparent head of Iran’s nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has been assassinated, @NPR confirms. It's unclear how he was attacked outside Tehran.
Colleague @nprnishant notes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Fakhrizadeh in the past.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” he said on April 30, 2018, when announcing that Israel's Mossad had stolen documents from Iran about its covert nuclear activities.
At this early moment, the one source for this story is Iran's government: the defense ministry, official news agencies. Descriptions of "terrorists bombing a car before shooting at Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s car” will be hard to independently verify. True of many breaking stories.
Read 6 tweets
Steve Inskeep Profile picture
24 Nov
The death of David Dinkins, NYC's first Black mayor, at 93, brings to mind the years when he was elected. The 1980's in NYC. There was a combustible mix of race, demographic change and crime. And the time offered startling links to our moment. npr.org/2020/11/24/938…
NYC was becoming a "majority-minority" city, as the US is now. Crime was up. People had extreme responses. A white man, Bernie Goetz, shot several Black men on the subway. Police arrested five Black youths for a sexual assault in Central Park. The suspects were innocent.
A real estate developer, Donald Trump, grabbed attention with an ad demanding the death penalty for the Central Park 5. Long afterward, when they were exonerated, he said he still wanted them dead.
Read 11 tweets
Steve Inskeep Profile picture
16 Nov
In his book, @BarackObama says the single event that lost him the most white support was commenting on the arrest of Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates as He tried to enter his own house. Why would that be? Remarkable passage from his talk with @NPRMichel. npr.org/2020/11/16/934…
More Obama: "I think the reason that I don't plunge into despair [is] I tend to take a long view... I was 6 years old when the Supreme Court determined that it was unconstitutional for states to say that my parents couldn't marry... it wasn't that long ago."
"When I look at my lifetime — and I'm gray [but] not ancient... and you think about the changes that took place... Not just me being elected president. Michel, you being on a national broadcast as a lead journalist. That just didn't happen. Now that's not considered exceptional."
Read 4 tweets
Steve Inskeep Profile picture
20 Oct
Dr. Francis Collins, head of NIH and member of coronavirus task force, tells @NPR the group haven't met the president "in quite some time." The president instead hears from two members who are not experts in infectious diseases: VP Pence and Dr. Scott Atlas. The quote follows.
"I think the president primarily is getting his information from the vice president, from Dr. Atlas. Obviously it's a bit of a chaotic time with the election...There's not a direct connection between the task force members and the president as there was a few months ago." @NPR
"This seems to be a different time with different priorities,” adds Dr. Collins on @MorningEdition. His National Institutes of Health is overseeing the testing of possible vaccines. Says four vaccines are in advanced testing; there is hope one will advance by the end of the year.
Read 6 tweets
Steve Inskeep Profile picture
12 Oct
"The Senate is doing its duty constitutionally," begins committee chairman Graham, who had publicly said on video that he would never try to confirm a justice in an election year, as he is now doing. "Our Democratic friends" will "have a chance to have their say."
Without mentioning his own prior commitments, Graham picks up on Mitch McConnell's argument that everything is different because the president is from his party.
"We've taken a different path at times - Bork, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh," Graham says. He urges Democrats not to attack Barrett the same way. "I think I know how the vote is going to come out," he says, predicting a fully partisan vote.
Read 56 tweets

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