Here's something I want to know abt CNN Trump bonanza: Who decided @kaitlancollins would do it? Did Trump demand it? Or did CNN think the optics of Trump bullying their beautiful lead female anchor for an hour would be good for the brand?
Also, is it true that @ChrisLichtCNN did prep with Collins, rather than actual news producers?
If so, the willful optics of this--setting Trump up to deliver a very gendered bullying as surrogate for "news"--is all the more troubling.
This is not a dig on Collins. @jaketapper would have done no better at disrupting Trump's gaslighting.
But the optics would have been different, bc it would not have been a symbolic domination of a beautiful woman in lieu of news or truth.
One problem with coverage of Trump is many reporters covering him are so giddy for the access they don't realize that Trump will NEVER be about truth -- you will only ever be a participant in his reality show -- but is instead about staging power relations.
And the power relation of being ABOVE truth, of being able to bully journalists, has always been utterly central to Trump's brand. Making that gendered, as Licht chose to do, is all the more valuable for Trump bc there's something sexualized about his power.
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I feel like the media is making a grave category error with Trump and the Town Hall.
Yes, he lied non-stop. But fact-checking, while necessary, is insufficient, because Trump's power depends on his performed ability to defy truth.
It is senseless to talk about Trump in terms of "policy" -- unless, by policy, you mean authoritarianism built off policed loyalty and gleeful abuse of vulnerable people.
It is senseless to raise Trump's specific legal woes. The stakes of this election are his goal--significantly pursued in his first Admin--of replacing rule of law with mob enforcement.
@Jim_Jordan Among other things this "report" does is provide proof that those who signed the letter believed what they wrote--that the "laptop" had the hallmarks of a RU info operation.
Jordan has, in fact, proved the letter was TRUE.
@Jim_Jordan Jordan also provided proof that the former spooks took care to distinguish between info op and false -- again, proving that many claims Jordan and others have made were false.
Is Jordan so dumb he doesn't realize he has proven himself wrong?
Here's a question @CNN should ask Trump: So are you glad that your penis is so small that E Jean Carroll couldn't see whether you had penetrated her, thereby dodging the rape charge?
@CNN "Do you think you were saved from a rape verdict by the fact that your penis is so small?"
"Is that why you're so obsessed with Hunter Biden's dick pics?"
@CNN "How does Melania feel about the fact that your settlements with various sex partners and victims will now break 6 digits?"
I feel like a lot of commentary about the Tucker Carlson text is missing important context. Many don't even mention that Tucker sent it the day after Trump's coup attempt (NYT did, Erik Wemple here did not).
Fewer still are noting that "video of people fighting on the street in Washington" from a few weeks before the January 6 attack is highly likely to be from the December MAGA March, and therefore that the fight in question is one of the ones featuring the Proud Boys.
This one, for example, featured prominently in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial.