Remarkable finding in new Marist poll: By 68-32, voters say they're more concerned about a president who doesn't tell the truth than one who is too old to serve.
Maybe we should cover Trump's lying as a sign of his unfitness for the presidency. 1/
The new Marist poll also finds that 56 percent say Trump lacks the character to be president.
Dishonesty is surely part of that. WaPo found that Trump told 30,000 lies/distortions as president. @ddale8 described his lies at the debate as "staggering." 2/
We keep hearing voter concern about age/mental unfitness is the reason the media relentlessly focuses on it. That's fine, but voters are also concerned about *temperamental* unfitness and sheer dishonesty.
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rcbregman's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
Today @rcbregman posted a transcript of his Reith Lecture showing that the version that BBC aired removed the line about Trump's world-historical corruption.
BBC emailed me: "we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”
@rcbregman Trump is the most corrupt president in US history, and the openness of his corruption is an essential feature of it. It's extra bad that this comes as the Defense Department punishes Sen Mark Kelly for correctly warning against breaking illegal orders.
Remarkable: Rep Chrissy Houlahan, one of the Dems Trump called for executing, tells me her office literally filled out a Capitol Police threat report listing "the president" as the person making the threat.
One reason she and other Dems did the video about Trump's illegal orders is that they're hearing from inside the military and intel services of actual live fears that they're being given unlawful commands:
Trump's boat bombings in the Caribbean just got worse. An internal DOJ memo says the victims are waging war on the US, but per NYT, it extensively cites the WH's *own claims* to this effect as evidence!
The memo purportedly justifying these murders also contains a lengthy section that lays out arguments defending the actions of those carrying out the strikes. In short, it *preemptively* defends them from potential prosecution later.
Ever since the bombings began, a big Q has been: Do those carrying them out fear they're being given illegal orders? The official overseeing them recently resigned with no explanation, prompting Dems to ask if he'd concluded bombings are illegal. 3/
This has gotten lost: Abigail Spanberger won big after vowing to RESCIND Glenn Youngkin's executive order directing local cooperation with ICE and voting AGAINST the anti-immigrant Laken Riley Act. Yet she gained bigly with working class.
Remember when Ruben Gallego preened around over his support for the Laken Riley Act, and pundits treated him as having the magic key to Dems' working class woes?
Well, Spanberger voted against it and erased GOP gains with working class and among Latinos:
Some Dems and pundits overread Trump's win. They looked at dissatisfaction with the border and discerned a seismic cultural reaction to immigration levels inside the country. The former was real. The latter is a mirage.
Remarkable: In Virginia and New Jersey, Spanberger and Sherrill erased the GOP edge among working class. Per exit polls, each got 50% of noncollege voters, big gains over previous contests.
Anti-Trump politics appeals to working class, too!
The results decisively refute need for false choice between "anti-Trump" and affordability. In exit polls, Spanberger and Sherrill both got 50% of noncollege voters, and both got *huge* majorities of nonwhite noncollege voters. Reverses Trump gains bigly:
Trump screws his voters again: He just denied disaster aid to Maryland (while giving it to red states). But I took a look. Turns out the ailing Maryland counties are in Appalachia and backed him by 40 and 54 points.
When Trump denied disaster aid to Maryland, he apparently thought he was punishing a blue state. But afflicted areas are Garrett and Allegany counties. Western MD is Appalachia. Those counties are deep in Trump country.
@stevebenen Those Maryland counties deserved this aid. The damage clearly qualified for federal assistance. Yet Trump denied Maryland (plus VT, IL) aid with no serious explanation (while giving it to MO, AK, NE, ND). We all know why.