Harris campaign has a memo out tonight addressing the issue of Trumps flip flops we’ve been discussing today. On one level it’s comparing the hyper focus on Harris compared to the general oh that’s just Trump attitude most reporters are taking with a Trump.
2/ But the part that is interesting, other than saying what everyone else is, is this: Trump has a record on abortion, weed, ivf, etc. There’s what he did when he was actually president. Judges he appointed, policies he enacted etc etc. There are the positions he took as …
3/ of a month ago. The point is that a lot of reporters are acting like Trump is a new candidate, figuring out what his positions are going to be. But it’s not just that he already has positions on abortion, weed, ivf, etc etc. He’s already been president. He’s already done …
4/ things. You and I can have positions. He has ACTIONS. In fact to a great extent the whole range of policy questions are based on things HE DID. Just to state the obvious we’re only discussing abortion bans because he promised to appoint justices he would overturn Roe and …
5/ he did and now there’s no right to an abortion. IVF is under threat because he appointed judges who support the radical doctrine of “fetal personhood.” The whole thing is like a nationwide, grotesque and comic version of the hot dog suit guy meme. Who did this? Well, Trump …
6/ did. Which he’s actually happy to say in the off moments when he’s not “searching for a position” on abortion. Good lord. Obviously the Harris campaign is trying to shame reporters into applying something like a single standard to these things. And that makes …
7/ sense for a campaign to do. But just as political observers the whole spectacle of Trumps daily changing positions is quite stunning. It’s not simply that none of the standards applied to other candidates are applied to him. He’s treated like he can whip up positions …
8/ de novo when in fact the whole policy terrain on all these repro rights issues are defined by things he did. So if he’s actually reconsidering what he thinks about abortion (which obviously he’s not) maybe he should be asked why he overturned Roe in the first place.
9/ Or if he’s now decided that every American woman is entitled to her own government funded test tube baby why did he appoint so many judges who believe in the weirdo doctrine that would make IVF illegal? The real answer to this, I think, is that media coverage of Trump …
10/ is defined by two frameworks that are in some agree of tension. First political reporters try to retrofit policies out of the random mishmash of words he bunches together, sane-washing I think Aaron Rupar calls it. But at the same time no reporters apply these basic …
11/ standard questions to him — why did you change your position, if you’re saying you’re going to fix the problem, shouldn’t you answer for causing it in the first place — because it’s treated as obvious that nothing Trump says means anything so pointing out contractions …
12/ is like trying to fact check a battle rap. It’s pointless and misunderstands the genre. The genre in Trumps case being bullshit.
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This 'debate' with Patrick is silly. This isn't some after the fact issue of what he or I think makes sense. The DOD & Arlington have clear rules about military cemetery's and political events. They based on federal law. The rules are clear. They're there for a reason.
2/ Trump ignored them. They even had to assault a cemetery employee to get their way. Don't show me a picture of Obama at Arlington when he was president and pretend that means jack shit. It's not complicated. You shldnt hold campaign events at a military cemetery.
3/ It doesn't matter if a couple families say they're fine with it. It's wrong and you shouldn't do it. And you shouldn't ignore laws and rules because you don't feel like it. THat's the core issue with Trump and really the most important part of this whole story.
It is fascinating how most reporters are treating Trumps almost daily change in position on abortion and repro rights. He’s “searching for a position”? In English we usually call that “not having a position” or actually “trying to fool people into believing whatever he …
2/ thinks on a given day will get him elected.” We’ve developed this whole rhetoric about “flip flopping” when in the real word people actually do change their minds about things. People who’ve never shifted their position on anything don’t have some lock …
3/ on trustworthiness or other good qualities. But what we’re seeing from Trump is a pretty transparent effort to lie to people to evade the consequences of a pretty clear record on the issue which he clearly wants to evade responsibility for. I mean there are lots of…
I’ve seen a number of people say well the article itself is better. And it has a different headline. These points are both true. But this gets at something very basic about the current political news ecosystem. The tweet headline is actually more important than the article …
2/ headline or even the article itself. That may sound like an audacious claim. But it’s true in the sense of the impact of evolving news conversations. This isn’t just an impression. This is based on being a political news publisher for almost 25 years and having watched …
3/ the evolving strategies of news distribution from before the dawn of social media, through the social news heyday and now in the current era when social is still key for news organizations but has mostly cut off traffic to publishers. The vast majority of people will only …
It's really important to note that while the Arlington assault story has gotten some limited pick up in the elite press coverage of the incident in the Times, Post, Journal etc has been limited and servile at best. Assaulting a federal employee in the performance of their ...
2/ duties is a felony (18 USC 111). Who were the two Trump staffers who assaulted this woman? That's a totally knowable detail. What is the justification for two high level Trump campaign officials claiming he is mentally ill and should be fired from her job? Where are the ...
3/ think pieces noting how this fits into a pattern of the Trump political operation routinely breaking the law and resorting to violence to do so? Why did the Speaker of the House directly intervene to overrule Arlington National Cemetery staff trying to enforce the ...
Let's remember that right out of the gate Trump spokesman Stephen Cheung said the campaign had video of the incident and were prepared to release it. "We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made." Then they went silent about the video.
2/ He also made this bizarre claim. "The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode ...
3/ decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony." So he tried to make it like the Arlington National Cemetery employee trying to prevent them from violating the law was some random person having some kind of "mental health episode."
The basic concept is simple. In an extraordinrary crisis the VP is the logical and expected person to take over from the President. That's literally what they're there for. The constitution obvs doesn't speak to the succession of a nomination. But the principle is deeply ...
2/ embedded in American political culture, at least as the default assumption. What happened after the late June debate was just such an extraordinary crisis for the Democratic political coalition, one in which no legitimate recanvassing of the primary process could take...
3/ place. So when Biden stepped aside Harris was the logical, expected and basically inevitable replacement. that reality was rapidly confirmed by a vast cross section of Democratic activists, voters, small donors, and elected officials. Biden added his own legitimacy and ...