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Greg Sargent Profile picture
@GregTSargent
Sep 5, 2024 • 8 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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It's a big deal that veteran journalist Mike Barnicle has now called out his media colleagues for failing to adequately cover Trump's visibly worsening mental state. It should spur a real discussion about how to do this, before it's too late. 1/

New piece
newrepublic.com/article/185622…
“We have a damaged, delusional, old man who might get reelected to the presidency," Mike Barnicle said on @Morning_Joe. He said the media doesn't really cover Trump's daily insanity as a window into his mental fitness for the presidency. This is right. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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Some in the media will reject this, claiming they do cover Trump's crazier claims. But this misses the point. His mental unfitness for the presidency is *itself* the big story. It merits sustained scrutiny as a topic with its own intrinsic importance. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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You can find some examples of reporting on Trump's mental state. But it's not remotely adequate. A lot of stuff gets overlooked entirely. Trump's deranged claims about gender at Moms for Liberty event were not adequately covered, as @mtomasky noted. 4/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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As @jbouie notes, the whole premise of Biden age coverage was that his mental capacity for the job is a matter of national importance. Why not apply this to Trump's addled incoherence, lack of curiosity, serial lying, and sadistic verbal abuses? 5/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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To imagine what real coverage of Trump's mental unfitness might look like, I took 10 real Biden age headlines and rewrote them around Trump's unfitness for the presidency.

Read them below; the effect is striking. Why don't we see saturation like this? 6/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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Those are real headlines about Biden's age at top news orgs, reimagined as heds about Trump's mental unfitness for the job. We should treat those Trump traits and the politics around them as *themselves* being the news.

Link to full argument below. END

newrepublic.com/article/185622…
Related, important point from @JRubinBlogger: Inadequate scrutiny of Trump's mental unfitness ends up insulating Republicans more broadly from hard questions about their continued enthusiastic support for him. Also citing @JeffreyGoldberg

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/…

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More from @GregTSargent

Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 25
Awful news --> Delivery of therapeutic food assistance to nearly 400,000 severely malnourished kids is suddenly in doubt due to Trump-Musk firings at USAID, two manufacturers of the product tell me.

"Starving children are waiting," one says.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/191935…
The product is called Ready to Use Therapeutic Food. It's a paste made mostly of peanuts, milk, and sugar, designed for children to ingest if they're on the edge of starving to death.

It's made in two US factories, one in Georgia, the other in RI.

newrepublic.com/article/191935…Image
Both companies have contracts w/USAID, and have enough raw materials piled up in their warehouses to make this paste for 360,000 children.

But latest USAID firings crippled payment system and removed people overseeing contracts. So they're now in limbo.

newrepublic.com/article/191935…Image
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Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 22
Remarkable: Trump's own pollster just found that in swing House districts, Dems lead by 5 points and voters want tax policy to prioritize working people, per Politico.

Yet GOP is about to slash the safety net and give the rich huge tax cuts!

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/191841…
Trump's pollster found that in 18 swing House districts, 68% are unhappy about their financial situation. Majorities want ACA's expanded subsidies to continue and oppose corporate tax cuts.

Swing voters want the opposite of what Trump/Rs are set to do.

newrepublic.com/article/191841…Image
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Next week, House Republicans will vote on a blueprint that could lead to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts, big cuts to spending on food stamps, and more big tax cuts for rich/corporations.

Trump's own pollster finds broad opposition to these priorities.

newrepublic.com/article/191841…Image
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Read 7 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 19
Scoop --> Trump-Musk cuts just resulted in the firing of numerous top researchers at NIH's center for combating Alzheimer's, sources tell me. They predict big setbacks to fighting dementias.

This cause was once championed by *Republicans.*

Details here:
newrepublic.com/article/191702…
These firings just hit the Roy Blunt Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias. Yes, you read that right. It's named after a GOP Senator.

Yesterday afternoon employees were informed of layoffs, including its highly-regarded incoming director. Details:

newrepublic.com/article/191702…Image
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Republicans like Roy Blunt, Tom Cole, and Susan Collins have all powerfully championed public spending to combat Alzheimer's. NIH's center on this is named after Roy Blunt. Cole spoke at its opening.

Will any Rs step up and voice these sentiments now?

newrepublic.com/article/191702…Image
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Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 15
Awful: Internal USAID memo instructs employees to refrain from talking to the media about cuts in aid to the most vulnerable or they may get fired, WaPo reports.

Trumpworld knows this is a big political problem for them. Keep the focus on it.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/191578…
Given this memo ordering USAID employees not to talk to the press, also recall that Trump fired USAID's IG for revealing that the freezes put $500 million in food aid at risk of spoiling.

Dem strategists warning against talking about this are wrong.

newrepublic.com/article/191578…Image
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Trumpworld seems split on what they can get away with. For Tom Homan to "joke" on national TV about prosecuting Eric Adams if he displeases Trump on immigration while Fox sycophants giggle is someone who thinks he can get away with anything.

newrepublic.com/article/191578…Image
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Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 8
In December, NYT revealed that Elon Musk and SpaceX were failing to meet govt reporting protocol designed to protect state secrets while they haul in billions in Pentagon contracts.

This triggered three reviews, per NYT. One was from the Defense Department inspector general. 1/
It's time to ask: What's going on with those reviews into Musk/SpaceX's failure to meet basic reporting protocol linked to their billions in Pentagon contracts?

Dems tell me they fear these investigations might get killed under Trump. 2/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/191330…
When Trump fired all those inspector generals, one of them was the IG for the Defense Department. He was examining whether Musk/ SpaceX were failing to meet reporting protocol to safeguard state secrets as huge beneficiaries of Pentagon contracts. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/191330…Image
Read 9 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 6
It gets worse: Trump's Treasury Dept has a new letter spinning Musk's access to payment data as a mere "audit" that expands on work done during Biden admin. It's a sham. The letter simply ignores the biggest Qs about this scandal.

New piece from me:
newrepublic.com/article/191191…
For instance, if Musk's access expands on a review started under Biden, why did Treasury Sec Bessent allow a member of DOGE to oversee it, rather than a career official?

Plus, Sen Wyden tells me former officials are unaware of any previous audit:

newrepublic.com/article/191191…Image
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The most senior career official at Treasury was purged after protesting the access that DOGE officials had secured. Why would that have happened if this were an innocent expansion of a previous process?

And here are some other unanswered questions:

newrepublic.com/article/191191…Image
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Read 5 tweets

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