For Biden and Trump, A Tale of Two Weeks
Joe Biden Once Again Shows That Competence and Decency Trump…Trump
Author’s Note: I posted this a few hours before Kevin McCarthy was the first Speaker of the House in US history to lose his position. Referenced and linked below. Thx. Reed.
In a parallel universe, the last week in American politics would seem ludicrous. The distinctions between President Joe Biden and his General Election opponent, P01135809 have always been stark. Each man spoke publicly, and again reminded us not only they who are, what their parties represent, but the choice that faces us next year.
Standing before an array of American flags in Tempe, Arizona last week, President Biden announced the creation of the John S. McCain Library at Arizona State University. Introduced by Cindy McCain, Biden was an American president.
He reminded us about his decades-long friendship with McCain and the late senator’s service and sacrifice. “John is one of those patriots – when they die, their voices are never silent. They still speak to us. They tug at both our hearts and our conscience.”
America’s place in the world, and the need for a moral and muscular foreign policy were top of mind. As he has previously, Biden highlighted and illustrated the danger of the manifold threats our democracy faces.
Even eight years into the Trumposcene Era, it is astonishing that the leader of the free world tens of millions of his fellow citizens about the specter of authoritarianism. If there was ever a need for a national Moonstruck Moment, this is it.
In his ProPublica interview with the inimitable John Harwood, Biden distilled the stakes: “I think Trump has concluded that he has to win,” Biden said, noting the rising vitriol in the embattled former president’s rhetoric. “And they’ll pull out all the stops.”
Right on cue, Donald Trump spoke to the California Republican Party’s convention. (Note: When we look back, I believe we’ll see the CAGOP as Patient 0 of MAGA Republicanism but that’s another column.) The light and gentle heat of Biden’s Arizona speech was in stark contrast to Trump’s rambling, angry, NSFW screed.
Trump told the crowd that 2020 was stolen. Applause. That shoplifters should be subject to extrajudicial capital punishment. Wild cheers. Violence (and dehumanizing his opponents,) always a favorite tool of Trump’s is now a standard, escalating feature of his rhetoric.
Last weekend, President Biden was at the White House watching [former] Speaker Kevin McCarthy go crawling to Congressional Democrats to achieve a short-term (45 day) Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government operating. Before midnight on Saturday, Biden signed the bill, sparing millions of Americans from disruption in services and the military from foregoing paychecks.
We must not forget, though, that Trump demanded McCarthy and the MAGA Republicans shut the government down. On some principle, say government spending?
Ha! No.
Trump demanded a shuttered Federal government to short-circuit the pending criminal indictments against him. In his fever-dream logic, if Jack Smith doesn’t get paid, his trials for stealing classified documents and trying to overthrow a free and fair election would somehow disappear.
It almost worked.
Because he hadn’t had a bad enough 96 hours, yesterday Trump had to sit in a New York courtroom as the defendant in his fraud case. The image of him behind the defense table will launch 10,000,000 ads next year. We should get used to that image, he’ll be there most of the next year, too.
Because he has the best legal team he can find, they forgot to ask for a jury trial leaving Trump’s business in the hands of a judge who he’s insulted, threatened, and impugned on a constant basis (and who has now issued a gag order.)
His courthouse press conferences, unhinged as they are, are going to give his 2020 Covid briefings a run for their money. Though I don’t believe that any legal sanction, including criminal conviction, will keep Trump from the Republican nomination nor next year’s General Election, I do see a scenario in which millions of voters say, “Enough is enough. I just don’t want to see or hear the guy anymore.”
Last week at an event, I spoke to an attorney who’d previously tried RICO cases. He gave me great insight: Just like a mob boss watching his capos and button men turn state’s evidence, Trump will have to sit there (and control himself) as dozens of people he’s elevated, enriched, and empowered, point at him and say, “Yes, Donald Trump told me to do that.”
Do you think he can hold it together? Neither do I.
Hal Holbrook has one of the great lines of American cinema: “The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.” Trump and Co. are not the brightest nor savviest of characters, but their willingness to use blunt force, politically, governmentally, metaphorically, and literally, can give them the appearance of an advantage.
Don’t believe it. Violence is the last resort of the terrorist. It is the route taken when a movement, or a political party, know their beliefs are unpopular and society is evolving away from them. The handmaiden of violence, fear, only works when we allow it to occupy our thoughts, cloud our vision, and make us question our beliefs.
When President Joe Biden is speaking about the nature of our fight, the fight for American democracy, I’m reminded of another great American president, Abraham Lincoln. Closing his speech at the, Lincoln said, “Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.”
Amen, Mr. President.
New Feature! If you interesting bits to share, do send them along.
Little Birds Sing:
1. On a call this week, I was told that No Labels, the outfit attempting to qualify a third party next year to help Trump get back to the White House, is trying to offer the VP spot on its ‘unity ticket’ to former Arizona Governor and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Good luck with that, Nancy.
2. In a column last week, I noted that Trump is refusing to appear on a debate stage with either Chris Christie or his former VP, Mike Pence. The little birds tell me that Trump campaign honchos Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita are frantic at the idea of Trump standing at a debate with any of the other candidates. This tracks, given their statement demanding the RNC cancel next month’s GOP debate in Miami.