Friday Talking Points -- Darkness From The Washington Post
The Washington Post secured its entry into the annals of American political history by taking down a United States president. Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein famously uncovered the entire Watergate scandal, which caused Richard Nixon to resign in disgrace. Award-winning books and movies about the brave reporters followed, portraying them as giants in the world of journalism.
Ah... those were the days, eh?
Fast-forward a bit. A while back, billionaire Jeff Bezos bought the paper. They introduced a new slogan, which they still display right under their name in their banner: "Democracy Dies in Darkness." The implied message was that they were going to be the shining light of truth, fighting valiantly against the forces of darkness trying to overwhelm American democracy.
Today, that light went out. It was purposefully snuffed. The paper ignominiously declared it was not going to endorse a candidate in the upcoming presidential election, which is less than two weeks away. The owner of the paper, Jeff Bezos, made this decision on his own. It was not the publisher (a former employee of Rupert Murdoch), but Bezos himself, who is reportedly concerned about what would happen to all the sweet government contracts his various other businesses have if Donald Trump wins. Here's how the Post itself reported on the bombshell:
An endorsement of [Vice President Kamala] Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers but had yet to be published, according to two sources briefed on the sequence of events who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The decision to no longer publish presidential endorsements was made by The Post's owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. "This was a Washington Post decision to not endorse, and I would refer you to the publisher's statement in full," said Chief Communications Officer Kathy Baird.
"This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty. Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post's owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners)," former Post executive editor Martin Baron, who led the paper while Trump was president, said in a text message to The Post. "History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage."
Baron is right. This is a profile in cowardice, plain and simple. This is what comes from billionaires buying newspapers on a whim. Sooner or later, they just can't resist editorially mucking around with the paper's content. And it's even part of an overall plan, as the article goes on to explain:
Mr. Bezos has told others involved with The Post that he is interested in expanding The Post's audience among conservatives, according to a person familiar with the matter. He has appointed Mr. [Will] Lewis -- a chief executive who previously worked at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal -- and has informed Mr. Lewis that he wants more conservative writers on the opinion section, the person said.
It is a sad day in journalism. In fact, we are reminded of the quote: "The only thing that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
One of the opinion writers for the Post, in a fit of brutal honesty (earlier in the week), called out not only his own paper but the entire journalism world for how they have (mostly) all been covering the presidential election:
Something is wrong with this split-screen picture. On one side, former president Donald Trump rants about mass deportations and claims to have stopped "wars with France," after being described by his longest-serving White House chief of staff as a literal fascist. On the other side, commentators debate whether Vice President Kamala Harris performed well enough at a CNN town hall to "close the deal."
Seriously? Much of a double standard here?
Somehow, it is apparently baked into this campaign that Trump is allowed to talk and act like a complete lunatic while Harris has to be perfect in every way. I don't know the answer to the chicken-or-egg question -- whether media coverage is leading public perception or vice versa -- but the disparate treatment is glaring.
This week, it became simply ridiculous.
He then got specific:
Let's review: First, Harris was criticized for not doing enough interviews -- so she did multiple interviews, including with nontraditional media. She was criticized for not doing hostile interviews -- so she went toe to toe with Bret Baier of Fox News. She was criticized as being comfortable only at scripted rallies -- so she did unscripted events, such as the town hall on Wednesday. Along the way, she wiped the floor with Trump during their one televised debate.
Trump, meanwhile, stands before his MAGA crowds and spews nonstop lies, ominous threats, impossible promises and utter gibberish. His rhetoric is dismissed, or looked past, without first being interrogated.
Imagine if Harris were promising to end the war in Gaza on her first day in office but wouldn't say how. Imagine if she were proposing a tariffs-based economic plan that economists say would destabilize the world economy and cost the average family $4,000 a year in higher prices. Imagine if she were promising a "bloody" campaign to uproot and deport millions of undocumented migrants who are gainfully employed and paying taxes. And imagine if Harris were vowing to use the military to go after her political opponents, as Trump repeatedly pledges.
I guess the moral of this story is that Democrats have always been spectacularly bad at "working the refs." Republicans perfected this tactic decades ago, denouncing the "liberal media" for putting their spin on everything. They would loudly and vociferously complain about nit-picky little things, and the newspapers and television networks would respond by attempting to also include the conservative viewpoint more often. Many even overcorrected and presented everything through the conservative lens first, while dismissing the Democratic arguments. This was all long before Trump starting calling every story he didn't personally like "fake news," mind you.
Democrats occasionally do try to push back, but most journalists have largely just thrown up their hands and resorted to "both-sides-ism," content to report: "Well, the Democrats say X, while the Republicans say Y," without ever testing the truth of either proposition. "Ah, but the Republicans insist that the sky is green, and who are we to disagree with their viewpoint? That's for the reader to decide." is mostly what you get nowadays.
In the era of Donald Trump, Republicans have completely gone off the deep end with this tactic. Consider if you will the fact that the two highest-ranking Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, just released a statement denouncing (are you sitting down?) the "irresponsible rhetoric" from Kamala Harris. Maybe they should rewrite all the dictionaries, because this is a whole new definition of the concept of "chutzpah." Here's the story:
Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Vice President Kamala Harris in a rare joint statement to tone down her rhetoric in the lead-up to Election Day, days after Harris said she considered Donald Trump a fascist.
The two top Republicans accused Harris of fanning "the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus" and said her words in recent days "seem to dare it to boil over."
"She must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions," Johnson and McConnell said in their statement. "We call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats."
Their statement does not mention Trump's recent rhetoric, in which he's referred to Harris as a "fascist," "marxist," "communist" and "comrade." The former president has also railed against "enemies within" and called for using government resources to prosecute domestic political opponents -- such as California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Republicans are beyond shame, at this point. Or self-reflection. Or sanity -- take your pick.
Meanwhile, the election rolls on into its final week. Both candidates are out their campaigning non-stop, although Donald Trump's team keeps cancelling his appearances at scheduled events.
Harris has been appearing with many famous supporters, in an effort to build enthusiasm in her base. Here's just a partial list, from the last week alone, of who has been stumping for her: Barack Obama, Lizzo, Usher, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry, James Taylor, Liz Cheney... and tonight she will be rallying in Houston with both Beyoncé and Willie Nelson. Tomorrow, Michelle Obama will make an appearance. That's a pretty star-studded list, you've got to admit (although we do wonder at the absence of Taylor Swift...).
Videos have been appearing as well, whether sanctioned by the Harris campaign or not. Julia Louis-Dreyfus put out a rather "not safe for work" ad about women's rights. It began with: "OK, let's cut to the chase. Donald Trump and his merry band of yes men are obsessed with what we women do with our bodies. They want to reach into our doctors' offices and our bedrooms to control our access to birth control and IVF and, of course, abortion -- even though they wouldn't know a uterus if they had to crawl out of one for a second time," although her closing statement was the one that made it truly hilarious. Pro wrestler and actor Dave Bautista shredded Donald Trump's pretentions of being macho in a brutal video that aired on Jimmy Kimmel's show (which is equally hilarious). Even Joni Mitchell -- not someone who is known for using such language -- repeatedly used the phrase "fuck Donald Trump" during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Tim Walz took a shot at Elon Musk as well, getting in on the N.S.F.W. fun: "Look, Elon's on that stage, jumping around skipping like a dipshit."
It hasn't been just well-known celebrities, either. A whopping 82 Nobel laureates released a letter endorsing Kamala Harris. Not to be outdone, 233 mental health professionals signed their own letter stating Trump is unfit for office, also releasing an ad calling him a "malignant narcissist." From their letter:
[Donald Trump's] symptoms of severe, untreatable personality disorder -- malignant narcissism -- makes him deceitful, destructive, deluded, and dangerous. He is grossly unfit for leadership.
But it's not just celebrities and professionals. The biggest news of the week was that multiple people (mostly high-ranking ex-military members) who worked directly for Donald Trump in his administration have finally decided to stop mincing words. This all began with an interview retired Marine Corps four-star General John F. Kelly did with the New York Times, in which he stated that Donald Trump fits the dictionary definition of a fascist. Kelly was Trump's longest-serving White House chief of staff and his secretary of Homeland Security. Here's how Kelly defined the term, in the interview:
It's a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.
He then applied it to Trump:
Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he's certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators -- he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.
He's not the only one, either:
Gen. Mark A. Milley was selected by President Trump in 2019 to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the time, Trump praised Milley as being "living proof that the American warfighter is the toughest, smartest and bravest, best and brightest by far anywhere in the world."
In his new book, War, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward described a conversation he had with Milley after Trump left office. Milley described Trump as "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country."
Trump tapped Gen. Jim Mattis to serve as his first secretary of defense. He called Mattis "a man of honor, a man of devotion and a man of total action." Speaking on a podcast hosted by the Bulwark last week, Woodward said that he'd received an email from Mattis expressing agreement with Milley's sentiments.
Also:
Mark Esper, who served as secretary of Defense under Donald Trump, backed former colleague John Kelly's recent remarks that he believes Trump meets the definition of a fascist.
Esper told CNN Wednesday that he has no reason to doubt Kelly's "honesty or integrity" in relaying Trump's previous comments. He encouraged the audience to look up the definition of fascism, as Kelly did, and ask whether Trump falls "into those categories."
Other former Trump staffers chimed in with their full agreement as well. Which led to Kamala Harris answering the question of whether she though Trump was a fascist with a very definite: "Yes I do," in a town hall appearance this week.
Harris has also been using Trump's own words against him, in both advertising and out on the campaign trail. She is, in essence, presenting the choice: "Do you really want that in the Oval Office for the next four years?"
She's also leaning heavily into the concept of Donald Trump as a dangerous threat to American democracy. The pundit class has been second-guessing this strategy, but what they all forget is that it has worked twice beforehand. Joe Biden made exactly the same argument both when he got elected and in the midterm campaign -- both of which were clear victories for Democrats. So perhaps it's a more powerful argument than the pundits care to admit?
Meanwhile, Trump is out there talking about Arnold Palmer's penis size, and has scheduled a rally at Madison Square Garden (for some reason). He staged a stunt where he "worked" at a McDonald's in suburban Pennsylvania, and took the time to phone in to a town hall his own vice presidential candidate was holding to ask JD Vance: "How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?" You just can't make this stuff up folks. Trump is also out there lying his face off and losing it, as usual.
Vance is apparently no longer content to just demonize immigrants, he's now decided to demonize immigrant children. Republicans elsewhere are letting their own racist flags fly, as one activist group in North Carolina was told by its leader to challenge all voters with "Hispanic-sounding last names," just on the off chance that they're "suspicious" voters.
This wasn't even enough for Representative Andy Harris (head of the Freedom Caucus in the House), who said this week that it would "make a lot of sense" for the North Carolina legislature to just declare Donald Trump the winner before the votes are even counted, on the pretext that the hurricane damage means a whole bunch of Trump voters might not actually vote. "You statistically can go and say, 'Look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been.'" This was in response to a speech given by a pro-Trump activist where he called for the Republican-controlled legislatures in New Hampshire, Arizona, Nebraska, Georgia, and Wisconsin to do the same thing -- just declare Trump the winner in advance of the election.
Sadly, this is the current state of the presidential race, a little more than one week out.
Once again this week, we are handing out the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award for a campaign ad. Representative Eric Swalwell, who is going to comfortably cruise to re-election, decided to take on a bigger target than his Republican opponent.
This is a brilliant ad, we should mention. In fact, it is so good the Harris/Walz campaign should start broadcasting it everywhere they can. Here's why:
Rep. Eric Swalwell's (D-Calif.) congressional campaign has released a new ad depicting Donald Trump as a deteriorating elderly relative whose worried family sends him to a nursing home.
In the spot shared on social media Wednesday by Swalwell, an actor portraying the Republican presidential nominee rants and raves about people eating dogs and cats and executing babies, claims that "windmills" are driving whales "a little batty," and riffs about "big massive dumps."
(Notably, these are all things the former president has actually said.)
A concerned family is shown deciding to get Trump the "help he so desperately needed," taking him to an elder care facility called "A Place For Trump."
"Now he has round-the-clock support and can enjoy the things he loves, like eating cheeseburgers and rage-posting at 3 a.m.," the narrator says, as the imagined Trump is seen writing out the tweet, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!"
That, too, is a real tweet the former president once posted.
It ends with the line: "We all know Donald Trump belongs in a home. Just not the White House."
This is not just funny and scathing, it also feeds into a choice many American voters have been faced with at some point in their lives: when to take grandpa's car keys away and when to put him in a home.
For producing such a brilliant piece of campaign advertising, Representative Eric Swalwell is our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week. We sincerely hope Team Harris notices and asks Swalwell if they can use the same ad nationwide, because it is an incredibly effective message.
[Congratulate Representative Eric Swalwell on his House contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]
We have to begin by awarding former big-time news personality Chris Cuomo a (Dis-)Honorable Mention, for trying to boost his own ratings by being a total schmuck. 'Nuff said.
But sadly we must award the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to President Joe Biden, for getting a little too carried away this week. Now, it's understandable that Biden might be a little miffed at how he's being ignored these days, but then he is a lame-duck president even before the election, so that's pretty much par for the course.
Even so, Biden truly goofed, this week. While visiting a Democratic campaign office in New Hampshire, Biden said the following, about Donald Trump:
I know this sounds bizarre. It sounds like, if I said this five years ago, you'd lock me up. We've got to lock him up.
He immediately realized what he had done and followed it up with:
Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That's what we have to do.
But the damage had been done.
Biden has been scrupulously not interfering with the Justice Department and his own attorney general, in any of the political investigations that have happened on his watch. This is why his own son Hunter was convicted in a federal court -- something impossible to even imagine happening under Donald Trump. Biden has pushed back on any suggestion that he has been influencing any political investigation at all, consistently.
But that one line gave Trump and all the Republicans something to point to when they accuse Biden of being the puppetmaster and directing all the investigations against Trump and other Republicans from behind the scenes.
Biden, of course, is not guilty of doing so. Neither Trump nor anyone else has ever had a shred of evidence that Biden has interfered with the Justice Department in any way. Which is why Biden deserves this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week this week, for putting that all at risk (at least in the eyes of his opponents).
To his credit, he did immediately correct his gaffe, but like we said, the damage had already been done at that point.
[Contact President Joe Biden on his official contact page, to let him know what you think of his actions.]
Volume 772 (10/25/24)
It's been such an intense week we don't even have anywhere else to put the story of some enterprising satirists who placed a fake statue on the National Mall of Nancy Pelosi's desk with a giant turd on it, in faux-homage to the January 6th rioters. That's the kind of week it has been.
Also, a personal note, we have to mention with sadness the passing of the Grateful Dead's bass player, Phil Lesh, whose death was announced today.
Requiescat In Pace
You first...
This is the only response such nonsense deserves, really.
"I see that Mike Johnson and Mitch McConnell put out a statement urging Democrats to, and I quote, 'abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions,' unquote. OK, guys, sure... we'll get right on that... right after Donald Trump does the same thing. You first, OK?"
Don't forget the Supreme Court
This is an argument Democrats always seem to neglect, although we've all now seen what the result can be.
"Donald Trump could appoint more and more Supreme Court justices who don't care a whit about precedence or what the Constitution actually says, and instead just vote on a strict party line on every case that comes before them. Trump is proud of the justices he already appointed, who stripped away basic human rights from millions of American citizens. Do you really want more justices like that on the Supreme Court? Then vote for Kamala Harris instead."
I believe the generals
And so many, many others.
"Donald Trump is a fascist. If you are unsure of this fact, just listen to the generals who closely served in Trump's White House -- they'll tell you. He is a right-wing authoritarian, he is ultra nationalist in the worst way possible, he wants to be a dictator, he is a racist, and he wants to be able to punish his political enemies using the government. That is the textbook definition of a fascist, folks. He checks all the boxes. But don't take my word for it -- listen to the growing list of people who used to work for Trump, because that is precisely what they are saying."
No guardrails
Kamala Harris, to her credit, has been leaning in to this one.
"If Donald Trump gets back in the White House, there will be no 'adults in the room' with him to rein in his worst impulses. Not this time around. There will be no guardrails at all. He will only hire aides who will unquestioningly do anything he orders them to, no matter how illegal or morally wrong it might be. And the Supreme Court has already given him a green light to do anything he wants, as long as he calls it an 'official presidential act.' That should scare you -- Donald Trump with that kind of power. I know it scares me."
Trump belongs in a home
Seriously, the Harris/Walz campaign should start running that Swalwell ad.
"Eric Swalwell is right -- Donald Trump belongs in a home, but not the White House. If he was your relative and you heard him ranting about people eating dogs and cats and babies being killed after they were born and schoolchildren going to school one gender and returning home another after they secretly had surgery performed on them -- you would take away his car keys and start looking around for a retirement home for him. That's exactly what American voters should do to Donald Trump -- send him someplace where he can't do any harm."
President Caligula
This one seems fitting as well.
"A top Democratic strategist put it nicely the other day, saying of Donald Trump, 'He's blended the policy agenda of Paul Ryan and the character of Caligula.' Do you really want that in the White House for four more years? Remember how exhausting it was to have Trump rage-tweeting in the middle of the night and coming up with more and more unhinged things on a daily basis? That's what we're in for if he wins -- President Caligula. Over 200 mental health professionals just went on the record stating how deranged and dangerous Trump has gotten. He is unfit to serve, period. Personally, I'd rather have someone sane in the White House instead."
Those were the days....
Short and sweet, we end where we began.
"Remember when the Washington Post had some integrity? Yeah, me too... those were the days."
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant