For almost every job, there is a minimal threshold you have to cross, a bar you have to rise above to even be considered for the position. Depending on the job, it might be a college degree or 3 years of experience. But it’s something.
For the job of POTUS, however one decides the minimal criteria, Kamala Harris has soared above that bar — and continues every day show why she is more than qualified to be President.
Meanwhile, Trump clearly sank below that bar on January 6th 2021 and — with his current bizarre behavior — drops lower and lower with each passing hour. In the last weeks, his public appearances have become so off-the-rails — that any one of them would have ended the candidacy of anyone but Trump. Take a look at his Univision town hall for one stark example. Or consider his 40 minute dancing interlude. Or listen to just about any of his recent speeches, which the New York Times describes as “Increasingly Angry and Rambling.” Most troubling is his more and more explicit and fascistic “enemy within” rhetoric.
To put it bluntly, Trump has basically lost his mind. And Trump’s campaign staff knows it. That’s why they keep cancelling interviews that he had previously agreed to do — a “Sign of How Bad He’s Doing.”
This is all anyone needs to know to decide their vote in this election. One candidate easily exceeds the bar. The other sinks below it. This race should not even be close. Although polls currently rate the race as a “toss-up,” I predict sanity will prevail — and Harris will be the one to declare victory in the end.
The other day, when canvassing for Democrats in CA-13, we were confronted with a voter who said he intended to vote for Trump. His reason? “Trump is a good businessman and the economy was better when he was President.”
Whoa! You hear this sort of rationale a lot from Republicans — and even some “undecideds.” So it’s worth taking a closer look at it.
As for the economy, this has been debated endlessly in the media. Wage growth has exceeded inflation over the past few years — and unemployment is way down — and on and on. On paper, the economy is not worse now than it was four years ago. Quite the contrary; it is in excellent shape! Furthermore, most economists predict that Trump’s economic plan (such as it is) will almost certainly lead to a far worse financial future than anything Harris is proposing. But these arguments continue to fall flat and haven’t put much of a dent in many voters’ perceptions — especially when these voters stare at the higher prices of almost everything today, the result of several years of high inflation. So let’s reluctantly call this a draw.
Still, if we are really talking about how things were four years ago, it’s worth pointing out that we were in the middle of a pandemic four years ago — a crisis where thousands of people died unnecessarily because of Trump’s staggeringly poor management — including his recommendation that people inject bleach in their veins. And the economy was pretty much in shatters when he left office — which significantly contributed to why Trump lost in 2020. Somehow, all of this gets conveniently pushed aside by those voters who now give Trump a higher favorability rating than he achieved when he was actually President! <sigh>
But enough. Let’s move on from the state of the economy — to the assertion that Trump is a “good businessman.”
We are talking about someone has declared bankruptcy at least 6 times over his career — a sign of incompetence more than acumen. But Trump is not only incompetent, he is a deliberate fraud. Trump cheated with his so-called charitable foundation — eventually fined $2 million for misusing its funds to “further his political and business interests.” Trump University, another Trump grift, was shuttered years ago — after being ordered to pay a $25 million fine for conning its students into enrolling in a “sham university.” In 2022, Trump’s company was found guilty of a criminal tax fraud scheme that began years ago and lasted into his presidency. Most recently, Trump was found guilty of a massive financial fraud in New York State — and ordered to pay almost a half billion dollars in fines and interest.
This is the person that Trump supporters tout as a “good businessman”? The only way to square that circle is if his supporters choose to remain ignorant of the facts — and would rather believe Trump’s self-serving hype and lies.
But what about the future? How might this “businessman” perform if he gets to return to the White House? Not well. As quoted in an extensive New York Times article, 91 people who represent Trump’s “family and friends, world leaders and business associates, his fellow conservatives and his political appointees” — many of whom worked with him in the White House — have been harshly critical of his intellect and competence — and describe him as unfit to serve as President. These are people who know him well and were supportive of him at one point; they are not his political opposition.
On top of all that, Trump has been convicted of 34 felony counts of election interference — related to covering up payments to a porn star. Trump is literally a crook. Trump has also been indicted for a criminal attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election and for inciting the January 6th insurrection at the Capital.
Finally, let’s take a brief look at Trump’s character. In his speeches, he talks like a playground bully — hurling childish insults on a daily basis. Most recently, he called the Democratic nominee for President, Kamala Harris, a “retard.” He spews harmful lies just as frequently — such as his completely false claims about the White House’s response to the recent hurricanes. In one instance, Trump claimed that Biden had not yet spoken the Governor of Georgia — just minutes after the Governor had gone on television to say he had spoken to Biden and they had had a very positive conversation. Trump also uses lies to promote his racist and xenophobic agenda, such as his absurd assertion that immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. Oh, one more thing: Trump has been held liable for the sexual assault (essentially rape) of E. Jean Carroll.
A “businessman” with all of this on their resume would never get hired as the CEO of any major corporation in this country. He wouldn’t even get as far as an interview. Trump is a “good businessman” only in the same sense that Al Capone was. Yet there are voters who seem ready to hire Trump as the CEO of the entire country — enough such voters so that Trump remains in a close race to be the next President of the United States!
Somebody please explain all of this to me. How does any citizen sweep all of this under the rug and conclude that Trump is worthy of their vote? How does any of this make sense? And why do Democrats apparently have such difficulty in getting this message across? How is this race even close? I will never understand it. I can only hope that, by the time the votes are counted, we see that enough citizens understood the dire threat that Trump represents so that he goes down in defeat.
Update: October 15: I just viewed last night’s opening segment of The Rachel Maddow Show. Coincidentally, it covers a lot of the same territory. Definitely worth watching!
Update: October 16: Speaking of the economy, when pressed to give details about his economic plans, especially his call for tariffs, Trump crumbled and was revealed to be “incoherent.” More generally, Trump is increasingly bizarre anytime he is speaking in public. These are definitely not the characteristics of a “good businessman.”
The New York Times stated it as clearly as possible: “It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump.”
If, even at this late stage of the election cycle, you’re still considering a vote for Trump, you needn’t wade through the litany of Trump’s failings to course correct. You need only consider one thing — something so overwhelmingly determinative that it leaves no other option but to vote for Harris for President.
It all comes down to what happened after the 2020 Presidential election. You may think you are already familiar with the events that occurred. But if you truly were, you wouldn’t be thinking about a vote for Trump. So it’s worth taking another clarifying look. Here goes:
Trump lost that election. There is no disputing this outcome — although Trump has certainly tried.
Trump’s initial response to the loss, back in November of 2020, was to claim the election was rigged and stolen. There is no evidence to support this claim. He just lied — because his ego would not accept the loss. Unlike every other losing candidate in our country’s history, he never officially conceded. Not back then. Not to this day.
Trump did have a contingency plan in case of a loss: cheat. Find a way, legal or not, to remain in power. And that’s exactly what he attempted to do.
That’s why, in the days after the election, Trump and his allies filed over sixty lawsuits in swing states, claiming widespread voter fraud. As there was no evidence to support any finding of voter fraud, judges, including Trump-appointed judges, quickly dismissed the cases as having no merit. Around the same time, a series of recounts, including hand recounts, were conducted in contested states; not one led to a significant change in the results.
Having failed at the ballot box and in court, Trump next implemented a plan to create fake sets of electors that would support him when the Electoral College votes were counted in Congress on January 6 — with the obvious goal of allowing him to retain the Presidency. The scheme was clearly illegal. That’s why many of the fake electors and Trump staff involved in the plot have been charged with crimes — in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada — with more charges possibly still to come. Several lawyers involved have also lost their licenses to practice law. And at the head of this criminal enterprise was, of course, Donald Trump.
For this fake elector plot to truly succeed, however, it also required Mike Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, to accept the fake slates on January 6 — or at least to claim there was a legitimate dispute as to which electors should prevail, causing chaos that would eventually land the process in the House, where Trump could be declared the winner.
When Trump’s illegal pressure on Pence failed to persuade the Vice President to go along, Trump had one last long shot: provoke his supporters at the January 6 rally to storm the Capitol in an attempted insurrection. Which is what happened — as the nation watched the violence unfold on television. The resulting assault led to the injury of over a hundred police officers amid cries to “Hang Mike Pence.” Trump, meanwhile, sat in the White House for hours and watched it all play out on television — without lifting a finger to stop it.
In the immediate fallout from January 6, Trump was impeached by the House. A majority of the Senate (including 7 Republicans) next voted to convict Trump — who escaped a guilty verdict only because the votes fell short of the required super-majority. However, over 700 of the rioters have since been convicted for their actions that day, with most of them serving time behind bars. Trump, meanwhile, continues to describe the rioters as patriotic heroes. He shows not even an iota of contrition.
None of the above is speculation. It is what actually occurred. And Trump’s lies about all of it continue unabated. As do his promises that there will be more of this same criminality and immorality if he is re-elected.
Trump himself has been indicted for his actions and currently awaits trial. But the fact that Trump’s legal fate remains in limbo is not a permission slip to vote for Trump. In essence, everyone voting in this election is a juror in a national trial — with the future of our democracy at stake.
And the choice comes down to this: No matter what you may like about Trump or dislike about Harris, it doesn’t matter. Who you think will do a better job handling the economy is important — but it doesn’t take precedence over this. When a person, a President no less, attempts to overthrow the results of a free and fair election and engages in multiple crimes in his attempt to do so, that person cannot be returned to the White House. Period.
As an aside, whenever I read op-eds in traditional conservative media, such as The Wall Street Journal — or hear Republican pundits on CNN — critique Harris or defend Trump in ways that imply a recommendation to vote for Trump, my astonished response is: “Are you serious? Are you actually saying that it’s okay to ignore Trump’s election interference and the insurrection when deciding one’s vote? If not, then what are you saying?”
There are dozens of reasons you should not be voting for Trump. But you don’t need more than just this one. There is no rational way to both accept the truth of Trump?s actions in 2020 and decide that it’s okay to vote for him now. They are mutually exclusive propositions. You can’t ignore what Trump did. You can’t side-step it. You can’t excuse it. There is no middle ground. Trump must be defeated.
This has become a near daily mantra when reacting to the latest news from Donald Trump — and the entire Republican party. Their actions are somehow simultaneously beyond belief and yet entirely predictable.
The latest case in point: The GOP’s responses to the former President’s verdict of guilty to 34 felony counts last week. Rather than take even the slightest step back from their rabid support of the former President, they are hugging him even more tightly. And leading the way, of course, is Trump himself.
The trial was so not “rigged”
Trump has only a small bag of tricks. His most reliable one is to repeat a lie over and over again until people — primarily his supporters — start to believe it must be true. That’s how he convinced supporters to believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
And so it is with the verdict in the New York election interference trial. He continues to falsely assert that the trial was rigged; the judge is conflicted; the system is corrupt. And, perhaps most egregiously, he hammers home the lie that the Biden administration was the force behind the prosecution — despite never citing a shred of evidence to back up that claim.
On the contrary, as effectively detailed by Andrew Weissmann, the record clearly shows how incredibly fair the trial actually was: (1) the prosecution laid out a clear and compelling story — with the most damaging evidence coming from people who were and continue to be supportive of Trump, people such as David Pecker and Hope Hicks; (2) the Judge was even-handed to a fault, frequently sustaining defense objections and giving Trump a longer leash to violate the gag order than any other defendant would have received; (3) Trump was ultimately judged by a jury of his peers. As Robert Reich put it: “Those jurors were not Democrats. They were not politicians. They were not people who had a bias against Trump. They were Americans. Trump’s lawyers allowed them to become jurors because they showed no bias.” They deliberated for two days, reviewing testimony and re-hearing the judge’s instructions, before coming to a unanimous verdict of guilty on all 34 counts! This is the way our justice system is supposed to work — no matter who the defendant is. What could be more fair?
And, if you have any doubt, it’s all there in black and white — in the transcripts of the trial. Of course, Trump’s defenders are unconcerned with what took place in the courtroom. They denounce the verdict anyway — to the point of outright lying.
One especially egregious example is Republican Senator Susan Collins, who falsely claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump” and “brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct.” Actually, Bragg never made such a promise and never campaigned on it. Collins just made this up. And, even it were true that Bragg had some sort of bias against Trump, it wouldn’t mean the trial was unfair. A prosecutor’s bias does not lead to a conviction. He still has to prove his case to an unbiased jury — beyond a reasonable doubt. And that’s what Bragg did.
Similarly, you have Speaker Mike Johnson, second in line to the Presidency, saying: “I do believe the Supreme Court should step in. I think this court will do the right thing, because they see the abuse of the system right now.” No…there is almost no basis for the Supreme Court to ever weigh in on this state court decision. And Johnson did not specify even one instance of what qualified as “abuse.” Again, he’s just making it up as he goes along.
Not to be outdone, Texas Governor Greg Abbott went completely off the rails: “This was a sham show trial. The Kangaroo Court will never stand on appeal. Americans deserve better than a sitting U.S. President weaponizing our justice system against a political opponent— all to win an election.” Again, there is no evidence that Biden had any influence on the trial.
And if a Republican dares to call for even the most muted acceptance of the results, as Larry Hogan did, he/she is immediately castigated by Trump’s minions.
Then there’s Trump himself. Falsehoods spew from his mouth with the force of water gushing out of an open fire hydrant — in speeches that increasingly swing from rambling to delusional.
Such comments serve to undermine the country’s faith in the entire system of justice — beyond just this trial. While this grievance-filled rhetoric is exactly what Trump wants to promote, it’s very disheartening to see the rest of what’s left of the Republican Party follow down this dangerous path. They see no problem with putting the very foundation of our democracy in peril — for their short-term political gain. It’s shameful. Unfortunately, Trump and his minions are incapable of shame.
The more you think about what the GOP is saying, the crazier it all begins to sound. The Democrats were unable to salvage a POTUS victory for Gore in 2000. They were similarly not able to eke out a victory for Clinton in 2016. They weren’t able to prevent the GOP from regaining control of the House in 2022. And they haven’t been able to halt the trials of Hunter Biden or Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. Yet, these same Democrats were somehow able to determine the outcome of Trump’s criminal trial — which could require illegally influencing all twelve jurors?
Get real. That’s not what happened. The New York trial was not rigged. Not even close. Period.
After the Trump guilty verdict, these are the Republican leaders standing up and putting country before party. [image from Washington Post]
The false equivalence of left vs. right
The media have a long and sad history of presenting the opposing views of the right vs. the left as equally legitimate. Don’t fall for that trap here.
As I’ve already covered, the right’s totally false assertions that the trial was rigged should demolish any notion of equivalence. But allow me to return to Andrew Weissmann — who puts the final nail in the coffin of this misconception. He notes that, in the weeks that he and Mary McCord covered the trial, they consistently proclaimed the fairness of the process. They did this in the complete absence of any knowledge of what the verdict would eventually be. Had Trump been acquitted, it is certain their perspective would have remained unchanged. They would have likely expressed disappointment in the outcome; they might have even opined that the verdict was wrong (although I expect they would instead focus on weaknesses and mistakes in the prosecution’s case). But they would have accepted the outcome as the result of a just process — and moved on. They certainly would not have railed on and on about how Trump and the GOP had conspired to rig the trial. I believe most on the left (including myself) would have done the same.
Contrast that to Trump and the GOP — who reacted with “immediate fury“as they embarked on a “campaign of vengeance.” “Republicans in Congress are embracing Donald Trump’s strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system after his historic guilty verdict.” “The ferocity of the outcry was remarkable, tossing aside the usual restraints that lawmakers and political figures have observed in the past when refraining from criticism of judges and juries.” You almost get the sense that there is desperation here — as if they need to scream louder and louder the worse the news gets.
No, there is no equivalence here to what would have happened if the situation was reversed.
Heads Trump wins; tails we lose? Nope!
It’s almost magical. No matter what happens, it seems to work out to Trump’s advantage. While the media seem uber-obsessed with pointing this out, it does have a degree of undeniable truth. After Trump was indicted last year, his standings in the polls actually increased. What would have been a career-ending catastrophe for almost anyone else only added to his popularity. [Books have been written about why this is so; but that’s beyond the scope of this post. However, for some insight, I recommend this post from Robert Reich.]
And so it has been in the aftermath of Trump’s guilty verdict: “Trump and his allies believe that criminal convictions will work in his favor.” Certainly, a surge in donations occurred immediately following the verdict. And numerous pundits, on the left as well as the right, are concurring that the verdict will be largely forgotten by the November election.
So what was the preferred alternative here? An acquittal? Hardly. Without a doubt, an acquittal would have helped Trump much more than the conviction. So is there no outcome that works against Trump?
Yes, there is such an outcome. It’s already happened. This verdict will hurt Trump. And his inevitable “shoot-yourself-in-the-foot” reactions will further erode his standing. We are already seeing signs of this in the latest polling.
I still believe there comes a time — after impeachments, indictments, civil judgements, an insurrection and now a felony conviction — that a majority of the public will say “enough is enough” and Trump’s candidacy will be doomed. The teflon will begin to wear off.
I believe this is the time. The New York trial will prove to be the pivotal point that initiates a shift in direction. Hang in there!
What can you do?
Some Democrats are already warning against talking about Trump’s legal woes on the campaign trail — lest it backfire and play into the GOP’s fabrication that the Democrats were the force behind the prosecution. I disagree. That may have been a reasonable strategy before the verdict — but not now. All of us can — and should — stress the truth that Trump is a felon. Because it matters! Spread the word. Shout it from the rooftops. We shouldn’t fear making this a campaign issue. Make it a central issue — because it is a central issue.
