One day we may look back on today, or at least these few days, as an inflection point of the 2020 election but you might not notice it unless you’re a political junky too.
As you may be aware, the President had some curious medical speculations yesterday. It seems humans may have to have a port installed in their bodies that goes directly to the lungs so they can be treated with UV light and Lysol. The President of the United States suggested that light sources being introduced inside the human body along with the injection of disinfectants could be the new magic cure for the coronavirus. The utter madness of this suggestion was recognized immediately in real time, but no one would confront him. Dr. Blix was clearly appalled but in her dual role of protecting us and protecting the President, she went with what has become her default and delicately suggested that application of lights or disinfectant internally did not have a lot of hope, but she was very careful not to embarrass him with her answer. Very careful.
The rest of the world was not quite so forgiving. Most of us learned by the age of 4 that the stuff under the sink was off limits. That stuff was scary! It was stunning to hear the President suggest such things that were so clearly unhinged, and every corner of the media reacted.
Trump’s handlers knew they were in big, big trouble. There was no walk back, no rationalization of this. These were the audible rantings of a crazy person, and he got great ratings! Everyone had heard it, or were told about it. It was a profound gaff.
He’s made many of them. They have wiggled him off the hook everytime. They would try this time, too. About midday during a bill signing ritual, he was asked about the previous days declarations, and he attempted to explain it away by saying he was sarcastically asking about those things in response to a hostile press.
This time it didn’t work. There was video, it was as damning as it was shocking that there was anyone anywhere this stupid. But there was and he was our leader.
No one seemed to buy it. As I moved around social media today I constantly was bumping up on Trump supporters that were vocalizing their inability to respond. This was beyond them to defend, to even understand. Don’t get crazy about this. The others were out there, too, but were mostly in hiding. I ran into one defender who tried to compare it to chemo. We inject people with poison all the time for good. I won’t go into my counter-argument here because frankly it should be unnecessary to my audience, such that it is. But his was the only attempt at a justification I encountered today. It was nearly universally stunningly stupid.
It seems that his team was getting the data from around the country and it was painfully obvious that this “sarcasm” angle was going to fall flat on its ass. No sale. What to do, what to do?
For weeks the inner circle around the President has known that these daily Coronapalooza events were killing him. Every day he would take the questions and be humiliated all while thinking he was showing the public what a badass he was. How a brilliant, wise and no-nonsense tough guy took charge. I really think he believes some version of that. That’s his self image. That’s what makes it so tough on the inner-circle. How do you get through to someone with a worldview that includes his own deification?
Someone got through. At today’s briefing, it was a very straight forward affair. Trump spoke, and not terribly controversially. Pence finished things up, and when he did, they all packed their bags and left. Twentyminutes or so and done. No questions, and definitely no answers.
The room was stunned. If you were friends with one of the journalists in that room today, it would be fun to chat with them after this, because every one of them had a question about the unprecedented idiocy of a public official that they were dying to ask. I am certain that every one of them was disappointed. I was. I was excited to see how he would try to sell this. I thought I knew. I thought they had rolled it out around lunchtime in that bill signing and I wanted to see how much of that incredible bullshit the press was going to allow him to get away with.
At least today, we wouldn’t find out. The President just turned and walked out the door.
There would be no Rule of Compounding Idiocy here. No opportunity to build the story with the inarticulate walk backs providing the fuel. All the press will be left with is to repeat the story, because no crime was committed, no actions to be taken other than the 25th Amendment and that will never happen with this cabinet.
If he has the discipline, it is political genius. All that’s left is beating on it for fun. The news has already been reported. If he can rope-a-dope for awhile, stay out of the uncontrolled environment, no questions or inquiry, just scripted information, pretty soon it will seem petty to bring it up. Fake news beating up on the President again. Nothing to see here.
But this has spill-over into the the election. The free ride for Joe Biden may be over. There was reporting today that POTUS would be reducing his appearances, either in length, frequency or both. Tightening the ship, stopping the daily leakage from the President’s popularity, credibility and viability. These atrocities freed Uncle Joe from the responsibilities of electioneering. If he left well enough alone, Trump was well on the way to burning himself down. If Trump is not going to feed the Biden fire, Joe is going to have to figure out a way to do it himself, and that’s tricky.
Both candidates are in their 70s, a mean vector for the virus. Neither should be slapping flesh and kissing babies, and neither will. But Trump has exponentially more access to media than Joe has, is well aware of it and will use it to his advantage as he sees it. That last bit is important, because that’s the same advantage he had while doing these daily events, and he screwed it up in an unprecedented way.
There is no doubt that his appearances will be reduced, but will he have the discipline to stay on message? The evidence of a lifetime in front of cameras suggest that he won’t. Where would that discipline come from? Why would anyone predict a somber, sober executive to rise from the ashes of this man’s life? It’s a silly suggestion on its face, but that is what is required of Trump if he is going to stop the leakage of support that he has created. There’s a lot at stake for the President, and the greatest challenge of his career will most likely be too much for him, but we’ll see.
Keep your fingers crossed.