L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden I realize I haven’t posted much on this week’s Republican National Convention, mainly because who could possibly keep up with the fact-checking needed to counter the huge amount of misinformation coming from the speakers. CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale does a great job of pointing out many of Donald Trump’s lies from his renomination speech last night. By the way, CNN’s Brian Stelter reports news that is sure to burn the Donald: more folks tuned in for former Vice President Joe Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last week than Trump’s lie-fest on Thursday night.
The ratings are in: Trump’s speech was lower-rated than Biden’s speech one week ago, per overnight Nielsen #’s. About 21.6 million for Trump, 23.6 million for Biden. The #’s may fluctuate a bit, but not enough to change the takeaway. Here’s my full storyhttps://t.co/bMrveuOwdL
New York Times tech journalist Kevin Roose explains how Donald Trump could very well win a second term in the White House. Every morning, Roose checks the top-performing Facebook link posts by U.S. pages and shares them via a Twitter account. If you’re a moderate, or land left of center politically, you may not be aware (or see) how Trump’s ‘silent majority’ is still out there. From the New York Times:
Most days, the leader board looks roughly the same: conservative post after conservative post, with the occasional liberal interloper.
But what sticks out, when you dig in to the data, is just how dominant the Facebook right truly is. Pro-Trump political influencers have spent years building a well-oiled media machine that swarms around every major news story, creating a torrent of viral commentary that reliably drowns out both the mainstream media and the liberal opposition.
The result is a kind of parallel media universe that left-of-center Facebook users may never encounter, but that has been stunningly effective in shaping its own version of reality.
Inside the right-wing Facebook bubble, President Trump’s response to Covid-19 has been strong and effective, Joe Biden is barely capable of forming sentences, and Black Lives Matter is a dangerous group of violent looters.
Mr. Trump and his supporters are betting that, despite being behind Mr. Biden in the polls, a “silent majority” will carry him to re-election.
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from: 1. Ben Shapiro 2. Ben Shapiro 3. Blue Lives Matter 4. Ben Shapiro 5. David J. Harris Jr. 6. Ben Shapiro 7. Ben Shapiro 8. SportsCenter 9. Shaun King 10. NPR
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from: 1. Ben Shapiro 2. TMZ 3. Ben Shapiro 4. Ben Shapiro 5. USA Patriots for Donald Trump 6. Fox & Friends 7. ForAmerica 8. Donald Trump 2020 Voters 9. Dan Bongino 10. Dan Bongino
Today, 8/25, the top-performing Facebook link posts by U.S. pages are from: 1. Franklin Graham 2. Franklin Graham 3. Ben Shapiro 4. Ben Shapiro 5. Ben Shapiro 6. NBC News 7. Sean Hannity 8. Bill O’Reilly 9. Fox News 10. Fox News
Today, 8/24, the top-performing Facebook link posts by U.S. pages are from: 1. Occupy Democrats 2. Franklin Graham 3. Fox News 4. Fox News 5. Fox News 6. Ben Shapiro 7. Roger Billings 8. Joe Kennedy III 9. Fox News 10. Newsbusters
Former Vice President Joe Biden (via campaign) Joe Biden’s campaign team will counter tonight’s renomination speech by Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention by airing a two-minute, upbeat, positive ad set to run on cable and network TV at the same time as the Trumpster’s address. This is well done. It contrasts Biden from Trump as someone who “runs when other people walk” and “race up steps when others take it slow.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden (screen capture) Lou Holtz, longtime Notre Dame football coach and Donald Trump ally, used part of his speech during the Republican National Convention last night to attack former Vice President Joe Biden as a “Catholic in name only.” Biden, who attends mass every week and has been public about how he personally embraces his faith, clapped back today during an appearance on MSNBC. From The Hill:
“I think it’s kind of preposterous to a guy who hardly ever darkens the door of a church,” Biden told MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” in a reference to President Trump.
Biden said that he distinguishes his personal beliefs from policies he sets to implement for everyone.
“My private beliefs relative to how I would deal with the church doctrine is different than my imposing that doctrine on every other person in the world — equally decent Christians and Jews and Muslims and Buddhists, etc.,” he said.
“But the point of the matter is I’m a practicing Catholic, I don’t proselytize about it, I never miss mass,” he added. “It’s part of who I am. It’s what gets me through the really difficult times in my life, and I believe it very strongly.”
Remember, Biden’s opponent has told people publicly he likes to grab women “by the p*ssy.” So, I don’t know that I’d be attacking Biden on the faith level. Back in the 2016 election, Trump couldn’t name one Bible verse as his ‘favorite.’
WATCH: In RNC speech, Lou Holtz insults Joe Biden by suggesting that Biden is a "Catholic in name only."
Disgusting lie by Lou Holtz that Biden is a 'Catholic in name only.'
WaPo: "Biden almost always has rosary beads in his pocket … He has written and spoken at length of how faith helped him grieve the loss of his first wife and daughter many years ago, and his son Beau."
Donald Trump during a White House press briefing (public domain) Quite the bombshell just days before the Republican National Convention. It turns out Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, secretly recorded her aunt and the Donald’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, as a source for her family tell-all book. From the Washington Post:
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”
Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
In the weeks since Mary Trump’s tell-all book about her uncle has been released, she’s been questioned about the source of some of the information, such as her allegation that Trump paid a friend to take his SATs to enable him to transfer into the University of Pennsylvania. Nowhere in the book does she say that she recorded conversations with her aunt.
In response to a question from The Washington Post about how she knew the president paid someone to take the SATs, Mary Trump revealed that she had surreptitiously taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry in 2018 and 2019. She provided The Post with previously unreleased transcripts and audio excerpts, which include exchanges that are not in her book.
As the Post points out, under New York law, it is legal to tape a conversation with the consent of one party, which in this case was Mary Trump. In the recordings, Judge Barry acknowledges the only thing Donald ever accomplished on his own were the six corporate bankruptcies his companies filed. Click over to the Washington Postto hear the Trumpster’s own sister say he has no principles and how they grew apart because he took credit for her success as a federal judge. The Trump campaign brushed the news aside calling it “sibling rivalry.”
WATCH: Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller responds to secretly recorded comments from President Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump. #MTP@JasonMillerinDC: “When you get to the White House you have family members who decide to voice their sibling rivalries.” pic.twitter.com/EAqsRxctwq
L-R Brayden Harrington, Donald Trump I thought I posted this early today. By far, my favorite moment of the last night of the Democratic presidential convention was the incredible appearance by 13-year-old Brayden Harrington. The teen spoke at the DNC about how he bonded with Joe Biden because they both have a stutter. “He told me that we were members of the same club — we stutter.”
Just some of the reactions on the Twitter:
I stutter. Have my entire life. Taught myself to hide it but it’s always there. Always
There is no way I could be as brave as that little boy, at his age. I’m honestly crying. Jesus — T. Fisher King (@T_FisherKing) August 21, 2020
It was amazing. Forever and ever, every time I see or hear Trump, this is all I see. His vile cruelty. I am so ready for that picture to be erased from my head and heart. Joe Biden is a man of character and integrity. Joe Biden can wipe away that image. pic.twitter.com/0rra01kTmj
Brayden Harrington’s video about having a stutter like Biden was also a stark contrast to the President who mocks reporters with disabilities. #DemConvention
“We need the world to feel better.” “Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can look up to.” Decency. I miss decency. The president should be a role model not a cautionary tale! Best part tonight so far 💙 — Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) August 21, 2020
A young Joe Biden with his sons (screen capture) The anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project hit pause on its attacks on the Trumpster for a moment to directly support former Vice President Joe Biden’s bid for the White House. The new campaign spot, titled ‘Dad,’ shares the story of how 32-year-old Biden raised his two sons, Beau and Hunter, on his own after tragically losing his first wife and one-year-old daughter to a car accident in 1972. “When the boys cried for their mother and sister, it was Joe who comforted them,” says the narration. “Parent-teacher conferences? Joe was there. When help was needed and report cards were read, Joe Biden was there. Because when Joe Biden makes a commitment, he always sees it through.” “Americans will choose between two types of men this November. Joe Biden is a man of character, compassion, and decency. It’s a choice to vote for a man with that kind of character – or a man without one.”
CNN’s John Berman notes that Donald Trump repeats the same statistics during White House press briefings even when the briefings are weeks apart. It’s especially interesting since Trump has often criticized former Vice President Joe Biden for reading from prepared remarks. But, as the panel here notes, repetition – while not always ‘truth’ – does work in politics.
Randy Rainbow serves up a musical homage to Democratic vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris set to the title tune of the 1960 Tony Award-winning Lerner and Loewe musical, Camelot.
And though Trump calls her phony, mean and nastyThere’s no doubt she’s more qualified than heShe sold me when I saw her come for KavanaughFor no one makes a grown man cry like she canKamala!
