L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden After Donald Trump refused to take part in a virtual presidential debate (in light of the fact that he’s still contagious for the coronavirus), the Commission on Presidential Debates canceled the scheduled second debate between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. From CNN:
The cancellation is the culmination of a furious 48-hour back-and-forth between the commission and both campaigns and means what would have been the third debate in Nashville on October 22 will likely be the final meeting between the two candidates. The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the commission’s decision.
The commission, with the backing of their health advisers, announced on Thursday morning that — because Trump tested positive for the coronavirus — the debate that was scheduled for Miami would be held virtually, with the two candidates appearing from remote locations.
Trump swiftly rejected that plan, saying he would not show up and setting off a series of events that put the future of all general election debates into question.
In response to Trump’s cancellation, a Biden spokeswoman swiftly said that they would have agreed to a virtual format for next Thursday’s contest, but because the President had seemingly bailed, they would book another format for the former vice president to take questions.
In fact, ABC News has already announced it will be hosting a town hall with Biden on October 15 to be moderated by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. You should note that for some time Trump has told his followers Biden would be the one to cancel. “Joe Biden is too weak to lead this country,” Trump said at a rally last week. “You know Biden lost badly when his supporters are saying he should cancel the rest of the debates. Now, I understand he is canceling the debates. Let’s see what happens. I think that’s not going to be a good move for him.” Clearly, Trump knows he can’t win a debate where his ability to bully and speak over his opponent is limited.
As Donald Trump’s legal team began to present their defense case in the ongoing impeachment trial today, the Donald took to Twitter to encourage his followers to watch the proceedings – but on his favorite state network, Fox News. While there, he also threw out some elementary school insults at House impeachment lead manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for good measure. Remember when some members of the media assured us he would, at some point, grow into a more ‘presidential’ bearing? I think we got the answer to that a long time ago.
Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews, @OANN or Fake News @CNN or Fake News MSDNC!
L-R Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump Following the announcement of climate change activist Greta Thunberg being named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year, Donald Trump (who highly covets the TIME honor) criticized the 16-year-old on Twitter. From CNN:
President Donald Trump on Thursday again publicly mocked teen climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg, tweeting that the 16-year-old Swede who has inspired protesters worldwide has “anger management” issues.
Thunberg, who was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year earlier this week over Trump, has sternly castigated world leaders for not doing enough to combat the climate crisis, and memorably stared down Trump at the UN General Assembly in September. She has been open about her diagnosis of Asperger’s, calling it a “superpower” that helps her activism.
“So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” Trump wrote Thursday morning, responding to a tweet congratulating Thunberg on being named Person of the Year.
So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill! https://t.co/M8ZtS8okzE
Asperger’s is a challenge for any teenager. Being mocked by the president of the US is next level cruelty. Greta responded by rewriting her bio for Twitter:
At 9:09 AM this morning on MSNBC, the Washington Post‘s Philip Rucker reported that President Trump has been watching a lot of TV news the last few days to take in scandal coverage.
At 9:39 AM, Trump tweeted this:
The W.H. is functioning perfectly, focused on HealthCare, Tax Cuts/Reform & many other things. I have very little time for watching T.V.
The best part about this tweet is that Trump heard on TV that he was watching too much TV https://t.co/MXaU2nP3ol— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 12, 2017
Trump actually SAW this being discussed on TV which is why he's tweeting about it now. The irony 😂— Paul Wilson (@pwgolfer) July 12, 2017
His inability to focus his attention makes it hard for him to learn and master facts. He is ill informed about his own policies and tramples his own talking points. It makes it hard to control his mouth. On an impulse, he will promise a tax reform when his staff has done little of the actual work.
“In a short period of time I understood everything there was to know about health care,” he told Time. “A lot of the people have said that, some people said it was the single best speech ever made in that chamber,” he told The Associated Press, referring to his joint session speech.
By Trump’s own account, he knows more about aircraft carrier technology than the Navy. According to his interview with The Economist, he invented the phrase “priming the pump” (even though it was famous by 1933). Trump is not only trying to deceive others. His falsehoods are attempts to build a world in which he can feel good for an instant and comfortably deceive himself.
He is thus the all-time record-holder of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the phenomenon in which the incompetent person is too incompetent to understand his own incompetence. Trump thought he’d be celebrated for firing James Comey. He thought his press coverage would grow wildly positive once he won the nomination. He is perpetually surprised because reality does not comport with his fantasies.
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We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.
“I am not a hypocrite. And I haven’t been treated properly, and that’s OK, that’s fine,” Trump previously said of his historic decision. White House staff announced last month they will also be skipping the dinner “out of solidarity.”
But the president isn’t the only one who will be offering counter programming on April 29. TBS’ Samantha Bee, whose Full Frontal has been skewering Trump since the 2016 election, will also be holding her own event, “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” at the Willard Hotel in the Washington. The event will raise funds to support the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Trump will be the first president to miss the annual dinner, which raises money for journalism scholarships, since President Ronald Reagan.
Of course, Reagan had an excellent reason for skipping the event in that he was recuperating from having been shot by a mad man.
Responding to the announcement that all coverage of his “campaign” will now be located on the Entertainment section of the Huffington Post, Donald Trump comes back with an “I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you” kind of statement.
