In one press conference, President Trump just revealed the rest of his campaign strategy
President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference on Monday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
If you want to know how the rest of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is going to go, his news conference Monday was likely a good indication.
He was there to, supposedly, talk about the coronavirus. He spent most of his time talking about protests, including what appeared to be a stunning defense of the 17-year-old accused of killing two with a semi-automatic weapon on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a protest there.
It was a COVID-19 press conference that, instead, turned into a campaign rally ripping into Joe Biden and left-wing mobs and his continuing criticism of Democratic-run cities. But it also might have been a preview of what’s to come.
“I think it really reflects his strategy in this campaign,” CNN commentator and former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said on air after Trump’s press conference. “He’s in a bad position. He’s in a bad position because he’s widely perceived as having mishandled this virus, which is an epic tragedy for this country. The economy is in a hole. He wanted to run on it and it’s in a hole right now. He has to change the subject and this is how he has chosen to change the subject.”
The subject from here on out likely will be “law and order.” While Trump condemned protesters who have turned violent or destructive, he did not condemn his supporters. That includes Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Trump supporter charged with killing two in the Kenosha protests. When specifically asked if he wanted to condemn Rittenhouse’s alleged actions, Trump seemingly supported Rittenhouse.
“That was an interesting situation,” Trump said. “He was trying to get away from them … looks like and he fell. … And then they very violently attacked him. … I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would’ve been killed.”
Trump said he would be “looking into” the situation, but his comments were … well, what were they?
“This president did what I think people thought he would do, but it still is shocking for the president of the United States to get up there and essentially make excuses for someone who has been accused of such a horrendous crime,” CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson said. “It’s one thing to sort of say he doesn’t want to comment on it at all — it is a court proceeding, it’s an individual who is innocent before being proven guilty. But that is not what he did. He essentially sort of defended him, saying this young man was acting in self-defense.”
Trump also did not condemn Trump supporters in Portland who fired paintball guns, and possibly pepper spray.
Two quick thoughts: One, those who cover the president cannot lose sight of the coronavirus. While Trump might prefer to keep talking about protests and “law and order” and Biden, the coronavirus needs to continue being a focal point for the media.
And when it comes to protests, more of the same from Monday. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and others continued to ask Trump questions about the actions of those involved in protests — including Trump supporters. They got him on the record and need to continue doing so as the country, while dealing with a pandemic, continues to deal with racial unrest.
The White House press asked the right questions Monday. It needs to keep asking such urgent questions.
Changing the numbers
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake points out that there was a time when President Trump said that his administration would be doing a good job if it kept the death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. between 100,000 and 200,000. Well, that is no longer realistic. The U.S. has already passed 180,000. The country could pass 200,000 by the end of September.
Instead of changing the expectations, however, Trump is trying to change the number. And, Blake notes, he’s taking his cue from where he often gets his talking points: Fox News.
Trump already retweeted a QAnon supporter who floated an unproven conspiracy theory about COVID-related deaths. (The tweet was later deleted.)
But Blake also writes that Fox News personalities such as Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and Brit Hume have questioned coronavirus deaths — such as whether those who had preexisting conditions or had, say, pneumonia, were actually being counted as COVID deaths. But health experts, including Trump’s own White House coronavirus task force doctors Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, dismissed such theories. In fact, many health experts believe the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country is actually higher than the official total.
Blake wrote, “But as the number creeps closer to the upper bound of Trump’s benchmark for success — and given his affinity for such conspiracy theories and his media allies’ anxiety to push them — it’s not difficult to see this kind of thing rearing its ugly head again. The election is too close, and that number is a major liability.”
Jemele Hill and Dan Rather talk about the media
(Courtesy: Spotify)
If you haven’t listened to it, you should really check out Jemele Hill’s podcast “Jemele Hill Is Unbothered.” It’s outstanding and the guests are top-notch, including past episodes that featured Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ellen Pompeo, Ice Cube, Regina King and John Legend.
The latest episode is a conversation with veteran journalist Dan Rather. The longtime news anchor talks about the comparisons between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon, the backlash of Twitter and covering Martin Luther King Jr. The two also had a lengthy discussion about the media and how to cover Trump. Rather doesn’t believe the “traditional way” of doing things can work with this president.
“I would say the last year, year and a half, that there have been some strides made in understanding that, for example, that when President Trump appears on television, you don’t absolutely have to carry every time he walks out and has something self-serving to say,” Rather said. “Increasingly television that works, for example, may carry the top of something to see what it’s about, and when he goes into self-serving what I would call pure outright propaganda, cut away from it and do what journalists are supposed to do, which is to edit the material to say, what’s the news in here. If there’s any news, it reports the news. … President Trump for better or for worse — and I would argue for worse — has affected the whole direction of American journalism, over the three and a half years he’s been in office. And my guess is, I’m sorry to say that, however long
he’s in office, that effect of this will be felt far into the future.”
Hill also asked Rather about local newspapers. Many used to be family or locally owned, but now many have been consolidated into a handful of larger corporations.
“It’s not healthy for journalism,” Rather said. “It’s not healthy for the country.”
Rather points out how many cities used to have two or more newspapers. Now many have just one.
“The disappearance of local news coverage … is devastating for us in many ways, not the least of which is that, for example … the news coverage of state legislators today is at an almost modern all-time low,” Rather said. “And when you don’t have reporters around a place like a state legislature, corruption has a piece, and we all know that that’s true, but there’s very little coverage of state government. … I don’t think it’s too strong to say it’s a threat to our democracy and we should (spend) a lot of time thinking about it and see what we can do to turn it around.”
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