The Banter Brief: "Total Authority" Trump Gets Brutally Put In His Place
This was not a good week for Trump.
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Banter Brief, your go-to guide for the week that was!
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1. Most Important Story Of The Week
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Cuomo; Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Trump, File)(Seth Wenig, Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
America’s governors force Trump to back down
As Susan B. Glasser notes in The New Yorker this week, Trump’s “two most memorable lines of the covid-19 pandemic, proclaiming “absolute authority” and “no responsibility at all,” are wildly contradictory, and yet also completely consistent with his approach to governing.”
Trump, the wannabe dictator, has been using his the bully pulpit of his office to proclaim himself Emperor of America during the Coronavirus pandemic. He told reporters that "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's got to be. It's total."
When it comes to the enormous catalog of catastrophic blunders and failures made by his administration in the lead up to the pandemic, Trump of course, claims no responsibility whatsoever. "Everything we did was right," Trump stated during a press conference. "I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of lives," he said. So right that more people have died in America from COVID-19 than anywhere else on earth.
Given the spectacular failures of the federal government, America’s governors are now openly defying Trump and his preposterous claims that he has “total authority” over the country. “I don’t know what the president is talking about, frankly,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in response to Trump’s statement. “We have a constitution … we don’t have a king … the president doesn’t have total authority.”
As the LA Times reported, governors from around the country are not just condemning Trump’s claims and refusing to follow his orders, but are now forming “coalitions committed to making public health the first consideration in any plan to restart their economies during the coronavirus outbreak.” The Western States Pact and the Multi-State Council, promise “to pursue policies grounded in science, rationality and common sense.” Or in other words, the exact opposite of the policies pursued by the Trump administration.
What was Trump’s response to this open mutiny? He backed down. On Tuesday, he claimed he was "authorizing" the states to make their own decisions about reopening (note: they don’t need his authorization). In a conference call with Governors yesterday, Trump told them that “you’re going to call your own shots.”
So Trump has “total authority” to force Governors to not follow his own guidelines. What a very stable genius.
Go deeper with Banter Members: The Red Hats Are Fine With A Dictator, As Long As It’s Their Dictator
Half of the American voting population would be entirely welcoming of an autocratic ruler, says Bob Cesca
2. Poll Analysis
Trump: Not good. Not good at all, in fact. The highlights from a very troubling new Gallup poll for the president:
Trump's job approval rating drops six percentage points, to 43%
Congress' approval rating reaches 30% for the first time in over a decade
U.S. satisfaction with the direction of the country tumbles 12 points
That means the Coronavirus pandemic “bump” is officially over.
Trump vs Biden: Again, not good for Trump. Just take a look at what is happening in every swing state in the country. Via conservative commentator Josh Kraushaar in the National Journal:
In traditionally Republican Arizona, a must-win state for Trump, he trails Biden 52 to 43 percent in a new OH/Predictive Insights poll. He’s down by 6 points to Biden in Florida, in an April University of North Florida survey, despite his generally sunny track record in the state. Biden led Trump in a trifecta of Michigan polls conducted in March. According to the RealClearPolitics statewide polling averages, Biden is ahead in every swing state.
It is officially time for Trump to start panicking.
3. Quote(s) Of The Week
"We don't have a vaccine for SARS, I mean, they got close in mice. We don't have a vaccine for HIV. And life did go on, right? So the idea that we're definitely going to have a vaccine — we didn't really approach much else in the same way, as we're pegging going back to normal with a vaccine, did we?"
- Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham attempting to explain virology to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Fauci replied:
"Well, no, but Laura, this is different. HIV/AIDS is entirely different. We don't have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, but we have spectacularly effective treatment. People who invariably would have died years ago, right now are leading essentially normal lives."
"SARS is a different story. SARS disappeared. We developed a vaccine, we were in the process of going through the various phases, we showed it was safe, we showed it induced a good response. And then SARS disappeared. And we didn't need to develop a vaccine for SARS. So I think it's a little bit misleading, maybe, to compare what we're going through now with HIV or SARS."
4. What to Watch
Deadwater Fell
If you’ve watched the excellent crime series Broadchurch, you’ll want to see David Tennant in his latest role in Deadwater Fell, now playing on Amazon Prime. Set in the Scottish village of Kirkdarroch, Tom Kendrickas (Tennant) is a prime suspect when his wife and children die in a horrific fire. Like Broadchurch, the series thrives on keeping the audience continually guessing as to whom the killer is, but the story is subtler, slower, and more emotionally impacting. While Broadchurch shamelessly (and brilliantly) hammed up the suspense at every opportunity, Deadwater Fell feels like is a more adult approach to crime drama and forces you to watch patiently as the story delicately unfolds.
There are red herrings and plot twists galore as Tom’s complex life is revealed and the dark underbelly of the idyllic village exposed during the investigation, but it is the acting that makes this series great. Tennant is superb, as is Anna Madeley (Tom’s wife Kate), Matthew McNulty (Steve, the policeman investigating) and Cush Jumbo (Jess, who is Steve’s girlfriend but has slept with Tom). It is less fun than Broadchurch, but better as a drama and well worth investing time in.
5. Good News
Social distancing has worked
If you have been staying at home, only going out for shopping, and wearing a mask when outside, then a heartfelt congratulations is in order. You have quite literally saved lives. From Vox:
A body of preliminary research suggests that social distancing and lockdowns have worked to flatten the curve and, at a minimum, greatly slowed down the spread of the disease. “We’re seeing less cases,” professor of health metrics sciences Ali Mokdad at the University of Washington told me. “Social distancing is working.”
We are not out of the woods yet — far from it. But thanks to the sacrifice of conscientious people around the world, we have bought ourselves more time. And that time means less people in the hospital, more ventilators for those who need them, and more opportunity to gather data and develop strategies to mitigate the appalling costs of this awful disease. Keep going.
Have a great weekend!
Read more for Banter Members:
The Red Hats Are Fine With A Dictator, As Long As It’s Their Dictator
Half of the American voting population would be entirely welcoming of an autocratic ruler, says Bob Cesca
We Can Finally Say Goodbye To The Bernie Sanders Militants
After Bernie Sanders enthusiastically endorsed Joe Biden, Bernie or Bust fanatics are still bitter. Thankfully, their time is now up, says Ben Cohen
The Smearing Of Joe Biden (Part 1): Why His #MeToo Accuser Is Not Credible
Tara Reade's account of being sexually assaulted by Joe Biden is troubling, but upon further scrutiny, basic facts do not add up, says Ben Cohen
”It is officially time for Trump to start panicking.“
Regardless, it is NEVER time to start being complacent. There isn’t a single unthinkable thing Trump and his enablers won’t do to steal the election.
Closing polling places in Democratic neighborhoods, sending out “information packets” to voters that list the the wrong dates for voting, using government agencies to create “evidence” of a Biden scandal. You name it.
Until the vote is certified we must recognize that Trumps defeat is far, far from certain.
A story this week that was both huge and very good was the results of the election for Wisconsin's Supreme Court seat between incumbent right winger Daniel Kelly and his liberal Democratic opponent Jill Karofsky.
Republicans in that state pulled every dirty trick in the book in order to tilt the election their way. Forcing the election to happen in the first place in the middle of a pandemic, making it difficult for people to vote - in Milwaukee, where there are 180 voting stations available for an election, only FIVE were open to the public. The GOP openly, blatantly tried to suppress the vote in their favor.
The end result: Instead of winning, Republicans got their asses kicked in red state Wisconsin. Voters risked their health to turn out to those sparse stations and chose Karofsky over Kelly, 855,981 to 692,523 votes, or 55.3% to 44.7%.
This is fantastic news for Democrats, and horrible news for Republicans. It means Americans are getting sick and tired of Republicans dirty tricks, heartless governing, and the dangerously gross incompetence of Drumpf and his lackeys, and want a return to normalcy in government. Even if it means risking their health. With six and a half months to go until the federal election, the chances of a Blue Tsunami washing Republicans out in DC grows greater and stronger.