Burke: That was no debate; it was chewing on sound bites
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, August 30, 2023
By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
So we watched the debate; followed Donald Trump’s round-trip cavalcade of shame from Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport to the Fulton County Jail for his mug shot; and tried to keep up with all the legal maneuverings of those accused in the multitude of election, government documents and insurrection crimes committed by and for him.
And I am here to report to you, gentle reader: if it wasn’t my “job;” I, like Ronald Reagan (paraphrasing comedian W.C. Fields), would, “On the whole, rather be in Philadelphia.”
To begin, the debate … wasn’t. A debate, that is. It was two hours of well-rehearsed sound bites, uttered without regard to the question, and nothing but vicious knees-and-elbows as each of the “candidates” pushed and shoved and jockeyed to garner some MAGA cheers from the audience.
I saw a tweet that captured the spirit of the whole sad show:
Question: What do you call a bunch of presidential candidates who pledge to support a convicted felon for president, even though he’s already said he wouldn’t support any of them?
Answer: Suckers and losers.
I gotta admit, some parts of the event sent me scurrying for the single malt while others had me toasting Joe Biden, who was the real winner of the debate with:
Vivek Ramaswamy offered that climate change policy is a “hoax.”
Ron DeSantis said he would shoot on sight people at the border who he thought might be smugglers (can you say “murder?”) and send the Navy to board Chinese ships on the high seas (can you say “act of war?).
Mike Pence openly endorsed a national ban on abortions at 15 weeks based on his theocratic, Christian religious fervor.
DeSantis bragged about his covid response with 86,000 dead Floridians and third-highest death rate in the country.
And consider DeSantis’ response to the question: “How would you fix the American economy?” He said he’d “bring Anthony Fauci into the Oval Office, sit him down, and you say, ‘Anthony, you are fired!’” (Makes sense, after all Fauci is a doctor, a retired! doctor, and surely canning a retired doctor two years from now will reduce the cost of TV dinners, wool socks and mortgage rates.)
And, “How about crime?” the moderators asked. “How would you handle it?”
“When I’m president, the first thing I’ll do is fire Merrick Garland,” announced Tim Scott. (Right. Like Democratic appointee Garland will still be the attorney general when (if?) the Republican Scott arrives in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025.)
I confess to being startled to hear some actual truth, however. Nikki Haley spilled the beans on the Republicanss (and crafted a great ‘Biden for President’ campaign ad) when she ‘fessed up about the deficit saying, ” Biden didn’t do this to us, our Republicans did this to us,” continuing, “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”
She also delivered the best put-down of the night when she slammed Ramaswamy for his total BS: Addressing Ramaswamy over Ukraine, saying, “You are choosing a murderer [Putin] over a pro-American country. … You have no foreign policy experience and it shows.”
My take-away from the “debate:” It was a total clown car and none of the eight has sufficient character to be remotely qualified to guide this nation.
And speaking of suckers and losers, another tweet (X?) caught my eye; this one about those who support Trump with political contributions:
“If a guy has a private 757, and you’re sending him money for his legal fees, you’re more stupid than I thought.”
Now, about the six-foot-three, 215 pound (wait, what?) booked, four-times-indicted, twice impeached, convicted sex offender and his encounter in the slammer:
• Facing 40 criminal counts alleging mishandling of sensitive documents and conspiracy to obstruct the government at Mar-a-Largo and in D.C.;
• Charged with four criminal counts of conspiring to defraud the government and disenfranchise voters and corruptly obstructing an official proceeding;
• Indicted with 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in the first degree related to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, and
• Further facing 13 criminal counts in the racketeering case related to alleged attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
• Plus the New York state civil case by Leticia James alleging Trump committed fraud by inflating his net worth by billions of dollars in order to get richer; the E. Jean Carroll cases charging Trump with defamation (again); and his suit for defamation against his former lawyer Michael Cohen, for which he refuses to give an on-the-record deposition.
Trump has become a full-time criminal defendant for one simple reason; he’s committed a lot of crimes. He is not a defendant for saying the election was stolen; he’s a criminal because he tried to steal the election.
But in his desperation to stay out of jail, by hoping to win in ’24, he has embraced a unique campaign strategy: running as the candidate who’s been indicted in four different states; the “victim” of a “witchhunt;” and the instrument of retribution for the disaffected MAGA masses.
I remain gob-smacked that the United States of America has devolved into a country filled with people who actually support Trump. It’s insane. But that’s what we’re dealing with, members of a cult, the Trump cult, who are, apparently, quite insane. Or gullible. Or angry. Or ignorant. Or afraid. Or desperate. Or too blinded to see the truth.
Slava Ukraini.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
