From:
slider@anashram.com
(CNN)Donald Trump's weak and flailing interview with Jonathan Swan of
Axios fired a warning flare about the President's hopes for reelection, if
his campaign and White House staff programed to fulfill his yearning for
praise are prepared to recognize it.
[plus full hilarious video]
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-election-2020-joe-biden/index.html
Trump came across as ill-prepared, narcissistic and far from in control of
the coronavirus pandemic. It was a far cry from the image of courageous leadership and energetic, unstinting commitment on behalf of Americans
that his aides spend every day trying to sketch.
It is hard to remember an interview in which a sitting President was more unsparingly exposed or seemed so unequal to the magnitude of a crisis that
is threatening the American people and is nowhere near ending.
And Trump's sit-down with Swan came about a month and a half before his
first presidential debate clash with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe
Biden. His struggles offer plenty of fodder for Biden's debate prep team
as they plot his strategy and train up their man for what could be the
most important moment of the most unusual presidential campaign.
When Trump was fact-checked in real time, Trump's flame-throwing interview technique fizzled. When Swan frustrated his scattershot attempts to jump
to another subject, Trump wilted. Under pressure, he provided the kind of offhand remark that could define a political race if properly used by an opponent.
"It is what it is," Trump said, appearing callous and disconnected about a Covid-19 death toll that has reached 150,000 Americans. When he was
challenged, Trump responded with nonsensical answers, grasping for a
counter to simple questions about his handling of the pandemic.
"We're lower than the world," Trump said in an incomprehensible response
when pressed on why the US has a death toll that averaged 1,000 a day in
recent weeks and is expected to go ever higher. When he made the unfounded claim that there are "those" who say there can be too much coronavirus
testing, Trump bizarrely claimed "books" and "manuals" said so.
The interview was unrecognizable from the friendly, unchallenging
conversations he enjoys with Fox News opinion hosts and other conservative media figures, who play into the President's craving for adulation that is
also often provided by subordinates like Vice President Mike Pence.
Debates loom
There is a long tradition of presidents, complacent and unprepared,
walking into a debate clash with a challenger. Presidents are not used to people getting in their cage. They've spent four years flying around the
world in Air Force One and seeing people stand when they walk into a room.
In 2012, President Barack Obama was roughed up by his challenger Mitt
Romney after infuriating his campaign staff with his unfocused manner at
his debate camp.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush never seemed the equal of the younger
Bill Clinton. In their second encounter, with an infamous glance at his
watch, he played into played into his challenger's claims that he was
oblivious to the suffering of ordinary Americans amid a recession.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan struggled through his first debate with Democratic nominee Walter Mondale, playing into Democratic claims that he
was too old and tired to win a second term. Only a stellar performance in
a second debate, that contained one of the greatest presidential zingers
of all time ("I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my
opponent's youth and inexperience,") rescued Reagan.
Two of those three presidents roused themselves and went on to win
reelection weeks later. But they got the kind of wake-up call that Trump received in his Axios interview. The question now is whether a President
who prizes gut calls and abhors preparation and details will hear a
similar message.
Trump is so unpredictable and adept at bending the medium of television to
his will that he could well put on a strong performance at the debates
that convinces wavering supporters to return to his fold. Or he could so disorientate Biden -- who has spent months out of the spotlight during the pandemic -- that the Trump campaign's claims about his capacity find some traction. The President might be able to draw Biden into the kind of catastrophic error or flustered responses that harm his campaign and make
him seem unfit for the presidency.
Trump's aides often talk about how good he is at counterpunching.
But a presidency-saving performance will require focus, practice, a
willingness to examine his own liabilities and the kind of empathy for Americans stuck in a seemingly endless national nightmare that Trump demonstrably failed to show in his Axios interview.
### - had to really laff at his antics here which really didn't come
across at all well?
frantically waving those charts about he looked kinda deranged haha, and
which resulted in a most embarrassing interview for him and his party! one couldn't help but wince quite a few times?
i mean, is this the kinda person ya'd really wanna have holding his finger
over the big fuckin' red button for another 4 years?? ("tell me when lord,
tell me when; let me be your servant lord..." --Bill Hicks haha)
tbh, i'd be worried about putting the fucker in-charge of a goldfish for christsakes LOL ! :)))
...well, we gots more nukes than everyone else, we got great numbers, so i guess we'd win! look at the charts! looks at the charts! we're number one! we're number one! (crackin' up...)
fuckin' hell...
old biden basically doesn't have to do a damn thing but keep his gob shut
to win the election now; just re-show selected parts of that interview and finish with one of those prolonged: who are ya kidding looks?
don't even comment on it lol, just the look alone would do!
another one would a look that said: riiiiiiiiiight....
hahaha :)))
he's actually lucky really that he didn't bump into a couple of uk
interviewers i can think of heh, coz they'd have sliced him up and eaten
the poor fucker for breakfast and then spat out the pips lol, this
interviewer dude was ok but imho didn't press his points home nearly far enough, trumpy doin' everything he can to change the subject wouldn't have fazed the likes of our political interviewer jeremy paxman for example, oh boy...
even so, he did manage to make mr-t look like a complete idiot as opposed
to someone completely composed and in-charge of the whole situation... but
it's all just words with him isn't it heh... peeps is actually startin' to
see behind the mirror lol, and that's not good politics :)))
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)