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OPINION

How We Know Trump Was Lying When He Said ‘I Didn’t Do It’ and ‘I Don’t Know Anything About’ Closing the Pandemic Office

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There will be deaths and those deaths will have been avoidable.

President Donald Trump’s Friday afternoon press conference announcing a national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic was an astonishing self-congratulatory exercise in awful oratory, but it was also a grotesque snapshot into the decrepit world of Donald Trump.

For a moment just ignore all of Trump’s figurative elbow-rubbing and back-slapping, literal hand-shaking, infomercialization, Disneyization, and commercialization of a global pandemic in which now Americans are no longer citizens but “consumers.”

Ignore the false claims and all-too-real coverups Trump painted. Ignore Trump’s total lack of interest in the virus and his total interest in creating income streams for his corporate sponsors, like Google and CVS.

Focus for a moment on this extremely important fact: President Donald Trump shut down the White House Pandemic Office in 2018, and less than two years later America and the world are struggling through a global health emergency that Trump’s own administration says could kill 5.1 million people in this country alone.

Friday afternoon PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked President Trump about shutting down that office.

His response was not just offensive and unpresidential, it was filled with lies.

“You said you don’t take responsibility [for slow response to coronavirus] but you did disband the White House Pandemic Office,” Alcindor asked President Trump. “So, what responsibility do you take to that? And the officials that worked in that office said that you — that the White House lost valuable time because that office was disbanded? What do you make of that?”

“Well, I just think it’s a nasty question,” Trump responded, weaponizing a word he regularly uses when speaking about women. “What we’ve done is — and Tony had said numerous times that we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing. And when you say me, I didn’t do it. We have a group of people.”

“It’s your administration,” Alcindor reminded the president.

“I could ask, perhaps — my administration, but I could perhaps ask Tony about that, because I don’t know anything about it,” Trump claimed. “I mean, you say we did that. I don’t know anything about it.”

Trump is lying, and here’s how we know.

First of all, as U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said on Twitter Friday afternoon, when Trump closed the Pandemics Office Brown sent him this letter “demanding answers.”

Next, this Washington Post op-ed, published just this morning, titled, “I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it.”

And finally, this video of Trump from just a few weeks ago admitting he closed the office:

“I didn’t do it.” “I don’t know anything about it.”

Those are lies, and they’re lies to hide the fact that President Donald Trump is responsible for the United States’ horrific handling of the coronavirus pandemic. There will be deaths and those deaths will have been avoidable had he pushed for the testing he repeatedly, even now, tries to suppress, and had he not shuttered the Pandemics Office.

 

 

 

 

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OPINION

‘He’s Not Ok’: Questions of Trump’s ‘Cognitive Decline’ Explode Amid ‘Bizarre Behavior’

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Nobel Prize-winning economist, professor, and popular New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman on Monday published, “Trump Has Become Unmoored in Time.” In it he closes by asking, “what would Trump say about an opponent who, like him, seems stuck in the past, who routinely describes America in ways that suggest that he doesn’t know what year it is?”

On Tuesday Krugman posted a link to his piece on the social media platform X, and wrote: “This was filed before Trump’s bizarre behavior at his latest rallies. Maybe I was too polite in describing one aspect of his cognitive decline.”

Krugman is not alone in calling out what some are calling Donald Trump’s apparent cognitive decline, which seems to have become increasingly obvious over the past few days, and especially since Monday evening.

At a town hall in the suburbs of Philadelphia last night, two medical issues among audience members led the Republican presidential nominee to decide he would no longer take questions (he had taken just a handful) and declare the Q&A over. Instead, Trump said, he would like to play some music. The “impromptu D.J. session,” as The New York Times generously called it, and a “bizarre musical event,” according to NPR, went on for 30 to 40 minutes.

“Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music,” Trump told supporters at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. “Let’s make it into a music ——. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”

RELATED: Trump Abruptly Cancels Another Interview, This Time With a Trump-Friendly CNBC Host

South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem, who was acting as the town hall’s host, asked Trump, “Well sir, do you want to play your song and then greet a few people?” After the ex-president, apparently not understanding, questioned her, she explained, “Well, you had said you wanted to close with a specific song.”

The GOP presidential nominee spent the rest of the evening on stage listening to music and occasionally dancing (photo.)

Trump on social media described the evening: “I had a Town Hall in Pennsylvania last night. It was amazing! The Q and A was almost finished when people began fainting from the excitement and heat. We started playing music while we waited, and just kept it going. So different, but it ended up being a GREAT EVENING!”

He also called those who suffered medical emergencies “patriots,” as ABC News reported, which he has done before under similar circumstances.

“‘Would anybody else like to faint?’ Trump said as the second person made their way out of the Expo Center.”

Former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci remarked, “The October surprise is that Trump has completely lost his marbles.”

Even a Fox News reporter found the event “very strange.”

“That thing Trump did last night is not explainable and it is not small,” an apparently concerned U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) wrote. “It shows that he’s increasingly detached from reality. Everyone knows if Biden or Harris did that it would be media mayhem. He’s not ok, and you can’t ignore it anymore.”

READ MORE: Trump Campaign Furious Walz Using Trump’s Own ‘Reckless, Dangerous Rhetoric’ Against Him

Filmmaker and podcaster Andy Ostroy called it, “the craziest shit I’ve ever seen in politics.”

While only a qualified medical professional can make diagnoses, more than a few commenters on social media suggested Trump was “sundowning,” a term the Mayo Clinic describes as “a group of symptoms that occurs at a specific time of the day. These symptoms may affect people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.”

Professor of Politics Jack Pitney, who left the Republican Party when Trump was elected in 2016, is the author of several books including, “Un-American: the Fake Patriotism of Donald J. Trump.”

He writes: “Kristi Noem’s face during Trump’s sundowning episode gives a whole new meaning to Raymond Chandler’s phrase: “that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.”

Political scientist and professor David Darmofal adds, “I know the symptoms of dementia extremely well from being a caregiver for 7 years. 78-year-old Trump’s father had Alzheimer’s & now he’s showing undeniable symptoms of cognitive decline. I’m begging our national media to address this issue.”

“Donald Trump’s dementia is NOT a political issue,” declared SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah, “it’s a national security issue. Trump could be easily controlled/manipulated by top aides and foreign leaders to do what they want. This DEMANDS coverage from the corporate media!”

“There is something profoundly broken in our national press corps. Trump clearly had some kind of a mental break last night – those of us who have family members with dementia recognize it. He didn’t know where he was. And they’re pretending it was nothing,” Democratic strategist Laura Chapin said.

Trump’s night did not end with his town hall music event.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, the ex-president, who remains a convicted felon awaiting sentencing on November 26, lashed out at his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris—while defending his mental health and attacking her recently-released and very-detailed physician’s report.

“Harris ‘remains in excellent health,’ her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said in a letter on Saturday,” ABC News reported. The report also stated: “She possesses the physical and mental resilience required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”

“The doctor pointed to seasonal allergies and hives (urticaria) as a ‘notable’ part of her health history,” ABC added. “He also listed a number of over-the-counter medications used to improve her symptoms, which he said have never been ‘severe.'”

Trump, on his Truth Social platform, proceeded to falsely characterize the details of Harris’s medical report.

“As to her completely desperate request for my Medical Statements, she is dying to see my Cholesterol (which is 180!), I have already provided them, many times, including quite recently, and they were flawless,” Trump claimed. He has never released a thoroughly-detailed medical report.

“However, I have just seen Kamala’s Report, and it is not good. According to her Doctor’s Report, she suffers from ‘urticaria,’ defined as ‘a rash of round, red welts on the skin that itch intensely, sometimes with dangerous swelling.’ She also has ‘allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis,’ a very messy and dangerous situation. These are deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning. Maybe that is why she can’t answer even the simplest of questions asked by 60 Minutes, and others. What is this all about? I don’t have these problems…”

“…I’ve put out more Medical Exams than any other President in History, and aced two Cognitive Exams (the Doctor stated that my ‘cognitive exams were exceptional!’),” Trump continued. “I am far healthier than Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, but especially, Kamala. Also, I am far too busy campaigning to take time, from the 22 days left, as I am using every hour, of every day, campaigning, because we have to take back our Country from the Radical Left people that are destroying it. MAGA2024!”

Right now, “dementia” is trending on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Watch the videos and social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Is He OK?’: Trump’s Dark of Night Rage Posting Backfires

 

 

 

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OPINION

‘Is He OK?’: Trump’s Dark of Night Rage Posting Backfires

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After a weekend of speeches dehumanizing immigrants and threatening to use the U.S. military on Americans who oppose him, Donald Trump in a 1 AM dead of night post lashed out at his Democratic presidential opponent in what some are saying was projection.

“I believe it is very important that Kamala Harris pass a test on Cognitive Stamina and Agility,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at 1:12 AM. “Her actions have led many to believe that there could be something very wrong with her. Even 60 Minutes and CBS, in order to protect Lyin’ Kamala, illegally and unscrupulously replaced an answer she had given, which was totally ‘bonkers,’ with another answer that had nothing to do with the question asked. Also, she is slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest of questions. We just went through almost four years of that, we shouldn’t have to do it again!”

Late Monday morning Trump posted the same message on the social media site X. He also recently called Vice President Harris “retarded,” according to The New York Times.

“So, let me get this straight,” noted Zeteo News media columnist Justin Baragona. “The 78-year-old GOP presidential nominee, who has been showing serious signs of age-related decline, refuses to release his medical records — but he is now demanding his much younger opponent take a cognitive test?”

READ MORE: ‘Fascist to the Core’: Trump’s Top General Slams Ex-President as ‘Most Dangerous Person’

SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile observed, “Trump is furious that Harris is saying Trump’s ‘staff’ won’t let him do 60 Minutes or release his medical records.”

“Claiming Harris is ‘slow and lethargic’ is a heavy lift even for this pathological liar and his MAGA mob.”

The Harris campaign mocked Trump in response.

“Trump posts at 1:12am that VP Harris must take a cognitive test,” wrote campaign spokesperson Ian Sams. “As he refuses to release his medical records, sit with 60 Minutes, or debate her again— instead retreating solely to rambling rallies where he’s increasingly making no sense.”

“Is he okay?”

READ MORE: Elon Musk’s X Engaged in a ‘Pattern of Election Interference’ to Help Trump: Reports

Republican Voters Against Trump, a project of the Republican Accountability PAC declared, “It’s always projection with Trump.”

Before Trump’s post on Saturday, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin told viewers: “For Trump and his party, the strategy in this final stretch to the election is about one thing and one thing only: projection.”

“Everything Trump and his party accuse Democrats of doing ultimately ends up being a cynical projection of themselves, from defending democracy to free speech, reproductive rights, and free and fair elections.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Campaign an ‘Influence Operation’ Says Former State Dept. Official — Experts Agree

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OPINION

Trump Campaign an ‘Influence Operation’ Says Former State Dept. Official — Experts Agree

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A prominent former U.S. State Department official who worked to fight Russian disinformation has labeled the Trump presidential campaign an “influence operation,” with several experts echoing his assessment.

Richard Stengel, an NBC News/MSNBC analyst who spent seven years as TIME magazine managing editor and served as the chief executive of the National Constitution Center, on Thursday shared his evaluation.

“The Trump candidacy is not so much a political campaign as what intelligence services call an influence operation, a coordinated effort to use mis-and-disinformation to undermine democratic institutions and processes,” declared Stengel.

Stengel, who served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, is the author of the 2019 memoir, “Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It.”

READ MORE: ‘Trafficking in Nazi Race Science’: Trump Blasted After ‘Vile Trifecta’ of Antisemitism

Stengel’s comment received hundreds of thousands of views on social media, and garnered responses from experts.

“This is correct,” replied Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the well-known professor of history and an expert on fascism, authoritarians, propaganda, and democracy.

“True,” asserted Eric Chenoweth, Director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, adding, “it is correlated with Russian influence operations.”

“The Trump effort has the support of his BFF Putin, who has paid agents in the US as social ‘influencers’ to help promote Russia’s pro-Trump narrative,” noted former U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo, Greg Delawie.

Indeed, early last month the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced it had seized “32 internet domains used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns,” which “used these domains, among others, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election.”

Days later, MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones reported, “MAGA influencers are scrambling after the DOJ’s Russia indictment,” and mentioned “an unsealed affidavit … alleging a Kremlin-backed agency had nearly 600 U.S.-based influencers in its sights as it waged an online-based election manipulation operation in the United States.”

The Washington Spectator’s Dave Troy, an investigative journalist and tech entrepreneur who has written extensively on Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, responded to Stengel’s post: “Yes. And this would have been a very cool thing for the Obama administration to say in 2015-2016.”

Dr. Joanne Freeman, a professor of American history and of American studies, replied to Stengel’s post with a simple “YUP.”

Stengel’s pronouncement wasn’t so much a revelation as a reminder.

READ MORE: Trump Stands Silently for ‘God Bless the USA’ Then Trashes Detroit to Detroit Economic Club

Earlier this week, David Corn, Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief and co-author of “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” penned an important piece titled: “Trump Is Running a Disinformation Campaign, Not a Political Campaign.”

“He’s not just lying. He’s creating an alternative reality,” Corn states. “His campaign is a full-fledged project to pervert how Americans view the nation and the world, an extensive propaganda campaign designed to fire up fears and intensify anxieties that Trump can then exploit to collect votes. And the political media world has yet to come to terms with the fact that Trump is heading a disinformation crusade more likely to be found in an authoritarian state than a vibrant democracy. This is unlike other presidential campaigns in modern American history—other than his own previous efforts.”

Even before Donald Trump left the White House in disgrace in January of 2021, experts were busy analyzing just how damaging his time on office then had been.

The day after the November 2020 election which Trump ultimately lost but falsely had declared victory, The Washington Post‘s Dan Balz wrote: “Trump has attacked democracy’s institutions, but never so blatantly as he did overnight.”

“For four years, President Trump has sought to undermine the institutions of a democratic society, but never so blatantly as in the early morning hours of Wednesday. His attempt to falsely claim victory and to subvert the election itself by calling for a halt to vote-counting represents the gravest of threats to the stability of the country,” Balz wrote. “A president who respected the Constitution would let things play out. But Trump has shown once again he cares not about the Constitution or the stability and well-being of the country or anything like that. He cares only about himself and retaining the powers he now holds. And so he cries “fraud” when there is no evidence whatsoever of any such thing.”

The Niskanen Center, a D.C. think tank, one week before the violent and deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection Trump allegedly incited, asked: “How Much Did Trump Undermine U.S. Democracy?

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Dem Mom Who Lost Son to Gun Violence Horrified to See Herself in Anti-Harris Ad

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