FREAK OUT FRIDAY – October 16, 2020

I did as I said I would:  I watched “Supernatural,” and don’t regret it for a moment.  I then tuned in to watch the last half hour of Biden:  he seemed natural, relaxed, and sane.

Then, in order to write this column, I sat down and watched the Trump town hall on Youtube.   

I am producing this commentary as I’m watching it.  Think of it as a belated live blog.  The good thing is that Kathleen is upstairs asleep and doesn’t have to deal with hearing Trump’s voice.

1.  Savannah Guthrie starts out by asking him about his last negative Covid test, which the White House has been dodging.  Trump replies that he doesn’t remember being tested before the debate; Guthrie presses him on it and now he says he probably was tested.  So right off the bat, he changes his tune:  “Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t.”  Let’s face facts:  he knew that he had it and was hoping to give it to Biden.

•  He claims that he’s not against masks.  Another lie.  He disparages Biden for wearing them and refuses to wear one himself.  People actually pay attention to what he says and does.  And Guthrie isn’t letting him get away with it.   She’s calling him on the hypocrisy.

• “On the excess mortality, we’re a winner.”  What in the HÊLL is he talking about?  Guthrie rightly points out that our per capita death rate is the highest in the world and all he does is talk about Regeneron.  She asked him about whether he is in favor of letting more people die and throw it out to herd immunity, which he doesn’t answer.  Instead he claims that millions could have died, and Guthrie again nails him by pointing out that number is based on a study speculating about deaths if the government had done nothing.  

• He claims he denounces white supremacy but can’t help going after Antifa and the left anyway.  And now he states once again that he knows nothing about QAnon, which is the EXACT same answer he gave weeks ago. Even if it was true then, he did nothing to research it or investigate a movement that his own FBI equates with terrorism?  Doesn’t he understand that constantly saying “I don’t know about it” regarding things that everyone else in the country is aware of makes him look like a dámņëd idiot? 

• God, he is SO defensive.  She’s pressing him and he keeps bìŧçhìņg and whining and pìššìņg and moaning.  

• “You’re the President! You’re not like somebody’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.”  That’s the best observation any news person has ever made to his face.  

• “Your own FBI director says there’s no evidence of voter fraud.”  “Well then he’s not doing a very good job.”  That’s Trump right there.  Bad mouth the law enforcement agency that, oh yes, just rounded up a bunch of white supremacists who wanted to kidnap and execute the governor of Virginia.  Yes, that’s very supportive.  I’m sure they appreciate it. 

• “There is in fact no evidence of widespread voter fraud.”  She’s absolutely right and he won’t admit it.  He’s still operating under the delusion he’s going to win.

• Yet another lie:  everyone in the room wanted Trump to do the travel ban.  They had to talk him into it.  And then he turned around and claimed that it was entirely his idea and everyone else opposed him.  Also Biden did NOT call him xenophobic and racist because of the China shut down; he called him that because he IS xenophobic and racist.

1.  And Guthrie real-time fact checks him again.  No one is saying 40 percent unemployment; as Guthrie points out, twenty percent, yes, not double that.  

1. “I was okay with the masks” says the man whose behavior has turned masks into a political question that has divided the country.  My God, the bûllšhìŧ that just radiates from this man is palpable. 

1. “We’re always protecting people with pre-existing conditions.”  No.  He’s not.  His people are pushing forward a case to the SCOTUS that would eliminate it entirely.  Ah, and Guthrie is nailing him on it.  And yet again he hauls out his dodge about how he’s going to replace it with a much better program WHICH DOES NOT EXIST.  He’s been claiming it for almost four years and has produced NOTHING.  

1. Trump was the one who shut down conversations about the stimulus package and naturally he blames Pelosi for it.  He cannot take responsibility for anything.  And Guthrie is continuing to hold his feet to the fire.  He keeps trying to toss it back to Pelosi and Guthrie is making it painfully obvious that he’s shucking and jiving.  Trump says he can’t ask the Republicans to agree to it because of Pelosi?  Does that make sense to anyone aside from Trump?

1. No, Biden does NOT want to raise taxes on middle income taxpayers.  Yet another lie.  

1. $420 million is a small amount of money?  Seriously?

1. He’s “treated badly” by the IRS?  Is anyone treated WELL by the IRS?  It’s the IRS’s job to take money away from you, not to treat you with kid gloves.  And he keeps repeating the lie that he will eventually release his tax returns.  Along with his “repeal and replace” lie, it’s one of his favorites.  He claims “I wouldn’t mind saying” who he owes money to, and then of course doesn’t say anything specific.  Deny, deny, deny.  

1.  And once again Guthrie confronts him with his hypocrisy, pointing out that back in 2016 he stated Obama should not be allowed to appoint a new judge to the SCOTUS.  His response is to claim that the grilling of Judge Cavanaugh “changed the game.”  How?  How did that hearing take McConnell and the GOP and Trump himself off the hook of being raging hypocrites?  

1. An interesting question from an anti-choicer (a term I feel is far more accurate than Pro-Lifer):  if they managed to overturn Roe v. Wade, as Trump is trying to do, what protections would be put in place when the mother’s life is in danger?  And of course he didn’t answer it.  Didn’t even come close.  Didn’t address it at all.  He won’t even admit that he wants to get rid of a woman’s right to choose.  Instead he just claims that he wants the SCOTUS to make a decision on it.  News flash:  They DID make a decision in 1973, and the GOP has been trying to overturn it ever since.  Trump is trying to slam Barrett through so that she can be part of a 6-3 majority to overturn it and yet doesn’t have the balls to admit that that’s what he’s doing.

1. The reason we don’t like it when he says he’s done more for the African-American community than any president since Lincoln is because it’s a lie.  Off the top of my head, Lyndon Johnson signed Civil Rights into existence.  That was pretty dámņëd significant.  Trump’s boasts of what he’s done are, to put it mildly, dubious.  And of course this woman doesn’t get her question answered either.

• “We’re going to take care of DACA.”  Yes, just like a Mafioso “takes care” of people he considers enemies.  He then goes on to claim that he’s built four hundred miles of border wall, up from his previous claim of three hundred.  Actual amount he’s built:  thirty miles.  The rest is just repairs on already existing structures.  

• God, the fact checkers are going to be so busy tearing apart his final comments.  It’s nothing but lies, lies and exaggerations.

Kathleen would have blown her brains out if she’d had to watch this.

I’ll tell you this:  I don’t watch the Today Show, but I might just start doing so to follow this Savannah Guthrie.  It was great to watch her fact-check him in real time.

I honestly don’t know how anyone could be undecided at this point.  Contrast Trump’s rambling, ill-mannered, disingenuous, finger-pointing accusatory style with Biden’s measured, practiced tone, and anyone with two functioning brain cells to rub together can see which one should be leading this country for the next four years.

PAD