Listen to that. You simply can’t believe what you’re hearing. He is as dumb and unhinged as we’ve ever seen him, speaking to 50 Governors, calling them weak, insisting they need to “dominate!” while also whining like a spoiled little 8 year old.
Meanwhile we find out that this macho superman was cowering in the White House bunker on Friday Night and last night they turned off the lights of the White House like a couple of old ladies afraid of trick-or-treaters on Halloween because of the protests across the street.
That famous picture above shows the night Nixon, wandered out to talk to the protesters on the mall. Josh Marshall wrote a good piece yesterday comparing the two men and Nixon comes out on top. He analyzes the natural fear we all have that this unrest is going to somehow activate the racist lizard brain of the American people to new heights as it did in the late 60s leading to Nixon’s re-election. (Perlstein had a good answer for that.)
Marshall writes:
The bigger difference is that President Trump clearly has no plan. There’s no ten dimensional chess here. He’s reacting each day to the new events of the moment, much as he has through the COVID epidemic. Flexing, threatening, running away, demanding credit. He is also showing all his signatures – erratic behavior, short attention span, the reflex to inflame and divide.
Also on vivid display is what’s likely best seen as his physical cowardice. I don’t expect him to wade out into the crowds to create some transformative moment. But where is he? Twitter is disembodied. You might as well be tweeting from the Moon. With such a large bullhorn it’s all one way communication. Lights out at the White House, hiding in a bunker, has the feeling of turning out the lights on Halloween and hiding out in your bedroom with a flashlight because you want the trick or treaters to go away or not egg your house. Lashing out, roaring for dominance, hiding in the basement.
He is, as usual, out of his depth. But he clearly believes this is in his wheelhouse. I don’t think anyone can stop him from throwing gasoline on this fire. He is still the man who wrote this:
Here’s Biden yesterday:
