This report from the Washington Post’s Dan Balz ostensibly about Trump’s bad couple of weeks stepping on his message is something else. Read the following and then think about what’s missing from it:
Trump, however, is not without assets to use in the final weeks. As president, he can use the levers of the federal government to benefit himself politically — and is doing so.
On Friday, he announced an agreement between Israel and Bahrain to establish diplomatic relations, a month after a similar agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. How significant these will be remains an open question, but they are markers he can point to as progress.
He is pushing for an early announcement of an effective vaccine against the virus that causes covid 19. Despite cautions to the contrary, that a vaccine probably won’t be ready before the end of the year at the earliest, he can use his bully pulpit to promise the public and cajole the Food and Drug Administration.
Four years ago, then-FBI Director James B. Comey reopened an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private emails as secretary of state in the final two weeks of the campaign, an unexpected development that disrupted her candidacy, even though that reopening came to naught.
Trump could have his own version of this kind of judicial intervention: U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr, is investigating the role of U.S. intelligence agencies looking into Russian interference in 2016. His report could be released before the election.
On Friday, it was reported that Nora Dannehy, one of the senior prosecutors on Durham’s team, had resigned, a move that could prompt questions about whether the investigators are under undue political pressure to finish their work.
Finally, Trump continues his efforts to discredit voting by mail — in most states at least — and thereby to seed the ground for doubts about whether the election will be fairly decided if he falls short.
With seven weeks left until Election Day and with Biden holding a lead in the polls, Trump has ground to make up, though the electoral college math remains friendlier to him than the popular vote. Each week that he is trapped in a controversy about his own leadership, the less time he has to make his case against his challenger.
Wow. Trump really has some incumbent advantages at his disposal doesn’t he? How lucky for him that he can deploy them for his re-election campaign.
I’m sure you noticed that he doesn’t point out anywhere how corrupt all those tactics are.
1.) Pushing a vaccine for a deadly pandemic before its ready is one of the most irresponsible and reckless acts any leader has ever done. He might have mentioned that.
2.) Barr’s outrageous decision to interfere in the election is as corrupt as it gets. Balz suggests what he’s doing (and Comey last time) is just business as usual. It’s not.
3.) Trump is out there saying “the only way I can lose this election is if it’s rigged.” His discrediting of the Vote By Mail, which is perfectly safe, is as unethical as it gets since it’s obvious that he is just laying the groundwork to claim the election was stolen from him, regardless of how big a loss he suffers. You’d think Balz would mention that somewhere too.
None of this is “making the case against his challenger.” It’s lying, cheating, manipulating and dirty tricks along with reckless disregard for the lives of millions of Americans.
This bland recitation of Trump’s corruption as if it’s just another tactic is as “norm-breaking” as Trump himself. The Village is alive and well.