Friday Talking Points -- How Low Can Trump Go?

[ChrisWeigant]

Another week, another stunning revelation about the dishonesty and shallowness of our president, it seems. Last week, you'll remember, it was the low regard Trump held ("suckers" and "losers" ) for American soldiers who died in wartime, American soldiers who were wounded ("nobody wants to see that" ), and American soldiers and veterans in general. This week, Bob Woodward leaked a few key excerpts (backed up by audio recordings) from his upcoming book Rage, which showed that Trump understood how serious the coronavirus was going to be and then lied to the American public about it. There simply is no bottom, with Trump -- every time you think that he's reached the lowest of the low, he will once again prove that he can go even lower.

Here was the quote at the crux of the matter:

"You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed," Trump told Woodward. "And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu."

In another conversation on March 19, the president told Woodward that he intentionally played down the threat of the virus so as not to panic Americans.

As we wrote earlier this week, this means that "Trump lied, people died" should now be the most prominent Democratic slogan in the 2020 election. It has been proven by Trump's own words on tape that he wanted to "play down" the whole pandemic, which equates to "lying to the American public about the severity of the threat we all faced."

Trump tried to talk his way out of this mess, with sometimes-laughable results. First he insisted that he was just being a cheerleader, and trying to calm everyone down. As we also wrote earlier, this contradicts pretty much everything he's ever said and done, including the entire focus of his re-election campaign, which is to spread as much fear and panic as humanly possible, on any subject under the sun, really.

Then he insisted that Bob Woodward was really the one to blame, since he didn't report Trump's word "to the authorities." Today, he's moved on to comparing himself (are you sitting down?) to Winston Churchill during the London Blitz.

All the while, Trump continues to still lie his face off to the public about the pandemic. At a news conference this week, he stated that the outbreaks across Europe were "much worse than the numbers here," which is just flat-out false. It's outright fantasy, really, to even try to claim this. Trump also insisted that the U.S. has "rounded the final turn" and that things would be peachy-keen real soon now.

This immediately led to Dr. Anthony Fauci refuting Trump's fantasy world:

"I'm sorry but I have to disagree with that," National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, calling the United States' coronavirus levels seven months into the pandemic "disturbing."

"We are plateauing around 40,000 cases a day and the deaths are around 1,000," Fauci pointed out, adding that he hopes the country doesn't see another spike following Labor Day weekend like it did after Memorial Day and Fourth of July as flu season draws closer.

Here are some of the things Trump actually said to the public very early on in the crisis, when warning the American public would have saved thousands of lives (if not tens or even hundreds of thousands):

"We have it very much under control in this country." "It's going to be just fine." "It's one person coming in from China." "We're doing a great job with it." "It's going to have a very good ending for us." "We're in great shape." "We have 12 cases -- 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now." "Just stay calm. It will go away." "And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero." "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle -- it will disappear."

He even predicted this miracle would probably occur in April, when the weather got warmer. This was far from what he told Woodward, in the earliest days of the crisis. And here's the Cloud Cuckooland idea Trump was pushing today:

"As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, keep calm and carry on. That's what I did," said Trump, calling Woodward -- who he spoke to multiple times for the book -- a "whack job."

"They wanted me to come out and scream, 'People are dying,' No. No. We did it just the right way. We have to be calm. We don't want to be crazed lunatics. We have to lead," claimed Trump, who has repeatedly sought to incite panic throughout his time in office.

"When Hitler was bombing London, Churchill, great leader, would oftentimes go to a roof in London and speak," Trump added. "And he always spoke with confidence. He said we have to show calmness. No, we did it the right way and we've done a job like nobody."

As many helpfully pointed out on Twitter, Churchill told the British people the unvarnished truth, including how bad things were going to get. Churchill's own words were tweeted to Trump, including his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" quote, as well as one more that seems particularly apt: "The British people can face any misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, as long as they are convinced that those in charge of their affairs are not deceiving them or are not dwelling in a fool's paradise."

Others were even more scathing:

Things Churchill didn't say:

-- the Blitz is a hoax

-- the Nazis will miraculously be gone by April

-- going to a fallout shelter is voluntary; I don't think I'll be doing it

-- I don't take responsibility at all

The Washington Post also pointed out how ludicrous the concept of "Trump as Mr. Calm" truly is:

"I don't want to jump up and down and start screaming 'Death! Death!' because that's not what it's all about. We have to lead a country," [President Donald] Trump said. He added, "There has to be a calmness."

Trump evidently did not feel the same presidential obligation to imbue serenity a few hours earlier, however, when he sounded the alarm on Twitter about a number of other topics.

"If I don't win, America's Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, 'Friendly Protesters,' " Trump tweeted Thursday morning.

In another morning tweet, he wrote, "Sending out 80 MILLION BALLOTS to people who aren't even asking for a Ballot is unfair and a total fraud in the making. Look at what's going on right now!"

Throughout his five years on the national political stage, Trump has used fear to acquire and keep power. Scare tactics are the hammer and screwdriver of his tool kit.

. . .

"His political campaign's branding strategy is panic. They should put 'PANIC' on a red hat," said Tim Miller, a longtime GOP strategist who advises Republican Voters Against Trump.

Miller said Trump's assertion that he played down the threat of the novel coronavirus because he did not want to panic the public was "an absurd defense."

"The person warning about the end of suburbia and migrant caravans looting and raping your daughters, the idea that he's somebody who wants to turn down the temperature and breathe calm is absurd," Miller said.

Team Trump released two new ads in this vein, both filled with apocalyptic warnings of what would happen if Trump isn't re-elected. There are no "protesters," the ads warn, there are only looters and rioters and arsonists rampaging through the streets of America. Critics compared the ads to a blockbuster action movie's preview:

In other words, the Trump campaign's effort to spur fear in the electorate is misleading in an impressively broad number of ways. The protests, far from being the "new normal," have waned. The heavy majority of those protests didn't involve violence anyway. And any incidents of violence are definitionally ones that are occurring under President Trump, making it hard to understand the argument that Americans must support Trump to prevent similar incidents.

As movie trailers, though, the new ads certainly are exciting.

Trump lies so often it has been a Herculean task to even keep up with him. Last week, for example, Trump was promoting no less than ten separate conspiracy theories. My favorite (from HuffPost's list of them all):

[President Donald Trump] also claimed that Portland, Oregon, where protests against racism and police violence have raged for three months, has been burning for decades.

Portland fire officials were quick to push back against this claim.

"We are not on fire. We have not been on fire," Lt. Rich Chatman, a spokesperson for Portland Fire & Rescue, said this week.

Note that this article was written before the wildfires in Oregon got so out of hand that over 10 percent of the entire states' population had to be evacuated. Ironically, though, now that large parts of the West Coast are actually on fire, Trump just refuses to talk about the subject.

Or how about this one, which is more recent:

President Donald Trump launched a bizarre attack against Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Thursday, suggesting that the former vice president opposes a coronavirus vaccine without explanation.

"Biden's launched a public campaign against the vaccine, which is so bad," Trump said from the White House, adding that "we have some vaccines coming that are incredible."

"You don't want to have anything having to do with the political purposes being [sic] an anti-vaxxer," he said. The term typically refers to early childhood vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella, which some have non-scientifically linked to autism.

Trump continued: "You don't want to be talking about the vaccines in a negative way, especially when you see the statistics that we're starting to see. They're incredible, actually. Biden's perfectly happy to endanger the lives of other people by doing something that he thinks is going to help him politically because his polls are getting very bad. They're getting very shaky."

None of which is true, of course. Neither Biden nor Kamala Harris is any sort of "anti-vaxxer," they have merely been pointing out how little trust the American people now have in what Trump says. The article also helpfully points out: "Recent polls have consistently shown Biden to have a strong lead over Trump."

Here is what Biden actually said:

Trump has said "so many things that aren't true," Biden stated Monday, "I'm worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people are going to be reluctant to take it. So he's undermining public confidence."

Asked if he would get the vaccine himself, Biden replied that he would follow scientific advice on taking any drug to prevent COVID-19.

"I would want to see what the scientists said," Biden asserted, echoing a comment made earlier by running mate Kamala Harris. The California senator told reporters she would not follow advice from Trump alone, saying that she trusted "the word of public health experts and scientists."

Biden also emphasized the importance of securing a vaccine as soon as possible.

"If I could get a vaccine tomorrow I'd do it," he said. "If it would cost me the election I'd do it. We need a vaccine and we need it now."

Trump also suggested Thursday that Biden was politicizing the coronavirus pandemic, which the president has consistently sought to downplay despite its crippling effects on the global economy.

"He keeps talking about the pandemic," Trump complained.

Lies, fear, panic, and conspiracy theories are the bread and butter of Trump's campaign, obviously. Need further proof? Mike Pence is going to attend a fundraiser hosted by a couple who have been promoting the baseless QAnon conspiracies.

Meanwhile, some real conspiracies are coming to light. No, no -- not all those other ones -- these are newly-uncovered Trump administration conspiracies.

The Department of Homeland Security, according to a new whistleblower, has been censoring and burying reports of Russian interference in the 2020 election. The complaint charges that the department and both Chad Wolf and Kirstjen Nielsen actively conducted: "a repeated pattern of abuse of authority, attempted censorship of intelligence analysis and improper administration of an intelligence program related to Russian efforts to influence and undermine United States interests."

This wasn't the only thing the complaint charged:

[D.H.S. official Brian] Murphy's complaint goes beyond issues related to Russia, however.

Among the concerns raised in the complaint: [D.H.S. senior official Ken] Cuccinelli ordered Murphy to downplay intelligence about white supremacy to make the threat appear "less severe" and play up evidence of "left-wing" violence. A required Homeland Threat Assessment that included sections on white supremacy and Russian influence in the United States was also blocked, Murphy alleged, because of how it might reflect on Trump. And he was asked to modify intelligence assessments "to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and 'anarchist' groups," the complaint says.

Murphy also alleges that DHS leaders purposefully distorted information about the terror threat on the southern border to fit the president's narrative.

Politico had proof of that bit about white supremacists, even before the whistleblower's report was made public. They obtained leaked drafts of a D.H.S. document on terror threats to the homeland, which plainly showed the political influences:

White supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States, according to a draft report from the Department of Homeland Security.

Two later draft versions of the same document -- all of which were reviewed by Politico -- describe the threat from white supremacists in slightly different language. But all three drafts describe the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., listed above the immediate danger from foreign terrorist groups.

. . .

The earliest draft has the strongest language on the threat from white supremacists, in an introductory section labeled "Key Takeaways."

"Lone offenders and small cells of individuals motivated by a diverse array of social, ideological, and personal factors will pose the primary terrorist threat to the United States," the draft reads. "Among these groups, we assess that white supremacist extremists -- who increasingly are networking with likeminded persons abroad -- will pose the most persistent and lethal threat."

The "Key Takeaways" section of the next two drafts calls "Domestic Violent Extremists" the "most persistent and lethal threat," rather than specifically naming white supremacists.

. . .

The second two drafts, meanwhile, allude to violent agitators who have been present at nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.

"Violent extremists almost certainly will continue their efforts to exploit public fears associated with COVID-19 and social grievances driving lawful protests to incite violence, intimidate targets, and promote their violent extremist ideologies," the second and third drafts reviewed by Politico say.

Want more? How about what the Education Department is currently doing (because this is obviously more important than dealing with helping schools reopen during a pandemic)? The last few paragraphs of this could be accurately described as "Orwellian":

The Education Department plans to scrutinize a wide range of employee activities -- including internal book clubs -- in search of "Anti-American propaganda" and discussions about "white privilege" as it carries out the White House's demand that federal agencies halt certain types of race-related training.

In an internal email this week obtained by Politico, the department ordered a review of agency contracts for diversity training and "internal employee activities" to root out topics such as "critical race theory" or materials that suggest that the U.S. is an inherently racist country. The crackdown comes as the department implements a government-wide directive the White House issued Friday to stop what it called "un-American propaganda training sessions" about race.

. . .

The department's guidance largely echoes OMB's memo in describing the type of content that is now disfavored in government training sessions: any material "that teaches, trains or suggests the following: (1) virtually all White people contribute to racism or benefit from racism (2) critical race theory (3) white privilege (4) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country (5) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil (6) Anti-American propaganda."

. . .

The Education Department's move to restrict discussions among employees also comes as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos finalized a new policy this week aimed at promoting free speech in other venues.

DeVos' rule, which was finalized Wednesday, cuts off some Education Department funding to public universities that run afoul of the First Amendment or private universities that violate their own speech policies.

Speaking of propaganda, House Democrats will be investigating a $250 million contract handed to a GOP operative to "defeat despair and inspire hope" about the coronavirus pandemic. No, really, it repeats that line in several places: "By harnessing the power of traditional, digital and social media, the sports and entertainment industries, public health associations, and other creative partners to deliver important public health and economic information the administration can defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery."

A former Obama H.H.S. official reacted:

"Holy moly," said a former senior Obama HHS official when told the size of the contract. "In a normal administration, this would have been something coordinated through the White House, but it probably would have been launched back in March, as opposed to the eve of an election."

The House committee chairs did not mince words in announcing their new investigation: "We have grave concerns that, rather than focus on planning and executing a national strategy to contain the coronavirus, the Trump Administration is using a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money to fund what appears to be a political propaganda campaign just two months before a presidential election," wrote Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who all lead congressional oversight panels.

As for the Trump administration laughably standing up for "free speech," a New York Times reporter was just kicked out of a Trump rally for tweeting out how few people were wearing masks in the "crammed in" crowd waiting to see Trump.

And finally, something funny to close on. A federal hearing was just held in Georgia by a court looking into whether their voting machines could be hacked. Which led to somebody making a rather ironic point:

A federal hearing on a challenge to Georgia's voting machines was interrupted Friday when someone began posting video and symbols, including images from the Sept. 11 attacks, a swastika and pornography.

Before the interruption, there were roughly 100 people signed in as participants and observers to the high-profile hearing.

During testimony by a voting machine company executive, at least two people - one with the user name Osama - began posting rapidly changing videos and still images, some accompanied by music, by sharing their screens with the video conference. The court quickly ended the Zoom session.

Yep -- that's what kind of week it has been. One in which an online hearing about election hacking is hacked.





Before we get to the Democrats, once again we have to shoehorn in here a mention of some impressive Republicans. The Republican Voters Against Trump group released a new whopping 11-minute-long video this week with "113 damning reasons" GOP voters should not vote to re-elect Trump: "Their rationales range from the president's racist, sexist, Islamaphobic and divisive rhetoric to his alienation of U.S. allies, attacks on the military and cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump's catastrophic mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic is also a key explanation."

But since they're not eligible for an award, we'll move on to a man who is. Because Joe Biden had a pretty good week this week, all around.

Team Biden announced it had shattered fundraising records last month, pulling in a whopping $365 million. This beat Team Trump's haul by an impressive $155 million.

But this wasn't the only good news in the financial matchup between the campaigns. It seems that Trump has pulled a whole lot of television ads because they are low on money. How low? Well, so low that reporters are now asking Trump if he's going to have to pony up his own campaign funding -- which is unheard-of for an incumbent president, really. Seems Team Trump burned through over $800 million bucks already, with little to show for it (the polls have been the same all year, with Biden up anywhere from 7-10 points). And now GOP donors are worried about how dark Trump's gone on television. Here are the actual numbers, which are pretty startling:

The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for [Joe] Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden's campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the [President Donald] Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm.

Trump-aligned outside groups made up some of the difference, spending an additional $28 million, compared with about $16 million by groups backing Biden. But the outside spending did not eliminate the Democratic advantages in competitive states.

Even with the outside group spending, Democrats have been able to dominate the airwaves where the election will probably be decided. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, pro-Biden efforts outspent pro-Trump efforts by a margin of $9.3 million to $560,000 in Michigan, $17.7 million to $6.1 million in Pennsylvania and $20.5 million to $7.8 million in Florida.

That Michigan number is the most noteworthy, to our eyes at least.

But breaking fundraising records wasn't the only impressive thing Biden did this week. He was incredibly quick to pounce on the Bob Woodward story, reacting an hour after the story broke, in as forceful terms as can be imagined:

"[President Donald Trump] knew how deadly it was. It was much more deadly than the flu," [Joe] Biden said during an event with autoworkers in the swing state of Michigan. "He knew and purposely played it down. Worse, he lied to the American people. He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat it posed to the country for months."

About an hour before Biden was set to speak, The Washington Post published excerpts of on-the-record conversations between Trump and veteran journalist Bob Woodward in which Trump conceded on Feb. 7 that the virus that had only just begun to spread in the U.S. was deadlier than the flu, and could be transmitted by particles in the air.

. . .

"He knew how dangerous it was. While this deadly disease ripped through our nation, he failed to do his job on purpose. It was a life-and-death betrayal of the American people," Biden said of the president, pointing to studies that estimate as many as 54,000 lives could have been saved had Trump moved to shut down swaths of the country two weeks earlier.

He added that Trump's "failure has not only cost lives -- it sent our economy into a tailspin," asserting that the economic recession that has put millions out of work had been "created by Donald Trump's negligence."

The Democratic nominee noted that news of Trump's comments came as the U.S. deaths from the virus are set to pass 190,000, and while schools and businesses across the country remain closed because of the threat.

"How many schools are not open right now? How many kids are starting a new school year the same way they ended the last one, at home?" Biden asked. "How many parents feel abandoned and overwhelmed? How many front-line workers are exhausted and pushed to their limits? And how many families are missing loved ones at their dinner table tonight because of his failures?"

He went on: "It's beyond despicable. It's a dereliction of duty. It's a disgrace."

Biden was even more scathing later, during an interview with Jake Tapper of CNN:

"He acknowledges you breathe it, it's in the air and he won't put on the mask. He's talking about it's ridiculous to put on masks, what do you need social distancing for, why have any of these rules?" Biden said, asserting that the mitigation measures Trump announced were "all about making sure the stock market didn't come down, that his wealthy friends didn't lose any money and that he could say that in fact anything that happened had nothing to do with him."

The former vice president then accused Trump of giving up.

"He waved the white flag," he added. "He didn't do a damn thing. Think about it. Think about what he did not do. And it's almost criminal."

This all bodes well for Biden. One worry many Democrats have had about Biden is how long it can take him to react to fast-moving media stories. During the primaries, Team Biden would often take hours (if not days) to comment on breaking news, so the fact that Biden can react so quickly -- and so viscerally -- to a breaking Trump scandal during the general election is nice to see.

Because, as anyone alive during the past four years knows full well, this certainly won't be the last Trump scandal to break in the next two months. Seeing Biden's fast response is also heartening to those looking forward to the presidential debates, as well.

From fundraising to campaigning, all around Joe Biden had such an impressive week that he's the clear choice for the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.

[Joe Biden is actually a private citizen and our blanket policy is not to link to campaign pages, so you'll have to seek his contact information out yourself if you'd like to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]





Once again, we are happy to report that no prominent Democrat disappointed us this week at all. As always, if you feel we've missed an obvious candidate for the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week, let us know in the comments below.




Volume 588 (9/11/20)

A mixed bag this week, that both begins and ends with the Trump campaign's essential inhumanity. We really have to wonder why the Biden campaign didn't make a huge stink about the last one, in fact, because it is so downright despicable it's hard to even imagine.



Reckless homicide

As we previously mentioned, this is the most obvious thing to hit Trump on this week.

"Trump's own words have now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the campaign slogan 'Trump lied, people died' is an accurate indictment. Representative Ted Lieu summed up the rage many Americans were feeling when the news broke, when he tweeted: "I've concluded this is not just dereliction of duty.... Trump repeatedly lied to the American people and that resulted in preventable deaths. This is reckless homicide.' And now Trump's comparing himself to Winston Churchill. Puh-leeze! Neville Chamberlain is probably closer to the truth."



Instead, he died

The most personal response to Trump's lies came from Kristin Urquiza, the woman who spoke at the Democratic National Convention about the loss of her father to the coronavirus after he believed Trump's claim that people should resume their normal lives, very early on in the crisis. Team Biden put her on a press call this week, where she stated in no uncertain terms:

If Donald Trump had told the public what he had told Bob Woodward in private, thousands of lives could have been spared including my dad's.... Sure, my dad did not panic, but instead, he died. I'd much rather have dealt with a father who was a little scared versus one that was led to his death.

Mr. Businessman? Hardly

Trump also needs to get hit on the whole "I'm a successful businessman" thing, once again.

"Donald Trump made the case for becoming president partly on how astute a businessman he is. We're not supposed to pay attention to the six bankruptcies behind the curtain, but whatever.... So let's take a look at how his campaign is doing, shall we? He got outraised by Joe Biden to the tune of $150 million last month, his campaign has burned through a jaw-dropping $800 million already with little to show for it, and he's now gone almost completely dark on the airwaves while Biden is running plenty of ads. Things have gotten so bad Trump is even considering bankrolling his own campaign once again. Mister Astute Businessman? More like Mister Bankrupt, if you ask me."



Official presidential duties

Bill Barr just keeps sinking as low as Trump, day by day.

"The attorney general of the United States has now claimed in court that Donald Trump insulting and lying about women is one of his 'official duties.' No, really -- part of the job description for this president apparently reads: 'defame women and call them ugly.' A woman suing Trump for denying he raped her was at the point where the state courts were going to force Trump to give a deposition and provide D.N.A. (because she kept the dress -- sound familiar?) when Bill Barr came riding to Trump's rescue. Barr moved the case to federal court and now American taxpayers will be on the hook for funding Trump's defense -- and, even worse, any damages that are awarded. Nothing like making the case to all the women voters in the country that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, eh?"



Trump lies about jobs to workers' faces

This happened during the week of Labor Day, mind you.

"Donald Trump, speaking in Michigan this week for Labor Day, just flat-out lied about his record. He claimed that many auto plants were being built 'right now' in Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina. None of which is true. He's just makin' stuff up again. The Detroit Free Press -- the largest newspaper in Michigan -- ran the story under the headline: 'Trump Makes Wild Claims About Revitalizing Auto Industry At Michigan Rally,' which stated the real facts: 'President Donald Trump made wildly inaccurate claims at a rally outside Saginaw on Thursday night, suggesting he has revitalized auto manufacturing in the state when it actually lost jobs even before coronavirus hit in March.' Maybe Trump thinks the autoworkers are too stupid to notice?"



I ain't no millionaire's son

This is a common mistake. This song is used all the time (in truck ads, for patriotic holiday sales, etc.) because nobody listens to the actual lyrics.

"Donald Trump held a rally where he played the C.C.R. song Fortunate Son to energize the crowd. But apparently nobody noticed any of the lyrics after the first two lines. The song begins: 'Some folks are born, made to wave the flag / Ooh, they're red, white, and blue,' which sounds patriotic enough, but the song was actually written during the Vietnam era about how rich folks' kids avoided serving in the military while the poor kids got drafted. The next lines in the song are, in fact: 'And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief" / Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord.' The chorus later continues this thought: 'It ain't me / It ain't me / I ain't no millionaire's son, no no.' Maybe someone on the Cadet Bone Spurs campaign team might want to actually read the lyrics before using this particular song again? I'm just sayin'...."



Are you human?

Why this didn't get more media attention, we have no idea. So point it out!

"Last week, the Trump campaign reached a new low in the annals of American dirty-tricks campaigning. Joe Biden visited church on Sunday -- a totally foreign concept to Donald Trump, I might add -- and then after the service went for a walk in the graveyard to pay his respects for his dead first wife Neilia, his dead daughter Naomi, and his dead son Beau. The Trump campaign -- astonishingly -- tweeted out in mocking fashion:"

REPORTER: 'Mr. Vice President come talk to us.'

Joe Biden just keeps meandering along.

"This was mere days after it was reported that Trump refused to visit a historic World War I cemetery at Belleau Wood, and called dead soldiers "losers" and "suckers," mind you. While Biden was visiting the graves of his family, Trump was playing golf. The inhumanity behind that tweet is just breathtaking. Representative Eric Swalwell summed it up best with his tweeted response: 'It's a cemetery. Where his son is buried. Are you human?' At this point, I'd have to say the answer to that is: No."




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
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[keithbvadu2]

1. A real leader can tell the truth without causing panic.

"intentionally played down the threat of the virus so as not to panic Americans"

A real leader can tell the truth without causing panic.