Constitutional Crisis (Was: President Trump)
This was supposed to be a triumphant weekend for 45. Gone largely unnoticed is the fact that Kim Jong-in, the North Korean leader has indeed backed off from his comments regarding Guam. That was not a foregone conclusion. The Korean peninsula could have been engulfed in war over the weekend. The fact that it never got that close should have given the 45th president of the U.S. an easy victory lap.
But, something unforeseen happened. A peaceful university town, a few hours away from the cradle of the Confederacy, was inundated by a Nazi rally. A protester was killed and the story quickly became one of those 24 hour cable news events that keep modern Americans hooked to their smartphones and laptops no matter where they may be. Hours ticked by as they waited for a reaction from the White House. What they got initially was a statement that could credibly be explained as trying to cover all the bases, a kind of "plague on both their houses" statement.
But, events quickly overtook that first statement and that was when things took s strange turn. It was widely assumed that 45 would self-correct and issue a more forceful condemnation of Nazism and domestic terrorism. After all, both his wife and daughter had been able to get out in front of the quickly emerging narrative: that Charlottesville had been invaded by an axis of violent hate groups and that a young woman had been murdered by one of them. But, the longer it took for him to issue his own statement, the higher the stakes became for his administration. By the end of the first 48 hours of intense cable news coverage, the 45th president had lost control of his message; he was now widely viewed as having given aid and comfort to Nazis, the KKK and modern-day white supremacists.
What became painfully obvious over the course of the following Monday, was that the 45th president was tempermentally and intellectually incapable of delivering a full-throated, unvarnished, condemnation of neo-Nazism and neo-Confederacy in America.
By Tuesday, as 45 encamped at his Manhattan headquarters for the first time since the Inauguration, someone on his staff scheduled a live appearance before television cameras in the lobby of that building. Ostensibly, it was to roll out an effort to turn the page and to start a conversation on "infrastructure" legislation. I was livestreaming the cable news as soon as it was announced and immediately my first thought was, "Oh, oh. This can't be good."
There wasn't supposed to be any Q&A. That was supposed to be the job of the two domestic advisers accompanying him. But, it soon became obvious that 45 had come loaded for bear. He had actually stuffed a copy of his Saturday remarks into his jacket pocket before entering the elevator, obviously intending to revisit them at some point during the lobby appearance. He didn't just meander off message. It was intentional.
Over the course of the next twenty minutes, the 45th president of the United States quickly and painfully lost every shred of legitimacy. The question all Americans are asking this morning, is "How do we get through this?" Three and a half years is an enormous length of time for a country to limp along with a failed presidency. The closest modern equivalent was the last year and half of Watergate, forty-three years ago. No one thought Nixon would ever resign. There was real fear that he would start a war before he would ever be dragged from the White House. But, Nixon was actually a fairly intelligent man with some reserves of self-respect; his fate was squarely in the hands of the Republican Establishment and he knew it. The same cannot be said of the White House's current occupant.
This could play out for years.
But, something unforeseen happened. A peaceful university town, a few hours away from the cradle of the Confederacy, was inundated by a Nazi rally. A protester was killed and the story quickly became one of those 24 hour cable news events that keep modern Americans hooked to their smartphones and laptops no matter where they may be. Hours ticked by as they waited for a reaction from the White House. What they got initially was a statement that could credibly be explained as trying to cover all the bases, a kind of "plague on both their houses" statement.
But, events quickly overtook that first statement and that was when things took s strange turn. It was widely assumed that 45 would self-correct and issue a more forceful condemnation of Nazism and domestic terrorism. After all, both his wife and daughter had been able to get out in front of the quickly emerging narrative: that Charlottesville had been invaded by an axis of violent hate groups and that a young woman had been murdered by one of them. But, the longer it took for him to issue his own statement, the higher the stakes became for his administration. By the end of the first 48 hours of intense cable news coverage, the 45th president had lost control of his message; he was now widely viewed as having given aid and comfort to Nazis, the KKK and modern-day white supremacists.
What became painfully obvious over the course of the following Monday, was that the 45th president was tempermentally and intellectually incapable of delivering a full-throated, unvarnished, condemnation of neo-Nazism and neo-Confederacy in America.
By Tuesday, as 45 encamped at his Manhattan headquarters for the first time since the Inauguration, someone on his staff scheduled a live appearance before television cameras in the lobby of that building. Ostensibly, it was to roll out an effort to turn the page and to start a conversation on "infrastructure" legislation. I was livestreaming the cable news as soon as it was announced and immediately my first thought was, "Oh, oh. This can't be good."
There wasn't supposed to be any Q&A. That was supposed to be the job of the two domestic advisers accompanying him. But, it soon became obvious that 45 had come loaded for bear. He had actually stuffed a copy of his Saturday remarks into his jacket pocket before entering the elevator, obviously intending to revisit them at some point during the lobby appearance. He didn't just meander off message. It was intentional.
Over the course of the next twenty minutes, the 45th president of the United States quickly and painfully lost every shred of legitimacy. The question all Americans are asking this morning, is "How do we get through this?" Three and a half years is an enormous length of time for a country to limp along with a failed presidency. The closest modern equivalent was the last year and half of Watergate, forty-three years ago. No one thought Nixon would ever resign. There was real fear that he would start a war before he would ever be dragged from the White House. But, Nixon was actually a fairly intelligent man with some reserves of self-respect; his fate was squarely in the hands of the Republican Establishment and he knew it. The same cannot be said of the White House's current occupant.
This could play out for years.