February 23-28, 2017: Trump Says "Nobody Knew Health Care Could Be so Complicated" - Labels Media "the Enemy of the People."

 

2/23/17: Iraqi forces continue their advance to wrest Mosul from ISIS. In the process they have already lost 5,000 killed and wounded. This is the plan – to let Iraqis fight their own battles. It was implemented when Mr. Obama was still in office and Trump referred to as “a total disaster” during his run for president. The U.S. lost 4,539 men and women fighting in Iraq during the Bush years.  

Under Obama that number fell, thankfully, to 300.

___ 

 

2/24/17: In a speech to CPAC, Trump attacks the free press and claims media enemies won’t credit him even if he receives a standing ovation. 

“And I want you all to know we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake. Phony. Fake. A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. They are the enemy of the people.”  

The problem is that Trump considers any bad news or criticism related to his policies or actions to be “fake news” and believes only what he gleans from watching Fox & Friends. (See: 3/5/17.)

___ 

 

2/25/17: Trump tweets: “The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs. a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.” 

Oh, those terrible people who write newspapers and talk on radio and TV! 

Then again, you need to be suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s to ignore the fact that the U.S. economy was tanking in January 2009, when Mr. Obama took over. We do know President Trump suffers from delusions, as when he insists that he “inherited a mess” when he took office. 

Did you know the economy added jobs 76 months in succession before Trump took a seat in the Oval Office?

___

 

2/26/17: Philip Bilden, Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Navy, withdraws due to conflict-of-interest issues. Bilden’s “qualifications” for the post include a stint in the U.S. Army Reserves and twenty-five years’ work with a “global private equity investment management firm.” 

 

FUN FACT: The populist president displays an affinity for placing billionaires in top cabinet and government roles. They include Betsy DeVos, the Amway Queen, Wilbur Ross, Vincent Viola (who latter withdraws from consideration), Todd Ricketts and Linda McMahon, of WWE fame. 

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is worth a paltry $300 million. You could argue, perhaps, that he brings the common man’s perspective to White House deliberations.

___ 

 

“Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” 

2/27/17: In a meeting at the White House, Trump explains his difficulty repealing and replacing Obamacare. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

Every man, woman, and child in America, other than the president, knew healthcare was complicated.

­­­___ 

 

2/28/17: A raid in Yemen ends with death for U.S. serviceman William “Ryan” Owens. Trump shirks responsibility – says the raid was planned before he took office – says, hey, I’m only president. It wasn’t my fault Owens was killed. It was the generals! “This was something they wanted to do. They came to me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected, the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan [emphasis added].”  

You know in your heart: if the raid had been a success, Trump would have claimed the plan as his own.

Owens was a Navy Seal.

July 28-29, 2018: The President Savages the Free Press - and His Fans Don't See the Danger

 

7/28/18: Trump heads for Bedminster, New Jersey to spend another weekend at one of his ritzy, private golf clubs.

___ 

 

7/29/18: Trump is still at Bedminster, but he’ll be back at the White House around 7:30 p.m., just in time to don his jammies, grab his remote, and watch TV. 

____________________ 

The president’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.

____________________ 

 

Meanwhile, Horndog Rudy is making the Sunday talk show rounds. He insists that the tape of the president and Cohen talking about payoffs to a Playboy Bunny puts Trump in the clear. No laws were broken, Rudy claims. 

As for Cohen, who now plans to turn on his old boss, Giuliani calls him a “pathological manipulator.” 

Trump hired the guy. How terrible is Trump’s judgment??

 

*

Trump see's Jim Acosta as more of an enemy than Vladimir Putin.

“Dangerous and harmful to the country.” 

SINCE TRUMP has nothing much to do on a lazy Sunday, he decides to tweet about a meeting he had nine days earlier with A. G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times. Here’s how the president describes the conversation: 

Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad! 

 

Sad, it is. Just not for the reasons the president thinks. 

Trump’s fury, aimed squarely at the free press and the First Amendment, finally boils over. A series of four ominous tweets follows in rapid order. Once again, we’ll just dig out the key phrases: “the media – driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome,” “Very unpatriotic!” “I will not allow our great country to be sold out [emphasis added] by anti-Trump haters.” 

This marks the first time the president says he won’t allow the free press to continue to hold him to account. 

Sulzberger has seen enough. The New York Times has no choice but to respond. First, the paper notes, the meeting was held at the request of the White House. Second, discussion was off the record, as Trump requested. Now, the president has revealed the discussion and mischaracterized what was said. Sulzberger provides his side in a blunt statement, which should be quoted in full: 

My main purpose for accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the president’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.

 

I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous [emphasis added throughout, unless otherwise noted].

 

I told him that although the phrase “fake news” is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists “the enemy of the people.” I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.

 

I repeatedly stressed that this is particularly true abroad, where the president’s rhetoric is being used by some regimes to justify sweeping crackdowns on journalists. I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our country’s greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press.

 

Throughout the conversation I emphasized that if President Trump, like previous presidents, was upset with coverage of his administration he was of course free to tell the world. I made clear repeatedly that I was not asking for him to soften his attacks on The Times if he felt our coverage was unfair. Instead, I implored him to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country.  

 

* 

HERE IT SEEMS WORTHWHILE to note that the president is not the first powerful leader who has made clear he would love to stifle critics. (See: 7/25/18.)  

Consider similar complaints about the free press from another powerful elected official. Reading an opposition newspaper, this leader explained, caused a “fury” to rise inside him. This paper was a “concentrated solution of lies,” a “delusive welter of words.” The enemy of the people was obvious: “the brutal daily press, shunning no villainy, employing every means of slander, lying with such a virtuosity that would bend iron beams, all in the gospel of a new humanity.” The free press was a “villainous poisoner” of the people’s minds. (See also: 7/4/18.) 

And when he came to power, that leader, Adolf Hitler, made it clear he would reshape the press to serve his needs. 

 

Forty-five tweets. 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: If you check Trump’s Twitter feed, as I did in early February 2020, you can see how many times the word “enemy” appears. The list is instructive. Before taking office, Trump used the word “enemy” to describe China seven times. So far, so good. Taliban and ISIS fighters were the “enemy,” as well (five mentions). Okay. Then, “Obama is our worst enemy.” 

Okay, nuts. 

It’s instructive what happens once Trump takes office. Suddenly, he has a new Enemies List. At one point, “McCain emboldens our enemy.” The Taliban is still our enemy – in a single tweet. Russia is never mentioned once. Nor is Kim Jong-un. Jay Powell, Trump’s own pick to head the Federal Reserve, is called an “enemy” twice. Jay Powell is worse than Kim Jong-un? 

President Trump does get it right on occasion. Assad and the Syrians he calls our “enemy” four times.

 

But who does he think is the great “enemy” today? What group threatens America most? Neo-Nazis? Sexual predators? Child traffickers? Russians bent on hacking the 2020 election? China, ever expanding its reach in the Pacific? 

No. In 45 tweets, the “Fake News” people are described as the “enemy of the people.” (God only knows how many times Trump has said the same on TV.) It is the greatest attack on a free press since the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798, making it illegal for anyone to criticize the president or members of Congress. Perhaps Trump fans take all their other rights for granted, save only the Second Amendment and their right to say, “Merry Christmas” willy-nilly. History provides warning. We almost lost our freedoms in our nation’s infancy. The free press was nearly stifled less than a decade after the U.S. Constitution was adopted. 

Trump supporters fail to see it. Or they’re too busy cheering Trump’s attacks. Sadly, many of them are all in on the president’s attack. They believe what he shouts. They accept his fury. They insist Trump has every right to attack those who criticize him. But once you lose the free press – once our side loses it – and once they agree our side should lose it – you will never get it back. 

Not even for yourselves.

A few examples.

August 29, 2018: Big Trump Fan Threatens to Shoot Reports in the F**king Heads

 

8/29/18: The F.B.I. arrests Robert Chain, 68, a California man and big fan of President Donald J. Trump. 

 

“I’m going to shoot you in the fucking head.” 

Chain has placed fourteen threatening calls to the Boston Globe in twelve days. Chain’s right-wing fury is touched off when the newspaper organizes a protest aimed at Trump, citing his attacks on a free press. (See: 8/16/18.) 

To catch the flavor of his calls, one, on August 16, will suffice. Chain starts with a quote from his hero: 

You’re the enemy of the people [he tells a reporter who answers], and we’re going to kill every fucking one of you. Hey, why don’t you call the F, why don’t you call Mueller, maybe he can help you out buddy. Still there faggot? Alright, why, you going to trace my call? What are you going to do motherfucker? You ain’t going to do shit. I’m going to shoot you in the fucking head later today, at 4 o’clock. Goodbye.

 

Might I add: Chain should have ended with a rousing “Merry Christmas” to end this little chat. (See: 8/28/18.)

Robert Chain: big Trump fan and ready to murder reporters.

August 30, 2018: Trump's Lips Moved - He Denies He Said What Came Out

 

8/30/18: Good god, can someone tell the president to drop the iPhone and stop tweeting! The man is losing his marbles. 

Marbles start flying early Friday when he attacks CNN (and gets his facts wrong again) at 5:50 a.m.: 

The hatred and extreme bias of me by @CNN has clouded their thinking and made them unable to function. But actually, as I have always said, this has been going on for a long time. Little Jeff Z has done a terrible job, his ratings suck, & AT&T should fire him to save credibility!

 

If you follow Trump’s Twitter feed for comic relief, it pays to do a little fact checking when you can. I decide to check the claim about CNN’s ratings being in the tank. I do what the president could do himself. 

According to TVNewser, 

Per Nielsen data, CNN had its third-best 2Q since 1996 in total day among total viewers, and among adults 25-54. Only Q2 2017 and Q2 2003 (Iraq War) were better quarters for CNN across the 24-hour day….This marks the 8th straight quarter and longest quarterly streak in over 22 years (since Q4 1995) that CNN is a top 10 cable network among total viewers in total day.

 

Trump also attacks NBC. This time he implies that he did not say on tape what he clearly said on tape in a famous interview with Lester Holt. That was the time he admitted he fired James Comey because of the Russia investigation. 

You heard his words. You saw his lips move. You watched his tongue wag. Even considering this is Trump, this is a bizarre line of defense; but it’s not out of character. One is reminded of the time he hinted the voice on the Access Hollywood tape wasn’t his – and when he said on Air Force One that he knew nothing about hush money payments to a porn star or Playboy Bunny – but did. His former personal lawyer recently released a tape (from September 2016) proving he was complicit. 

Anyway, Trump denies the obvious: 

What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks - with @NBCNews being the worst. The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!

 

Trump isn’t even close to being done tweeting. Next, he channels his inner fascist. We can’t believe the media, he insists. 

I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesn’t matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People [emphasis added]!

 

President Twitter Thumbs is on a roll. The tweets flow from his imagination, down through his thumbs, and out to pollute the national discourse: “The only thing James Comey ever got right was when he said that President Trump was not under investigation!” the president tap-taps. He insists in another tweet that he liked Don McGahn, “but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News!” The “Steele dossier” really riles him up and Trump implies everyone who knew Steele at the F.B.I. was corrupt and rotten and un-American, and Steele was working for the Russians. 

The stupidity of all these tweets (and so many others over the last two years) should be evident. Comey did say back in early 2017 that Trump was not under investigation; but that’s old news. That was before it was proven that Flynn was lying, that Papadopoulos was lying, that Manafort and Gates, Stone and Don Jr. and Jared were lying, and all lying about contacts with Russians. 

As for the Steele dossier, the work of Christopher Steele, the president continues to hope his loyal base will be too lazy to follow the trail. Steele had done excellent work previously for the F.B.I., helping expose massive corruption at the highest levels in international soccer. For his efforts, Steele ended up on a hit list compiled by Vladimir Putin. 

In other words, Steele wasn’t working for the Russians – but the people who Don Jr. met with in a secret meeting in June 2016 assuredly were.

December 9-10, 2018: The President Claims There Is No "Smocking Gun"

 

12/9-10/18: The pressure of all the investigations he and his crewmates are facing is clearly getting to the president. Sunday, he tweet-blasts James Comey, who testified before Congress on Friday. 

Once again, we will summarize: “Leakin’ James Comey,” “a record for who lied the most.” “Rigged fraud headed up by dishonest people.” “Enemy of the People.”

Monday, Trump rose again early and kept tweet-screaming. The first yowl came at 6:46 a.m., the second fourteen minutes later: 

“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,...

 

....which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!

 

As for Comey, he manages to shrug off Trump’s attacks. The usual right-wing outlets claim he covered himself in shame after testifying in front of Congress about the decision of the F.B.I. to end the investigation of Hillary Clinton and open an investigation into the Trump campaign. In reality, his testimony before a Republican-controlled panel on Friday showed a man  relaxed. Last September, for example, Trump told a reporter Mueller and Comey were “best friends…And I could give you 100 pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other.” 

Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), a member of the House panel, asked Mr. Comey: “Are you best friends with Robert Mueller?” 

“I am not,” Comey said. “I admire the heck out of the man, but I don’t know his phone number, I’ve never been to his house, I don’t know his children’s names. I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant. I like him.” 

Nadler reassured Comey he’d not ask, “whether he had ever hugged and kissed him.” 

“A relief to my wife,” Comey smiled.

 

As usual, Republicans on the panel tried, again and again and again, to prove that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two F.B.I. agents who had shared critical emails about Candidate Trump, were involved in a plot to ensure Trump would never be elected. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) quoted a text from March 2016, which read, “Hillary should win 100 million to zero.” 

Didn’t that sound nefarious, he inquired? Comey said no. He pointed out the obvious for the forty-fifth time. He and Strzok and a handful of others knew well before the election that members of the Trump campaign were under investigation because of contacts with Russia. No one at the F.B.I. uttered a public word. They could easily have derailed the Trump Express. 

But they didn’t.

February 17, 2019: Team Trump - Lies and Liars, and Lots of Them

 

2/17/19: The president has the whole day to relax at Mar-a-Lago and contemplate his next moves. 

If he has nothing better to do, he could pick up the latest copy of National Geographic. In a new story, scientists warn that by 2080 the city you live in will have a climate similar to what a city 500 miles to the south has today. Baltimore will be like Jacksonville, Florida. Montreal will be like Charlottesville, Virginia. Louisville, Kentucky will feel like Pensacola, only without the cool beaches.

 

* 

AND IF 2080 sounds like a long way away, let’s shrink our time frame for discussion to 19-24 years. 

That’s the term of imprisonment prosecutors recommended for Paul Manafort, to run till at least 2038 and possibly 2043. Since Manafort is already 69, it’s essentially a life sentence.

 

_____________________ 

At least ten members of the Trump campaign knew Hope Hicks was lying, just two days after the election.

_____________________ 

 

Why such a harsh sentence for a man who specialized in Russian-friendly, white collar crime? Special Counsel Mueller clearly believes Manafort has evidence that goes to the heart of the investigation. If he can shake it loose, Trump is likely doomed. Should Manafort break, the road to a successful impeachment is clear. And I don’t mean if he breaks because prosecutors are using Gestapo tactics. 

I mean: Manafort simply spills the beans he threw in the pot. 

Manafort knows if Candidate Trump knew about and conspired to hide the outreach to Russians that we know occurred. 

Consider a few of the key facts that have been pried loose in the last two years, either by the free press or investigators doing their jobs. They don’t hang the president yet. But the metaphorical rope is over the branch. 

Then consider the scores of denials. On July 24, 2016, George Stephanopoulos asked Manafort, “Are there any ties between Mr. Trump, you or your campaign and Putin and his regime?” 

“No, there are not,” he replied. “That’s absurd.”

 

By that time, the secret June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower had been held and Manafort had attended. 

Eight days after giving his answer to Stephanopoulos, as we have learned, Manafort headed straight to a Manhattan cigar bar to talk with a Russian friend again. 

On November 10, 2016, just days after Trump’s surprise election win, spokeswoman Hope Hicks told reporters, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” 

The short list of those who knew at that absolute instant that this was a bald-faced lie would include, but not be limited to: 

Michael Caputo

Michael Cohen

General Michael T. Flynn

Rick Gates

Jared Kushner

Paul Manafort

George Papadopoulos

Roger Stone

Donald Trump Jr.

 

And, if not yet proven, almost assuredly the President-Elect himself. (The only way he doesn’t know is that everyone else on the list, above, has been lying to him, including his own son.)

 

At a press conference on January 11, 2017, nine days before taking office, Trump assured reporters that he had had no business dealings with Russia during the campaign. He made it clear, he could easily have done business in Russia if he wanted, but knew it would have been a conflict. He said that himself. 

The president made similar denials on February 7, 2017, and May 11, 2017. 

 

Cohen knew that was a lie. Trump knew Cohen was lying. 

Today we know Trump’s business dealings with the Russians continued until at least June 2016. We know because last November, prosecutors nailed his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, on several felony counts. Cohen had been lying to investigators for two years. He had insisted that all business dealings with Trump and the Russians ended in January 2016. That would have been before the Iowa caucuses, before Trump was the presumptive GOP nominee. 

For two years, Trump understood that Cohen was lying. Why wouldn’t he correct him, publicly, or admit the truth himself, back on January 11, 2017? 

Four days later, Chris Wallace of Fox News asked the future VP if there were any contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. “Of course not,” Mike Pence replied. “Why would there be?” 

Good question.

 

* 

SO, HOW IS TRUMP HOLDING UP under the strain of the Russia investigation – and now the national emergency down on the border with Mexico? 

We can go to his tweets to “read” his mind. 

At 7:52 a.m., and again, four minutes later, in a pair of unhinged tweets we get fresh evidence that the current occupant of the White House/Mar-a-Lago would crush his critics and strangle the free press if he dared. Clearly a comic skit from the night before is under his skin:  

Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution [emphasis added]? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!

 

Then this: 

THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT MEDIA IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! 

 

Let us pause a moment to scratch our heads. Can anyone remember when reporters lied about contacts with Russians?

November 27, 2020: Trump Tries Vengeful Dictator Route - Another Court Defeat

 

11/27/20: On Friday, we had Trump at his absolute worst, just a few short steps removed from unhinged, vengeful dictator. First, he tweeted out a new benchmark low for making way for Biden. “Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000 votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!”

Judge Bibas blows up another Trump legal challenge to the vote.

 

____________________ 

Just a few short steps removed from unhinged, vengeful dictator.

____________________

  

So: F**k the vote. Trump would decide who sat in the White House after January 20. And, um … it would be him. 

Later, he referred to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, a man already facing death threats, as was his wife, as “really, really an enemy of the people.” That put the President of the United States firmly in “Vladimir Putin territory,” if only he could get his way. You know. Maybe throw a few “enemies of the people” off balconies or serve them radioactive tea. 

And later (see below), Team Trump would once again attack the judicial branch of the government. 

Because. Yeah. Trump wants to rule like Xi Jinping, or Kim Jong-un, his love-letter sending pal.

 

Honest to god! When Trump fired off the above tweet, about how the door to the Oval Office was still barred for Joe Biden, he was headed once more for his private golf course in Potomac Falls. 

Round #314 since taking office. 

By day’s end, however, it was clear that the man with the real problem was Lame Duck Don, himself.

 

In Pennsylvania another legal challenge to the results of the state’s election was blown out of court. 

 

“Voters, not lawyers, choose the President.” 

The Trump campaign’s continuing effort to prove “massive fraud” landed in the U.S. Third District Court. Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee to the bench, with the concurrence of two other Republican-appointed judges, made short (relatively) work of the case. The three judges considered the evidence presented. “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Bibas wrote and tossed the hot mess out. “Charges of unfairness are serious,” he said in his ruling Friday. “But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.” 

“Voters, not lawyers, choose the President,” Bibas wrote. “Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.”  

So: Trump’s legal team got smoked.

 

Still, Jenna Ellis, one of the few lawyers remaining still willing to continue the legal charade, responded to defeat, insisting, “The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud.” 

Three Republican judges. One appointed by Trump. 

At this point, trying to convince the president, or Ellis, or any of Trump’s cult-like fans that there is no evidence, that Bigfoot did not mail in fraudulent ballots, that the Loch Ness monster did not use computer software to steal votes, that Elvis and Tupac did not rise from the grave and vote, is no longer possible. It’s a cliché, but the purple Kool Aid has been mixed and guzzled down.

 

* 

AS FOR “rounding the corner,” as the president insists we are, in terms of the coronavirus, Worldometers reports that the U. S. has recorded 13.3 million cases (#1 in the world). Total U.S. deaths stand at 269,802 (also #1), almost 100,000 more than second place Brazil. 

Adjusting for population and tallying deaths per million, under Trump’s guiding, golfing hand we stand in seventh place behind only: 

Belgium: 1,397.

Peru: 1,079

Spain: 955

Italy: 888

United Kingdom: 846

Argentina: 836

United States: 813

 

Trump likes to claim that the whole world is suffering. That means we can’t blame him for anything that has gone wrong. Here are a few countries that are doing better (by far) in adjusted deaths per million: 

China 3 (hard to trust any numbers issued by an authoritarian government; we know)

New Zealand 5

South Korea 10

Japan 16

Australia 35

Norway 60

Finland 71

Germany 190

Greece 202

Israel: 309

Canada 312

Austria 320

Ireland 412.

  

POSTSCRIPT: Chris Krebs, Trump’s appointee to head the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – fired last week for insisting the election was not rigged – has told 60 Minutes that fraud allegations made by the president and his allies are “farcical.” 

As for claims of manipulated ballots, with mysterious foreign nations involved, Krebs adds, “All votes in the United States of America are counted in the United States of America. Period.” 

The full interview will run Sunday evening. 

 

FUN FACT – WAKEUP CALL: Someone wakes up Republicans in Congress and they realize, now that Donald is going to get the boot, that they really care about reducing the federal deficit. 

They forgot the last four years. 

“I think we’ve got to understand that we’re going to be raising the debt ceiling in perpetuity if we don’t find a way to bend the curve,” Sen. Lindsey Graham tells reporters. 

“I think that’s kind of getting back to our DNA. ... I think spending, entitlement reform, growth and the economy are all things that we’re going to have to be focused on next year, and, yeah, I would expect you’ll hear a lot more about that,” said Sen. John Thune agreed. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer, from North Dakota, promises, this time Republicans are deadly serious about reducing the deficit! (See: 7/11-12/20 for some idea of Sen. Cramer’s ideas on federal spending.) 

 

FUN FACT #2: The autopsy into President Trump’s defeat finds hardening of the arteries in Trump’s head. 

With youth turnout surging in the recent election, he did worse in almost every state with voters in the 18 to 29 age group. In Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden had a 20-point margin with the youngest voters (vs. a 9-point lead for Hillary Clinton.) Biden beat Trump by 16 points in Wisconsin, whereas Clinton barely had a lead. Nationally, Biden won 61% of the vote from this group, vs. 37% for Trump. 

In four of the key battleground states, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania, younger voters gave Biden a margin of over 100,000. In Arizona, Michigan and Georgia, that alone, was enough for the win.