S*** the President Says – 11/19/2018

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, s*** the President said during the past week:

• “The Florida election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible- ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!” 11/12/2018 Trump tweet. So, there are too many ballots. But also missing ballots. And forged ones. And infected ones. You know what we don’t have? We don’t have one single allegation of wrongdoing made to law enforcement. Which is where those allegations typically go, instead of Twitter. So let’s follow the legal process instead of shouting, waving our arms, and giving up on something so profoundly American as counting all the votes. (On 11/17, Andrew Gillum conceded the governor race to DeSantis.)
• “The Republicans don’t win and that’s because of potentially illegal votes. When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again.” 11/14/2018 interview with the Daily Caller. No, nobody does this. If you’re thinking of trying it, don’t. It wouldn’t work.
• “If you buy a box of cereal — you have a voter ID.” Also from the 11/14/2018 Daily Caller interview. I’ve bought cereal – all you need is $4. But the important thing here is the pattern. First, claim rampant fraud. Next, propose requiring every voter to show photo ID because “everyone already has it”, when in reality millions of poor, black, Latino, and elderly people (mostly Democrats!) do not have it. Finally, close DMV’s in minority-populated areas, making it pretty tough to get that ID. That’s the playbook for solving a non-existent problem while suppressing Democratic votes.

• “…” Now that the election is over, the President has no s*** to say about that mythical caravan that looked like such a scary invasion just two weeks ago. Imagine that. This whole thing was reminiscent of the 2014 midterms, when we were all supposed to be consumed with fear over the prospect of Ebola-carrying ISIS terrorists crossing the Mexican border to destroy us.

• “Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!” 11/13/2018 Trump tweet. We’re still supposed to distrust Germany over WWII? Is that why he loves Russia?!
• “We’re very happy how it’s going with North Korea…we think it’s going fine…nobody else could have done what I’ve done.” 11/7/2018 White House press conference. Relevant this week because on 11/13/2018, U.S. intelligence identified 16 hidden bases making ballistic missiles in North Korea. Here, Kim Jung-Un is exploiting an embarrassing fact of Trump: it’s all personal, no policy. So after trading threats of nuclear annihilation, Kim wrote Trump a love letter. Trump was flattered to the point that he literally expressed his love for the North Korean dictator, and now Kim is expanding his nuclear capacity with impunity and Trump can’t notice or care. Because true love is blind.
• “And, you know, look, as far as I’m concerned this is an investigation that should have never been brought. It should have never been had. It’s something that should have never been brought. It’s an illegal investigation. And you know, it’s very interesting because when you talk about not Senate confirmed, well, Mueller’s not Senate confirmed.” 11/14/2018 interview with The Daily Caller. This was in response to a question on his thinking regarding the Attorney General position. Note that upon being asked about hiring an AG, Trump’s mind immediately floats to Mueller and the Russia investigation. Another brick in the “Obstruction of Justice” wall – a wall he is actually building.
• “CNN is low on the ratings now, relative to Fox and others, and they’re doing very poorly actually. But because of me – the Age of Trump – because of me, they’re doing better than they’ve done but they’re doing very poorly in compared with others. Very, very poorly. And, um, and getting worse.” Also from the 11/14/2018 Daily Caller interview. Uh huh, doing better, yep, and getting worse. Got it.
• “I actually have good approval ratings, which nobody ever writes.” Again, the 11/14/2018 Daily Caller interview. No one writes this because it isn’t true. Donald Trump is the least popular president in at least 70 years.
• “I should have done that.” 11/18/2018 interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace, expressing regret for having skipped last week’s 100-year anniversary commemoration of the armistice to end WWI. I’m going to give credit where credit is due. Sitting in a hotel room while other world leaders honored these veterans was low, but regretting it does show some degree of humanity, however small.

That’s it for this week. As always, follow the links to check out where all the quotes and claims come from, and thanks for reading. See you next week.