"...I respected many others that said the election was rigged.” Haha. First he "respects" no one and second he shopped around until he found someone who agreed with him. He is, and always has been, the biggest looooser!
NBC committed journalistic malpractice...and it was deliberate. The results were utterly firseeabkw, but neither the network, nor Ms. Welker possess an ounce of integrity.
The further damage to democracy from platforming these endless lies and poisoning the jury pool is incalculable.
It's laughable to dissect Trump's confession...he's been publicly confessing since the Lester Holt interview... it's gained him millions, a cult following, and an excellent shot at reelection.
Legacy media had a choice, and each time they've chosen ratings and dollars over democracy. Just as GOP politicians have chosen corruption and tribe over democracy.
I don’t agree that we should not attempt to “dissect” his statement. I view this through the prism of a pending trial with a commencement date of March 4, 3024. His public statements may well be his undoing, particularly if he doesn’t take the stand.
The margins will be small, and the margins (non-cult Rs/R-leaning indys) moving our way as he is eviscerated in Court will make a Biden win ever more likely.
Swing voters exist however you want to characterize them. Most are not "political". They are at best peripherally aware of what we eat, sleep and breath. Their voting logic is often anything but what we would call logic and they will most definitely be influenced by the legal proceedings as the become the dominant story in the country.
Jeff Tiedrich said it best in his Substack piece today:
yay, I guess, but pro tip: if your “interview” subject requires a lengthy, after-the-fact “fact check,” then why did you bother “interviewing” him in the first place?
Jay is always there to "talk me off the ledge." However this really isn't about trump confessing to his crimes, the fact of his guilt is, at this point, not in dispute. You need look no further than Texas to see how far republicans have fallen, lots of facts there about Ken Paxton's corruption as well. Or the Wisconsin republicans getting ready to impeach a state supreme court justice before her seat is even warm. Or Tennessee restricting the rights of the minority party to speak on the house floor. The list goes on. Trump doesn't care if he incriminates himself, because he thinks he has a really good chance he will get away with it. He might be right; either, or both, of the federal cases are going to wind up in front of a corrupt US supreme court; and at that point it's a crap shoot as to how they will rule. And don't even get me started on "judge" Cannon in Florida, even if a jury finds trump guilty she can still toss the whole thing and find him innocent. Even the case in Georgia could face the corruption of the US supreme court, they could toss the whole thing. Then we have to worry about trump getting elected again in 2024, and I really don't worry about him getting more votes, or legitimately winning the electoral college; I worry a corrupt red state will simply not care who the people voted for. Now I know there are lots of obstacles to any of this coming true, lot's of people much smarter than I am are fighting to put trump in jail; and I do trust them. This is the true damage he has done to the country, not only do republicans no longer care about the rule of law; but he has the rest of us worried that the rule of law may not be enough to stop him.
I still worry about the sector of Republicans that still hold Faux News to heart. Literally just had this conversation with one of my friends (who outside of politics is so smart it makes your head hurt) and she doesn't want tRump but spent a very long time telling me how completely senile Biden is and how he has "definite dementia". She also believes the "world respected us under tRump but we are a laughing stock now" (don't get me started) so she would 100% vote tRump over Biden. I think there are a lot of them lurking- they don't say much because they don't want to publicly speak out agains the orange baffoon and they don't want him but they are still brainwashed by what they see on Faux. And honestly the GOP isn't giving them better options. We just need to come out in huge numbers (bigger than 2020).
My own sister said and feels exactly the same, and claims that only Fox tells the complete truth and all other media outlets lie and cover up. It is astounding to me how an intelligent and educated (doctorate) person can believe their nonsense.
I know right? I just want to shake these people and say "Wake up! Get your head out of your ass!" But I'm tired and honestly all I can do is just stay out of the conversations now
Honestly, though this may seem off-topic, I think we should be MUCH more concerned and focused on providing our citizens with a Democratic TICKET to attract voters away from trump than the one they're being offered. The prospect that any reasonable person might be more afraid of a well-proven Dem ticket versus crazy, criminal trump is scary indeed. Dems could well be committed to blowing what should be the surest presidential election in history, and its their own damned fault
Well - who ya got? Don't just throw something like this out there without suggesting who you'd rather have. Let's have it, sir. What's your "well-proven Democratic ticket" that's gonna be better than Biden-Harris?
Here's a list for you to pick apart, as you surely will. It is in no order whatsoever - just Dems who I think would add to a ticket, are not elderly, and are potentially electable - e.g., no flaming progressives. Also, any such ticket, in my mind, should be accompanied by Joe Biden as an elder statesman, president-emeritus, and special member of the cabinet. Here's a list - neither comprehensive nor ordered: Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Susan Rice, Tim Walz, Gina Raimondo, Tim Kaine, Corey Booker, Josh Hickenlooper, Andy Beshear, Jay Inslee, JB Pritzker, Kathy Hochul, Phil Murphy, Wes Moore, Karen Bass, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark. Go ahead - have at it.
There is absolutely no way to know what could happen in a contested primary. Any one of those could look great one day and crash and burn the next.
We have a very known quantity who has done an outstanding job with the power of the incumbency behind him and a now quite experienced VP.
The choice between Biden & Trump for everyone who voted for Biden last time and everyone like them newly eligible this time is clear. They will vote to #ProtectOurFreedoms and Democracy.
Something that struck me, aside from the obvious, is Trump saying he didn't respect his highly placed lawyers as the reason he decided to go with Team Crazy's advice. "You get recommendations..." Is he admitting he didn't do his own research and instead went with vague recommendations from unknown, random sources to choose top advisers? Does he not realize those highly placed attorneys who he didn't respect are going to at least be witnesses for the prosecution, if not co-conspirators who are going to be even more inclined to thrown him under the bus. Doesn't he realize saying he didn't respect them isn't going to go over too well with them?
Trump doesn’t realize anything. He didn’t legitimately graduate high school and has never had to make sense to anyone. His entire life is “gimme” and “not my fault,” and he’ll say whatever gets him through the next 15 minutes.
Well at this point I assume those attorneys already know all this. If he respected them he would have heeded their advice from day one and not fired them, that was their first clue. Not to mention the entire country knows how he is, they had to know he was going to drive the bus directly over them.
I didn’t watch, I can’t listen to Trump’s lies anymore. Also I am sick and tired of the mainstream media giving him a free platform. I will not contribute to the ratings by watching when I know I will see all the highlights endlessly repeated for several days.I wish the media would learn their lesson and stop covering him anymore than absolutely necessary.
I only saw a snippet yesterday, but my husband and I played it over and over laughing all the while. In response to some question or other, tfg says something like "I know that ... I didn't know that" all the while with his hands pumping that air accordion. "...many lawyers...many books" Many lies. Many lost court cases. Many years you should be in jail. So just keep yammering away, ya dimwit! Methinks SC Smith be listening to ya real good.
Jay, if you actually watched the MTP *cough-cough* "interview, more power to you. But by all accounts, it went the way of the infamous CNN "town hall", where Kristen Collins got played like a Stradivarius by tRump...lightweight Welker overwhelmed in the same manner, according to (non-MSM) reports, but did allow him to blather on about "my decision" to mount the "we wuz robbed" campaign, and ignoring much of his (legitimate) legal counsel. Whatever, the god-damned networks and cable news people just simply REFUSE to learn the lessons from 2016-20, and are STILL giving this pathological liar and sociopath a free platform to broadcast his venom...oy vey!
NBC virtually conceded that the "interview" wouldn't work by referencing an afterword "fact-check", knowing full well that the POS would just LIE and CLOWN his way through ca. 48 min. of free publicity, and that Welker was more or else serving as a prop...guess what? They called it.
Hey, she got him to admit on MTP that it was ALL HIM. Guess how many saw that? I think that was her plan all along. Get him talkin, play to his ego, and BINGO! Pay dirt! 👍😎
As much as I hate the free publicity, the forums to lie and spin, bring on the interviews. If he is prohibited from posting on TS, he will be even more willing to implicate himself via hubris in live venues and msm interviews. His statements are prosecutorial gold.
“The more Trump talks, the more the walls of his legal case close in. If he keeps boxing himself in like this, there might be few defenses remaining for him to cling to come the trial, now set for March 4, 2024.”
I too was disappointed that Kristen Welker chose Trump for her first interview. She must have gotten a lot of backlash because they kept mentioning that Biden has been asked for an interview also.
I actually thought she did a decent job of pressing him about his lies.
Something caught my ear that I hope someone will follow up on. When Trump was talking about Putin and Ukraine, he said, Ukraine was the “apple” of Putin’s eye. I think he meant it in the sense of Ukraine being something Putin really desired. I’m wondering if he had knowledge very early that Putin planned to invade Ukraine. Remember his private talk with Putin?
I have never heard him admit before Sunday that the decision to make false election claims was his and not based on his lawyers’ advice. If you have earlier statements that are similar, I’m all ears!
That’s true. I guess what I’m referring to are the lies. The “Democrats kill babies after they’re born,” “Cities burned literally to the ground in summer 2020 and no one was arrested over it,” “The real unemployment rate is 42 percent” kind of lies.
"...I respected many others that said the election was rigged.” Haha. First he "respects" no one and second he shopped around until he found someone who agreed with him. He is, and always has been, the biggest looooser!
NBC committed journalistic malpractice...and it was deliberate. The results were utterly firseeabkw, but neither the network, nor Ms. Welker possess an ounce of integrity.
The further damage to democracy from platforming these endless lies and poisoning the jury pool is incalculable.
It's laughable to dissect Trump's confession...he's been publicly confessing since the Lester Holt interview... it's gained him millions, a cult following, and an excellent shot at reelection.
Legacy media had a choice, and each time they've chosen ratings and dollars over democracy. Just as GOP politicians have chosen corruption and tribe over democracy.
I don’t agree that we should not attempt to “dissect” his statement. I view this through the prism of a pending trial with a commencement date of March 4, 3024. His public statements may well be his undoing, particularly if he doesn’t take the stand.
I understand the pure legal calculation. My point is that it doesn't matter.
The 2024 election won't be decided in a courtroom.
Even if the trial starts in April 2024 after a month of jury selection, and even if DOJ secures a guilty verdict, there will be years of appeals.
Moreover, a guilty verdict will only supercharge the Trump base, which is nearly three-quarters of the GOP.
Except it does matter for the election.
The margins will be small, and the margins (non-cult Rs/R-leaning indys) moving our way as he is eviscerated in Court will make a Biden win ever more likely.
Highly unlikely that there is a pool of right-leaning Independents who are on the fence about Trump, awaiting a jury verdict to decide how to vote.
Swing voters exist however you want to characterize them. Most are not "political". They are at best peripherally aware of what we eat, sleep and breath. Their voting logic is often anything but what we would call logic and they will most definitely be influenced by the legal proceedings as the become the dominant story in the country.
I agree, Jay. However, it’s 2024 just for the record. Um...3024? Juuust a bit outside. Lol 🤣👍😎
Hey man, she got him to admit that it was all him. Well worth the weight to get to that. Good job. 👍😎
Jeff Tiedrich said it best in his Substack piece today:
yay, I guess, but pro tip: if your “interview” subject requires a lengthy, after-the-fact “fact check,” then why did you bother “interviewing” him in the first place?
Precisely. All the interview did was give candidate drump over an hour of free campaign advertising. And a nice gift for Mr. Jack Smith.
All about the eyeballs...advertisers and network bosses loved it...those of us who still believe in truth-to-power journalism, not so much.
I'm hoping Judge Chutkan will move the trial date up, as she threatened to do if Trump wouldn't stop tainting the jury pool.
I don’t k ow how much sooner she can move it, logistically speaking.
Even 1 week may jolt him just enough since no one has ever done such a thing like that to him before.
Not great for justice anywhere for judges to set consequences they don’t intend to or can’t follow thru with.
Hang in there. I think more could be comin’ sooner rather than later. 😎
I appreciate your optimism this morning. Mine is struggling, so thank you for the lift. 🙏
Jay is always there to "talk me off the ledge." However this really isn't about trump confessing to his crimes, the fact of his guilt is, at this point, not in dispute. You need look no further than Texas to see how far republicans have fallen, lots of facts there about Ken Paxton's corruption as well. Or the Wisconsin republicans getting ready to impeach a state supreme court justice before her seat is even warm. Or Tennessee restricting the rights of the minority party to speak on the house floor. The list goes on. Trump doesn't care if he incriminates himself, because he thinks he has a really good chance he will get away with it. He might be right; either, or both, of the federal cases are going to wind up in front of a corrupt US supreme court; and at that point it's a crap shoot as to how they will rule. And don't even get me started on "judge" Cannon in Florida, even if a jury finds trump guilty she can still toss the whole thing and find him innocent. Even the case in Georgia could face the corruption of the US supreme court, they could toss the whole thing. Then we have to worry about trump getting elected again in 2024, and I really don't worry about him getting more votes, or legitimately winning the electoral college; I worry a corrupt red state will simply not care who the people voted for. Now I know there are lots of obstacles to any of this coming true, lot's of people much smarter than I am are fighting to put trump in jail; and I do trust them. This is the true damage he has done to the country, not only do republicans no longer care about the rule of law; but he has the rest of us worried that the rule of law may not be enough to stop him.
It will take both the rule of law and the American electorate to stop him. We shouldn’t count on either alone.
100%
I still worry about the sector of Republicans that still hold Faux News to heart. Literally just had this conversation with one of my friends (who outside of politics is so smart it makes your head hurt) and she doesn't want tRump but spent a very long time telling me how completely senile Biden is and how he has "definite dementia". She also believes the "world respected us under tRump but we are a laughing stock now" (don't get me started) so she would 100% vote tRump over Biden. I think there are a lot of them lurking- they don't say much because they don't want to publicly speak out agains the orange baffoon and they don't want him but they are still brainwashed by what they see on Faux. And honestly the GOP isn't giving them better options. We just need to come out in huge numbers (bigger than 2020).
My own sister said and feels exactly the same, and claims that only Fox tells the complete truth and all other media outlets lie and cover up. It is astounding to me how an intelligent and educated (doctorate) person can believe their nonsense.
I know right? I just want to shake these people and say "Wake up! Get your head out of your ass!" But I'm tired and honestly all I can do is just stay out of the conversations now
At this point someone who holds a doctorate could never admit they have been suckered thru all this. Too far to fall.
Honestly, though this may seem off-topic, I think we should be MUCH more concerned and focused on providing our citizens with a Democratic TICKET to attract voters away from trump than the one they're being offered. The prospect that any reasonable person might be more afraid of a well-proven Dem ticket versus crazy, criminal trump is scary indeed. Dems could well be committed to blowing what should be the surest presidential election in history, and its their own damned fault
Well - who ya got? Don't just throw something like this out there without suggesting who you'd rather have. Let's have it, sir. What's your "well-proven Democratic ticket" that's gonna be better than Biden-Harris?
Here's a list for you to pick apart, as you surely will. It is in no order whatsoever - just Dems who I think would add to a ticket, are not elderly, and are potentially electable - e.g., no flaming progressives. Also, any such ticket, in my mind, should be accompanied by Joe Biden as an elder statesman, president-emeritus, and special member of the cabinet. Here's a list - neither comprehensive nor ordered: Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Susan Rice, Tim Walz, Gina Raimondo, Tim Kaine, Corey Booker, Josh Hickenlooper, Andy Beshear, Jay Inslee, JB Pritzker, Kathy Hochul, Phil Murphy, Wes Moore, Karen Bass, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark. Go ahead - have at it.
There is absolutely no way to know what could happen in a contested primary. Any one of those could look great one day and crash and burn the next.
We have a very known quantity who has done an outstanding job with the power of the incumbency behind him and a now quite experienced VP.
The choice between Biden & Trump for everyone who voted for Biden last time and everyone like them newly eligible this time is clear. They will vote to #ProtectOurFreedoms and Democracy.
I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly; you are suggesting a different democratic candidate for President and Vice-President?
Wow-thanks for stating this-totally agree!!!!
Something that struck me, aside from the obvious, is Trump saying he didn't respect his highly placed lawyers as the reason he decided to go with Team Crazy's advice. "You get recommendations..." Is he admitting he didn't do his own research and instead went with vague recommendations from unknown, random sources to choose top advisers? Does he not realize those highly placed attorneys who he didn't respect are going to at least be witnesses for the prosecution, if not co-conspirators who are going to be even more inclined to thrown him under the bus. Doesn't he realize saying he didn't respect them isn't going to go over too well with them?
Arrogance overwhelms intelligence.
My post for the day about Trump and his interview.
Courtney, did you used to live in Denver?
Yes.
I think we knew each other through an employment agency and mutual friend. Nice to know you're still kickin' it out there!
Thanks!
I think I figured out the connection . . . send me a message via LinkedIn.
Trump doesn’t realize anything. He didn’t legitimately graduate high school and has never had to make sense to anyone. His entire life is “gimme” and “not my fault,” and he’ll say whatever gets him through the next 15 minutes.
Well at this point I assume those attorneys already know all this. If he respected them he would have heeded their advice from day one and not fired them, that was their first clue. Not to mention the entire country knows how he is, they had to know he was going to drive the bus directly over them.
I didn’t watch, I can’t listen to Trump’s lies anymore. Also I am sick and tired of the mainstream media giving him a free platform. I will not contribute to the ratings by watching when I know I will see all the highlights endlessly repeated for several days.I wish the media would learn their lesson and stop covering him anymore than absolutely necessary.
Hammer, nail, meet coffin. BYEEEEEE!
I only saw a snippet yesterday, but my husband and I played it over and over laughing all the while. In response to some question or other, tfg says something like "I know that ... I didn't know that" all the while with his hands pumping that air accordion. "...many lawyers...many books" Many lies. Many lost court cases. Many years you should be in jail. So just keep yammering away, ya dimwit! Methinks SC Smith be listening to ya real good.
Jay, if you actually watched the MTP *cough-cough* "interview, more power to you. But by all accounts, it went the way of the infamous CNN "town hall", where Kristen Collins got played like a Stradivarius by tRump...lightweight Welker overwhelmed in the same manner, according to (non-MSM) reports, but did allow him to blather on about "my decision" to mount the "we wuz robbed" campaign, and ignoring much of his (legitimate) legal counsel. Whatever, the god-damned networks and cable news people just simply REFUSE to learn the lessons from 2016-20, and are STILL giving this pathological liar and sociopath a free platform to broadcast his venom...oy vey!
I watched much of it. She did not rise to the occasion.
NBC virtually conceded that the "interview" wouldn't work by referencing an afterword "fact-check", knowing full well that the POS would just LIE and CLOWN his way through ca. 48 min. of free publicity, and that Welker was more or else serving as a prop...guess what? They called it.
Hey, she got him to admit on MTP that it was ALL HIM. Guess how many saw that? I think that was her plan all along. Get him talkin, play to his ego, and BINGO! Pay dirt! 👍😎
infuriating
FYI, I quoted you today in my Bulwark piece about DeSantis and COVID.
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/a-president-desantis-setting-covid-policy
My piece was done but that middle-finger line was irresistible to both me and my editor so I added it up high. (I'm a subscriber...)
I am a regular reader of the Bulwark!
He truly cannot shut up which is a godsend for Jack Smith, Fani Willis...
As much as I hate the free publicity, the forums to lie and spin, bring on the interviews. If he is prohibited from posting on TS, he will be even more willing to implicate himself via hubris in live venues and msm interviews. His statements are prosecutorial gold.
After reading the tRump "interview" quotes, they say that Joe Biden is "too old" to run for re-election...smh.
“The more Trump talks, the more the walls of his legal case close in. If he keeps boxing himself in like this, there might be few defenses remaining for him to cling to come the trial, now set for March 4, 2024.”
Please god, May it be so.
I too was disappointed that Kristen Welker chose Trump for her first interview. She must have gotten a lot of backlash because they kept mentioning that Biden has been asked for an interview also.
I actually thought she did a decent job of pressing him about his lies.
Something caught my ear that I hope someone will follow up on. When Trump was talking about Putin and Ukraine, he said, Ukraine was the “apple” of Putin’s eye. I think he meant it in the sense of Ukraine being something Putin really desired. I’m wondering if he had knowledge very early that Putin planned to invade Ukraine. Remember his private talk with Putin?
Everything he said was completely predictable things he’s been saying for literally years. There’s no excuse for Welker not to have been ready.
Still, it’s kind of remarkable that he seems to still think that if you confess to something on TV it somehow DOESN’T count.
That said, his only real defense has ever been “F you put me in prison I dare you.”
I have never heard him admit before Sunday that the decision to make false election claims was his and not based on his lawyers’ advice. If you have earlier statements that are similar, I’m all ears!
That’s true. I guess what I’m referring to are the lies. The “Democrats kill babies after they’re born,” “Cities burned literally to the ground in summer 2020 and no one was arrested over it,” “The real unemployment rate is 42 percent” kind of lies.