https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-wasted-briefings-11586389028
Since the efficacy of the “daily show” by Trump has been a topic, and the interest has been waning for these overly long presentations hogging prime news time, here is the bottom line of this opinion from a friendly News Corp outlet.
“If Mr. Trump wants to make his briefings more helpful to the country, here’s our advice. Make them no more than 45 minutes, except on rare occasions. Let Mr. Pence lead them each day, focusing on one issue or problem. Mr. Pence can take the questions, and Mr. Trump can show up twice a week to reinforce the message. Maybe then our friend who was a Trump voter might start watching again.”
Unlike many, I believe mr. trump has taken the correct course of action for himself, he has done nothing. By leaving the decision to the governors, he has made the outcome overall better for those governors who have also done nothing,
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You have a point.
This allows him to pass the blame should things go wrong. And he’ll take credit when things go right.
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Mike Pence – Vice President and pending scapegoat.
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Trouble is that Trump can’t fire him in a fit of pique.
I think that if Trump were to scapegoat him, the action would backfire big time. It’s not like Pence was appointed then canned like so many others. He was elected and can’t be fired.
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I stick by my advice that if you are watching the briefing, mute the TV (with captions off. Reading his words is as maddening as hearing them.) and unmute when anyone else is at the podium.
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Or skip the briefing and wash your hands for two movements of Beethoven’s Ninth.
Then make a a double Bombay Sapphire while standing next to a bottle of Vermouth (not too close). Add a few olives or pearl onions if you’re hungry. Shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach.
Then, if anything new or important was in the briefing, it’ll be on The NewsHour at 7.
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Olives. Absolutely olives. Green veggies are so healthy for you. And the alcohol assists with digestion. Dinner comes later. Not much. But just enough for the bile to settle after seeing the shit show known as the Daily Briefing.
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That he thinks he is helping himself with this daily display of ignorance, petulance and incompetence tells you the sort of intellect we are dealing with here. If he was smart he would have limited his involvement to a few carefully crafted statements carefully delivered with words of comfort and encouragement while leaving these briefings to actual experts with actual information to share. But, of course, he isn’t. Smart.
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“Mr. Trump “sometimes drowns out his own message,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has become one of the president’s informal counselors and told him “a once-a-week show” could be more effective. Representative Susan Brooks of Indiana said “they’re going on too long.” Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said the briefings were “going off the rails a little bit” and suggested that he should “let the health professionals guide where we’re going to go.”
NYT, 4/9/20
I think people want facts and reassurance. The rest is “rally speak” to feed his base.
Of course, we know Trump won with his base, so who’s to tell him otherwise.
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Ratings, baby. It’s all about the ratings. He won in 2016 because of free press coverage and call-ins to EVERY morning cable news show on the air. This is just his way of attempting to continue that trend.
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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!
140K
1:06 PM – Mar 29, 2020
I saw this and could not believe that our president tweeted this to his fellow Americans. Americans who are stricken by the virus, dying, out of work, watching family suffer.
He never fails to lower the bar on basic human decency.
I guess it is an accomplishment of sorts.
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