Like coronavirus, Donald Trump...

 

I’ve seen some crazy election stuff in my lifetime...

I’ve never seen this.

I’m older than all but about 10% of my American neighbors, and I’ve never seen anything like this.

Last week, more than 70 former Republican administration officials — most of them security officials — denounced the sitting President of the United States.

“For the following reasons,” they wrote, “we have concluded that Donald Trump has failed our country and that Vice President Joe Biden should be elected the next President of the United States.”

Here’s their list ... read the statement for yourself to see their brief explanation of each point.

1. ​Donald Trump has gravely damaged America’s role as a world leader.
2. Donald Trump has shown that he is unfit to lead during a national crisis.
3. Donald Trump has solicited foreign influence and undermined confidence in our presidential elections.
4. Donald Trump has aligned himself with dictators and failed to stand up for American values.
5. Donald Trump has disparaged our armed forces, intelligence agencies, and diplomats. 
6. Donald Trump has undermined the rule of law.
7. Donald Trump has dishonored the office of the presidency
8. Donald Trump has divided our nation and preached a dark and pessimistic view of America.
9. Donald Trump has attacked and vilified immigrants to our country.
10. Donald Trump has imperiled America’s security by mismanaging his national security team.

These officials from the Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and Trump Administrations are serious people. Their condemnation of the President’s performance continues, and then turns:

While we – like all Americans – had hoped that Donald Trump would govern wisely, he has disappointed millions of voters who put their faith in him and has demonstrated that he is dangerously unfit to serve another term. 

In contrast, we believe Joe Biden has the character, experience, and temperament to lead this nation. We believe he will restore the dignity of the presidency, bring Americans together, reassert America’s role as a global leader, and inspire our nation to live up to its ideals.

 While some of us hold policy positions that differ from those of Joe Biden and his party, the time to debate those policy differences will come later. For now, it is imperative that we stop Trump’s assault on our nation’s values and institutions and reinstate the moral foundations of our democracy.

“To that end,” they conclude in bolded type, “we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him.

Serious people, doing a very serious thing, the likes of which I have never seen.

"…give me back the damn money that I’ve been paying you for so many years." — Donald Trump

From time to time, Salvador Rizzo, reporter for The Fact Checker, delivers a detailed analysis of false or misleading claims made by American political figures from both parties.

I think Rizzo's accounting of Donald Trump's December 18, 2019 rally in Michigan is especially noteworthy because,

A) in his two-hour speech, Mr. Trump made 179 assertions of fact, of which 120 ... two out of three ... were found to be false, mostly false, or unsupported by known evidence, and,

B) one of the most troubling moments in the speech came in a statement that is mostly accurate. 

Donald Trump told the crowd in Michigan:

I see a woman, Carolyn Maloney. I was with her. Her first race, I helped her. She was always so nice. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I made lots of contributions over the years. You know in New York, it’s like, purely Democrat, especially Manhattan. So, what happens? I make lots of contributions for years and years and years. ... ‘I raise my hand to impeach.’ Well, give me back the damn money that I’ve been paying you for so many years. Let her pay me back all the money.

Mr. Rizzo found confirmation from Federal Election Commission records that Donald Trump did, from 1993 to 2009, contribute $4,000 to Representative Maloney's campaigns — though his first donation was apparently after she was already in Congress, not during her first race.

Most important, to me, is the fact that Mr. Trump regarded those political donations as payments. He asserts that he was buying something from a Member of Congress ... that his $4,000, disbursed over 16 years, were payments to Representative Maloney.

As it turns out, he appears to believe he was buying a "no" vote on articles of impeachment:

"Well, give me back the damn money that I’ve been paying you for so many years. Let her pay me back all the money.”

What a bizarre and simplemindedly corrupt understanding of citizenship and governance.

Mr. Trump's boyish misjudgment in this matter dates from 1993, when he was just a 47 years-old with a dream and staggering debt.

But he asked for his money back last month, the day he was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives at age 73.

There is, as far as I can imagine, no good reason for a president of the United States of America to think as little of representative democracy as this man does. We will be well shed of him ... the sooner the better.