Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Omega10]

Not if freedom has anything to say about it! Get him Uncle Sam!

Thank you once again for the laugh. You and Breccia make a good team. He provides the gory details, and you at least allow us a chance to laugh a bit.

[PhaelixWW]

Well, the numbers do not look good again today, as I expected.
61,656 deaths, 2,390 on the 29th. So much for that "weekend lull". New daily cases has also been increasing again since the low two days ago. I'm worried that we'll be into 70k by next week at this point. And given that we know some areas (like Florida, as mentioned above) aren't or won't be reporting deaths correctly I'm sure we're closer than we think.

Well, I mean, it was still a weekend lull. But we definitely seem to be on a legitimate uptick here, as New York and New Jersey settle down but other states are picking up the slack.

But hey, this administration apparently considers this a "great success story", so I suppose we should be thankful it's not a horror novle. I mean novel.

Priceless, lol.

[Omega10]

Well, the numbers do not look good again today, as I expected.
61,656 deaths, 2,390 on the 29th. So much for that "weekend lull". New daily cases has also been increasing again since the low two days ago. I'm worried that we'll be into 70k by next week at this point. And given that we know some areas (like Florida, as mentioned above) aren't or won't be reporting deaths correctly I'm sure we're closer than we think.

But hey, this administration apparently considers this a "great success story", so I suppose we should be thankful it's not a horror novle. I mean novel.

2k a day puts it around 75k this time next week, so this is likely.

[Benggaul]

2k a day puts it around 75k this time next week, so this is likely.

I'm hopeful that it will fall back below 2k a day, but the trend isn't bearing that out yet. And the daily new cases aren't really decreasing enough to make me optimistic.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, I mean, it was still a weekend lull. But we definitely seem to be on a legitimate uptick here, as New York and New Jersey settle down but other states are picking up the slack.

New York and New Jersey are still topping the charts for new cases and deaths. And now that certain states are supressing numbers (I see you, Florida) and Trump still seems intent on sabotaging relief efforts in primarily liberal areas I'm not seeing their numbers decrease significantly.

[Breccia]

*cracks knuckles*

Let's do this.

Q Mr. President, can you clarify what your intelligence advisors were telling you back in January and February? Were you warned about what was happening with coronavirus and the threat to this country? Should there have been stronger warnings?

A-hole: Well, no. I think —

Q What were you hearing every day in your —

A-Hole: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think probably a lot more to the Democrats

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

US Intelligence does not report to the Democrats.

because a month later, Nancy Pelosi was saying, “Let’s dance in the streets of Chinatown.”

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Pelosi never said that. Strawman.

You go back and you take a look at — even professionals, like Anthony, were saying this is no problem. This is late in February: “This is no problem. This is going to blow — this is going to blow over.” And they’re professionals, and they’re good professionals.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Fauci never said that. This is the closest he came in late February:

NBC News: So, Dr. Fauci, it’s Saturday morning in America. People are waking up right now with real concerns about this. They want to go to malls and movies, maybe the gym as well. Should we be changing our habits and, if so, how?

Fauci: No. Right now, at this moment, there’s no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day-by-day basis. Right now the risk is still low, but this could change. I’ve said that many times even on this program. You’ve got to watch out because although the risk is low now, you don’t need to change anything you’re doing. When you start to see community spread, this could change and force you to become much more attentive to doing things that would protect you from spread.

NBC News: Dr. Fauci, quickly, how does this all end?

Fauci: You know, it ends if you — it depends on the nature of the outbreak. I mean, this could be a major outbreak. I hope not. Or it could be something that’s reasonably well controlled. At the end of the day, this will ultimately go down. Hopefully we could protect the American public from any serious degree of morbidity or mortality. That’s the reason why we’ve got to do the things that we have in our plan.

Wanna see the video? There is no transcript or video of Fauci saying "there is no problem" because he did not say that in late February. I don't believe he said it at all.

Most people thought this was going to blow over.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

From Feb 20 to March 1, the only people saying that were Trump and once Azar. I'm not even sure Pence said it.

And if you can go — we did, I think, on January — toward the end of January, we did a ban with China.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

As discussed later, not only did Trump allow 40,000 Americans to return, but he defends that when challenged.

That was a very — I think you just said, a little while ago, that was a very important step. And then ultimately, we did a ban on Europe. That was very early in the process.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Trump banned travel to Europe March 12. The WHO declared it a pandemic March 11. This was not "very early in the process".

Because if you take the ban and you look at it, I was badly criticized by Sleepy Joe Biden, by others.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Trump is doing what most of the rabid fanbase have been doing: intentionally mixing Biden's criticism of the Muslim ban with the travel restrictions because of the coronavirus. I challenged these forum what feels like months ago to find where Biden criticized the travel "ban" to China. Nobody responded, except weeks later doing this very thing. This transcript was from April 28th. He's still pushing a demonstrably false narrative. Because Biden scares him.

I was criticized horribly for — I mean, he called — he said all sorts of things. We won’t even say it. And then he apologized

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Biden never apologized because
1) He never said the restrictions due to coronavirus were wrong, and
2) He still believes the Muslim ban is racist and unAmerican.

because — two weeks ago, he put out a statement that I was right.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

That statement does not exist. You're free to prove me wrong by linking it.

We did a ban —

Q So you were —

A-Hole: Jon, as you know, we did a ban. And many people — Democrats, professionals, probably Republicans — said that this would never happen, there’d be nothing; no big problem.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Leaves himself out of the list.

"It's just one person coming over from China. Everything's going to be fine."

You saw that, I think, better than anybody, Deborah. This was after the ban. So, obviously, I took it very serious. I’m not going be banning China from coming in if I didn’t take it seriously. And I did that early.

Q But — so were you getting warnings in your presidential daily brief about —

A-Hole: Well, I’d have to check. I would have to check. I want to look as to the exact dates of warnings.

But I can tell you this: When I did the ban on China, almost everybody was against me, including Republicans.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

I admit, I didn't challenge anyone to find Republicans who were against the travel restrictions (not a ban) to China. I do not believe such exists. Trump supporters in the audience, you're free to find the Republicans who were publicly against the travel restrictions to China. But do you really want to?

I'm counting this as a lie until proven wrong. I think I've earned that.

They thought it was far too harsh, that it wasn’t necessary. Professionals, Republicans, and Democrats — almost everybody disagreed. And that was done very early. And that was a big state- — because I think we saved — whether it was luck, talent, or something else, we saved many thousands of lives. And Anthony said that, and you were saying that, and a lot of people said it. It was a very — I think you’d have a much different situation right now if we didn’t do the ban.

Q On that, you know, 40- —

A-Hole: We also did a ban, as you know, earlier. We did a ban on Europe sometime after, but still relatively early.

Q Now, after the ban on travel from China, 40,000 people came into the United States. Those were American citizens largely. In hindsight, looking back, should there have been steps made to quarantine those people that were coming back or to test them? Or —

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: Well, there were.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Deflection attempt. Nobody was asking you, DeSantis. I'm not sure if DeSantis had the authority to shut down international travel into Florida, but I do know he didn't do it.

We — in Florida, we had hundreds of people that were under investigation by our health department. There were — they were asked to quarantine for 14 days anyone that was coming back from China. The Wuhan area in Hubei province, they were having to self-isolate before they could even get to Florida, because that’s what you guys did.

A-Hole: Right.

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: But we had all — hundreds of people under investigation during this time. And actually, none of them ended up testing positive, the ones that developed symptoms. I don’t think — a lot of them didn’t develop symptoms. But that was actually being done in Florida, and we were very much viewing it as a China — a China deal, of course. I think it was, you know — New York eventually brought it to Florida.

Fine, you want in on this? You get it too.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

DeSantis blames New York but did not shut down the beaches for spring break. March 23rd was significantly after the usual spring break peroid of "the week that includes St. Patrick's Day". Also, I'm having trouble finding any actions DeSantis used before March 23rd, in other words, during or before spring break. I don't believe such exists. We know people from Texas came back with it, which means they, and others, entered the state. DeSantis is blaming the third person from the left in the firing squad.

But that was being done in the state level.

A-Hole: And the people we let back, Jon, as you know, they were American citizens. What are you going to do?

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Not let them back. Trump tried to do this with cruise ships. Therefore, it was an option.

“You can’t come back into your country”? You know, we had — it wasn’t like we were thrilled either. I said, “Well, we have these people coming back, all American citizens,” meaning just about all American citizens. There’s not much you can do about that.

Now, we did do testing and individual —

Q In hindsight, would you have —

A-Hole: Well, in hindsight, the states did testing.

*LOUD META BUZZER*

I'm not quoting it, but elsewhere in the Q&A-Hole, Trump takes credit and brags about the US pulling ahead of South Korea per-capita in testing. Which appears to be true, by the way, and you can find it right above the part where he attacks a Yahoo news reporter. But he can't take credit for the good number, while also blaming the states by saying testing was their responsibility. At least, not without being a bloated fatass hypocrite.

I know Ron was doing a lot of testing

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Not early enough, it seems. From the Miami Herald March 5:

Florida state officials say they don’t have enough testing kits to meet federal guidelines for who should be tested for novel coronavirus, even as anxiety has mounted over the potential for community spread of the highly contagious respiratory illness.

I do not believe "not enough to meet federal guidelines" qualifies as "a lot" barring an intentional loophole to absolve you from guilt. I also believe testing doesn't matter when people are allowed into large gatherings, like Mar-a-Lago and spring break beach parties, with no testing at all. It is true that Florida expanded testing after that article was written, but "doing more than not enough" is a pretty low bar to set.

and the individuals states were doing in cooperation with the federal government. But originally, it was, “Oh, 40,000 people came in.” What they don’t say — what the news doesn’t say is they happen to be American citizens. How do you keep American citizens — you say they’re coming in from China, they want to come back to their country. There is a tremendous problem in China; they want to come back. Are we supposed to say to an American citizen, “You can’t come back into your country”? And we did do testing, and individual states did testing or were supposed to have.

Yeah, anybody else? Yes.

*LOUD ANNOYING BUZZER*

Never answered the question. Almost the entire answer was off-topic on purpose. Never mentioned what the intelligence agencies told him, other than "I'll have to check" which I'll only accept as answering the question, if you admit that Trump forgot what his own intelligence agencies told him about a lethal pandemic. I will totally accept that. It's a lame-ass, limp-dick defense of IMPOTUS, but if you're willing to say "Trump doesn't remember if he was told anything or what it was" I will accept it.

Before anyone even attempts to defend Trump, they must first check the cited whitehouse.gov article to make sure I am not leaving anything out or misquoting anyone.

[Milchshake]

Reuters: Donald Trump said in an interview that he thinks Beijing is firmly Team Biden, pointing to China’s handling of the coronavirus as proof that "China will do anything they can to have me lose this race."

Exclusive: Trump says China wants him to lose his bid for re-election

[Breccia]

Reuters: Donald Trump said in an interview that he thinks Beijing is firmly Team Biden

Still blaming China for his inability to handle the crisis he personally handwaved while standing next to Xi.

Also, of course China wants Biden to be President. So does pretty much every other country, and I have to say "maybe" Russia at this point.

[PhaelixWW]

Reuters: Donald Trump said in an interview that he thinks Beijing is firmly Team Biden, pointing to China’s handling of the coronavirus as proof that "China will do anything they can to have me lose this race."

Exclusive: Trump says China wants him to lose his bid for re-election

Didn't, wait... *exasperated breath* Didn't Trump publicly ask the Chinese government to interfere in this election already?

I mean, I can almost hear Trump's voice saying, "I told China to dig up dirt on Biden. They wouldn't do it. That's proof, okay, right there, that they're a part of the new Democratic conspiracy to interfere with my re-election."

[Milchshake]

Didn't, wait... *exasperated breath* Didn't Trump publicly ask the Chinese government to interfere in this election already?

I mean, I can almost hear Trump's voice saying, "I told China to dig up dirt on Biden. They wouldn't do it. That's proof, okay, right there, that they're a part of the new Democratic conspiracy to interfere with my re-election."

Ukraine/Burisma was honestly Trump's best shot against Biden. ... and he got himself impeached over it.

NEW: Bad battleground state polls, disastrous press briefings, grim economic stats. Inside President Trump's fury at his senior campaign officials.

“I am not f—-ing losing to Joe Biden"

Trump reacted with defiance, incredulous that he could be losing to someone he viewed as a weak candidate.

“I am not f—-ing losing to Joe Biden,” he repeated in a series of heated conference calls with his top campaign officials, according to five people with knowledge of the conversations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.

[Masark]

Exclusive: Trump says China wants him to lose his bid for re-election

Well, they probably do want him gone.

Them and every national leader except Putin, Duterte, Bolsonaro, and Orbán

[Rasulis]

Is there ANYTHING we can do to get Americans to vote for boring competent people to high office?

I don't know about America. However, I am ready for a boring competent president. I want a president that actually sounds presidential. Not like a petulant high school girl. I want a president that actually take responsibilities for his actions. Not one that looks for scapegoat for his failures. I have a long list of attributes that I would like to see in a president. The current one has none of them.

[Dontrike]

Ukraine/Burisma was honestly Trump's best shot against Biden. ... and he got himself impeached over it.

NEW: Bad battleground state polls, disastrous press briefings, grim economic stats. Inside President Trump's fury at his senior campaign officials.

“I am not f—-ing losing to Joe Biden"
[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1255653458314760192/KGC-rSMc?format=jpg&name=small[/IG]
Trump reacted with defiance, incredulous that he could be losing to someone he viewed as a weak candidate.

“I am not f—-ing losing to Joe Biden,” he repeated in a series of heated conference calls with his top campaign officials, according to five people with knowledge of the conversations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.

Jared's bit at the end of the article is so cringe worthy.

“I think you’ll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal, and the hope is that by July the country’s really rocking again,” Kushner told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning. But other aides, business leaders and economists predict a far longer road toward recovery.

I'd like to know why and how he thinks that and also why and how he forgot about the virus still being around and the likely second wave incoming.

Trump also hopes to visit two states soon and I can't wait for the virus to spread like wildfire during his rallies, that or everyone is wearing a mask while saying C-19 is a hoax.

[Mayhem]

This is something I've been saying privately, but I don't think we'll ever see the 100K deaths numbers, simply because I 100% believe red states will do everything in their power to stop the real numbers from coming out. Wether it be from simply not testing, or preventing accurate reporting.

Of course, then the outcry by the "blame the Chinese for doing nothing and underreporting the cases!!" will be all over the forums and tell everyone how bad the US is doing, right?

RIGHT?!

[Odinfrost]

Jared's bit at the end of the article is so cringe worthy.

"insert Jared's optimism here"

I'd like to know why and how he thinks that and also why and how he forgot about the virus still being around and the likely second wave incoming.

So, I live in Denmark. Our cases hasn't exploded like in the US. We are slowly starting to re-open. Our government is lowballing a return (but still having precautions) to normal life in early Autumn, but is aware that this could spill over into next year.
And then we have Jared that thinks that the US situation is over by EFFIN JUNE?! He really is thinking with his wallet.
"Hey guys, its over by summer so you can book a room in the Trump hotels so we can get richer." - Jared Kushner's brain, probably.

[Levelfive]

Flynn Lawyers Seize on Newly Released F.B.I. Documents

The documents show details of a debate among F.B.I. officials before interviewing Michael T. Flynn in 2017, days after he lied to the vice president about his talks with a top Russian diplomat.

Courtesy of Bill Barr's investigation into the investigators, here's the "damning" bit:

"In one instance, Mr. Priestap writes: “What’s our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” In another, Mr. Priestap appears to understand the risks of the interview, adding, “Protect our institution by not playing games” and “If we’re seen playing games, WH will be furious.”

Among the documents handed over to Mr. Flynn’s lawyers was an email talking about whether agents needed to warn the national security adviser that lying to the F.B.I. was a crime. Another email described the questions that agents should be prepared to answer if Mr. Flynn asked them."

I'm guessing conversations like this are relatively common, particularly in the case of a "sensitive" matter, but I'm sure that's all it will take for the law and order, constitution-flag-troop-military-waving, god-fearing righteous patriots right to crow that the foreign-money-taking National Security Advisor was tricked--forced, even!--into lying to the FBI, and of course too naive to know that's crime.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/u...gtype=Homepage

[Omega10]

So, I live in Denmark. Our cases hasn't exploded like in the US. We are slowly starting to re-open. Our government is lowballing a return (but still having precautions) to normal life in early Autumn, but is aware that this could spill over into next year.
And then we have Jared that thinks that the US situation is over by EFFIN JUNE?! He really is thinking with his wallet.
"Hey guys, its over by summer so you can book a room in the Trump hotels so we can get richer." - Jared Kushner's brain, probably.

These are my thoughts based on just reading headlines in Yahoo and MSN over the last week.

Before we hit the 60k death mark, the headlines were all about how businesses were ready to reopen and sort of insinuated that the virus was behind us. The stock market rally - the biggest one of all time - was proof that all was well in America, and we were primed for the biggest bestest expansion of all time.

Once 60k happened, the tone changed, and quickly. One headline even said outright that Trump lied about something or other. And now more articles about some of the hurdles still ahead of us are being published.

Now there are headlines, especially in the financial section, justifying the stock market rally while the country is contracting into a very bad recession with very high unemployment numbers. Before that the stock market rally was used to make the point that the US economy was IN A BULL MARKET - BUY BUY BUY!!!, and that there was no need to justify it at all. Reports about China are no longer gloating about how awesome it is that Chinese people are suffering, but instead are focusing on the fact that we will be where they are now ... in a half year or so, and that we will face the same problem then that they are experiencing now. Focusing on shared experience changes the tone of the article. And a lot more articles are focusing on places where businesses are reacting badly - meat packing plants being number one on the list, but others as well.

I still think that Mitt Romney will eventually be the republican nominee for President. Trump's poll numbers will crash and burn well before the convention. The virus is starting to effect red states in big ways, and people are not going to be quite so amused by Trump's disgraceful performance when it is people they know that are dying. Trump's corruption and incompetence has just started to kill off southerners and other Trump supporters, and his support will crater quite quickly.

It was only about a month ago or so when the thought was that we would NEVER get to 60k. We did it in a month. This seems to have woken people up. There is a good chance that the rant of Musk will come back to haunt him.

[Felya]

Thank you once again for the laugh. You and Breccia make a good team. He provides the gory details, and you at least allow us a chance to laugh a bit.

Thank you... I think... I’m bad with compliments. Every time I get a compliment, I question their motives. It’s a character flaw, I argue with management that I’m not doing as well as they have me graded on reviews. They all say it’s bizarre... /shrug

Edit: As an example of what I said, I present what I said. See... it’s weird, I’m not even cognizant of it, as it happens. lol

[eschatological]

Flynn Lawyers Seize on Newly Released F.B.I. Documents

The documents show details of a debate among F.B.I. officials before interviewing Michael T. Flynn in 2017, days after he lied to the vice president about his talks with a top Russian diplomat.

Courtesy of Bill Barr's investigation into the investigators, here's the "damning" bit:

"In one instance, Mr. Priestap writes: “What’s our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” In another, Mr. Priestap appears to understand the risks of the interview, adding, “Protect our institution by not playing games” and “If we’re seen playing games, WH will be furious.”

Among the documents handed over to Mr. Flynn’s lawyers was an email talking about whether agents needed to warn the national security adviser that lying to the F.B.I. was a crime. Another email described the questions that agents should be prepared to answer if Mr. Flynn asked them."

I'm guessing conversations like this are relatively common, particularly in the case of a "sensitive" matter, but I'm sure that's all it will take for the law and order, constitution-flag-troop-military-waving, god-fearing righteous patriots right to crow that the foreign-money-taking National Security Advisor was tricked--forced, even!--into lying to the FBI, and of course too naive to know that's crime.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/u...gtype=Homepage

This is standard prosecutorial shop talk. As a former criminal defense attorney, even I can acknowledge that. But if you look at Twitter this morning, the blue check mark conservatives are screaming about entrapment, and how Flynn should be exonerated, and how everything is a fucking hoax, etc. And that Trump should now pardon him. Man, if conservatives were really upset with this language, you should see the interviews police conduct of actual criminal suspects, all of whom have a much looser grasp of their legal rights than Michael Flynn, THE LITERAL NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER.

Michael Flynn lied to the FBI. He did so unprompted, and then he took a guilty plea because of it. He is guilty.

Unfortunately, I see it as enough for Trump to pardon him (IE, not enough for any normal person, but because it gets a lot of traction in one particular corner of the internet, "credible" enough for the Idiot-in-chief.)

[Milchshake]

Trump said he plans to travel to Arizona next week and Ohio soon after that. He also hopes to start holding campaign rallies again.


Rallies ....?

I hope they bring enough bleach for everyone to share.

[Breccia]

I'm guessing conversations like this are relatively common

I'm sure Trump will address this issue with the same fair, unbiased approach as Ukraine/Hunter Biden/Burisma and But Her Emails.