Evasion About the Invasion
Perhaps you can help me out. I have a question for you. Whatever happened that caravan? It seems to have disappeared into thin air. That’s only fair, because our president conjured it up out of thin air, anyway.
Since the night of the midterm election, not a peep out of the White House about that advancing army of miscreants with their plot to take over America – brandishing dirty diapers.
Could it be President Trump was really playing a sleazy campaign stunt designed to scare up votes?
Yep!
Besides, since the election, he’s had to come up with a bag full of attention grabbers to take his mind off the severe throttling he and his fellow Republicans endured.
George W. Bush and Barack Obama suffered similar midterm defeats. They both took those defeats in stride. Bush called his a “thumpin’,” while Obama said he been the recipient of a “shellacking.”
Was it too much to ask our current president to take his medicine, then move on from it?
Yep!
On the day following the election, he held a contentious news conference in which he announced the midterms were “very close to a complete victory.”
They were, but not for Republicans.
Democrats had taken over the U.S. House; had come close to holding serve in the U.S. Senate; had flipped seven governorships from Republican to Democratic – and took command of statehouses across the country.
And on every succeeding day since the polls closed, there have been final vote tallies that have helped Democrats take over House seats formerly held by Republicans.
Trump always needs diversions.
He could no longer depend on the media to chase down his ridiculous claims about that invading caravan.
Those only worked as parts of stump speeches, when he’d get standing ovations for claiming those migrants are capable of giving you psoriasis from a thousand miles away.
Thus, he’s deploying thousands of American troops to the southern border, so they can string barbed wire, and look busy.
The stump speeches and the scare tactics about that caravan disappeared on the same day.
So, the day after the election, he picked a fight with CNN’s Jim Acosta (a frequent Trump foil), and he fired his attorney general – Jeff Sessions – (another Trump foil) – as an effort to get the media to discuss anything other than the losses Republicans suffered at the polls.
But those developments weren’t quite enough.
Trump took to Twitter.
He’s pontificated about the election results in Florida; attacked the Mueller investigation; warned Democrats about mishandling their new majority, and; he’s taken time to launch peevish attacks on French President Emmanuel Macron.
All are a fair indication that our president is not having a lot of fun with his newfound spare time since he’s not flying around the country bragging himself up to his cheering devotees.
He did fly to France, where he was largely ignored by world leaders who’d gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.
Trump skipped out on an opportunity to pay homage to Americans who died on French soil.
After he returned to the United States, he failed to do what just about every president has done on Veterans Day – place a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Ironically, members of the French Embassy in Washington DID participate in that ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
That’s embarrassing.
But not as embarrassing as Trump’s continued hostility about the Florida election results.
First, he told a reporter that there’s nothing wrong with having voter ID’s because you even need them to “buy a box of cereal.”
There’s a funny line I could write here. Why bother?
Then, he claimed he’s aware of the potential for lots of 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.”
Is it OK to feel sorry for a delusional president?
Yep!
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.