Trump up to his same ole dirty tricks
To get an idea of the dirty tricks we can expect from the president as he becomes increasingly unhinged and desperate to win re-election amidst sagging poll numbers, we can look to one of his latest outrages: asking that former U. S. Representative and MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough be investigated for murder.
In 2001, an aide to Scarborough was tragically found dead at the worksite at the tender age of 28. Foul play was never suspected. An autopsy revealed that the woman had an undiagnosed heart condition. She had fallen at Scarborough’s office, striking her head and blacking out.
Enter Donald Trump, seizing what he sees as a perfect opportunity to attempt to destroy Scarborough, whom Trump has classified as a “psycho” and “nut job”, i. e., he is someone who has been highly critical of Trump. The president used the solemn Memorial Day weekend and our nearing the mark of at least 100,000 deaths due to the coronavirus for two days of golf and settling scores, engaging in a tweetstorm of hate, including the effort to further the bogus accusation against Scarborough, which he first generated in 2017.
So outrageous were his tweets that the widower of the deceased woman pleaded with Twitter to remove the them, noting that the president was seeking to tar his wife’s memory for political purposes. Twitter refuses to remove the posts, but has added fact-checking of the president’s lies and distortions. Did Trump remove the posts, express regret, or apologize for causing this man and his family additional pain? Of course not! Trump’s response to the widower’s plea?: “I am sure that they (the family of the deceased woman) wants to get to the bottom of it.”
The Trump modus operandi of circulating crackpot conspiracy theories in order to tar his ideological foes is well-established. We saw it clearly in his years-long racist birther hoax perpetrated against Barack Obama, a charge he knew form the start was a damnable lie. When the falsehood could no longer be defended, he held a brief news conference to acknowledge that Barack Obama was born in the United States. Not surprisingly, he was too much of a coward to take questions afterward. Thanks to the president, many of his supporters continue to believe that Barack Obama is a secret native of Kenya and a Muslim.
The Democrats will need to be on high alert to ensure that the November 3 election takes place as scheduled, that voters are able to cast their ballots safely, that votes are not suppressed, and that the president is not allowed to take any action which would enable him to manipulate the outcome through his usual dishonesty and crookedness. He will stoop to any level to win if we enable him to.
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township