Question: Why won’t the Navy name a ship after Donald Trump?
Answer: Because it would sink to a new low.
It’s now an excruciating Internet cliché to proclaim that Donald Trump has sunk to a new low. An even more excruciating one is when people wonder if there is a new bottom. And (another cliché) the answer is no. And so today Trump provided yet another example when he “suggested” that Ruth Bader Ginsburg may not have written her dying declaration but that it may have been written by Adam Schiff or Nancy Pelosi.
President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that the dying wish of Ruth Bader Ginsburg was fabricated by his political foes to desist him from choosing a new Supreme Court justice.
On Monday, in his second interview in two weeks with Fox & Friends, Trump said he would move ahead with nominating a new justice after Ginsburg’s funeral service concludes at the end of the week.
Ainsley Earhart brought up the statement that Ginsburg dictated to her granddaughter shortly before she died: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
The statement was given to NPR by Ginsburg’s family, the Supreme Court said.
“I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff, and [Chuck] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi,” Trump responded. “I would be more inclined to the second, okay?… That sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that came out of the wind. I mean, maybe she did and maybe she didn’t.”
Trump has used this device before, most notably in “suggesting” that maybe then-President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. He then adds a few qualifiers. Sometimes he says “some people are saying” (most likely a reference to Fox News’ hyper partisan Lou Dobbs and his neighbor resident in the Twilight Zone Infowars’ Alex Jones).
But he puts it out there and his supporters then take his “suggestion” and transform it as part of their perception of reality. This again shows how far American public discourse has fallen under Trump. Actual discussion of issues or rebuttals based on fact don’t count anymore. It’s politicians moving their lips and uttering sounds that could be enmeshed in lies or school yard name calling.
But it is our new normal. And this would have been a major story years ago. But today it’s just, oh, so 21st century.
A new low. Most likely until tomorrow’s new low.
So just when you think he is lower than a snake’s belly, he manages to go lower. He called Justice Ruth Badger Ginsberg’s granddaughter a liar on national television this morning. Let’s go grandmothers. Get busy and vote these fools out. #womenvote
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) September 21, 2020
The President called RBG's grandaughter a liar on national television. Does anyone really want four more years of this.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) September 21, 2020
This is the president of the United States. It has to stop. Vote. https://t.co/TYgPj5Vldn
— Michael Winship (@MichaelWinship) September 21, 2020
Stop arguing about whatever McConnell is going to do – because you can't change that – and make sure that every person (and especially every woman) in America hears yet one more example of how depraved and misogynistic this man is. https://t.co/t04uBTDghP
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 21, 2020
Rhetorical question https://t.co/8IE3EMutE2
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) September 21, 2020
A disgusting lie from the president on Fox about RBG's dying wish that the next president fill her SCOTUS seat: "I don't know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 21, 2020
Illustration 73258024 © Doddis – Dreamstime.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.