Donald J. Trump accepted the Republican nomination in Milwaukee on Thursday night with a rambling speech that “went off the rails.” It was, per S.O.P., filled with lies, and “”the longest such speech on record [1].” Of note: there were no former Cabinet members in the audience, but ‘ousted’ Tucker Carlson was there.
CNN’s fact check of Trump’s speech… it’s a long list pic.twitter.com/36Z0Tb7Ckq
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 19, 2024
Trump failed to present a plan for a second term nor did he mention Project 2025.
In a new twist, Trump bragged about the money that Milwaukee received from hosting the RNC (he didn’t mention any of their costs). He then went on:
Will the New York Times and Washington Post treat that like a throw-away?
- The Guardian included it in their wrap-up as did NBC News.
- Update: The Wall Street Journal and ABC treated it like a joke. His voice contains no ‘joking’ intonation. Plus, there’s tht closing line.
- Currently no mention from the BBC, FOX News, MSNBC News, The Economist or Washington Post (columnist).
I want you to imagine that Joe Biden or Kamala Harris were to say that in August in Chicago? Columnists would have a field day. It would be screaming headlines.
But Trump? Crickets, in the main. These are not national news organizations.
As he does regularly at rallies, “Trump asked if people knew his friend the ‘late great Hannibal Lecter‘” (a fictional character from the 1991 movie Silence of the Lambs) and praised Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orban.
Also, crickets.
2/2
One third of this speech is Trump reading the supposed acceptance speech.
Other two thirds, where he is much more comfortable, is just another MAGA rally riff.
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) July 19, 2024
Commentary on the speech:
- James Fallows, Carter speechwriter: “Of the maybe 10,000 political speeches I’ve heard over the years, this was overall the worst.”
- Rick Wilson, former Republican: “Trump’s speech was, objectively, the single worst convention acceptance speech in modern history.”
Where to begin deconstruction?
Why not with the prediction that Trump’s teleprompter-assisted ramble will receive maybe one-tenth the negative punditry attacks as Biden’s debate performance?
I want essays, columns, editorials and non stop news coverage demanding Trump drop out tomorrow after this disastrous speech. Won't happen. Insane double standard compared to Biden and Dems.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) July 19, 2024
Trump praised Judge Aileen Cannon’s controversial decision to break decades of legal precedent (he didn’t mention that part or that the Senate confirmed her as his presidency approached midnight) to assert that the Attorney General does not have the authority to appoint a special counsel. That renders null Jack Smith’s stolen documents case. The Department of Justice has filed notice that it will appeal.
Exactly: pic.twitter.com/9t3CGdQvIL
— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) July 18, 2024
It’s well after midnight on the left coast and there’s still nothing about the speech on Memeorandum. Instead, it leads with Biden, as it has practically 24×7 for three weeks.
If Biden gave the same rambling, idiotic incoherent drivel of a speech as Trump, the mainstream media would have a cognitive expert on every 15 minutes calling him unfit and deranged.
Meanwhile, the media: https://t.co/tIoiNugNB5 pic.twitter.com/gmAvTk0QRk
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) July 19, 2024
After all, as Tom Nichols pointed out in The Atlantic last month in ‘Let’s Talk About Trump’s Gibberish‘:
For too long, Trump has gotten away with pretending that his emotional issues are just part of some offbeat New York charm or an expression of his enthusiasm for public performance. But Trump is obviously unfit—and something is profoundly wrong with a political environment in which he can now say almost anything, no matter how weird, and his comments will get a couple of days of coverage and then a shrug, as if to say: Another day, another Trump rant about sharks (emphasis added).
Unlike From, I do not believe this is 100% Biden’s fault. The news media have not seen fit to report good news. It doesn’t get clicks.
This is where we are, because news organizations need anger and fear to drive clicks and views:
Democrats seem to be convinced by the hope that the way to inflict the beating is to change leadership. But the biggest defect of the present Democratic leadership was imposed by the Democratic followership: the reluctance to accept the fact that four years of non-Trump leadership have accomplished an enormous amount that is worth defending.
Republicans are selling nostalgia for one of the worst years in US economic history.
Democrats cannot sell satisfaction with one of the best years in US economic history.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 18, 2024
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[1] The second longest? Trump in 2016.
[2] Read the transcript.
[3] Watch the video.
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The stakes in November have never been more urgent, nor the choices more extreme.
Remember: you are not voting for one person. You are voting for a team.
I’m voting for Team America not Team Russia-Hungary-North Korea.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com