We’re trying to piece together this morning what appears to be another epic flip flop from the Trump campaign on the release of medical records. Yesterday the idea was that Trump was going to on Dr. Oz’s show and release his medical records then. Now we’re hearing that’s not going to happen after all.
Is Trump losing the key Kremlin constituency in the home stretch of the campaign? The Putin SuperPac’s work on Trump’s behalf has been a critical assist to Trump and a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton. This was true as recently as last night when suspected Russian intelligence agent (or creation) ‘Guccifer 2.0’ released a new trove of Democratic emails. But this morning there’s new emails from Colin Powell in which Powell says among other things that Trump is a “national disgrace” and “international pariah”. Now it’s possible that Russian political operatives didn’t fully grasp the impact of these emails, thinking they would embarrass Powell as opposed to goad Trump into some new self-destructive act. But the upshot is that what political operatives call the so-called ‘Putin primary’ may not actually be over.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the AG who wouldn’t be bought off over Trump University (lookin’ at you, Pam Bondi) is now taking a look at the Trump Foundation.
I’ve gotten depressingly familiar with protester beatings at Trump rallies. In the 21st century perhaps the iconic trappings of politics will be the flag, motherhood, apple pie and revenge beatings. Let’s hope not. In any case, here’s a new case that ups the ante and still has the capacity to shock. 69 year old Shirley Teeter, who wears an oxygen mask and lugs around a tank to support it, was protesting outside a Trump rally in North Carolina when a feral Trump backer turned on her and punched her right in the face. Cold-cocked her, as Shirley put it.
As we await a review of Donald Trump’s health status as mediated by TV Doctor Dr. Oz who says he doesn’t want to reveal anything that will embarrass Trump or make him feel bad, we should focus in on what is I think the key part of his medical history. According to court documents, in 1989 Trump underwent what ended up being a tragically botched scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot. (No, I didn’t know this was a thing either.) Ivana had recommended the plastic surgeon. And apparently it hadn’t gone well and/or Trump was in a lot of pain. So he lashed out at Ivana, attacked her, held her down, began pulling hair out of her head to mimic his pain and forcibly penetrated her. Yes, this is really in court documents from Trump’s divorce.
I just had an impromptu conversation with some colleagues about what to make of Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway at once hammering Clinton’s medical secrecy while also saying that Dr. Oz agrees with her that Trump has a “right to privacy” when it comes to his health records.
I had a chance to read New York Times public editor Liz Spayd’s much discussed column on “false balance.” I’ve seen many ‘false balance’ critics attacking it and countless national news reporters embracing it. Spayd locks in on some real shortcomings of this media critique. But they are largely clumsy versions of the argument which allow Spayd to ignore the actual criticism. And she concludes with what amounts to a generalized, all good, Times reporters!, please don’t be “intimidated” by these arguments.
The reality is that the contemporary journalistic concept of ‘balance’ is inevitably in tension with accuracy. How to resolve that tension is a point of debate. To essentially deny the tension, as Spayd does, shows you’re just not engaging the question.
ICYMI: I explain why “deplorables” was always more of a double-edged sword than Team Trump realized.
In one of the more surreal but telling moments of the 2016 campaign last night, Trump supporter David Duke took to Twitter to attack Wolf BIitzer after Mike Pence refused to call Duke “deplorable.”
Wolf Blitzer demands that Pense call me “Deplorable” and he refuses.. Wolfie boy, still upset that I outed you on CNN as an AIPAC AGENT?
— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) September 13, 2016
And there we have it. In what the Post calls a “tense” rally in North Carolina this afternoon, where Trump focused on “deplorables” and was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, a supporter shoved and punched two male and one female protesters before the protesters were led out of the arena. Trump condemned what he called Clinton’s “hate-filled campaign” with “no policy, no solutions and no new ideas.”
The attacker was apparently allowed to stay. The return of Trump rally violence was first flagged as it happened by NBC’s Ali Vitali.