Not long after I wrote this post on Trump and Putin over the weekend I saw a twitter conversation suggesting I’d overstated various facts or included mainly speculation. That exchange included Jeffrey Carr who said he would and did write a point by point “fact-checking” of the piece. This seems to have been done basically in good faith and various people have referenced it. So I wanted to take a moment – honestly, a fairly long moment – to respond in detail.
I’m rushing between ten different Trump/Russia posts. But I need to take a quick moment for a reminder. We’re focused like a laser on building our subscriber base. It’s important. And if you feel like you need us, then we definitely need you. Take a moment, click here and become part of what we do. Thank you.
As I’ve noted, I’m still holding on to some level of skepticism about what we truly know about the DNC hack. But this new article from The Daily Beast suggests that the weight of evidence appears to fall heavily of a Russian disruption campaign mounted to help Donald Trump become President.
This is the transcript from an exchange scheduled to run later this evening on NBC News, Julian Assange insisting there’s “no evidence” the emails Wikileaks released were from Russian intel …
As we watch the Democrats give their speeches this evening with various attacks on Trump’s misogyny, nonsense and more, Trump himself is giving a speech in North Carolina which seems to be something like a self-parody. He’s hitting all the same points.
A couple examples after the jump …
Tonight Donald Trump told a crowd in North Carolina that to show our NATO allies how it’s going to be, we’ll have to leave the alliance and force our allies to bring us back with offers of more money. “We have to walk,” Trump said. “Within two days they’re calling back! Get back over here, we’ll pay you whatever the hell you want.”
Meanwhile, when asked about the Clinton campaign’s claim about Russian complicity in the DNC email hack, a Kremlin spokesman replied: “Mr. Trump Jr. has already strongly responded.”
That was an extraordinary speech.
I would have to go back and watch the 2008 speeches in their entirety. Michelle Obama was certainly a very solid speaker for a non-politician eight years ago. But I do not remember that kind of command, confidence and grace. She seemed more like someone who did very well in a role she was not entirely comfortable with, one thrust upon her. It’s bracing and enlivening to see how she has taken possession of her role as a towering public figure in American popular and political culture.
I’m curious how this speech was crafted, how much of a role Sanders himself had in writing it. (Presumably the same speechwriters from the campaign, with whatever level of rewrites he does, like every other politician.) It was particularly well put together in terms of giving voice to what animated his campaign while pivoting to supporting Hillary and not having either seem forced, contrived or false. That’s not the easiest thing to do. That is an understatement. What really brought it together though was that Sanders heart and head seemed very much in it. He managed to bring all the furious intensity he is capable of to this speech. It was really quite something.
Conduct a thought experiment. If Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush were the nominee, how would they be dealing with the relationship between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders? My answer: they would be trying to tar Clinton by her association with Sanders and his radical followers. Think about the way Republicans dealt with Barack Obama’s candidacy in 2008. Now pivot to how Donald Trump is dealing with Clinton-Kaine and Sanders.
This morning we’re publishing the second edition of TPM’s new virtual magazine, The Arch with an article (sub.req) on the life of Mary Church Terrell, a pivotal leader of the fight against Jim Crow who most of public memory and much of history has simply forgotten. The Arch is part of our TPM Prime membership program. We hope you love it and I look forward to you feedback and your comments in the comments section.