Donald Trump is not a concepts guy. This has actually been a specifying feature of his presidency. He’s not a discovered policy wonk, understanding the complex nuances of law and governance. He is, at his core, just a former game program host and a con male.
Never is this more clear than when press reporters ask him about public law issues he’s not prepared for. (Naturally, even on topics where Trump ought to be prepared, like healthcare, he has a hard time to assemble a coherent idea.)
Trump had no concept how to react, so he just rattled on. But his rambling was revealing. It deserves quoting the whole exchange in full:
Kilmeade: But this is the one stat I’m going to bring you to, and I’m going to ask you if might attack this.
According to an Axios-Ipsos poll, 70% of white Americans say they rely on the regional cops. Only 36% of African-
Americans do. How do you attack that problem? How do you alter things?
Trump: Well I believe it’s a very sad problem. As you understand, as a Republican I’m doing extremely well with African- Americans and with the vote, with the– in polls and everything– especially, I imply I have not seen one extremely just recently since you had actually the pester come in from China, so that altered things up, however we had the very best economy ever, we had the finest numbers for African-American work and unemployment in history. Best homeownership– best whatever. We had the finest numbers in whatever– not just African-American, however the African-American numbers were great.
K: However how do you deal with the law enforcement part of this? How do you handle the police part of this?
T: Well I think you have to improve than what they have actually been doing. I imply certainly that was a terrible thing. And I have actually discussed it various times in numerous speeches. And you understand, it’s interesting: I discussed it when we launched a very successful rocket– an incredible program that culminated on that day and clearly it goes on from there. But I then made a speech and it was a speech about the rocket, and I devoted 25% of the speech probably to what happened– or more– to what happened with respect to George– George Floyd, and it was– and then you listen to news, ‘He doesn’t speak about George Floyd.’ The rocket went off, I then I made a speech, and I spoke about George Floyd, however they stated he didn’t discuss George Floyd. Half– possibly even nearly half of the speech, but a large portion of the speech adhered precisely to that. Therefore, you know, with– with the media you essentially– generally no matter what you do, it’s never going to suffice. But individuals understand it.
K: Right.
T: And that is among the appeals to social media. I mean, I would like not to even trouble with social networks. but
I have the ability to get my word out beautifully by social networks. Luckily. You utilize social networks too.
K: Right, likewise– T: But we have to get the word out. Look, we need to– Brian, we need to get the police departments, everybody needs to do better, has to do better. This is a long-lasting issue. This didn’t take place today. This took place– I suggest, a guy like Drowsy Joe Biden was in there for 43 years, then he states, ‘I believe we must do this’– I saw today, he took his mask off for the very first time in a while, I haven’t seen his face for a very long time. And he said, ‘I believe we should do this,’ or ‘I think we must do that.’ And really then he started speaking through the mask once again. He feels comfortable with the mask on, I believe, and– although there was no one anywhere near him, which is interesting. He made a statement about what he ought to do. I said, he’s been there for 43 years, he was vice president for 8 years, he didn’t do a thing. His criminal activity bill was a disaster.When asked about African-Americans, Trump did what he generally does and began discussing the economic success the nation enjoyed before the pandemic. His declaring credit for this success is extremely dubious and contestable, and it was entirely unassociated to the question asked. So Kilmeade asked once again. And still, Trump had nothing to state.
Once again, he simply started talking about himself. He reverted to a comfortable topic, declaring that the media was unreasonable because it supposedly neglected his remarks about George Floyd’s death when he appeared at NASA. However what he’s actually demonstrating is that he has no concepts for how to really deal with the problems the protesters are calling out. He appears to either be convinced that what he has actually said about Floyd needs to suffice to resolve the problems, or he’s not able to understand that there are concerns about public law that have nothing to do with him in particular.
He launched into a meandering tirade about Biden, recommending that under the Obama administration, nothing was done to fix policing in the United States. While the previous administration surely didn’t do enough, and Biden himself has contributed to the criminal justice issues in the country, Trump entirely disregarded the truth that the Obama Justice Department really did take substantial actions towards reform following the protests in Ferguson. Under Trump, those efforts were rolled back.
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