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Trump points to protests and clashes in major American cities as a warning of what a Biden administration would bring. But as The New Republic’s Matt Ford points out: “Left unsaid is the inescapable fact that the protests and demonstrations are already happening under Trump’s watch, and in some cases because of him.”
Mainstream media coverage leaves a lot unsaid. As it covers Trump’s campaign propaganda—disguised as daily briefings—TNR has been delivering the real story: “In recent weeks, Trump abandoned any pretense that he possessed either a second-term policy agenda or a positive vision for the country’s future. Instead, he’s pinned his electoral hopes on demonizing Joe Biden and Democratic elected officials,” Ford reports.
A year ago, Trump tried to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for political gain, leading to his impeachment. Ford speculates that “he may yet regret that he didn’t lose that battle in the Senate, after all. If he had, he could’ve spent the last five months as a political outsider once more, unburdened by incumbency, while President Mike Pence absorbed any blame for the pandemic or the protests.”
Months ago, Matt Ford theorized, “20 Republican senators could have voted to convict and remove Trump from office, then voted against permanently disqualifying him from holding it again. Trump would still have been free to run for reelection, leaving the final judgment on his political fate to the American people.”
“Incumbency, the greatest asset that any other presidential candidate could possess, is this one’s greatest weakness. Instead, Trump must now confront a foe that he’s tried to elude for his entire life: the consequences of his own actions,” Ford concludes.
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