Item one: You may have been outraged by the town hall. You know who was salivating? Prosecutors. |
At the already historically infamous CNN town hall Wednesday night, Donald Trump told about eleventy jillion lies and said about as many offensive and stupid things. We regular citizens observed this. But I spent part of Thursday thinking about another, much more specific audience: prosecutors. What town hall were they watching? Turns out they were watching an event in which Trump was holding a big shovel—and digging. Trump handed prosecutors looking into his abominable behavior a favor in at least three areas. The first was with respect to the Georgia prosecution. I can guarantee you that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis bolted up in her chair when she heard Trump say that he told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “You owe me votes because the election was rigged.” Owe? As Bugs Bunny used to say, what a maroon. MSNBC’s Steve Benen, who writes at MaddowBlog, quoted Georgia State University constitutional law professor Anthony Kreis as saying, “Subjects of criminal investigation aren’t usually reckless enough to go on national television and admit their corrupt intent, but Donald Trump just handed Fani Willis a new piece of evidence and tied a bow on it.” Second, Trump surely made special prosecutor Jack Smith smile on the topic of the classified documents he took to Mar-a-Lago. Trump said he “had every right” to take whatever he wanted and added that “I have the right to do whatever I want with them.” He also didn’t rule out that he showed classified documents to other people at Mar-a-Lago: “Not really … I would have the right to.” He has made similar comments before, but he’s never said these things quite this directly in front of an audience of millions and on tape. His, uh, understanding of the law is that as president, as he once infamously said, he can declassify documents with his mind. Put another way, his understanding of the law is that he is above it. This is not what the relevant law says at all. He handed Smith more evidence for his possible indictment. Finally, he also admitted/bragged that he tried to convince Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021. Pence of course had no authority to do that under law, so Trump just admitted that he was urging his vice president to break the law. For citizens who care about our democracy, that town hall was a horrifying moment. But for the various prosecutors probing Trump, it was Christmas. And for Trump’s defense lawyers, it was a nightmare—unless they’re just so cynical that all they saw was a doubling of their billable hours, which is entirely possible. |
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The Run-Up is a new TNR newsletter by senior political writers Daniel Strauss and Grace Segers, featuring all the news that matters from all the races that matter. |
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Item two: Steve Doocy, truth teller?! |
I’m guessing you don’t watch a lot of Fox News, so the name Steve Doocy may be unfamiliar to you. He’s one of the three hosts of the morning show Fox & Friends. I actually did that show once, believe it or not. I can’t remember when or why; it must have had something to do with Hillary, and I was the sacrificial liberal pig who was there to be spit-roasted by the flank of conservatives who outnumbered me. Anyway, I remember Doocy as being nice to me in that glib and insincere way that some television hosts have, but for whatever it’s worth, he stuck with me more than the other two (one of whom logically must have been Gretchen Carlson, later famous for winning a $20 million settlement from Fox over her sexual harassment charges). Anyway. This same Doocy shocked Fox World this week when he accidentally said something true. James Comer, the idiot chairman of the House Oversight Committee who has dedicated his life to proving that Joe Biden has been the Vito Corleone of Delaware for the last 50 years, went on Fox & Friends to tout his latest “revelations.” As TNR’s Tori Otten put it earlier this week, Comer “alleged in a 65-page memo that the Bidens were involved in influence peddling in Romania for two years, and claimed that Biden’s son Hunter had business deals in China.” To which Doocy responded: “You don’t actually have any facts to that point. You’ve got some circumstantial evidence. And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn’t profit is—there’s no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.” On Fox, this is blasphemy. It’s like saying the Earth is only 6,000 years old. No. Wait. On Fox, that’s conventional wisdom. Strike that analogy. It’s like saying the Earth is four billion years old—that is to say, it’s something that the rest of humanity agrees on but is deeply controversial in Greater Wingnuttia. Doocy has probably been called to the woodshed, if those Dominion depositions are any guide. Who knows. Maybe Doocy is on the Shepard Smith track back to the reality-based community. |
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Item three: And finally, the actual most important story of the week Trump, the border, the debt limit, Ron DeSantis and his horrible laws … to a certain category of citizen, it was all so much noise, and the real biggest story of the week was Bob Huggins. Who’s Bob Huggins? What?! He’s the head basketball coach at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. That’s my hometown and my alma mater. Huggins also happens to be the winningest active coach in men’s college basketball, now that Jim Boeheim has retired. On Monday, Huggins made disgusting, inexcusable comments on a Cincinnati radio show, using a retrograde homophobic slur—twice. Not only homophobic: He also managed to work in a dig at Catholics! It was really shocking—maybe not shocking that a big-time athletic coach thinks that way, but certainly shocking that any prominent person sitting in front of a microphone would be idiotic enough to speak that way in this day and age. Let’s put it this way: It was the kind of the thing that would get someone on MSNBC instantly fired, someone on CNN suspended for a while before they finally decided to fire them, and someone on Fox a raise and a promotion. Huggy Bear’s head was on the chopping block for 24 hours. Mountaineer Sports Nation, where the man is slightly less popular than Jesus, was up in arms. Was the great Huggins—who played at WVU; I used to go watch him play when I was a kid, admiring his smooth-as-bourbon jump shot—going to be sacrificed to these merciless gods of wokery? I hardly have to tell you that the people of West Virginia, who’d probably make Donald Trump president for life if they could, were not pleased at this prospect. Huggins’s fate rested in the hands of two men: a new athletic director whose recent appointment was greeted with a quizzical indifference, and university president E. Gordon Gee, a genuinely respected and even perhaps beloved figure in Morgantown, who headed WVU 40 years ago and did subsequent stints at prestigious places like Vanderbilt and Brown and Ohio State before circling back to WVU after he, too, made an indefensible remark about the Catholic faith while in Columbus. Well, Huggins wasn’t fired. He was suspended for the first three games of next season. His salary was slashed by $1 million (it’s still $3.2 million). His multiyear contract was downgraded to year-to-year, which in reality could well mean that next year will be the 69-year-old coach’s last. And he was ordered to participate in sensitivity counseling. It’s that last part that I’m most interested in. Media accounts tend to emphasize the salary hit and suspension. One thing I read said that |
the athletics department will partner with the university’s LGBTQ+ center to develop annual training sessions that will “address all aspects of inequality including homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, and more.” Huggins and his staff, along with all future coaching staffs in the athletic department, will be required to attend this training. Huggins will also be required to “meet with LGBTQ+ leaders from across West Virginia with guidance from the leadership of WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center.” |
I have long thought, in such circumstances, rather than fire people, go make them learn something. Make the man who made stupid comments about the Holocaust go learn about the Holocaust. Take him to Auschwitz. He’d never make such a comment again. Not only would he not make such a comment again—he would probably actually learn something that would make him a better human being. I believe in second chances. I don’t think people should be ruined by one moment in their lives, horrible as that moment may be (although of course some single moments are indeed beyond the pale—things said in all seriousness and with real malice that indicate the harboring of a deep hatred). The scope of this aspect of Huggins’s punishment doesn’t sound like enough to me. Annual sessions? If it were up to me, he’d have to sit there week after week for a year or so and listen to gay and trans students tell him about their lives. He’d hate it at first, but over time, he’d learn stuff, and he’d emerge from it a different person. Education is better than punishment. But the education has to be real and substantive. I’m not sure it is in this case, and if I’m right, it’s a missed opportunity to prove a point about how to handle these situations. |
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Last week’s quiz: God Save the … in recognition of the coronation’s existence last weekend |
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1. The royal family is paid for by the British taxpayer under something called the Sovereign Grant. How big was the Sovereign Grant in 2021–22? |
A. $66 million
B. $81 million
C. $104 million
D. $128 million |
Answer: D, $128 million. This Guardian article explains that apparently that doesn’t include security, the cost of which is never made public! |
2. According to Debrett’s Peerage & Baronetage, what is the highest rank among these titles, and how many of them are there in the U.K. today? |
A. Baron; 132 B. Viscount; 430 C. Duke; 24 D. Earl; 80 |
3. The royal family owns about 30 homes. In which one did Charles and Camilla live until his accession? It’s also where his mother and Prince Philip lived until she took the throne. |
A. Kensington Palace
B. Clarence House
C. St. James’s Palace
D. Sandringham House |
4. About a month ago, King Charles lent his first expression of support for research into what? |
A. The monarchy’s historic role in the slave trade B. The value of resources appropriated from the colonies C. The exact number of trees in the United Kingdom D. The possibility of divesting the crown of Windsor Castle |
5. Match the royal to the scandal: |
Prince Andrew Prince Charles Prince Harry Lady Susan Hussey (aide to Elizabeth II) |
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Wore a Nazi armband at a costume party Questioned nationality of Black charity head Hung with Jeffrey Epstein “Tampongate”/brazen affair |
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Answer: Andrew = Epstein; Charles = Tampongate; Harry = swastika; Lady Hussey = rude question to Black woman who was, in fact, British |
6. Why will royal watchers be paying particular attention this weekend to Princess Beatrice, the elder daughter of Prince Andrew and Princess Sarah (i.e., Fergie)? |
A. Because she’s been in the doghouse lately, as she has sided strongly with Harry and Meghan B. Because she just got out of rehab C. Because she famously fell asleep during Will and Kate’s wedding D. Because of the crazy hats she wears on such occasions |
Answer: D, her filigreed chapeaux. Although last Saturday’s disappointed me, I have to say. |
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This week’s quiz: “Train I ride, 16 coaches long”: Since I’m writing this aboard an Amtrak train, we’ll focus this week on the past and present of train travel. |
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1. The world’s first regularly operating passenger railway ran between which two cities? |
A. London and Birmingham
B. Berlin and Hamburg
C. Liverpool and Manchester
D. Paris and Rouen |
2. Most Americans know that the “Golden Spike” connecting the Transcontinental Railroad was driven into the loam of Promontory Point, Utah. Who was the magnate who ceremonially drove it? |
A. Leland Stanford B. Jay Gould C. Cornelius Vanderbilt D. Brigham Young Jr. |
3. The longest railroad in the world is the Trans-Siberian Railway. How many miles is it? |
A. 4,611 miles B. 5,772 miles C. 7,664 miles D. 9,080 miles |
4. What is known as the world’s slowest train, which takes more than eight hours to travel about 180 miles, averaging 18 mph and passing over nearly 300 bridges and through 91 tunnels? |
A. The Andean Express from Lima to La Paz B. The Yangtze Express from Tianjin to Guangzhou C. The Kilimanjaro Express from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma (capital of Tanzania) D. The Glacier Express from Zermatt to St. Moritz (in Switzerland) |
5. Railway stations are among the great glories of humankind. Match the beautiful, historic rail station to its city. |
Estacion Central Gare do Oriente Atocha Station St. Pancras International |
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London Madrid Santiago Lisbon |
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6. After the infamous “act of vandalism” in New York—the razing of the glorious old Penn Station, replaced by the hideous 1960s dungeon that has recently been (mostly) replaced by the almost-glorious Moynihan Station—there was a famous quote about the difference between the first two stations: “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.” Who said it? |
A. Architecture critic Paul Goldberger B. Senator Jacob Javits C. Novelist John Updike D. Architectural historian Vincent Scully |
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Moynihan Station is a massive improvement, but I can’t help noticing every time I go that there’s no big board of departures and arrivals. Come on, man! Great train stations all need a big board! Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com. —Michael Tomasky, editor |
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