Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Trump's Florida rally





Trump says the economy is "perhaps" the greatest in the history of the country. He doesn't usually include a perhaps.

Trump claims his election was a repudiation of the "permanent political class that enriched itself at your expense." He claims he has broken the grip of lobbyists, special interests, and backroom deals.

Trump says, as he has, that his opponents "want a do-over," that he has been victim of a "great hoax," and that the Russia investigation was illegal.

Trump invokes Hillary Clinton. There is a "lock her up" chant.

Trump accuses the Democrats of "collusion," though he wasn't specific about with whom. There's no evidence of Democratic collusion with the Russian government.

Trump falsely claims that Obama "did nothing" when he was informed of the Russian interference. Obama has been widely criticized for not doing more (though he has his defenders), but he took a number of steps, including warning Russia through various channels.

Trump provides a highly misleading account of what happened with judges under Obama, suggesting Obama just "didn't fill the positions." Mitch McConnell executed a historic blockade of Obama's nominees in Obama's second term.

Trump, who has repeatedly called for the imprisonment of his opponents, says Democrats, if elected, would "use the power of the law to punish their opponents, which they're trying to do now, anyway." He adds, "They'll always be trying to shield themselves."

Trump claims Democrats voted for "it," his wall, four and six years ago. Some of them, not all - not Pelosi, for example - voted for what they understood to be fencing in 2006 and more recently, not for anything resembling Trump's 2016 giant-concrete-wall proposal.

Trump accuses Democrats of "trying to shred our Constitution" after refusing to accept his victory. He doesn't elaborate.

Bookmark that for 2020.

Trump accuses Clinton of not only deleting emails but having "acid washed" them. He says "acid washed" repeatedly. Acid-washing emails is not a thing. Her team used a free software program called BleachBit, which does not involve bleach, nor acid, nor washing.

Trump is, so far, going much harder at Hillary Clinton than at any Democrat; he hasn't yet launched into an extended attack on any of his potential 2020 opponents. In many ways, this sounds like a 2016 rally.

Trump touts the elimination of Obamacare's individual mandate. He says "this is the only country" where you have to pay if you don't want health insurance. (In most industrialized countries, of course, you're simply given health insurance.)

Trump tells people not to believe the "fake news" when they say that Americans are paying Trump's tariffs on China. Americans are paying Trump's tariffs on China.

Trump chastises Clinton for calling some of his supporters "deplorable," muses about whether he should keep his MAGA slogan or switch to Keep America Great, boasts about the stock market's performance today, returns to the slogans, and talks about how many regulations he's cut.

Trump: "My only special interest is you. I don't have a special interest." The president owns a sprawling business from which he refused to divest.

Trump says he has a "feeling" Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be running for governor somewhere (in Arkansas). He invites her up to speak. She gets raucous applause.

Trump says the unemployment rate is the lowest in "over 51 years." It's the lowest since late 1969, so about 49.5 years. He habitually exaggerates already-excellent numbers. Trump says women's unemployment is the lowest in "74 years." It's about 65 years -- lowest since 1953.

Trump says the typical family of four earning $75,000 has gotten a tax cut of more than $2,000. There are different calculations; Tax Policy Center says it puts the figure for a middle-income household (making $49,000-$85,000) at $800, or $900 if you include the corporate cut.

Trump baselessly says that companies hadn't built plant in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and other states in "decades," but now they are.

Trump exaggerates the direness of the situation with experimental medications before the Right to Try law was passed. People had to ask the FDA for approval, but Trump's own FDA chief confirmed that the FDA approved 99% of requests; it wasn't true people had no chance.

"We passed VA Choice," Trump says twice. "They'd been trying to get that passed, also, for...44 years." It was a McCain-Sanders bill passed under Obama in 2014.

"America will never be a socialist country," Trump promises. He adds, "We will defend Medicare and Social Security for our great seniors."

Not to mention the farmer bailouts.

"We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions," Trump says. I can't fact-check a promise, but Trump hasn't done so to date; all of the bills he's tried to pass would weaken these protections, and his admin is in court arguing Obamacare's are unconstitutional.

Trump boasted of restoring America's standing in the world, saying the U.S. is "respected again." Nobody polls on "respect," but polls of global public confidence in U.S. leadership, notably by Pew, have showed a dramatic decline in confidence from the Obama era to the Trump era.

Trump promises, "We will come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases, including cancer, and others."

That may be the most bizarre "campaign promise" yet.




For the second time in less than five minutes, Trump goads his fans into booing the media and then basks in "CNN sucks!" chants. "By the way, that is a lot of fake news back there," he says.

With a straight face, Trump -- who spends time at private clubs he still owns and profits from just about every weekend -- claims that his movement was about reclaiming power "from a permanent political class that enriched itself at your expense."

Trump accuses Obama of colluding with Putin. His fans eat it up.





I might have noted something other than the victimhood business in that clip.  Check it out.

Trump casually accuses Democrats of "want[ing] to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it."

TRUMP: "[Dems] want to pack to the court w/ far left ideologues & radicalize our judiciary ... Look at what they did to a great gentleman - Justice Kavanaugh, highly respected. [Crowd boos] They did not just try to win but tried to destroy him w/ false and malicious accusations."

Trump tries to convince his fans that he personally designed the border wall. They eat it up.

TRUMP: "This election is a verdict on whether we want to live in a country where the people will lose an election, refuse to concede and spend the next two years trying to shred our Constitution and rip your country apart."

Indeed it is.  And "the people" we have to worry about are him and the GOP.

Trump insinuates that William Barr may still prosecute Hillary Clinton for her emails.

Trump describes the ACA's individual mandate for health insurance coverage as "one of the worst things anybody has ever had to live through." Completely absurd.

Trump fans are bored and silent as Trump misinforms them about how tariffs work.

Check out the clip for that tweet. His speaking voice is unbearable. Also, the crowd awakens when he mentions "Obama and Biden."


Trump is still out here attacking Hillary Clinton for saying "deplorables."

She was right.


Going after Hillary has been a centerpiece of his reelection campaign launch speech. He's not even trying to update his material.

One thing I will say about Trump is that he knows how to get his audiences involved in his speeches -- and they love it. [...] he is workshopping 2020 campaign slogans based on crowd reaction. Trump fans absolutely love them some Trump. [...] There's nothing he could do to cause these people to turn on him.

Trump takes credit for clean air and water while simultaneously touting his support for coal energy.




More Daniel Dale here.  And Aaron Rupar (with video clips) here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No comments: