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Donald Trump Interview at The Federalist
Mollie Hemingway spent five hours interviewing Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida over a wide range of topics, including: Media bias, Covid and Fauci, Afghanistan (the interview predates the catastrophic Biden pull out), his opinion of Mitch McConnell and other Republicans, his abortion record, and, of course, the 2020 election. It’s one of the more balanced profiles of Trump, giving him a chance to speak for himself, while also acknowledging his idiosyncrasies and mistakes he made while in office.
On that last topic, Trump does not come across in the interview as the deranged embittered maniac who tried to overthrow Democracy the way he is portrayed in the mainstream media and NeverTrump outlets like The Dispatch and The Bulwark. Rather, he seems to have some legitimate complaints that states may have unconstitutionally changed election laws to help his opponent.
And, of course, there’s some discussion of those Trump feels wronged him. NeverTrump Senator Ben Sasse, in particular, comes across as a weasel and a scoundrel. After attacking Trump viciously in 2016, Sasse was facing a potential primary challenge in 2018. So, he made a show of mending fences with the president. As soon as the primary was over, he reverted to form.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, in a private call with constituents, excoriated President Trump, saying he had mishandled the coronavirus response, ‘kisses dictators’ butts,’ ‘sells out our allies,’ spends ‘like a drunken sailor,’ mistreats women, and trash-talks evangelicals behind their backs. Trump has ‘flirted with white supremacists,’ according to Sasse, and his family ‘treated the presidency like a business opportunity.’
Before reading the article. I had no idea Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy and Democrat ex-Republican pollster Frank Luntz (who has made a career of steering Republicans to the left while denouncing conservatives) were roommates. Strange bedfellows, I guess.
Depends on whether the alternative is just another GOPe loser. You know, somebody acceptable to NTs. In that case, a lot of us will just ignore the election entirely.
Could have been. I’m happy to take credit for it. ;-)
And give us a competent machine that wants to and can win big. Trump defeated a big Republican field, put that zeal behind DeSantis. Nevertheless, the ones who dismiss Trump’s accomplishments are traitors.
Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe my broken soul and my blind hatred caused me to overlook something really interesting and new that Trump said, some sharp analysis of national affairs, or some thoughtful reflection on leadership or fatherhood or golf or model trains or animal husbandry, or anything at all, or maybe just some well-considered comments on conservative policy.
I’ll take another look at it, and see if I missed it……
…Let’s see here…..palatial home….Mollie should angle her body differently….Brett Bair’s golf prowess…Biden’s fragile….press unfair…opulent mansion….McConnell’s a stupid f*cker…..he’s going to work the primaries….He would beat Washington and Lincoln …whining about the election…media unfair…..tweeting was a bit much….whining about election fraud – Mollie providing some filler for context….plugs her book (fair enough)….election rigged….brief reference to possible constitutional violations in PA…nothing new there…Ben Sasse is stupid….Ben Sasse is a sleazebag…LOTS of whining about Ben Sasse….Fauci doesn’t know much…Wuhan leaked coronavirus, but not on purpose, but maybe he’s wrong about that….whining about covid and the media….Kanye West is loony…he could do without speaking, but needs to for the country’s sake (thanks!)….McConnell’s gutless….you never know who might be a good leader (brilliant point!)….Are Kevin McCarthy and Frank Luntz gay lovers?….sad to see soldiers hurt – closest he gets to anything interesting, but within a paragraph or two it’s back to whining about the media…they eat dinner…something about Ted Cruz…and finally…the media is even unfair about the food at Mara Lago, good to know…
So….Nope, I didn’t miss it. Maybe all the interesting stuff’s in the book, I don’t know.
But by all means, if it makes you feel better to change the subject to me, my soul and psychology, have at it. I have no interest in that topic.
Yes. Romney 2024. McGuffin for VP.
Most of them don’t seem to believe there IS an Establishment GOP.
All the criticisms of Trump’s character are pretty much on target.
And it still does not matter.
What he actually did in office was more aligned with my goals for this country than the actions of any other president in my lifetime, including Reagan. The list of actual accomplishments is fantastic, including, and especially, in the Middle East.
I have often said that I would not have a beer with the man. I would certainly never do business with him. But I absolutely wanted him to be President for a second term, and would have walked barefoot over broken glass if it would have made it happen.
You should have an interest in it. Self-examination is worth it.
All of them? Some of them? A few of them? I’ve found most of them to be woefully missing the mark. They’re based more on what the press says about the man than about what you can deduce if you just spend some time watching him unfiltered.
Sure, I believed it, too. Then I started watching his speeches and public appearances for myself and came away with a completely different view.
It seems you touched a nerve.
This is an odd statement. What does this refer to?
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/576037-most-senate-republicans-dont-want-to-see-trump-run-again
What a surprise. Looks like I might as well stay home in 2024 if the GOPe jerks get their way.
It’s sarcasm in response to this:
I’m not going to listen to the speech. I can’t stand to listen to any president, much less Trump. I’ll vote for some of them, but it’s too much to ask me to listen to them. I sometimes do find it interesting to read the summaries and commentaries on this and other speeches, especially when they contain direct quotes in context.
How is that working for you Drew?
You could do like I have done when they nominate yet another GOPe droid: Vote for whatever fruitcake the libertarians nominate (assuming the person has zero chance of winning). I do go the polls, but I don’t vote for those GOPe types.
It is amazing just how blind you are.
This is exactly what I think. He complains and he writes books. I don’t think he has a decent assessment of the state of world or any policies to improve it.
I thought he absolutely bombed in one of his interviews with Jonah Goldberg when being questioned about policies. I wasn’t the only one that noticed this.
Out here in CA I’ve voted for the Constitution Party candidate since 2000. In 2016, I didn’t bother, but voted for Trump in 2020. I’ll vote for him again in 2024 if I get the chance. Probably would vote for DeSantis. The GOPe and their supporters can go fornicate themselves.
Coming from you that is rich. Now that you’re here, I know how the thread will go, so I’ll unfollow now.
My soul is calm within me.
It was an interview rather than a speech. But anyone who relies on the media to tell them about President Trump — including their edited and chopped version of his speeches — is getting a hugely distorted picture. I used to believe what the media told me about him. Then I listened to him for myself. The difference is striking. I wish some of our fellow Ricocheteers would have gone directly to the source, but alas, they still think the legacy media outlets are valid.
My point is simpler: I don’t care if they are all true.
Measured by his performance, not his character, Donald Trump was a sensational president.
Thanks for the clarification.
It seems pretty clear that Trump thought that his opponents were preparing the battle space against him with voting law changes and so on and in a number of ways were angling to steal the election for the Democrats. When he lost he seems to have sincerely thought that he’d been cheated and wanted the situation investigated and corrected.
My question is at what point does an effort to get the election investigated, votes recounted, etc. amount to an attempt to steal the election? Because that’s what Democrats and the Never Trumpers are insisting that Trump was really up to. They say that Trump was deliberately trying to steal the election, and all his rhetoric in that regard was a false pretext to steal the election, and so on.
What I gather from Never Trump land is that it’s not possible to distinguish a sincere belief that Trump had the election stolen from him from the nefarious and evil intent on Trump’s part to steal a legitimate election and overthrow the rightful government. It seems to hinge entirely on the ability of Trump’s opponents to read Trump’s mind and discern his intent, and I don’t think that they can read Trump’s mind.
Was there any other body of evidence that justifies the assertion that Trump intended to unjustly steal the election? Is there some deeper level of analysis that I’m not aware of, or is it merely a matter of making a politically convenient assumption on the part of Trump’s opponents.
It seems pretty clear to me that the ones trying to block audits etc, are the ones trying to get away with something.
Ok, it was sooner than expected. I did no real work over the weekend. (:
https://ricochet.com/1070564/rigged-how-the-media-big-tech-and-the-democrats-seized-our-elections/