The Utter Truthlessness of Donald Trump

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

10 May 16

And more lessons from this week's Sunday showz.

eing our semi-regular weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, as you know, is what The Clash would have come up with had they recorded, "Derp Or Glory."

We don't ordinarily touch on the Sunday Showz from the cable networks, but we have to say that Exasperated Jake Tapper on CNN has become one of our favorite new television programs. On Sunday, for reasons wholly related to Donald Trump, he hosted Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods. And the word salad bar was wide open!

"I want to help and not hurt, and I am such a realist that I realize there are a whole lot of people out there who say, 'Anybody but Palin.' I wouldn't want to be a burden on the ticket and I recognize that in many, many eyes, I would be that burden. So, you know, I just want the guy to win. I want America to win."

She'll settle for Secretary of State, I guess. And, sadly, the other half of the 2008 Republican ticket seems to have come loose from his moorings. Also on CNN, John McCain has surrendered to surreality because that's all he has left.

"You have to draw the conclusion that there is some distance, if not a disconnect, between party leaders and members of Congress and the many voters who have selected Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party," McCain said when asked about the comments by House Speaker Paul Ryan and his close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham, both of whom have so far refused to back Trump. "You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party," McCain said. "I think it would be foolish to ignore them."

So he says about a vulgar talking yam who began his campaign by ridiculing the torments of the damned that McCain endured in North Vietnam. (This is right up there with his sucking up eight years later to the forces who slandered his daughter in 2000. Why does it always seem that the way to gain John McCain's favor is to treat him as badly as possible?) He then went on to defend his choice of running mate and to propose one for He, Trump.

"I don't often make a comment like this. But she was treated terribly by what we know as the mainstream media and that's the only thing I will ever resent about my presidential campaign is her treatment by the media. It was disgraceful."

All of them, Katie.

And McCain's suggested running mate this time around? None other than my new friend, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who is Sarah Palin, if you substitute pig testicles for moose jerky. From The Washington Examiner:

Asked about Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, whose name has been floated as someone the Trump campaign may be vetting, the Arizona senator heaped praise on her. "Joni Ernst would be tremendous. She is really remarkable," said McCain. "I think there's a number of members in the Senate."

Genius! I can't wait to see what the folks in the writer's room of Exasperated Jake Tapper have for a season finale.

On the networks, however, this week's House Cup goes to my man Chuck Todd, who always has been the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Todd had He, Trump over for a chat and, after a few minutes of stunning incoherence on the subject of election law, we were treated to this amazing moment of television.

TODD: Wait a minute. Let me stop you there. You just said, "Businesses might pay a little bit more." You just said, "Business might pay a little bit more, but we're going to get 'em a massive tax cut." You just said it within ten words.

TRUMP: No, no. I didn't say it. Excuse me. I said they might have to pay a little bit more than my proposal, Chuck. I said they might have—

TODD: Oh, your proposal. Okay. I just wanted to get that clear.

TRUMP: —yeah, than my proposal.

TODD: Fair enough.

TRUMP: I'm not talking about more than they're paying now.

TODD: Got you.

TRUMP: We're the highest taxed nation in the world. Our businesses pay more taxes than any businesses in the world. That's why companies are leaving. So they may have to pay a little bit more than my proposal, is what I mean. I assume you knew that. I assume you know that.

TODD: Got you. Okay. No, no, no, no. I just wanted to clear that up.

TRUMP: Okay, good. Good, I'm glad you cleared it up—

Forget that little pat on the head there at the end. My man Chuck Todd had He, Trump pinned. The way you know that is that He, Trump had to resort to a barefaced non-fact about how we are "the highest-taxed nation in the world." (This is not within an area code of the truth. Criminy, even PolitiFact noticed.) And what do we get for pushback? "Fair enough" and two "gotchas."

This is going to be a real crisis for elite political journalism from now until November, perhaps the deepest crisis elite political journalism has faced since the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, and that one didn't turn out well at all. The Republican Party is about to nominate an utterly truthless fellow who doesn't know how much he doesn't know and is prepared to lie his way past everything he doesn't know anyway. I'm afraid that elite political journalism is so wedded to "balance" that it is in no way prepared to cope with a post-reality candidate. (Professor Krugman shares this concern.) "Fair enough" and "gotcha" are not appropriate answers to the assertion by a candidate that he plans to heal the national economy by setting up a roulette wheel and two blackjack tables in the Department of the Treasury. 

If hope is not a plan, then bluster and bombast are even less of one. Elite political journalism has a greater responsibility to the Republic than "balance" or "objectivity." This is going to be a long six months.