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The Screaming Moderate

With 24 hours to simmer down...

7/17/2018

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Watching President Trump’s press conference yesterday, a joint presser with Russian President Vladimir Putin, I was outraged. I yelled at the TV several times:

“Quit nodding in agreement with that liar.”

“Stop criticizing America’s intelligence community in front of that murderer.”

“You didn’t just agree with that thug who offered to let our prosecutors go to Russia to question those 12 criminals who meddled in our election. Why not hand them the keys to the White House?”

“You tossed that soccer ball to your wife before checking it for wiretaps?”

Okay, that last one I didn’t think of until today.

It was anger-making.

But, with 24 hours to decompress and think more rationally, I now am, to put it in the President’s style, MORE OUTRAGED than I was Yesterday!

Democrats trashed the President’s performance. Many Republicans did, too. The Washington Post” headlined its lead editorial “Trump just colluded with Russia, openly.”

The reviews are universal that he took Russia’s side against America’s. Some called it treason, others went with the milder “collusion.” The only person I saw firmly on Trump’s side was his buddy from Fox News, Shaun Hannity. Most of the other Fox on-air folks even were critical of him.

None of his staff rose to his defense in the immediate aftermath, and I don’t expect his press secretary to brief the White House press corps again….ever! (She or her successor will of course and continue to tell lies to make their boss look strong and smart, but never will achieve his bar of “stable genius.” Whatever that means.

The Russians were openly ecstatic. And if the pro-Trumpers want to know how the press conference really went -- our "competitor" (enemy) thinks it went great.

Trump is already “spinning his performance. Among his Tweets this  morning:

“While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way - the Fake News is going Crazy!” (No one knows how his meeting went with Putin because no one else was in the room. The reporting is on the press conference, which you can watch for yourself and make a judgement)

“I had a great meeting with NATO. They have paid $33 Billion more and will pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars more in the future, only because of me. NATO was weak, but now it is strong again (bad for Russia). The media only says I was rude to leaders, never mentions the money!” (I doubt most NATO leaders would agree with him. And, it’s questionable if he forced others to increase spending. They already were committed to do that)

“As I said today and many times before, ‘I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.’ However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! #HELSINKI2018” (Ah, it’s all part of his master plan! And “the past” is our election a bit over a year ago where the Russians meddled in it. Our intelligence people, led by Trump appointees, agree unanimously on that)

 A friend who supports Trump, agreed with some of my reaction yesterday up until he didn’t allowing Trump, “just may be smart as a fox.”

Uh, no.

To those of you who support Trump, if you didn’t watch his press conference, please do. Please. The “fake news” was interpreting it fine but they also put the news conference on live. The President, spoke and acted, just as they are describing.

The two American reporters who asked questions did their jobs to perfection. Note, when you watch the press conference, that they implied no partisan view in their questions, they were factual and to the point. Neither “leader” answered their questions directly.

After months (years?) of thinking he was just inexperienced and outrageous, now I think much more is wrong. He either truly is in bed with the Russians or his mind is seriously off. Either way, Washington, we have a major problem.

It is past time for the Congress do its constitutionally mandated job. Congressmen and women who are afraid they’ll lose their elections if they take on the President – as we said as kids, “tough nuggies.” This is your job. This is what you signed off on. This is your test.

And it's being marked "pass" or "fail."

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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