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Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Nobody Does It Quite Like President Trump

If you watched the Trump rally in Phoenix Tuesday night, you saw a truly masterful performance by the President.  He began with about ten minutes on the subject of his response to Charlottesville.  The President read sections of his various statements issued on the subject of that attack.  The funny thing, of course, is that Trump read all the sections of the statements that the media ignored.  Just by reading his own words, Trump put the lie to the nonsense that he had somehow sided with the white supremacists, Nazis and KKK.  NO, he had specifically condemned those groups, and he read those sections of his remarks.  Instead of distorted commentary from TV pundits with a narrative, Trump put forward the actual statements he made.  The effect was electric.  Anyone listening could understand just how dishonest the media had been.

Trump also went into the issue of Obamacare in some depth.  He kept talking about how the repeal bill had failed in the senate by one vote.  Of course, that one vote was cast by John McCain of Arizona.  Without mentioning McCain by name, Trump put great pressure on him.  Of course, knowing McCain, the pressure will probably make him even more stubborn on the issue.

It wasn't just an interesting performance by President Trump.  The media coverage was also worth noting.  Prior to Trump, there was a short speech by Vice President Pence.  It was covered by Fox News.  MSNBC didn't even have coverage of the rally at that point.  CNN had a split screen picture; one-half was Pence and the other half was protesters outside the hall.  There weren't many protesters there, but CNN gave them equal billing.  The commentators were talking only about the protests, however.  When the President started to talk, MSNBC had a panel discussion over a silent picture of Trump.  CNN had a bit of the speech.  Fox News continued to televise the rally.  My prediction is that when the ratings come out on Wednesday for cable news, we will see that Fox News won the evening by enormous numbers.  Why would anyone tune in to see a panel discuss Trump over a silent picture of the President when you could hear Trump's own words on another station?

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