The election is in three weeks, and Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both Trump and Kamala Harris, but during a rally last night in Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia, Trump got bored with the event, billed as a “town hall,” and just played music for almost 40 minutes, scowling, smirking, and swaying onstage. Trump is no stranger to surreal moments, yet this was one of the oddest of his political career.
This kind of behavior would have resulted in discussion of dementia and Alzheimers if it was a Democrat.
As much as I would love to believe that this is evidence of Trump in the throes of cognitive decline, I have to agree. Him standing there and doing nothing for 30 minutes is certainly low energy and cringe-worthy, but it isn’t indicative of any kind of mental breakdown and the media and pundits are latching onto this too hard. The dishonestly on display is a little saddening, to be honest. There’s plenty of things to hate Trump for without having to make up shit about his mental acuity.
I’m seeing an overwhelming number of headlines specifically targeting “cognitive decline”. The media is banking on this thread to sway voters to not elect him.
First - “the media” (any responsible outlet, at least) should never try to sway an election.
Second - the people finding these stories aren’t going to be swayed to begin with.
Third - Trump has changed News as we know it. Outlets are more motivated by clicks than reporting. Outside a small handful of exceptions, fair and unbiased reporting no longer exists.
Fourth - The “left wing media” is doing the same thing Fox News was doing ten years ago: lying and misrepresenting the facts to fit a narrative. That narrative is needed to compel their audience to subscribe to their social media and newsletters and to repost articles on these forums to generate ad revenue.
The left and the right are both in their own delusions. I agree that those on the right, certainly the far right, are more dangerous to democracy and American values. The outcome of these delusions is different but the formula and the manipulation of the public is the same. The left (which I consider myself a part of), is the frog in the slowly boiling pot.
People need to be more rational and unbiased when reading the news. People need to call out these editors for misrepresenting the facts or making claims that are guesses at best.
I agree with you. This is weird and cringy and not presidential. THIS is the guy we want as Commander in Chief? Still, I could easily see this event happen at a mayoral town hall. I could absolutely see Tim Walz doing something like this. So, from the perspective of the cult that sits before him, I could easily understand them loving this seemingly intimate moment with their false god.
From the eyes of his followers, this event was a win for Trump. That’s a perspective a responsible news outlet should consider - not ‘how did this look from the staunch left’ but how did this look from the desperate right.
The media needs to stop reassuring us this is an easy win for Harris. Stop preaching to the choir that the man is sick in the head (we have known this for ten years). They need to inform us how serious this election is and how devoted his followers are. They should be scaring us, with truthful reporting, to show up in numbers never seen in US history.
The responsible media needs to work on reaching the clueless believers. They need to gain the trust back from the public at large. Running headlines/stories like this is strengthening the distrust of the media.
Well, we’ve tried convicting him with felonies and playing actual tape of him describing rape, which he is guilty of, and no one seemed particularly swayed. So, facts and evidence seem to be out. If it takes a more abstract, personal approach to break the spell he holds half the voters in the country under, then so be it.
No. It’s not we tried being honest about it so now we have to be dicks about it. It’s that someone needs to care enough about all of this to reach these people where they are. Something is broken. You don’t fix this by plugging it with bubble gum and hope it works.
Why are people not compelled to change their minds when there’s overwhelming evidence that he is not a good person or someone who should lead this country? What in their minds is he doing for them?
I just had a family vacation where I found out most of my family intends to vote for him. How, I don’t know, but they’re not aware of how horrible he was as president or as a person. They’re getting fake news from social media. All they care about is “the border” and gas prices. I told them it was Trump who, for personal reasons, killed the best bipartisan immigration bill this country has ever seen and that no president has ever had substantial control over gas prices. They had nothing to say in response. I don’t know if they didn’t know this already or if they just didn’t want to hear it (probably both). All they know is that for the years that Trump was president, their wallets were fuller. Personally, I think everyone has forgotten how much government stimulus we all received and few of us are aware of the ramifications we’re still experiencing from the pandemic. My take away was that a lot of people are not as invested in politics as you or I are. The information they come across is casual. They see a headline, assume it’s fact, then scroll on to the next meme.
Moreover, there needs to be honest and sincere conversations. We’ve all assumed the role of debater where we’re unable to concede a point or allow someone to have an opinion different than our own. The facts need to be transparent. The media needs to stop tainting the evidence. Calmer discussions need to be had.
For example: We should all make note that there is an immigration issue at our southern border and that we want to minimize all illegal alien activity. We should be having open discussions about how to resolve that issue. Some people want to shut the border down but they may be unaware that that’s not legal to do. Some people believe this is a Democrat operation to get more voters but they may not be aware that a lot of Latin American immigrants are super conservative. Instead of allowing The Right to own this conversation, The Left should be pummeling this issue towards the proper direction. We should be demanding more spending at the border to get more judges. We need to increase the ease of people to come into the country, not lock them out, so they’re more likely to do it the right way than the illegal way. And although the Biden administration was nearly successful in this, it wasn’t reported enough to break through to The Right. This is what should have been plastered all over the media, not the already known fact of Trump’s mental issues.