On Tuesday September 29, 2020, President Donald Trump arrived at the designated sight for the first Presidential Debate for 2020. The Democratic Nominee Joe Biden was already there and had tested negative for the coronavirus. Trump arrived late and was not tested for the virus, which was supposed to happen. This was a disgrace as President Trump may have already been positive for the coronavirus—he could have been infected a day or so earlier, had an initial test and maybe have been waiting for the result of a more reliable test, before disclosing his condition or he may have been first infected at an event on September 30. Likely he knew that he was positive by October 2nd when he hosted a large gathering of wealthy individuals at his golf club to raise money for the campaign and he certainly knew by the time of an important, maskless gathering on Saturday on the White House lawn of 100 prominent individuals from Washington and elsewhere to celebrate the nomination of Amy Barrett for a seat on the United States Supreme Court. One of Trump’s closest advisors, two Senators and the President of Notre Dame University tested positive after that event. It was a true super spreader and pictures of all those closely lined up chair which would soon have maskless White House guests sitting on them is a visual and permanent symbol of all the evil that has visited America during the regime of “the agent of the devil, in the Biblical sense,” as Senator Gillibrand put it in 2018 in a press interview. Vice President Biden, thanks to God, tested negative four times after his debate with President Trump on September 29th.
But to call that event a debate is to use the English language poorly. It was one man trying to present his sound and coherent message to the American people but largely prevented from doing so by the screaming, shouting and bullying by the other man throughout the hour and a half event—such an affair that is correctly named. Fortunately, the next so-called debate scheduled for October because Mr. Biden refused to attend if Trump was still positive – CDC said he might be – the Debate Commission changed the format to virtual and then Trump refused to attend because the event was virtual. Maybe Trump had the idea he could win by infecting his opponent. In any case there seems to be little purpose in continuing these farcical encounters. Yes, presidential debates are part of American Democracy, but not under any circumstances.
Shortly after the Saturday evening super spreader and apparently under considerable stress as a patient with Covid-19, Trump spent several days at Walter Reed Hospital there and received emergency treatment—including an antibody “cocktail” not yet approved for use by the FDA—which appeared to revive him and he was discharged. The treatment with steroids and another antibody drug continued. The steroids, plus his panic about the prospect of losing the election added to his normal personality seemed to drive President over the cliff edge of a rational world into a chasm of insanity. In telephone calls with Sean Hannity of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh he was raving about plots against him and called for, among other things, the indictment of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and his opponent Joe Biden. It seems completely unhinged and he certainly shouldn’t be anywhere near our nuclear launch codes.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday, October 10th that Trump has “probably pressured the Justice Department to move against his political adversaries” and asserted that his “2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, should be jailed.” Trump gave a radio interview after a tweet “that his current Democratic opponent, Joe Biden is a criminal who should be barred from running.” He also called on Justice to indict former President Obama. None of these things does Attorney General Barr at this time appear likely to do. The Post notes that “The president’s calls for the Justice Department to target his political opposition in the heat of a presidential campaign is a jarring moment without precedent in modern American history.” The article quotes the president’s tweet of October 8th which perhaps summarizes this entire reprehensible affair. “WOW!!! NOW DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS, THE BIGGEST OF ALL POLITICAL SCANDALS (IN HISTORY)!! BIDEN, OBAMA AND CROOKED HILLARY LED THIS TREASONOUS PLOT!! BIDEN SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO RUN—GOT CAUGHT.”[1]
Naturally this sort of certifiably insane fascist like behavior has had a negative effect on voters, particularly swing voters. Most Americans are rational, patriotic citizens and many voters find the president’s actions beyond reprehensible. The Post ran an article on this on October 12 in which they quote a number of potential voters who find it difficult to vote Democratic, but are this year because they care about their country. A young man voting for the first time is quoted in the article saying, he decided to vote for Biden or, “as he says ‘not for Trump.’” Referring to the debate, he said that “Trump’s frequent interruptions and bullying during the debate helped cement his decision.” “So did Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacy and the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group he told to ‘stand back and stand by.’” “That was just wild to me,” he said. ‘I definitely feel that like people are just blindly following him. They really enjoy the hate.’”[2]
Maureen Dowd in her column in the New York Times on Sunday, October 11th commented on some of this. She quoted a Republican strategist who told the New York Times that “Trump is at a dangerous pass: ‘The knives come out, the donors flee, and the candidate throws embarrassing Hail Marys.’”
At the end of her column Dowd speculates on whether the moment is coming to Trump’s realization. At last he is beginning to understand reality. Could that be?
“Was this why he was tweeting a maniacal video in bronze face begging for the vote of seniors, swaths of whom may be slipping away because they feel betrayed over his failure on the virus? Was this why he was demanding that Bill Barr indict Barack Obama and Joe Biden and calling Kamala Harris ‘a monster’ and ranting about Hillary’s emails? Was this why he pulled out of the debate? Was this why he was picking a fight with Gretchen Whitmer in the midst of the FBI foiling a plot by a moronic militia to kidnap the Michigan governor?
Was it finally sinking in? Or was it just another week on Planet Trump?”[3]
So what now might our Founders think of this worst of all American presidents?
“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”
Alexander Hamilton, 1788
“If there be a principle which ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is, that every man has the right to abolish an old government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of American martyrs, but it is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.”
James Madison, 1793
John Jay
[1] Graham, Anne; Zapotsky, Matt; Demirjian, Karoun; and Daury, Josh, “Trump Presses Justice Dept. to Act Against Foes, The Washington Post, October 10, 2020, pages A-1 and A-4.
[2] White, Griff; Kelley, Pam; and Spollar, Christine, The Washington Post, October 12, 2020, page A-1, A-12.
[3] Dowd, Maureen, “Manic Panic on the Potomac,” The New York Times, October 11, 2020, Sunday Review, page 9