Donald J. Trump did not have a good weekend. On the one hand, his attempt to cancel DACA backfired. On the other, he and his Attorney General, Bill Barr, stayed exactly as they are, two liars, in their plan to dismiss, five months before the elections, the federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who is investigating allies of the president. And if that wasn’t enough, that little rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma must have landed a gut punch to his delicate ego.
Luckily the sparse attendance would have prevented more COVID-19 infections, although it’s to be anticipated that there will be anyways given that many showed up without masks and without social distancing in order to please their Commander in Chief.
Trump would not be Trump if he didn’t have a response for every one of these setbacks, including pretending that the DACA decision was, in reality, “in his favor.” It’s already anticipated that he plans to once again present arguments for undoing the program. We will see.
But what does not fail to sicken one is how, in the midst of a pandemic that has claimed more than 120,000 U.S. lives, his shame knows no limits, as these fatalities have occurred partly because of his own irresponsibility and failures, as head of state, to manage the crisis.
In Tulsa, Trump acknowledged having asked his team to slow down coronavirus testing, because more tests engender more cases. “Slow the [COVID] testing down, please,” he said, as if the quantity of deaths were a joke. He also referred to COVID-19 in offensive and racist terms like “Kung-Flu,” because the first known cases came from China.
Just imagine the response if this had occurred under a Democratic president. The Republicans would have forced him to resign or forced his impeachment. But the Republican Party is mired in the same bottomless pit of shame and pawned its reputation for a fraud.
Trump also returned to his favorite “hit parade” of terms that attempt to incite racism and hate in order to win applause from his followers: “illegals,” sanctuary cities, open borders, MS-13, ICE; referring to the demonstrators protesting against racism as “thugs,” or to the removal of statues of Confederate figures nas an attack “on our heritage.”
This on top of projecting, and accusing the Democrats of inciting division for electoral gain.
He didn’t say anything that should surprise us, coming from the man himself. But the historic moment in which this is produced tells us exactly how far we have fallen as a nation and that the shameful pit of Trump and his facilitators has no bottom.
Only the response that the nation gives on November 3, 2020 will determine whether there will be any redemption for us; although even that, with a president like this one, could be in doubt considering the fact that he and his benefactors will do whatever it takes to ensure Trump is not just a one-term president. Getting out of this bottomless pit is our challenge as a country
By Maribel Hastings
