This month in Donald Trump, finally over
A debate win and an immigration idea, both of them ugly
In case you missed my latest pieces at
, here they are, along with a very welcome editorial from a major newspaper.The minute Donald Trump walked onto that CNN stage Thursday night, he won the debate and the last nine years flashed before my eyes. Why was he even there? How could we have let a twice-impeached, convicted felon get this far? Our guardrails have been miserable failures.
Yes, Biden was a mess, and I don’t know the best way forward. I think he has been a very good president and I think that would continue, because age and a bad night under a Trump barrage don’t change his underlying values, policy preferences and goals. Also, Democrats need to do a lot more to Trump-proof democracy. I cite some suggestions from a task force led by Preet Bharara and Christie Whitman, inspired by Trump and released during his term, on how to do that. Read the rest here.
The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board ran an editorial Saturday evening that a lot of us have been waiting for someone to publish, full of things that desperately needed to be said, about both Trump and Biden. The headline: “To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race.” It’s a bracing and graphically detailed antidote to the relentless calls for Biden, one of the most successful presidents in American history, to leave the race.
In the category of overlooked or quickly forgotten Trump horrors: Less than a week before the debate, Trump suggested a migrant fight league for entertainment and profit, twice the same day, in Washington, D.C. (to an appreciative Christian audience) and in Philadelphia (at an equally appreciative rally). This idea evoked ugly racial images from the past, the othering of people who look different by putting them on display for entertainment and profit. After all these years, Trump can still shock me. Read the rest here (be prepared, the first couple of paragraphs are tough to take).
And one more thing: I kicked off 2024 in January by laying out what I argued would be Mitch McConnell’s two monumental and tragic legacies: the end of abortion rights and the forever grip of Trump. “He was the Republican with the most power and opportunity to oust Trump—not from the White House but from politics and future public office—at the moment of his gravest offense against the country and Constitution. Instead of exercising that power, he found reasons not to.”
I learned a lot of things I didn’t know in researching that piece, and I think it stands up well. If you’re interested, read the rest here.