J.D. Vance turns media attention to Springfield, Ohio
Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins discusses the impact of former President Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance's efforts to draw attention to the immigration crisis in Springfield, Ohio.
In just the past few days, there has been a flurry of media attacks against Donald Trump.
Whether you think that's justified or not (much of it is based on Trump's own words), we're back in a Trump-centric world, with Kamala Harris getting little to no news coverage despite spectacles like the Oprah Show, and Trump, as always, dominating each news cycle.
Since 2015, I have been telling people that negative news is good for Trump because it puts him at the mercy of the ensuing debates. In fact, Trump deliberately uses provocative or inflammatory language as a lure for the media because he knows that even if he is criticized, the coverage will continue for at least a few days.
The vice president generally receives very positive coverage, so many assume she has won the race. When an NBC poll shows her leading Trump by five points, she is said to have momentum, but national polls are essentially meaningless.
Scandals, assassination attempts, political rhetoric: both have their highs and lows.
The New York Times poll also shows Trump leading in key Sun Belt states that Harris' campaign was hoping to win, with a five-point lead in Arizona, a four-point lead in Georgia and a two-point lead in North Carolina.
It's a close call, and in some cases a statistical tie, but according to the Times article, many voters believe Trump “improved their lives when he was president” and “worried that things wouldn't be better with Kamala Harris in the White House.”
That's the problem: Trump has already spent four years in the Oval Office, two impeachments, Jan. 6 and other upheavals, but many remember a strong economy. And they're eager to learn more about whether Harris will steer the country in a more liberal direction, even as she focuses her rhetoric on the middle class and small businesses (and abortion rights).
Moreover, it is hard to run as a candidate for change when you are part of the current administration and the majority of people believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
(Jeff Blake – USA Today Sports)
Virtually everyone in America has a strong view of the former president. MAGA supporters have been behind him ever since he said on his first campaign trail that he could “shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and still not lose my support.”
The comments took on a more sinister tone after Trump, who twice narrowly escaped assassination attempts and who blamed Harris and the Democrats for the “danger to democracy” he said after the Florida golf course assassination attempt, which many in the media likened to Hitler and in fact used inflammatory language on both sides.
Despite Trump's strong desire to endorse Taylor Swift, he sometimes resorts to trolling to stir up trouble among the general public, saying things like, “I hate Taylor Swift!”
Let's take a look at some recent reports:
Trump has signaled he won't run for president in 2028 if he fails this time.
The Washington Post described “Donald Trump's fantasy world” as follows: “Americans get shot, robbed and raped just for going out to buy bread. Immigrants in a small Ohio town eat the neighborhood cats and dogs. World War III and economic collapse are on the horizon. And kids go to school only to come home at the end having had sex reassignment surgery.”
“The former president's fantasy world was a dark, dystopian place, and in his rallies, interviews, social media posts and debates, Trump has sought to paint a disturbing picture of America under a Biden-Harris administration.”
It's a warped, twisted, and sometimes absurd portrayal of a nation in which it was merely peaceful protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol with deadly results on January 6, 2021, while hapless boaters faced the unattractive choice of electrocution or shark attack. His extreme caricature also serves as another vehicle for Trump to spread lies and misinformation, using an alternate reality of his own making to create politically devastating situations for his political opponents that are often terrifying and that he appears to desire.
President Trump also criticized Governor Tim Walz for speaking favorably about “executing” the baby after it was born, but Washington Post fact checkers say the governor never made such a statement and that less than 1% of abortions are performed after 21 weeks of pregnancy.
Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz delivers the keynote address at the 2024 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner on Saturday, September 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Dominic Gwynn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Writing in the New York Times, conservative writer David French blasted President Trump, citing Mark Robinson, a self-described “black Nazi” and pro-slavery Republican candidate running for governor of North Carolina.
French said he supported Kamala because he believes a Harris victory would give the Republican Party “a chance to build something decent out of the ashes of Trump's defeat.”
“After enduring weeks of lies about Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, and an entire news cycle reporting Trump's relationship with one of the most overtly racist figures in MAGA America, Laura Loomer (who once spoke at a white supremacist conference and declared, “I consider myself a defender of the white man, and I openly campaigned for the United States Congress as a defender of the white man”), I am solidifying my view: Either Trump loses now, or the Republican Party is doomed to a miscarriage for a generation. Perhaps longer…
“This has changed the makeup of the party. While many decent people remain and represent hope for future reform, Trump's Republican Party has become a magnet for all kinds of eccentrics and conspiracy theorists.”
64 days: Kamala Harris has yet to hold a formal press conference since emerging as the Democratic candidate.
The Washington Post reports that the Trump campaign is collapsing.
“For example, in the space of just 24 hours late last month, he spread crude jokes about Harris engaging in sexual acts, falsely accused her of staging a coup against President Joe Biden, promoted a tribute to the QAnon conspiracy theory, peddled digital trading cards and became embroiled in a public feud with staff and officials at Arlington National Cemetery.
“The attacks on Ms Swift were of particular concern to Mr Trump's advisers, who are concerned about winning over female voters.”
And he constantly pays tribute to cinematic serial killer “the late, great Hannibal Lecter.”
“Some campaign advisers are eager to move on from Trump and Vance's unverifiable claims that Haitian immigrants eat dogs and cats. As this potentially damaging news cycle enters its second week, some acknowledge that Trump rarely backs down, even when it is politically advantageous.”
The article cited Trump's first campaign chairman, Corey Lewandowski, as playing a divisive role, to which he responded, “It's the same usual nonsense that Washington Compost has already written. Your obsession with my volunteer work demonstrates your continued hatred of Donald J. Trump and that you will stop at nothing to stop him from becoming the 47th President of the United States.”
(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Post op-ed columnist Ruth Marcus said Trump had “crossed a dangerous new line” by saying that if he lost the election, he would blame Jews for not being grateful enough for pro-Israel policies.
“They are threatening to take out the anger of frustrated Trump supporters on Jews if Trump loses, and especially if the debate continues. The backlash and violence that would result is not difficult to imagine. We Jews know all too well what it means to be scapegoated…
Trump has long had a disturbing habit of bringing up people's Jewish facts, sometimes accidentally, when they seem at best irrelevant. According to Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, Trump told aides Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and Jason Miller on Air Force One, “Who would have thought that my top person would be Jewish?” (Indeed, Jason Miller, as he told Trump, is not Jewish.)
In contrast, a Times article about Harris' record as a prosecutor soberly stated, “It's a largely consistent and coherent record. Ms. Harris appears especially committed to protecting the most vulnerable victims by cracking down on violent criminals while exploring options other than incarceration for low-level offenders.”
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That's not to say that the individual articles aren't based on reported facts, but the tsunami of anti-Trump articles is a reminder of how relentlessly negative the coverage of Trump has been compared with the general praise for the Democratic candidate — and how Trump supporters don't trust the media.
Footnote: As I was writing this column, I received a statement from Trump saying, “The Kamala Harris/Joe Biden Department of Justice and the FBI are mishandling the second assassination attempt on my life since July.” He says Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida should be in charge of the investigation and prosecution instead.
