Clown Hall
Donald Trump remains a serious threat, but it is increasingly hard to take him seriously, and that's a real problem.
The world’s oldest joke goes like this: “I have a new definition of mixed emotions, my mother-in-law just drove off a cliff in my brand new Tesla.” Its first telling probably involved an ox-cart or a chariot.
Anyway, mixed emotions. That’s what I suffered from all week weighing the pros and cons of CNN deciding to give the Former Guy a one hour Town Hall—appropriately rechristened “Clown Hall” by the clever indie journalist, Doug Porter.
The argument against was: why give Donald Trump so much time this far away from the election.
The argument for, and the one I ultimately—if reluctantly—favored, was that he will again reveal himself as vile, dismissive, misogynistic, racist, self-centered, and pathologically incapable of apology or truth-telling. In disappointing, he did not disappoint. Voters were reminded of exactly who he is.
So yes, he predictably insulted the moderator, Kaitlin Collins (“You’re a nasty woman”), and E. Jean Carroll, the woman who the day before won a $5 million jury verdict from him in a civil suit (he reiterated under oath his infamous Access Hollywood statement about feeling free to sexually assault women: “When you’re a star, they let you do anything”). He told the Big Lie that he won the 2020 election, and refused to say whether he thinks Ukraine should prevail against the Russian invaders. He said he would probably grant immunity to most January 6th rioters, and said laws regarding classified materials don’t apply to him. It was a master class in bullying.
Bullies can surprise us at first. Maybe make us cower, as Trump did initially, but surely the new crop of Republican challengers will have learned how to deal with him by now.
High-level Trump supporters are discouraging him from debating in the Republican primaries. The Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and presidential debates are all that’s left of humongous television audiences, and they are wary of letting him back on a big stage like that. They apparently hope to contain the crazy long enough for him to win the nomination (and then go onto lose the general election again—how that works in their favor is as mysterious as why Aaron Rodgers thinks he can turn the Jets around.
There is a certain minority of Americans who believe Joe Biden to be senile, and incapable of performing his job. These are not people who watch or read any kind of straight and un-opinionated news. They’re not pulling up the Associated Press on their smart phones. They’re pulling up the Daily Caller or Newsmax.
Just as I was becoming despondent, I was pleasantly surprised by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who in a press conference in Jerusalem was asked by a Russian state-sponsored journalist (there is no other living kind), "We know that you don't support the unlimited and uncontrolled supplies of weaponry and aid to Ukraine, so can you comment: Is it possible in the near future [that] the U.S. policy regarding sending weaponry to Ukraine will change?"
“Did he say I don’t support aid to Ukraine? No. I vote for aid for Ukraine. I support aid for Ukraine. I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine. I do not support your killing of the children, either,” he told the reporter, according to a video of the exchange. “And I think…you should pull out…I don’t think it’s right, and we will continue to support [Ukraine] because the rest of the world sees it just as it is.”
How many Americans will hear this in an unvarnished, unedited way is the question. Speaker McCarthy had to make some promises to the Kooky Caucus, a seedy bunch, of which Marjorie Taylor Greene is the chief seed, and she’s all about cheering on Putin and stopping our aid to Ukraine. It will be interesting to see if there’s some sort of reckoning for My Kevin from the Former Guy, who so named him, or his likely running mate, MTG.
Even though it served the greater good, it was sad, bordering on disgusting, to watch CNN, under new ownership, grovel at the altar of Trumpism, and renounce its past acts of bravery by kowtowing to the ex-president and ultimately offering him a primetime town hall a year and a half before the next election. They pretended that their reporter, an ordinary mortal, could handle him, while obviously knowing better. He rolled over her like Panzers through Poland, called her names, impugned her professionalism and character, and answered only what pleased him, dodging the hard stuff.
But CNN got what they wanted: a bigger audience than usual, and a twice-impeached, serial philanderer, convicted sexual assaulter, conspiracy theorist, and pathological liar got what he wanted. The remaining question for the rest of us is, was it worth it?
©2023 Jon Sinton