You’ve probably heard that Trump was asked a question about restricting contraceptives. It’s at the beginning of this video —
“Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?” host Jon Delano asked.
“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting,” Trump replied. “You will find it very smart. I think it’s a smart decision.”
“We’ll be releasing it very soon,” he added. Trump has often promised to release policy proposals “soon” and then never delivering — perhaps most notably as he was working to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Democrats’ 2010 health care law, during his first term in office.
And then, later, he denied it all.
It’s unlikely a proposal to limit contraception will be released considering Trump later on Truth Social denied he was ever considering it. “I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” he wrote. “This is a Democrat fabricated lie, MISINFORMATION/DISINFORMATION, because they have nothing else to run on except FAILURE, POVERTY, AND DEATH. I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON BIRTH CONTROL, AND NEITHER WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!”
Some Republicans have already taken steps to restrict birth control access, but let’s go on …
After the Truth Social all-caps denial, Bess Levin wrote at Vanity Fair:
Why didn’t Trump just say that in the interview? Only he knows. Regardless, it’s little comfort to hear that the ex-president supposedly won’t “advocate” for restrictions on birth control, given that his official stance on reproductive rights is that he’s more than happy to let states do whatever they want.
Why didn’t Trump just say that in the interview? I have a theory. My theory is that he didn’t understand the question and fell back on his tried-and-true response of “we’ll be releasing that soon” to cover up his confusion. I have some experience of being around someone with early-stage Alzheimer’s, and that’s the sort of thing they do. For example, when my mother couldn’t understand restaurant menus she’d just order the same thing someone else ordered rather than ask for help. I didn’t realize until after her diagnosis that’s what she’d been doing.
Trump’s initial answer gave no clue it was connected to the question. It was a boilerplate answer that didn’t quite fit. Later, I assume, someone must have explained to him what it was he said, and then when it clicked in his head he denied he ever said it.
Before he posted his statement fully walking back the remarks, his campaign told the Associated Press that the former president and 2024 candidate misspoke and meant to tease out a coming announcement on his position on medication abortion, not contraception.
Maybe, but what do you want to bet that there will be no announcement of his position on medication abortion, ever?
Meanwhile, the Republicans have worked out a theory as to why President Biden doesn’t appear mentally addled during public appearances. Dana Milbank:
Rep. Byron Donalds’s medical education consists of a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from Florida State University. But the Florida Republican played a doctor on TV over the weekend, telling Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that, after examining President Biden, he suspects the president is receiving a secret medication that makes him appear to be sharp-witted and totally on the ball.
“The American people need to understand if they’re giving him some injection so that he can actually look like he’s coherent,” Donalds said.
If only there were such a drug.
There is a shot that cures incoherence in one dose? How can I get some? Why has nobody thought to give it to Kevin McCarthy all these years? And why, for that matter, doesn’t Dr. Donalds, who seems to think he should be Donald Trump’s running mate, inject his prospective boss with the stuff? Just last week, Trump’s attempt at saying “carried out by radical Democrats” came out as “carried owby rgbgb tdai.”
Righties have armored themselves in an impenetrable mass of confirmation bias, so that nothing that shakes their convictions ever breaks through. No matter what Trump does, they will never admit he is mentally impaired. Let’s hope the rest of America sees it before it’s too late.
Update: See Aaron Blake, The Many Punts of Donald Trump, at WaPo. “Over and over again in recent months, Trump has punted on many of the most important issues facing the country in 2024. Trump has done this for years — on his health-care and infrastructure plans, particularly — but it’s especially conspicuous these days.”
So true, so much evidence of a deterioration of mental skills it is getting more and more apparent.
Here I use the word apparent with reservations.
It is apparent to some but so hidden to others, even to the person it is happening to. I recall the relief I had when a person I was close to for a long time finally said mental specifically memory problems existed. This was months after it was apparent to almost everyone else that she had forgotten how to use a telephone or the television remote. Still some, even at the funeral, had no clue the mental deterioration had been ongoing for years.
Now, after many others have died with various types of what generally fit the category of brain syndromes (some with known organicity some without) this phenomenon is common. So apparent to some and so hidden to others.
Now I am careful, as those in denial are best left in the state they are. So too are those with brain syndromes who "remember" things that never happened. It is sure tempting to try to correct them though. Not a good idea you will find. Just agree that the alien's space laser must have vaporized it and go on.
For a long time my mother could seem perfectly fine in most social situations with people she had known for years and in places she was familiar with. She could remember things she had known for a long time. But if you sat down with her and tried to go over what money she had in which accounts, she couldn’t follow you. And she had been a math whiz.
"Let’s hope the rest of America sees it before it’s too late."
IDK but this has to be a major goal of the debates. Get Trump in front of a national TV audience with no studio audience to drown out Biden – also a mike-kill device so Trump can't overtalk Biden when he's making a valid point. (And the reverse when Trump is talking but Biden will follow the rules as naturally as Trump breaks them,)
Don't you think, though, that his team will work with the moderators to make sure he's only asked very simple questions that he can easily answer? This seems a risky strategy. After all, Hillary Clinton laid out Trump's affiliations with Putin clearly in the 2016 debates, he responded just "No puppet. You're the puppet. You're the puppet. You're the puppet" and he got enough votes to win the electoral college anyway. He was incoherent at times even then.
Still plenty coherent enough to dish out crazy headline generating outrageousness – tRump now saying Biden was prepared to have him assassinated during the Maga-Lardo "raid". I believe he is blatantly trying to inspire some nut to act on his behalf right now as the walls are closing in. He is absolutely psycho, and he will do or say anything.
I do look forward to a day when tRump no longer dominates the headlines, eight years of this national insanity in daily doses, surely it will end. Otherwise, I could use some drugs myself, or a brainworm that could selectively devour the tRump memory bits.
Paranoid fantasies are consistent with Alzheimer's. He may really believe this.
tRumps cognitive decline is a feature, not a bug to the GOP. The GOP capos and grifters know that they will make a ton of money off of being a part regime if they just suck up and fawn all over the old man just like Reagan's 2nd term. Plus, there is the fact that his moronic rantings will dominate the news cycle and provide cover for the looting and add political cover for projection and whattaboutism of Biden and other non-MAGAt folks.
This is sedition, not politics, and the rebels would love to have an addled figure head to warship and use as a foil as they please their darkest fantasies in what looks to be a chaotic period of US history (the barbarians are sacking Rome on Foggy-bottom).
"No matter what Trump does, they will never admit he is mentally impaired"
Of course not, if they can't admit he's a rapist then why would they admit he's well past it? Stump can do no wrong no matter what it is, haven't we learned this by now it's been almost 10 years. When Stump goes down in defeat in November watch these taint licking apple polishers run for the hills. Trump who?
Trump has always denied saying XYZ when he really did say it, but one of the symptoms of dementia is loss of short-term memory. I suspect this time, he really doesn't remember saying XYZ.
A powerful movie was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival, "The Apprentice" based on Trump's 1980s rise in NYC – Donald Trump Movie ‘The Apprentice’ Shocks Cannes, Receives Nearly Eight-Minute Standing Ovation
I've read that Trump is suing like crazy to prevent this film from being shown, and I'm sure not a few legal departments in the US movie business are deliberating over whether to touch it. But overseas distributors have signed up for it, so it's going to be seen, one way or another.
The biggest outrage seems to be over a rape scene involving Trump and his first wife. But what I'm interested in is how Roy Cohn – his mentor – is presented, what the movie shows about him.
Heather Cox Richardson, in her posting for today, talked about Cohn
One of our rising stars, Jasmine Crockett moves to trademark ‘bleach blonde bad built butch body’ as part of the "Crocket Clapback Collection", merchandise. Totally brilliant way to get back at Moscow Marge.
I don't think it is a flip-flop. This is what Stump always does, he throws out rotten red meat for the fringe magats then backtracks for the media. He knows that his fringe magats are going to believe what he says and that he is just tempering his message for the mainstream media and the general election. He does this quite a bit, he just posted a video the other day calling for a "Unified Reich" then took it down after some outrage stated to take hold. Just like the contraception issue he knows the "White Nationalist Magats" will be motivated by the clip, they understand why he took it down even if our corporate media doesn't.
Listened to this old album last night. This tune made me think of the great Gulag for some reason. Hope your feeling better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_u_GyHgOW0