Our Former President is Deranged
Donald Trump will likely be the 2024 Republican nominee. We need to be talking more about his unhinged fixation on the 2020 Election.
I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you received this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up here.
If you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift, look no further than a gift subscription to Truth and Consequences. Or treat yourself to a paid subscription, which for a few more days is 20 percent off.
The Crazy Uncle In the Attic
Several times a week, the former president of the United States sends out missives to journalists on his email list. Quite often, they are deranged and unmoored from reality.
For example, here’s what Trump had to say yesterday:
The Fake News Media cannot stand the fact that so many people in our Country know the truth, that the 2020 Election was rigged and stolen, yet almost every article written contains the words the “Big Lie” or “unsubstantiated facts,” etc., always trying to demean the real results. I am willing to challenge the heads of the various papers or even far left politicians, who have perpetuated the Real Big Lie, which is voter irregularities and fraud on a massive and determinative scale. This includes members of the highly partisan Unselect Committee of Democrats who refuse to delve into what caused the January 6th protest—it was the Fake Election results! While I am willing to do it, they will never agree because they cannot argue that facts in states including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, and others such as New Mexico, where the Democrat Secretary of State changed the voting laws without legislative approval just prior to the Election, making it virtually impossible for the Republican presidential candidate to win. If anyone would like a public debate on the facts, not the fiction, please let me know. It will be a ratings bonanza for television!
Yes, the former president is challenging “the heads of the various papers or even far-left politicians” to publicly debate his claim that the 2020 election was stolen. This is akin to having a public debate on the existence of the Tooth Fairy.
But this derangement is not unusual. It’s a weekly occurrence. On November 23, he sent out this amuse-bouche of insanity.
Whatever happened to the Rigged and Stolen Arizona Presidential Election that is being investigated, or maybe the words should properly be “looked at,” by Attorney General Mark Brnovich? When will the legislature vote to decertify? People are very upset in Arizona that it is all taking so long, especially when the findings of the State Senate’s Forensic Audit were so conclusive, not even including the recent revelation of 35,000 fictitious votes in Pima County, and precincts with over 100 percent turnout (how do you like that one?). The people of Arizona are anxiously awaiting the decision of the Attorney General. They know what really went on during that Election!
This is from the same day:
The Democrats are feasting on January 6th, with no Republicans on the Unselect Committee (Cheney and Kinzinger are not Republicans!) but they are refusing to even discuss the root cause of that protest, which was the insurrection that took place during the November 3rd Presidential Election. We had a Rigged and Stolen Election in our Country, the proof is voluminous and everywhere, but the Democrats refuse to even mention or discuss it. It’s called Cancel Culture, and until that is done, this Country will never heal!
I’m not cherry-picking.
Here he is in September:
Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election. In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!
This is from July:
The news coming out of Georgia is beyond incredible. The hand recount in Fulton County was a total fraud! They stuffed the ballot box—and got caught. We will lose our Country if this is allowed to stand.
According to the just released report from Garland Favorito and the highly respected Voter GA, in Fulton County the hand recount was wrong by 60%; 100,000 tally sheets for ballots were missing; they duplicated thousands of extra votes for Joe Biden; and fabricated vote counts of 100–0 for Biden, many times! Ballot batch sheets fraudulently showed multiple unanimous 100–0 counts for Biden, as well as 150–0, and 200–0. Are we now in a Third World country? What else will they find once the full Forensic Audit takes place?
This is in May:
The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE! .
Trump regularly refers to his political rivals as the “Communist Democrats.” Earlier this month, he asked, “Why don’t they investigate Crooked Hillary, when so much has now been proven about her and her campaign’s lies and dealings with Russia to smear me and spy on my campaign?”
But it is 2020 that dominates Trump’s post-election statements and his unshakable belief that he won the presidential election. There is no conspiracy theory too far-fetched for Trump to endorse it. Even after the so-called election audit in Arizona that showed conclusively, Biden won the state; Trump claimed that the results showed the exact opposite — that he had won. He now regularly claims that the “real insurrection” took place on Election Day in November 2020 and not on January 6. To listen to Trump, the Democrats, the news media, Big Tech, RINO Republicans, the FBI, and perhaps even the White House men's room attendant were all in on the plot.
Even for a political figure as dishonest as Trump, his obsession with 2020 is beyond disturbing. This is more than just a political strategy. It’s a mania.
The Once And Future King
There’s an argument to be made that journalists should ignore the president’s unhinged behavior. “Don’t give him the attention,” or so the critics say.
Granted, in a normal political environment, if a former presidential candidate had a bizarre and unshakable belief that he won the previous election — even though he clearly didn’t — most people would want to hurry along and pretend he didn’t exist.
Alas, we don’t live in a normal political environment. Trump is the titular head of the GOP, and he’s the odds on favorite to be the party’s 2024 presidential nominee. He cannot be ignored. Indeed, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made news this month when he refused to say that he would defer to Trump and not throw his hat in the ring in 2024. Former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley has already said if Trump runs, she won’t. Few Republicans seem willing to step forward until they know Trump’s plans. Most will likely sit out the race if the former president runs. It’s hard to blame them: recent polling shows that two-thirds of Republican voters want Trump to run again.
Trump is certainly gearing up for 2024. His Super PAC is already raising money. His political operation is polling in crucial swing states, holding rallies, and making endorsements with an eye on the next election.
So Trump is more than your crazy uncle who spams your inbox with bizarre rants — he could be the next president.
Even worse than Trump’s 2020 fixation are his ongoing efforts to stack the deck in his favor in 2024 — by endorsing candidates who buy into his made-up claims about the election. Take, for example, this recent reporting from NBC News on Trump’s political machinations in the swing state of Michigan, which portrays them as something akin to standard political tactics.
Trump has backed seven candidates for state House or Senate seats in Michigan, an electoral battleground that he lost narrowly to Joe Biden last year — more than anywhere else. Most of the endorsements … were announced in recent weeks. All of the candidates have one thing in common: They’ve made election administration and investigating last year’s vote central to their platforms.
Part of why Trump is doing this is that few elected Republicans are willing to publicly endorse his conspiracy theories about the election. And, back in 2020, virtually none of them were willing to assist his efforts to steal the election.
Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find many prominent Republicans who would be willing to publicly state that the 2020 election was stolen. Instead, some prefer to make frivolous allegations of fraud or refuse to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election. But precious few are willing to take seriously what Trump is now saying on a near-daily basis — and yet many of them believe Trump should be the 2024 nominee and are prepared to support him if he runs.
That’s all the more reason for us to not only be talking about Trump’s 2020 lies but also covering it daily. Indeed, they need more, not less, attention, and Republicans who have stated their support for the former president need to be asked about it regularly. Do they agree, as Trump said this weekend, that there were “voter irregularities and fraud on a massive and determinative scale” in 2020? If not, why are they willing to support a potential presidential candidate who makes such blatant and provable lies?
Moreover, reporters need to stop portraying Trump’s ongoing efforts to silence and push out any voices in the GOP that state the 2020 election was not stolen as a political tactic. They’re not. They’re a direct assault on our democracy and its political institutions.
We have all become far too casual in dismissing his rantings as if that’s just Trump being Trump. I blame myself here as well. When I get the latest Trump email, I usually read it, chuckle to myself and move on. But that can’t be the case anymore. It is simply too dangerous to ignore Trump, as preferable as that might be.
The former and potentially future president of the United States is saying insane things about American democracy — and in the process making one of our two political parties a hotbed of anti-democratic beliefs. That’s a major story.
Musical Interlude
I’m going to have much more to say about the “Let It Be” documentary that is streaming on Disney Plus but suffice to say, it’s simply an extraordinary piece of musical history. I cannot recommend it enough. In the meantime, Ted Gioia nails it — in a movie full of simply remarkable moments, this one truly stands out.
I disagree. We need to ignore him. It will seem futile in the beginning but as days march on it will work. Of course, for it to work the media has to ignore him and influencers need to ignore him, but they seem addicted to him.