Finally, Trump's Alarming Mental Decline Has Become a Big Media Story

[red dog 1]

The New Republic
October 16, 2024


Is the media finally figuring out how to cover Donald Trump's profound mental unfitness for the presidency?
First CNN's Jake Tapper dressed down a Trump surrogate for whitewashing his threat to unleash the military on his enemies.
Then Trump held a strange town hall at which he abruptly stopped answering questions, which generated aggressive media coverage.
And Kamala Harris has directly engaged on Trump's mental state in a new way, drawing media attention to it.

We talked to Brian Beutler, who often criticizes the media on his Substack, "Off Message" about the increasing signs that the press is treating Trump's mental decline as a big story.

We're going to talk about whether we're crossing a new threshold, and if so, whether it's too little, too late.

Listen to episode, Read transcript:
https://newrepublic.com/article/187192/finally-trumps-alarming-mental-decline-become-big-media-story/

[Aviation Pro]

1. Law of Recency

Is what will stick in voters minds.

[dchill]

2. I've never heard of this law.

But I think I could get behind it!

[D23MIURG23]

3. Is it really this time?

I feel like the issue has surfaced a few times to great fanfare on this site, only to quickly recede behind walls of CNN and NYTimes dipshits criticizing Harris for articulating her plans 5000x more clearly than Trump ever has.

[Demovictory9]

4. "Republicans really have lost their rooting in any sense of decency. They will make excuses for it. "

Beutler: —which is, Did we lose sight of what basic decency is and why it’s important in society? And you can see in something like Glenn Youngkin’s answer to Jake Tapper’s question that Republicans really have lost their rooting in any sense of decency. They will make excuses for it. They will pile on to Trump’s lies about it to make the lies Trump tells seem less severe than they are.

[Metaphorical]

5. This is a pretty critical time for this to happen

The election is 20 days away, which means that the bulk of the voting is going on right now. JD came away from the debate more or less at a draw in public perception, which means that the conservative voter is not enthusiastic about him if Trump, for one reason or another, gets replaced, which is looking more and more possible. What's more interesting is that Kamala's draw here is NOT that she is a minority woman. It's that she's a fairly young candidate, in an election that has hinged upon age more than any other factor. This is not good news for Trump.

[DFW]

6. It IS too little. It is NOT too late.

Make it topic number one of discussion for the next three weeks on all major American news and social media, including fox Noise. That would sink Trump 3 to 5 points everywhere and give us Texas and Florida. The timing would be exquisite, but for one minor detail: even if Trump starts foaming at the mouth and spends the next three weeks reciting “Jack and Jill” backwards on public TV, the media will only pay passing attention (except for podcasts from Keith Olbermann, Al Franken, BTC and Thom Hartmann).