President Trump was apparently none too happy with the direction of an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl on Tuesday. Trump reportedly walked out of the interview after about 45 minutes, telling CBS they had enough material. But this was obviously more than a simple time constraint: According to CNN, Trump failed to return to film a scheduled walk and talk with Vice President Mike Pence, leaving Pence high and dry instead.
While Trump has yet to explain why he bailed to his Twitter followers, he did offer a droplet of weak tea: A five-second clip of Stahl not wearing a face mask.
“Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes not wearing a mask in the White House after her interview with me,” Trump captioned. “Much more to come.”
There is little to glean from this brief clip of Stahl—who recovered from covid-19 in May—but whatever is “to come” will come across as more pathetic dispatches from a campaign that is undeniably flopping.
From CNN:
While Trump remains optimistic about his chances of victory, his road to reelection is narrow as polling in states he won in 2016 show Biden ahead. Trump has appeared furious over stories suggesting his campaign is fated for defeat and has questioned why Republicans are appearing to distance themselves.
Standing on a tarmac in Arizona on Monday, Trump acknowledged he was upset.
“I’m not running scared,” Trump told reporters. “I think I’m running angry.”
Walking out of an interview sure sounds like running scared to me.
The Joe Biden campaign is reportedly eyeing a few Republicans for cabinet positions, a scenario that should alarm anyone who has been paying attention.
From Politico (emphasis ours):
Among the names being floated for possible Biden Cabinet posts are Meg Whitman, the CEO of Quibi and former CEO of eBay, and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, both of whom spoke at August’s Democratic National Convention. Massachusetts GOP Gov. Charlie Baker and former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) have also been mentioned, as has former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Penn.), who resigned from Congress in 2018 and became a lobbyist.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Biden transition said only that the team is not making any personnel decisions before the Nov. 3 election, but stressed that “diversity of ideology and background is a core value of the transition.”
Nothing says moving the country forward like rewarding an anti-union and anti-abortion jerk like John Kasich or a Kavanaugh-appointing drip like Jeff Flake.
While Never Trumpers and disaffected Republicans (like those behind the Lincoln Project) have been occasional allies in the effort to boot President Trump from office, the idea that they’re therefore deserving of a seat at the table is exactly the kind of scenario that has kept progressives up at night since Trump’s reign began. Biden’s emphasis on reaching across the aisle, to this collection of Republicans in particular, reeks of the sort of outdated quaintness of a West Wing rerun. At a time when the right will likely achieve yet another victory with the appointment of conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, let’s just say that it’s hard to imagine many Democrats—let alone progressives, leftists, etc.—have the stomach for catering to Republicans when the opposite would never occur.
- A poll worker was fired after telling voters to turn their Black Lives Matter shirts inside out. [The Hill]
- A conservative organization is already gearing up to contest the November 3 election results. [AP]
- The U.S. Senate race in Georgia is just getting weirder and weirder…
- Florida is still trying as hard as it can to prevent formerly incarcerated people from voting. [Washington Post]
- San Francisco is going to make it harder for white people to use 9-1-1 as their personal bitching hotline with the anticipated passage of the CAREN Act. [LA Times]
- Social workers in Texas can turn away LGBTQ or disabled clients thanks to some fucked up recommendations by Gov. Greg Abbott. [NBC News]
- Former GOP Chairman Michael Steele is voting for Biden, which should surprise nobody. [NBC News]
- Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are nerds:
- At least some people yelled at Sen. Lindsey Graham today.