Hey media: Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. Somehow they can fact-check Trump but the First Amendment protects them from being fact-checked.
Kristen Welker of Meet the Press said of Trump on NBC 4 in DC, “He’s going to loom large over these midterms. There’s no doubt about that. He, of course, has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries. He’s had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Senator Darline Graham, of course, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, was successful in her primary battle, so now she takes on Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina.”
The results are not mixed. He endorsed 260 candidates who went on to win Republican primaries and only 9 losers. That’s a .967 batting average rounded off to 97%.
This year, Trump did something no other president had done. He primaried a sitting senator. In fact he primaried two: Bill Cassidy in Louisiana for voting to remove him from office, and John Cornyn for refusing to get the SAVE Act passed.
In 1938, FDR went after 10 incumbents. 9 survived. Only House Rules Committee Chairman John O’Connor of New York lost.
Trump was 3 for 3 as Congressman Thomas Massie also went down like Frazier.
Presidents usually don’t purge their party’s Senate leadership but presidents usually have a Senate majority that works for them. Now there is a lifer mentality in the Senate where the attitude about presidents is I’ve seen them come and I’ve seen them go. OK. That is a check and a balance on the executive branch of the government.
But primarying obstacles to saving America is a check and balance on the legislative branch.
Trump succeeded where FDR failed. On paper, FDR had it all over Trump in 1938, having won re-election with 61% of the votes cast. The economy was not as bad as it had been. The looming world war would drag the economy out of the depression once and for all.
Politically, his threat to pack the court succeeded in bullying the Supreme Court to be more compliant. He even bragged about it in one of his Fireside Chats:
You will remember that on February 5, 1937, I sent a Message to the Congress dealing with the real need of Federal Court reforms of several kinds. In one way or another, during the sessions of this Congress, the ends—the real objectives—sought in that Message, have been substantially attained.
The attitude of the Supreme Court towards constitutional questions is entirely changed. Its recent decisions are eloquent testimony of a willingness to collaborate with the two other branches of Government to make democracy work.
Making the republic a democracy is the real aim of any dictator because votes can be bought with bread and circuses.
FDR used that chat to announce he would defeat 10 incumbents in their primaries.
I feel that I have every right to speak in those few instances where there may be a clear issue between candidates for a Democratic nomination involving these principles, or involving a clear misuse of my own name.
Roosevelt went down to Georgia where, with Democrat Senator Walter George sitting in the audience, he said, “If I were able to vote, I most assuredly should cast my ballot for Lawrence Camp.”
George got 44% of the vote, Camp 24%. Former Governor Eugene Talmadge received the other 32%.
88 years later, Trump succeeded because after the lawfare thrown at him for 4 years of Biden culminating in a shot to Trump’s head, his supporters take personal any attacks on him.
Vote to remove him from office and you get voted out. How difficult is that to figure out? Liz Cheney proved that in 2022.
Trump’s historic success is the political story of the year so far.
Enter into the fray Welker. She got her facts wrong. A Trump endorsement assures a candidate the nomination 97% of the time. It’s like a Hallmark card (“When you care enough to send the very best”) or a hickey from Kenickie.
Rather than apologize and correct the error, NBC said, “Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her.”
Trump said fine. He has asked the FCC to correct her.
Bill Maher made the same mistake of mouthing off a Democrat talking point, telling his audience, “Trump used to win all of his endorsements, now he’s winning almost none of them.”
What part of 97% did he not understand?
This weekend, Maher acknowledged his error but did so in the least apologetic way possible, “He’s right. I did overstate it. That isn’t true. Overstated. There. Was that so hard to not be a dick about everything?”
Saying 97% is almost zero is not an overstatement. It’s a lie. I guess not being a dick about everything is hard for TV personalities.
I liked the media better when fact-checking was limited to reviewing its own work to make sure the media got the facts right, but I like even more that Trump is fact-checking them and they don’t like it.
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