One of my bugaboos has been how the media does many articles about President Biden's age but rarely does the same about his likely opponent Trump, who is only three years younger...and with far more gaffes (which is saying a lot for all of Joe Biden's proclivity for misspeaking), including those that are substantive. One of the very few journalists, however, who has regularly addressed the subject is Mehdi Hasan on MSNBC. Last week, he made excellent comments about Trump's very bad weekend -- when the Republican leader talked about concerns over a coming "WWII," him leading "Barack Obama" in the polls and also needing "Voter ID" to buy bread. As Hasan said correctly and importantly, if this was President Biden, it would have been headline news all weekend. New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali was a guest on Hasan's show, and noted about President Biden that "There's two old men running for president, but he just finished a trip — an international trip, answering questions, and he knows that you do not need voter ID to buy bread. he knows that he ran against Trump and not Barack Obama, and he knows that we fought World War II and won. And I fear that if World War II did happen, I wonder what side Trump would fight for." Here's the video. (I had some hiccups getting this to load initially. It should be fine now, but if not, you can access it directly here) But almost more egregious than this the same very-bad weekend was Trump sending a dog whistle (more like a foghorn) to his white supremacist and neo-Nazi base, Trump sent a High Holy Days message to "liberal Jews" for believing lies and supposedly trying to destroy America. And showing that he knew perfectly well when he was sending this dangerous, anti-Semitic message, he ended it by writing, "Happy New Year!" Further, Trump's note listed all the "things Trump did" for Jews (supposedly) while he was in office. None were substantive, but the most notable example is that he boasted that he had signed an executive order to declare Judaism a "nationality" -- and not just a religion -- so that it would be protected by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. What Trump conveniently left out is that as a religion, Judaism was already protected under the Civil Rights Act! The bottom line is that Jews understand very well a fascist politician embracing Nazis. It's why they say "Never again." And Mehdi Hasan did it again. The other day, he put together a montage video that dealt bluntly with Trump's age, gaffes and fitness. If the media wants to talk about President Biden's age, that's a fair topic. But fair only if they address all this about Trump, as well --
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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