— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 5, 2020
Maybe you are, but I'm not.
In a single statement, Trump manages to denigrate the memory of George Floyd and his experience, while also showing an utter lack of sympathy for the plight of millions of Americans still struggling through and economic crisis.— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) June 5, 2020
A truly stunning level of tone-deafness. https://t.co/h8051QrCVx
Here's the transcript of that:
He doesn’t seem to be talking about the economy. Is the president talking about the protests? Because last night he said the ones outside the White House on Monday were “fake” and “terrorists.” https://t.co/bf1XM9xnEM— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 5, 2020
George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, who was aided and abetted by three other police officers. Though the victim didn't die, even more police officers were involved in the serious injury of another harmless victim in Buffalo, New York. How is this "equal justice under the law." We can't "let that happen," and yet Trump unleashes the forces of the Federal government to clear Lafayette park with weapons of war (rubber bullets, tear gas) so he can have a photo op? Is George Floyd smiling down on that, too? And if we're going to argue about "context," more than one observer of the "press conference" made this observation:
The president's press conference is stream of consciousness, reciting different predictions he says turned out wrong and bouncing from China and the Phase One deal to the virus.— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 5, 2020
Ostensibly the context of the appeareance was the economy and the jobless numbers. It's an act of editing to pluck out what Trump said about George Floyd by picking an arbitrary start and stop to those comments, as if they were paragraphs from a written record. The record is from the transcript of what was said, and any attempt to organize that is the work of an editor, not the speaker. It's also an effort to make Trump sound coherent, because trying to understand incoherence is a fool's gambit. It's not unfair to try to make sense of what the President says, but to say he was clearly talking about one thing and not another is to attribute sense to what he said which most people, listening to him at the time, might argue over, and with good reason. And besides, there was this context, too:
Trump calls today's jobs news— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) June 5, 2020
"a tremendous tribute to equality."
Except black unemployment did not decline. It ticked up from 16.7% to 16.8%
That came earlier in his remarks than the George Floyd comments. So when did Trump start, and when did Trump stop, talking about the economy? He ended on that note, too:
In response to a question from @Yamiche, Trump suggests his plan to solve systemic racism is to have a good economy. As she tries to follow up, he admonishes her, "you are something." pic.twitter.com/54q5SCKNb0— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2020
Does it really matter what context Trump put this in? The sentiment is unhinged and inappropriate and monstrous and as disconnected from reality as a nightmare. Charlie Pierce described it correctly:
This is the most singularly batshit crazy thing any president ever has said out loud in public, at least in my memory. https://t.co/elYKyQjeuu— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 5, 2020
Is there any cause for a mea culpa here? Except from Trump, and he wouldn't understand the concept, much less the execution.
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