There was a time when, if a president delivered a speech that was so packed with lies that it was instantly, and conclusively, contradicted into oblivion by fact-checkers that the speech might be seen as a failure.
There have been moments in our history when, if a president was seen to be so self-serving and committed to trying to deceive the American people that most major television networks saw his speech as meaningless propaganda and did not carry it, that the speech might be seen as a failure.
Throughout political history, if a presidential speech was not just seen as un-credible but that the lies within it were seen as old, recycled nonsense, and that the whole speech was therefore made mind-numbingly boring to the public the speech would almost certainly be seen as a failure.
If the president’s energy levels delivering the speech were low and he appeared to be melting in front of those few people who actually watched it on TV—also a failure.
If the speech also contained obvious and ridiculous and indefensible misstatements about a misbegotten fiasco of a war the president started and now can’t figure out how to end—also a failure.
If the speech not only failed to make the points the president sought to make but that evidence presented reminded people that the president’s own election was actively supported by a foreign enemy, Russia…or shall I say, Russia, Russia, Russia…also a failure.
But if you were to conclude from the above that the televised address that the president delivered Thursday night on captive, MAGA-controlled TV networks like Fox and CBS was a failure, you would be mistaken.
Because the old rules do not apply here in Bizarro World any more. Facts do not matter. Audience sizes do not matter. Presidential coherence does not matter. The fact that the president looks like he needs to be put out to pasture does not matter. Newspaper headlines and TV reports and social media slagging do not matter.
The only thing that mattered about Trump’s address on the threat of foreign interference in our elections last night is that Trump and those close to him believe it provided a predicate for the president to interfere with our upcoming mid-term elections.
He is, as everybody in the country with a functioning cortex knows, seeking an excuse to cheat because he is currently desperately afraid that his plummeting poll numbers and disastrous second term record will lead Democrats to take control of one or both houses of Congress.
Because, as we know, the president does not actually seek to get anything done in the Congress (see the nearly non-existent output of the current Congress which he controls from top to bottom), the only reason he fears the change in control is that he knows Democrats will investigate and make public his actions as president.
And Trump knows better than anyone just what they will find.
Criming. Big time criming.
Believe me, he would not care about who controlled the Congress if it did not have consequences for him personally and he is desperately afraid, panicked even, that Democrats will find some way to hold him to account for his corruption, malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance during this term in office, his prior term in office or during the period in between. (Also known as the Biden Administration—when those in power failed to hold the worst president in our history to account for his crimes.)
Trump also knows that the courts have been serially rejecting his attempts to seize voter rolls and otherwise meddle in the elections and the Congress is unlikely to pass his CHEAT America Act. He has been told that the states control the elections per the Constitution.
So, what is a petrified wannabe tyrant to do?
Well, per the Supreme Court and the hive mind at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there is one area in which the president’s authority is immense and largely unchallengeable. That is national security.
That is why, all of a sudden, with no justification Trump is turning the Office of the Director of National Intelligence into Election Denial Central. First, he had then-DNI Tulsi Gabbard down in Atlanta helping to seize voter rolls—for national security reasons, of course.
Then he put in an Acting DNI, Bill Pulte, with zero intelligence experience but major flunky cred, to dredge up some evidence that could be classified that could be used to suggest foreign efforts or intentions to meddle in our election. And as Pulte’s permanent replacement he has suggested a guy, Jay Clayton, who although he has some career credibility, this week during hearings refused to answer the simple question as to who won the 2020 elections and who has in the past raised questions, without a shred of supporting evidence, about the integrity of U.S. elections.
In other words, Trump has come up with a Stooge Trifecta to provide him with what he needs which is, sadly, just the thinnest pretext to take action that could help tip the scales in November.
Could this mean impounding voting machines? Sending troops to voting places? Seizing election results? Delaying election certifications? Providing a rationale for political puppets like Speaker Mike Johnson not to seat people?
All of the above.
That’s the game. And given the huge latitude presidents have to act to “protect” U.S. national security, it does not matter one bit whether you or TV talking heads or even august, universally respected, high-T Daily Beast columnists think the president’s speech was so full of c--p that his entire speech seemed to be an unwanted public display of the symptoms of the epidemic of Trump Projectile Diarrhea everyone is talking about. (Wash your vegetables, boys and girls.)
All that matters is that for Trump it is what he perceives as a necessary step on the road to manipulating election results so that he is never held accountable for the fact that his presidency has been a crime spree wrapped in a betrayal of trust inside a national disaster.
Which is what is going to happen.
Which is why the president’s speech mattered.
Even if it well and truly sucked.
