"Trump picks his cabinet in part for their aesthetics, and their ability to perform well on TV and Noem was famed for never missing a photo op...."

"But her hunger for publicity also contributed to her demotion. Under Noem’s watch, $220 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on an advertising campaign for border security that prominently featured footage of her on horseback, dressed as a 'cowgirl,' in front of Mount Rushmore.... In recent months, she has drawn negative headlines for using border funds for a multi-million-dollar jet fleet. There are rumours she is romantically involved with Corey Lewandowski.... He joined midway through the 2024 presidential campaign and quickly butted heads with the official campaign chiefs, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. At an event when the scale of Trump’s victory was becoming clear, Lewandowski tried to congratulate LaCivita only to be told: 'F*** you, f*** you and f*** you. You have f***ed with the wrong person. I’m going to f***ing destroy you.'"

I'm reading "ICE, luxury jets, an ‘affair’ and a dead puppy: the downfall of Kristi Noem/The Republican known as ‘ICE Barbie’ has been beset by allegations and became the first major departure from Trump’s comparatively stable second-term cabinet" (London Times).

Jim Acosta is "a rude, terrible person" who, when he reports "fake news" is "an enemy of the people"...

... said Trump at yesterday's news conference, where Jim Acosta, right in front of Trump was very rude and hit a woman:



I watched the press conference yesterday, but not from that angle, where the hitting of the woman is on camera. I got that video from "How CNN’s Jim Acosta became the reporter Trump loves to hate" (WaPo), where the headline suggests something I found myself thinking, that Trump and Acosta are both in control and choosing to do this theater of mutual hate.

And yet the White House has withdrawn Acosta's press credentials.

What do you think of the physical move? It made me think of the time Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was charged with battery for grabbing Michelle Fields (a reporter):



At the time, WaPo ran an article, "Corey Lewandowski lied about Michelle Fields. That should matter to Donald Trump. It won’t."

Quoted at that link, Donald Trump: "Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!"

Either both instances of battery matter or neither does. Pick one.

"This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything that Donald Trump said so literally."

"The American people didn’t. They understood it. They understood that sometimes — when you have a conversation with people, whether it’s around the dinner table or at a bar — you’re going to say things, and sometimes you don’t have all the facts to back it up."

Said Corey Lewandowski at the election post-mortem at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, covered by The Washington-Post in "Shouting match erupts between Clinton and Trump aides."

The Post snarks that Lewandowski was complaining that "Journalists accurately reported what Trump said."

I missed the event, but it sounds to me as though Lewandowski was saying that the media didn't understand — or pretended not to understand — they way Trump was reaching people. I presume that  Lewandowski was making the same point that was made in the widely admired and shared piece by Salena Zito that appeared in the September 23, 2016 issue of The Atlantic, "Taking Trump Seriously, Not Literally":

When he makes claims like [only 41.5% of 16 to 24-year old blacks are employed], the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.

When I presented that thought to him, he paused again, “Now that’s interesting.”

The WaPo article has lots more about the Kennedy School event, with particular emphasis on the Clinton aides beating up on Kellyanne Conway. I don't think I need to say that Conway held her own, but don't look to WaPo to present her as a feminist heroine. Her performance is predictably underplayed, making the article rather boring, as WaPo, on December 2nd, sinks back behind its paywall for me.

Corey Lewandowski — who got into so much trouble touching a woman — tells a woman "Don’t touch me."

Here's a reminder of what Lewandowski did that got him arrested for touching a woman. The situation involved a female reporter getting at Trump and Lewandowski's brusqueness in moving her away. In the end, he was not charged.

The woman in this new video clip is former New York Assembly Speaker Christine Quinn. After expressing her empathy with Ghazala Khan, she gets very emotional when Lewandowski attempts to take a turn speaking. Lewandowski calmly says "You’ve got to relax a little bit," which flips Quinn out.

Compare the time Lewandowski touched a woman to this woman's touching Lewandowski.

The old touching was wrong, this touching was OK, and I'm not saying that based on gender.

The old touching was justified, this touching was wrong, and I'm not saying that based on gender.

The old touching was wrong, and this touching was OK, and I'm saying that based on gender.

The old touching was justified, this touching was wrong, and I'm saying that based on gender.

Both touchings were wrong.

Both touchings were OK.

 

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"Donald J. Trump has fired his contentious campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski..."

"Mr. Trump had faced increasing concerns from allies and donors, as well as his children, about the next phase of the campaign as he pivots toward the November election," the NYT reports.

Mr. Lewandowski was said to have resisted certain moves that would have increased the staff, at times blocking Mr. Manafort from making hires or later undoing them....

[An anonymous source] said that the campaign is now focusing on bringing the party together, including hiring new staff members and adjusting to the race against Hillary Clinton....

"Melania Trump joined us on the patio; Trump doted on her throughout the meal, often touching her shoulder or leg and calling her 'baby.'"

"His eldest son, Donald Jr., sat with his wife at a nearby table, as did Trump’s grandchildren and his youngest son, 10-year-old Barron. Melania’s soft-spokenness and Lewandowski and Hicks’s deferentiality — both referred to Trump as 'sir' and 'Mr. Trump' — lent the whole tableau an Old World texture, like a Habsburg patriarch in repose. 'This is fun, right?' Trump exclaimed. 'Really! We’re having a good time!'"

From "Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride/Down the homestretch with the impossible nominee" published in the NYT. I'm noticing it today because the author, Robert Draper, was a panelist on "Meet the Press" today.

I tried to find an image that would help us with that description "like a Habsburg patriarch in repose." Maybe:



On "Meet the Press," Chuck Todd said that the "Wild Ride" piece was "epic" and would "take days to finish reading," and Draper self-effacingly called his own piece "Unreadably long." Maybe the affectation of modesty works somehow as a criticism of Trump's braggadocio. And then poor meek Draper got scarcely any speaking time. And yet this enormous sentence did at one point emerge from his lips:

But I think instead what they'd like to do is imagine this sort of boastful CEO of a company that bears his own name becoming or assuming the moral mantle of responsibility of being a public servant, which obligates you to, among other things, learn about the world and learn about your own issues with more granularity than he has currently demonstrated.

By the way, the NYT readers are livid about Draper's piece, if I may judge from the comments. Highest-rated:

Note to NYT: Stop, stop STOP!! plastering the front page with three or four articles about Donald Trump every single day. The media made him, and that includes you. Write about his rivals, and the issues, not about yourselves (the media). This is shameful non-journalism. Your readers expect and deserve better.

Second-highest-rated:

It's increasingly disturbing to me that we can't even rely on the NYT to take a racist, sexist, ignorant bigot to task for his abhorrent views and statements. This piece glosses over it and continually normalizes and romanticizes him; a yuuge disservice to the American public.

I'm fascinated by the concept of "normal" in relation to Trump. Have you noticed how hard many people — including Hillary — are working to frame Trump as non-normal?

Ah, yes, here's Hillary on that same "Meet the Press" episode. She was asked whether she was going to accept the invitation to debate Bernie Sanders before the California primary. She answered — infuriatingly — "You know, I haven't thought about it." How is that possible? That's an unforced lie.

And then she immediately — figure out this train of thought — segued to "But I think what's important is we're not going to let-- at least, my campaign is not going to let Donald Trump try to normalize himself in this period."

Todd pushed her a bit — "So you think a competitive Democratic primary is doing nothing but helping Donald Trump right now?" — and she went into a tirade about staying "focused on Donald Trump" in which she repeated this Trump-must-not-be-seen-as-normal meme:  

"I do not want Americans... to start to believe that this is a normal candidacy."

I feel like I can hear the behind-the-scenes brainstorming: Americas must not be allowed to begin to think that Trump is normal.

But how is that going to work? Is she not going to respond on the merits as he serves up various issues in a thoughtful-seeming way? If she treats the GOP candidate as if his various policy statements are beneath response, won't she seem abnormal? And isn't this sneering at him going to generate empathy for him? It does in me. If you treat someone like an outsider, it triggers my inclusiveness instinct.

I know a big old self-satisfied billionaire is hardly an outcast in need of love, but the whole business of loving and hating politicians is crazy and surreal, and psychically it is about love and hate.

"I think I'll pass on getting legal advice from a Trump shill. Thanks tho."

Tweeted Michelle Fields — she of the Lewandowski-yanked arm — about Greta Van Susteren, who'd said: "Anyone encouraging this young woman to bring a lawsuit is irresponsible to her."

"Oh my god, it’s like the Zapruder film—if nothing had happened."

Said Bill Maher about the Corey Lewandowski video.

“But everybody on the left had to say—and this is what I hate when liberals do, when they mimic the stupidity of the right—they had to get on team ‘he almost killed her.’ And this woman said, and she was talking about the whole event, she said, ‘This has to be, aside from my father’s death, the worst experience I’ve gone through,’ and I thought, ‘What a charmed, lucky, clueless white girl life you have lived if that’s the worst thing that happened to you.’ Do we have to politicize everything?”

“[Lewandowski] shouldn’t have been [arrested]! It’s not assault!” Maher exclaimed later, adding, “If you cut in line in a bathroom at a nightclub, would there be an assault charge? Nobody can take someone’s arm anymore in America? That’s assault?”

"To everyone who likes that Lewandowsky got charged: Will you agree that everyone who does nothing more than that should undergo criminal prosecution?"

"Are you willing to pay the taxes to cover that? Are you ready to find out that you've already done it and you're going to be needing to hire a lawyer? Oh, but it's so funny when it happens to somebody else, somebody you don't like. If that's what you think, please just admit to yourself that you are entirely morally corrupt."

Said I, talking over on Facebook.

What really happened in this grope-punch-pepper-spray incident at yesterday's Trump rally in Janesville?

Video and descriptions at USA Today and at The Daily News. And here's the police press release.

The young woman is pepper sprayed, which looks terrible, but she's also seen smacking or trying to smack a man on the head. There's some confusing discussion of "groping." There might be a groping off camera. I've looked at several of the available angles, and I do see 2 hands holding her back, touching her on one shoulder (as she is getting very fervent vocally, aiming the word "fuck" right in the face of the white-haired man).

I'm connecting this incident with the San Francisco State dreadlocks confrontation — blogged here — and the charging of Corey Lewandowski. In the SFSU case, the woman grabs the man, and in the Corey Lewandowski case, the woman is touched only after she touches Donald Trump twice. There seems to be a traditional stereotype at play that ignores or minimizes battery by a female and holds the male responsible to refrain from doing anything physical, even in self-defense. It's an interesting stereotype. Perhaps you support it. The man should never hit the woman, even if she is hitting him. But how does that traditional model work in modern conditions of demanded equality, in which a woman actively participates in a rowdy protest or pursues journalism aggressively or instigates a confrontation with a passing stranger?

Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski just got charged with battery...

... in the incident involving the Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.

MEANWHILE: In Wisconsin, anti-Trump disorder rages on:

Six protesters were arrested and could face trespassing, disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer charges after dozens initially entered the Holiday Inn Express on Monday evening as part of an anti-Donald Trump protest.

Janesville Police Sgt. Mike Blaser said police gave the protesters several opportunities to move out of the building without being arrested but they refused. “I think tonight is just an indication in a smaller scale of what we might see tomorrow,” Blaser said. “We've been planning for several days and we will have assets on the ground to help us manage whatever size crowd we do get here tomorrow.”...

The six protesters arrested would not identify themselves to police before booking, Blaser said. They had joined hands inside of PVC piping and may have also been handcuffed inside the piping, he said.

The protesters used “professional” tactics, including having their own medic on scene, he said. They were members of the Showing Up for Racial Justice and Groundwork Madison groups. The protesters entered the building at 6:30 p.m. Rock County sheriff's deputies were helping Janesville police separate them at about 9:30 p.m.

Trump is speaking at the hotel at 4 p.m. today, and the protesters attempted to occupy the place at 6:30 p.m. last night. It seems as though part of the "professional" tactic is to intimidate any private business that might want to rent a venue to the Trump campaign.

Melissa Sargent, a Democratic representative to the state Assembly from the Madison area, was among those inside. “We're here to call on the Holiday Inn to take a stand against hate,” Sargent said....

Kristen Brock-Petroshius of Madison, a member of Standing Up for Racial Justice, said the group has been working with the local organizers of the anti-Trump demonstration, set for Tuesday outside the Janesville Conference Center, a part of the hotel. Brock-Petroshius said local organizers have received death threats, and Monday's protest was an effort to avoid any bloodshed that might be caused by Trump supporters....

“A lot of us think, … if this was the beginning of Hitler's rise to power in Germany, how many of us would sit by the sidelines and do nothing?” Brock-Petroshius said. 'If we can prevent the violence he is inciting from taking hold and become stronger in these coming months, then we've done our job.”

All the violence is on the other side. The protesters cite death threats they've received and predict some Hitler-like future, so strong tactics are justified.

The owners of the Holiday Inn Express and Janesville Conference Center do not plan to cancel Trump's appearance Tuesday, as some protesters have called for.

There's no violence disorder if everyone gives up and goes home. So the tactic is to shut today's event down, to make Trump cancel again.

Love will win / no room for hate -> proud to stand against Trump in #WIsconsin pic.twitter.com/ENEWJXSpND

— Rep. Melissa Sargent (@RepSargent) March 29, 2016

FOX News accuses Trump's campaign manager of "threats" and "terrorizations" of Megyn Kelly.

From the FOX News "Full statement on Trump declining to participate in Fox News/Google Debate":

Capitulating to politicians’ ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards, as do threats, including the one leveled by Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski toward Megyn Kelly.

In a call on Saturday with a FOX News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn had a ‘rough couple of days after that last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again.’ Lewandowski was warned not to level any more threats, but he continued to do so. We can’t give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees.

What basis is there for calling Lewandowski statements "threats" and "terrorizations"? I must assume that the 2 quotes are the worst things Lewandowski said. The "rough couple of days after that last debate" were nothing but criticism of her supposed unfairness and bias, so all she'd "have [to] go through... again" is more analysis of whether and how much she is biased and unfair. That's not a threat but a normal observation that the same kind of critique would happen again. Why shouldn't moderators be critiqued? I guess they could find that threatening and feel terrified, but that's their problem.

Fox should have just said it can't capitulate to politicians' demands about moderators, not make a scurrilous accusation that has connotations of physical violence.