Francesca Hong has a way of breaking into a question sideways and taking you on a journey that may make you forget what the question was in the first place.

Here she is answering the question from Kaitlan Collins: "Do you still believe that Thanksgiving should be canceled?"

Collins: Do you still believe that Thanksgiving should be canceled?

Hong: I'm a chef, and one of the first meals that I made was for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal. But Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities.… pic.twitter.com/Kd5kBZMxZS

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 4, 2026

Like Trump — who has his own circuitous way of talking, his "weave" — Francesca Hong has her special way of making the conversation her own:

"I'm a chef, and one of the first meals that I made was for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal. But Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. And so I think there" — when she said Thanksgiving should be canceled — "I wanted to make sure that people understood that there are multiple views, but views can evolve. And the position that I'm running for right now, and I think my background as a chef will actually help me become a better governor that's able to bring more people to the table."

Brilliant!

A chef... bringing people to the table. I know, you're afraid of her and of the people who are going to vote for her. But if you could stand back coolly and observe, I think you should admit that this — along with Trump's weave — is beautiful American political rhetoric.

"There are times when I watch him, and I think to myself, this can't be real. Like, this can't be America. America. You've heard of us. We're great...."

ADDED: Collins is great in this interview. Watch to the end to fully appreciate.

"Is this supposed to be fun? Am I supposed to be serious? Am I supposed to be a comedian?"

Trump finally gets his White House Correspondents' Dinner speech:

Was he just supposed to take up where he left off before he was so rudely interrupted?

"I could never [do] the speech that I had ready just a short while [ago]. Oh, that was going to be a doozy. I was so psyched. I was going to rip people and I don't know, just something changed and it's really for the better. But I just wouldn't want to do that. But we'll do a little ripping if you don't mind...."

ADDED: I just listened to the whole "little ripping." He told a lot of bad jokes, often stopping to ask "who wrote this?" Sample bad joke: "I thought Kaitlan [Collins] had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I [was informed] that it wasn't her on the Bud Light can. It was Dylan Mulvaney."

Then there's the joke he said he thought was the best one: "The other day, a senator I knew got a text, a great guy, from his wife, and she said, 'When you get home, I want to have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me.' And he said, 'I can't do both.'" He had to say, "Does anybody get that?" And then: "That was actually the only thing I thought was good in this whole freaking stupid speech that they wrote." They wrote. Don't blame him. He's trying to use the old Johnny Carson method of improvising jokes about how the monologue is failing. 

I see he took the same position I took on Graham Platner: "I think Platner might have done surprisingly well because we're in the age of Trump.... People can do well today. Platner, I don't know. But, you know, people don't have the guts to stick it out.... He certainly didn't defend himself very well...."

And here's the joke I thought was the best: "Under my administration, a once-feared and powerful regime that relentlessly attacked America has finally been toppled. Their former leaders have been removed and they're now being run by a gay dictator facing internal divisions. But I for one wish Bari Weiss all the best at CBS News. She's a wonderful woman."

AND: Near the end, he offers "somewhat of a scoop": "My intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States." He puts on a red "Trump 2028" cap. It's a double joke — that he's running beyond the constitutional term limit and that he's already won more than twice — and he leans into it, to make sure they get it: "I won three times. Now I'm going to do it again.... I'm going to do it again. It should be easy. I'm getting very good at running for President. No, I won three times. Did very well the second time, by the way. It's a rigged election...."

"Just days after giving birth, she returned to work on the Trump campaign, saying she was motivated to forgo maternity leave following the July 13 assassination attempt..."

"I looked at my husband and said, 'Looks like I’m going back to work.... I felt compelled to be present in this historic moment,' she added. 'The president literally put his life on the line to win this election. The least I could do is get back to work quickly."

From "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, Addresses Her 'Atypical' 32-Year Age Gap with Husband/Leavitt tied the knot with husband Nicholas Riccio, 59, in January 2025 after welcoming son Niko in 2024" (People). Niko was born on July 10th. Baby (and wedding) pics at the link.

Here's Leavitt at yesterday's press conference. I've cued up the discussion of the auto-pen pardons:

Leavitt: "The president was begging the question that I think a lot of journalists in this room should be asking about whether or not not the former President of the United States — who I think we can all finally agree was cognitively impaired — I know it took people some time to finally admit that but, we all know that to be true, as evidenced by his disastrous debate performance against President Trump during the campaign — I digress on that — but the President was raising the point that: Did the President even know about these pardons? Was his legal signature used without his consent or knowledge?

"Was that supposed to be a laugh line?"

Stephen Colbert — speaking to CNN's Kaitlan Collins — began "I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is" and the "Late Show" audience laughed.

There's the idea that Trump is mightily courageous. Mark Kelly begs to differ: Trump is terrified!

Last night, on CNN, commenting on Trump's performance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Mark Kelly — the potential VP candidate — had one idea to try to sell:

 

Asked to respond to Trump's statement that Kamala Harris only recently chose "to be known as black," Kelly said: 

Well, Kaitlan, my first reaction was, you know, this is the reaction of a desperate and scared old man. It was very obvious to me watching him and just what I've seen over the last wee while she's been, you know, across the country just kicking his butt that he's afraid, that he's probably afraid to debate her. He's certainly afraid to lose an election to her in November, and he's afraid about his own future....

Kaitlan Collins, mirroring Kelly, restating his idea in the form of a question: "So you think this is just a sign that he's essentially spooked by by her momentum?

Is that catching on, Trump the big chicken?

"Does the mere fact of his large following in an increasingly radicalized and extremist Republican Party require that news organizations broadcast his views to millions?"

Asks Susan B. Glasser in "Don’t Say You Haven’t Been Warned About Trump and 2024/CNN’s awful town hall with the former President heralds a disastrous election year to come" (The New Yorker).

Here's my radical idea: Give up on attacking Trump, the person, and engage with the substance of his policy arguments. Act as if he's a completely ordinary politician — pose as if you felt neutrality toward him personally — and engage with the ideas. 

You really do need to take him seriously. He's presumptively the Republican nominee, and he's got an even chance of getting re-elected to the presidency. You can freak out about that, but you've been freaking about about him for 8 years, and it hasn't fazed him. His supporters tune you out.

Reset. Be normal, and treat him as if he were normal. Give up on trying not to "normalize" him. Forefront the substantive issues, treat all the candidates equally, and let us see how each of them holds up to a thorough grilling. If you're neutral, you can be cruel. We'll watch.

I infer that Glasser would tell me that Trump doesn't do substance. She wrote:

Did CNN cut the Trump town hall short — by 20 minutes?

I didn't know how long the show was supposed to be, but when it ran over the hour, I figured it would go 90 minutes, and then it ended at 10 minutes after the hour? Was that the plan?

I see Newsweek has a piece this morning titled "CNN Cutting Donald Trump Town Hall Short by 20 Minutes Raises Questions." It begins:

Questions have been raised as to why CNN appeared to cut a town hall broadcast with Donald Trump on Wednesday evening short by as much as 20 minutes....

If you go deep enough into that article, you'll see:

A CNN spokesperson told Newsweek it had gone on record "days ago" that the town hall would last "roughly an hour" with "a little room to bleed over." 

I believe that, because, seen live, the ending didn't look abrupt, Trump didn't act surprised or outraged, and the moderator, Kaitlan Collins, didn't seem to be acting ungracious or punitive. She had been prodding him about his lies/"lies" throughout, and to give up before the planned end time would seem as though her pushback had been inadequate, which is not something CNN would want to concede. Of course, Trump bulled ever onward. That was predicted and prepared for. Nothing went wrong, and it would have been wrong to pull the plug early.