What the hell are we supposed to conclude from this? On Thursday, in the middle of a press conference that could be psychologically better described as an “episode,” the former President of the United States told a story so utterly impossible that the listener was left with no idea where exactly the lie ended and the dementia began. You may recall that Howard Dean’s campaign ended with him screaming into a microphone, and that every aside Al Gore uttered in 2000 was weaponized by his traveling press people. How fatal, then, should it be for a candidate with an enormous record of outright lies to tell a story like this to the assembled media. The New York Times:
Former President Donald J. Trump told a jaw-dropping story on Thursday about how he nearly died during a helicopter ride with Willie Brown, the former California politician and ex-boyfriend of his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris… Trump’s erroneous account during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida was in response to a reporter’s leading question about Ms. Harris’s past relationship with Willie Brown and whether Mr. Trump believed it might have had anything to do with her career trajectory. The two dated in 1994 and 1995, when she was prosecutor in Alameda County, which includes Oakland, and he was speaker of the California State Assembly, and he appointed her to two state panels. He was — and still is — married to Blanche Brown, but the two have long led separate lives.
“Wrong account”, New York Times? That’s all you can say? Even after hearing the opposite from all the major players in the story, and even after finding out that the former president* can’t tell his California Browns apart? Even after finding out that the helicopter landed and that there was no emergency, let alone a crash? I mean, wow! “Misrepresentation”? Damn, people, this guy something went wrong with his hair.
It wasn’t the famous former mayor of San Francisco who took part in the helicopter ride at all. It was Governor Jerry Brown, the former governor of California who bears little resemblance to Willie Brown. There was also no emergency landing, and the helicopter’s passengers were never in danger, according to Governor Gavin Newsom, who also took part in the flight. Jerry Brown, who resigned from office in January 2019, had a spokesman say: “There was no emergency landing and no discussion about Kamala Harris.”
And of course, as they headed toward certain death, Willie Brown, who was not on board the helicopter, still took the time to make a few negative comments about Kamala Harris on the way down.
He then told a story worthy of a movie about a close encounter with death – and about politically advantageous gossip on the brink of death: “We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter together on our way to a certain place, and then there was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing.”
Is this just an excuse or is it dementia? One of my uncles thought the Holy Cross basketball team lived above him. My dad told my wife what a nice little guy he thought I was. I mean, it was flattering, but a little disconcerting because judging by the dim lighting, we had met about a half hour earlier. God knows I’ve seen this movie before.
But the former president* has such a long history of telling self-aggrandizing lies, and he has made such a science of finding sycophants to clean up after him, that it’s hard for outsiders to separate what he thinks really happened, what didn’t happen, what he wished had happened, and what he thinks will further his political goals and make him, once again, the hero of his own story. And does it even matter anymore?
To his credit, NYT has effectively downplayed the facts in this latest fable. (Although the scene in my head where Willie Brown badmouths Kamala Harris as Trump’s last act on earth is an appealing External borders Turn it.) The open question, however, remains whether or not this incredible story can define The Caudillo of Mar-a-Lago as a possible future President*, as it should be. This is not a Swift Boat deal where the rat-fuckers make up a story and the morons in the elite political media then turn it into an “issue” that has cast “clouds” and “shadows” over the targeted campaign. This episode occurred live on television, in front of God and the world, assuming God wouldn’t do the sensible thing, and watching in Paris playing water polo. This was purely a demonstration of the candidate’s condition. The facts were verified in real time. The other characters in the fable were all still alive to laugh about it. This should define him as a future President*. It should prompt someone to get the damn net. This kind of thing isn’t as entertaining as it used to be.
