| | | | Donald Trump's massive Puerto Rico fail | | | President Donald Trump faced a major test on Tuesday as he traveled to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico: Show the American citizens struggling for survival on the island that he understood their plight, sympathized with them and was doing everything in his power to make it better as quickly as he could. He failed. Hugely.
Soon after touching down in Puerto Rico, Trump said the following to government officials:
"Every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous -- hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here, with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody's ever seen anything like this. What is your death count as of this moment? 17? 16 people certified, 16 people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people and all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everybody around this table and everybody watching can really be very proud of what's taken place in Puerto Rico." Where to begin????
How about that suggestion that what happened in Puerto Rico -- an entire island devastated, huge swaths without power, food and water in short supply -- wasn't a "real" catastrophe because not that many people died?
Or what about using death count as a talking point? Yes, it's true that far more people died in Katrina (1,800+) than did in Maria (16). But for the families of the 16 who died, that loss is no less heartbreaking.
Loss of life is loss of life. And we're not even dealing with the thousands of people whose lives have been fundamentally altered, forever, as a result of this storm -- for whom things will never be the same and may well be far, far worse.
"Proud" is not the right word for how people should -- or do -- feel. It's not even close.
It's the opposite of empathy. Instead of mourning with and for those who lost their lives, Trump is using those who lost their lives as a way to make a broader argument that the media's criticism of him is unfair and biased.
See, I told you I was doing a great job, Trump was saying. Everyone here thinks so!
Me, me, me, me.
This is Trump off the telemprompter. Twitter Trump. Trump's real personality -- when words are not being carefully selected for him.
Trump knew -- because everyone wrote about it and TV talked about it relentlessly -- that the big question today in Puerto Rico was whether he could show some actual empathy, some human kindness to people he didn't know but who were still his constituents.
And, even knowing that, Trump delivered a navel-gazing, self-championing, victimhood-seeking speech that reeked of tone-deafness and out-of-touch-ism.
Even for this President, who has redefined presidential -- and not for the better -- this is a truly remarkable low.
-- Chris | | CNN's Ryan Struyk writes:
Everyone has an opinion of President Trump -- and they're sticking to it. Trump's approval rating has remained in a narrow 10 percentage point window for his entire first nine months in office, the smallest range for new presidents in almost a half century. The numbers show just how baked-in Americans' approval (or disapproval) of Donald Trump is. Presidents historically have experienced some turbulence during their first nine months, as honeymoon periods wear off and presidents face the first tests of their tenures.
Read Ryan's full story here. | | | More Tom Petty, because we're still not over the news. Fortune has a round-up of his 10 best-selling songs here. | | A politician is wrapped up in a texting scandal -- and it's not Anthony Weiner.
Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican with an anti-abortion voting record, urged a woman he was having an affair with to get an abortion, according to messages obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options," she wrote, according to the Post-Gazette. Asked by CNN about the report, a spokesperson for Murphy said, "The office has no comment or response to the story."
Read more in CNN's story by Eli Watkins. | | CNN's Marshall Cohen put together a timeline of President Trump's positions and comments about guns during the presidential campaign and before. Here's a round-up of some of Trump's notable quotes.
Before the campaign:
-- On the assault weapons ban: "This is another issue where you see the extremes of the two existing major parties. Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a dumb idea because only the law-abiding citizens would turn in their guns and the bad guys would be the only ones left armed. The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions. I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. With today's Internet technology, we should be able to tell within seventy-two hours if a potential gun owner has a (criminal) record." -- Trump's book, "The America We Deserve," published in 2000.
During the campaign
-- On the background check system: "What we need to do is fix the system we have and make it work as intended. What we don't need to do is expand a broken system." -- Trump's campaign website
-- On mental health: "Our mental health system is broken. It needs to be fixed. Too many politicians have ignored this problem for too long. All of the tragic mass murders that occurred in the past several years have something in common -- there were red flags that were ignored. We can't allow that to continue. We need to expand treatment programs, because most people with mental health problems aren't violent, they just need help." -- Trump's campaign website
-- On gun-free zones: "I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools -- you have to -- and on military bases. My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones. … You know what a gun-free zone is to a sicko? That's bait." -- At a campaign rally in Vermont on Jan. 8, 2016
-- On guns in classrooms: "I don't want to have guns in classrooms, although in some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms, frankly. Because, teachers, the things that are going on in our schools are unbelievable. You look at some of our schools, unbelievable what's going on. But I'm not advocating guns in classrooms, but remember in some cases -- a lot of people have advocated this case -- teachers should be able to have guns, trained teachers should be able to have guns in classrooms." -- Fox News interview, May 22, 2016
-- On Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, part 1: "It's too bad that some of the young people that were killed over the weekend didn't have guns, you know, attached to their hips, frankly, and you know where bullets could have flown in the opposite direction." -- Howie Carr Show interview, June 13, 2016
-- On Orlando shooting, part 2: "When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees." -- Twitter, June 20, 2016 | | LATE NIGHT GETS TO THE POINT | | | Photo courtesy: YouTube/Screengrabs | | Actress Mindy Kaling on Monday tweeted about the role late night hosts have played amid times of tragedy. She wrote: "Our late talk show hosts are now de facto activists, not because they want to, but because it would be incomprehensible to not be." Kaling's not the only one who has felt this way. Last night, every host weighed in on the Las Vegas mass shooting. This was the latest current event to draw somber responses from comedians, who many people have turned to for comfort. Here were some of their takes: - Kimmel: "I want this to be a comedy show, I hate talking about stuff like this. I just wanna laugh about things every night, but it seems to be coming increasingly difficult lately. It feels like someone opened a window into hell. What I'm talking about tonight isn't about gun control, it's about common sense. Common sense says no good will ever come out from allowing a person to have weapons that can take down 527 Americans at a concert. Common sense says you don't let those who suffer from mental illness buy guns." (Read Chris' take on the monologue here).
- Stephen Colbert re: thoughts and prayers remarks: "Think about what you need to do, and then pray for the courage to do it."
- Seth Meyers: "It always seems like the worst displays of humanity in this country are immediately followed by the best, and then sadly that is followed by no action at all. And then it repeats itself. We've talked about gun violence on this show before. ... I also know nothing I say will make any difference at all. But to Congress I would just like to say: Are there no steps we can take as a nation to prevent gun violence, or is this just how it is and how it's going to continue to be?"
- Trevor Noah: "If you say after a mass shooting is never the time, then you'll never have the conversation in America because there's a mass shooting almost every single day. So when is the time?"
- James Corden: "I come from a place where we don't have shootings at this frequency, so it's hard for me to fathom. But it should be hard for everyone to fathom. Gun violence should not be a staple of American life. Some say it's too early to talk about gun control. For those victims last night, it's far too late."
| | Even the Mooch doesn't know what his new media endeavor, The Scaramucci Post, really is.
Anthony Scaramucci, the White House's ex-communications director, threw a launch party for the publication, where select media and guests were invited to learn more about it. Per The New York Times' story: "The publication is so devoted to its social media strategy that it has no journalists, no articles and no website -- apparently by design. 'You'll find that if you don't have a website, guess what? You don't have any server charges,' Mr. Scaramucci said. Later, he conceded that he had 'no idea what the Scaramucci Post is.'" | | 'HASTA LA VISTA' ... GERRYMANDERING? | | | Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted in DC on Tuesday outside Supreme Court. Per The Washington Post: "The former action movie star, who arrived amid protests on the court steps, wants to terminate (sorry) partisan drawing of voting districts -- an issue he has made his post-gubernatorial cause celebre. He was among the speakers at a rally sponsored by Common Cause, Represent.Us, and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Schwarzenegger, in a sharp suit and bright-green tie, took the podium and noted that both herpes and colonoscopies are more popular than gerrymandering, and he drew applause with a signature line from perhaps his most famous flick: "I say this time, we say 'Hasta la vista' to gerrymandering!"
Fore more on SCOTUS' gerrymandering case, read the latest from CNN's Ariane de Vogue. Chris also looked at the most obscenely gerrymandered congressional districts in America. | | SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU SMILE | | | CNN's DJ Judd pointed out this story to us today and we thought we'd share to bring a smile to your face. NPR editor Christopher Dean Hopkins accidentally posted about a cat on NPR's Facebook account on Monday -- and it brought everyone #allthefeels. Turns out Ramona, named in the post, is not a cat but a BABY with a cat. Even better. | | | Another thing to make you smile: This epic photobomb. Remind your friends, family, whoever (!) to subscribe to The Point. | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Follow this link for daily coverage of the world's top stories, savvy market insights, an insider's look into the media, and more. Our authors for The Point are Chris Cillizza and Saba Hamedy. Send your tips and thoughts via email to Chris or Saba. Follow on Twitter: Chris and Saba. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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