Washington Post (February 22)
“We now have serious, competent leadership that believes in science, not conspiracy theories. And whatever the reasons, the tragic covid-19 toll — still too high — has fallen dramatically from its horrific peak. We have lost an unimaginable 500,000 lives. But we can keep from losing 500,000 more.”
Tags: Competent, Conspiracy theories, COVID-19, Horrific, Leadership, Science, Serious, Tragic
Boston Globe (January 4)
“Trump’s crazy train reaches the end of the line.” So far, “not a single state or federal court has accepted the preposterous conspiracy theories floated by Trump and his supporters to explain his loss, ranging from zany stories of North Koreans smuggling ballots into Maine to supposed Sharpie malfunctions in Arizona. No election has been as thoroughly scrutinized as the 2020 vote, and even Trump’s own Justice Department acknowledges it couldn’t find any serious fraud, much less the vast plots of Trump’s imagination.”
Tags: Ballots, Conspiracy theories, Court, Crazy train, Fraud, Loss, Maine, North Korea, Preposterous, Scrutinized, Trump
LA Times (May 28)
“Trump hasn’t been a victim of bias” as he made out while trying “to take a big, dumb bite out of the Twitter hand that feeds him.” In fact, “he’s been the prime beneficiary of the platforms’ lax and inconsistent enforcement of their terms of service. It’s richly ironic that the president would want to remove liability protections for the platforms that broadcast the damaging rumors and wild conspiracy theories he spreads about his rivals.”
Tags: Beneficiary, Bias, Conspiracy theories, Damaging, Dumb, Enforcement, Inconsistent, Ironic, Lax, Liability, Rivals, Rumors, Trump, Twitter, Victim
Wall Street Journal (May 27)
“We don’t write this with any expectation that Mr. Trump will stop” smearing people and promoting far-fetched conspiracy theories. “His latest accusation against MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is ugly even for him.” By suggesting the TV host was somehow complicit in what by all accounts was a natural death, “Mr. Trump is debasing his office, and he’s hurting the country in doing so.”
Tags: Accusation, Conspiracy theories, Debasing, Expectation, MSNBC, Scarborough, Smearing, Trump
The Week (November 30)
“Trump seems to be coming unglued.” Though “you might say while it’s deeply troubling to see the president embracing conspiracy theories or believing that millions of people voted illegally for his opponent, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he has lost his mind. But the fact that he thinks that it wasn’t him on the Access Hollywood tape suggests that Trump has had a profound break with reality.”
Tags: Access Hollywood, Conspiracy theories, Reality, Troubling, Trump, Unglued
New York Times (July 22)
“What historical shift, what tremors in American culture, yielded up Mr. Trump’s moment from the depths of the national id? How did a braggadocious Manhattan billionaire with a history of dodgy business deals convince 13 million people feeling battered by a changing world that he is their solution?” Mr. Trump has “sought advantage by playing to disaffected people’s worst instincts, inventing scapegoats and conspiracy theories, waging and inciting vicious attacks on those who disagree with him. He is a poisonous messenger for a legitimate demand.” The Republican Party need to “dedicate itself to improving working people’s lives, instead of serving the elite.”
Tags: Billionaire, Braggadocious, Conspiracy theories, Dodgy business deals, Elite, Poisonous, Republican Party, Scapegoats, Tremors, Trump, U.S., Vicious attacks, Worst instincts