Milbank: Speaking of the 25th, did you watch Friday's speech?
It was a fine day for a national emergency.
There was no sign of alarm as administration officials and journalists assembled Friday in the Rose Garden under a perfect blue sky amid unseasonable warmth. Nor was there any sense of crisis conveyed by President Trump, scheduled to fly to his Mar-a-Lago resort later Friday. The much-anticipated emergency declaration was to have been at 10 a.m. At 10:18 an official said Trump would talk in two minutes. At 10:39, Trump emerged.
His topic demanded utmost solemnity: The situation on the border is so dire, such a crisis, that he must invoke emergency powers to circumvent Congress, testing the boundary between constitutional democracy and autocracy. But with the nation watching, Trump instead delivered a bizarre, 47-minute variant of his campaign speech.
He boasted about the economy, military spending and the stock markets (we have all the records) and he applauded the Chinese presidents pledge to execute people who deal fentanyl (one of the things Im most excited about in our trade deal). He said Japans prime minister had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. He declared Ann Coulter off the reservation but praised his favorite Fox News hosts and celebrated Rush Limbaughs endurance (try speaking for three hours without taking calls).
Further, Trump reported about on his great relationship with the dictator of North Korea (which, Trump reported, is found right smack in the middle of South Korea, China and Russia) and he declared the eradication of the caliphate in Syria (his top general in the region begs to differ). He introduced his new attorney general, disparaged the Democrats con game, criticized retired House Speaker Paul Ryan, invoked campaign promises, recited the Make America Great Again campaign slogan and pronounced his re-election prospects excellent. He pinged from regulations to Britain to MS-13 to monstrous caravans to an apocryphal story about women gagged with duct tape.
Oh, and he also mentioned his emergency declaration, specifically, that it isnt necessary. I didnt need to do this, he said in response to a question from NBCs Peter Alexander. Its just that the emergency declaration lets him build a border wall faster. He acknowledged that I dont know what to do with all the money Congress gave him for border security.
Somewhere, administration lawyers were face-palming.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/milbank-speaking-of-the-25th-did-you-watch-fridays-speech/
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Harker
(13,870 posts)[I don't use a tv much, but watched the speech via DU.]
[Trumpsky is Queegian.]