The final days of Trump’s presidency inspire hour-by-hour countdowns

Was there an hour countdown to the end of the Bush presidency? The end of Obama? No, certainly not to that extent. Trump’s time in office ends in disorderly fashion. The countdown begins at noon on Wednesday when Trump falls from grace – the first president to do so since Richard Nixon. Trump stopped governing long ago, but he left behind a reputation that is now sealed: that of one of the worst presidents in US history and by far the most dangerous, David Gergen said on CNN Sunday night.

Even at this late hour, Mr. Trump is still in deep denial, or a combination of both. He has always, and I think it’s important to say this, according to the people I’ve talked to, always said he won, Maggie Haberman reported on Reliable Sources Sunday morning. He always supports her. So the idea that he has accepted the loss is not there yet, if ever.

Trump’s inability to deal with the loss of Biden may explain why he did not engage with journalists at all in the final weeks of his presidency. Even more remarkable was that he rarely mentioned his favorite TV shows. Aside from some conversations with Maria Bartiromo and Brian Kilmeade and some videos of the WH production, he was invisible.

I feel like if he starts talking again, he’s just adding fuel to the fire, Haberman said. That’s part of the reason we don’t hear him, because people are afraid of what he’s going to say – people who have his advisers in mind – of what he’s going to say out of the blue in an interview.

valedictorian?

American presidents usually give a thoughtful farewell address to the nation. Will Trump? We know he’s planning a telethon on Wednesday, but he’s not sure he wants to talk about his legacy. CBS News reports that he will speak at a farewell ceremony on the tarmac of Andrews Common Base. It is also unclear how the television stations would have handled such a speech, given the previous deceptions and inducements.

>> I’m not asking these questions because I want to hear Trump, per se. I mention Q because what leaders don’t say is often more revealing than what they say. Trump throws standards out the window until the last minute of his presidency and leaves town before Biden takes the oath of office….

Is pence filled as a prefix?

Vice President Mike Pence attended briefings and events and tried to present American leadership in a way that Trump cannot. In a speech to sailors in California on Saturday, Pence said he was proud that this is the first administration in decades not to drag America into another war. I appreciate what he meant about foreign relations, but America is not in the world. The war has come home. This is my proven monologue.

Pence – who in the alt-history of the Trump era would become president if Trump was found guilty by the Senate or deemed unfit by the Cabinet – arrived in Washington Sunday night after his final official tour. In the press pool, he got out of Air Force Two and stopped for a minute to look around and see everything. As he came down the stairs, a reporter asked questions from the pool: Sir, are you concerned about Wednesday’s violence? И.. Will you be hosting the president-elect at the White House on Wednesday? Pence did not answer.

Coming soon: Slow information day ?

Haberman told me that one of the constants of the Trump Era was a constant feeling of coming, a feeling that was provoked in large part by his Twitter feed.

His Twitter feed is gone, but the feeling of dodging and running away hasn’t completely disappeared. Years of history go by. We thought that with 2020 behind us, things would slow down, but that’s not true, Nicole Carroll, editor of USA Today, told Sunday’s show.

John Dickerson talked about it in a Sunday morning segment for CBS. He said the new Biden administration could benefit from a simple regular stream of useful information that could revive a slow forgotten news day.

He interviewed Jill Lepore, who said just introduce yourself, get relevant information, bring in people who are doing their job and answer questions from the press and public. That sounds simple… and refreshing…

Do you remember what presidents used to say?

With Biden about to take office, it’s a good day to read or reread the inaugural and other fascinating speeches of former presidents. I reread John F. Kennedy’s 1961 speech to the newspaper editor, which contains much wisdom about democracy, national security, and the power of the press. Kennedy talked about our responsibility — his and the media’s — to inform and warn the American people, to make sure they have all the facts they need and understand — the dangers, the opportunities, the goals of our agenda, and the choices we face. Read or listen to the speech here….

FOR PROTOCOL

— Sunday night’s NYT homepage cited the failure of US Covid-19 and noted that 400,000 people in the country are dying….. (NYT)

— we should all remember that Trump said that 100,000 to 200,000 total deaths would count as a very good job. The death toll will exceed 400,000 by the time he leaves the White House….

— On Face the Nation, the new director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walenski, said we expect half a million deaths in this country by mid-February…. (CBS)

— Walenski participated in a coordinated effort by the Biden transition team to have representatives on all five major Sunday morning shows…..

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