We return to the Golden Halls of Trump to find 'our hero' nowhere to be seen [obviously having better tings to do than to stand around in this circus. Besides, you never know when whatever is going to start to fly and cleaning can get expensive.] but Donald is still standing defiant, solitary before an increasingly hostile cadre of men and women seeking only what they feel the public deserves, something better.
QUESTION: "Mr. President, are you putting what you call the alt-left and white supremacists on the same moral plane?"
TRUMP: "I'm not putting anybody on a moral plane," [not saying that he has no idea what any moral plane is since he's shown all along, to some degree or another, that he has no moral plane and wouldn't recognize one if it bit him on his rather ample posterior]. "What I'm saying is this. You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other [proving that he was right when he said that he was watching "very closely"], and they came at each other with clubs [still waiting to see those pictures] and it was vicious and it was horrible....But you have another side [What, wait, now there are three sides?] There was a group on this side, you can call them the left. [Damn. I'm beginning to think this thing needed to come with diagrams and you know how much he loves diagrams.] You've just called them the left - [No, you called them the left. I have no idea who they are without a program and a map.] that came violently attacking the other group. [ WHICH OTHER GROUP??] So you can say what you want, but that's the way it is." [I need a drink and an aspirin.]
CROSSTALK
QUESTION: "...on both sides, sir?" [OHFERCHRISSAKE! Don't make him start again!]
CROSSTALK
QUESTION: "You said there was hatred, there was violence on both sides. Are..."
CROSSTALK
TRUMP: "Well, I do think there's blame - yes, I do think there is blame on both sides. You look at - you look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either."
CROSSTALK
TRUMP: And - and - and if you reported it accurately, you would say (inaudible)
QUESTION: (inaudible) started this (inaudible) Charlottesville. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest..."
CROSSTALK/TRUMP: "Excuse me, excuse me. (inaudible) themselves (inaudible) and you have some very bad people in that group. But you also had some people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group - excuse me, excuse me - I saw the same pictures that you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue, and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to some other name."
CROSSTALK
QUESTION: "George Washington and Robert E. Lee are not the same (inaudible)..."
CROSSTALK
TRUMP: "George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So, will George Washington now Are we going to take down lose his status? Are we going to take down - excuse me - are we going to take down - are we going to take down statues to George Washington?
CROSSTALK
TRUMP: "How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?"
CROSSTALK
TRUMP: "OK. Good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue? So, you know what? It's fine. You're changing history. You're changing culture. And you had people, and I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and white supremacists, because they should be condemned totally [except when they're not and you're making excuses for them, like they were only there to protest the removal of a statue and they had a permit and blahblahblah]. But you had many people in that group other than neo-nazi's and white nationalists.
OK? And the press has treated them very unfairly. Now, in the other group, you also had fine people, but you also had troublemakers and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats. You've got - you had a lot of bad - you had a lot of bad people in the other group...
CROSSTALK
QUESTION: "...treated unfairly (inaudible) you were saying. You were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly? (inaudible) understand what you're saying."
TRUMP returns to his point of watching "the night before" and how there were "people protesting nicely" about that [damn] statue and how some of them may have been "bad ones", however, by the next morning "it looked like they had some rough, bad people - neo-Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them [because they just happened to spring up over night since being good, responsible citizens they couldn't possibly cut work early on Friday]." But still, he had to repeat that "you had a lot of people", "there to "innocently protest" "legally" because "they had a permit" and the other group didn't. With a tinge of desperation and maybe a little sadness creeping into his voice, "...I can only tell you there are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country, a horrible moment. But there are two sides to the country (sic). [Yes, he said "country" and for possibly the only time in a long, long while he says something that proves he might not be so oblivious after all, but only two sides?]. Realizing that he had but one chance to return to the subject he had hoped would be a golden moment in this Golden Hall, "Does anybody have a final - doesn't anybody have a - you have an infrastructure...."
QUESTION [perhaps out of pity or just one last chance to rub salt and lemon into a still raw wound]: "What makes you think you can get an infrastructure bill? You didn't get healthcare. You..."
TRUMP: "Well, you know, I'll tell you. We came very close on healthcare but [DAMN YOU, JOHN McCAIN!!!]...we will end up getting healthcare. And actually, infrastructure is something I think we'll have bi-partisan support on. I actually think - I actually think Democrats will go along with infrastructure [one good thing out of this is he actually admits Democrats exist for something other than obstruction. But that's today. Who knows what he'll say down the road.]."
CROSSTALK leading to one last shot across the bow.
QUESTION; "Mr. President, have you spoken to the family - have you spoken to the family of the victim of the car..."
TRUMP [and you can almost hear him mumble 'Oh, fuck! Not another one?']: "I'll be reaching out - I'll be reaching out."
QUESTION: "When will you be reaching out?"
TRUMP [You know at this point he's just wishing for someone to push the button on the elevator so he can get out of there]: "I was very - I though that the statement put out - the mother's statement I thought was a beautiful statement. I thought it was terrific. And really, under the - under the kind of stress that shes under and the heartache that she's under [At this point I really thought he might be saying that he'd reach out when the time was right, but no, he could only answer like Donald.] I thought putting out that statement to me was really something I won't forget.
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you."
And with that the Great Battle of the Lobby ended. I'm sure scribes were dispatched to write about the 'soaring victory' and how Donald 'dispatched his enemies with a flick of his not-tiny finger' as his voice 'roared like thunder' sending his foes 'scattering like leaves on a gale'. Unfortunately, two days later, he's still getting flack from multiple sides and as of now a total of 6 CEOs have stepped down from his hand-picked Manufacturing Advisory Panel causing him to dissolve both it and his Strategy and Policy Forum, this despite the fact that earlier that Forum had formally disbanded itself. In addition, five of the top commanders in the U.S. military have come out condemning extremist views with General Mark A. Kelly posting his own statement that "The army doesn't tolerate racism, extremism, or hatred in our ranks. It's against our values and everything we've stood for since 1775."
So for the time being it doesn't seem to be over and the attempt to settle things and hopefully put it all to rest seems only to have made it worse for now and we can only wait to see what happens next, how the spokespersons will contort themselves to defend their boss, how many firings can we expect (because you know there will have to be scapegoats and what diversions will be created to try and return the Golden Glow to the administration of President #45. We can only hope those diversions don't come with a big boom.
Note: The transcript used to create this was obtained from McClatchy DC Bureau.
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