The soon-to-be President called a massive news organization a bunch of liars in the middle of a nationally televised press conference. Representative of that organization asks for the opportunity to defend himself (we'll never know, but I suspect it would be to clarify that what they reported was that intelligence officials were briefing Trump on the dossier, as opposed to saying it was true - a distinction that the Brietbarts and Infowars of the world DO NOT make). The President-elect then continues to berate this reporter and calls on his good friends at **** Decency, This is the Internet (
outrageous headlines from the President's favorite "journalists") for his next soft-pitch.
This isn't partisan for me. I lean left, but I'm hardly a Hillary or Bernie supporter. If Mike Pence was giving these press conferences he would let the question be asked and if was unfair, he would attack it. This is what rational humans do. Trump is plunging his tiny hands into the body politic, ripping out organs of the state, and severing connections between all the moving parts.
And to rebut Neapolitan's point, there are over 200 million registered voters. For ease of argument, let's say 200 million exactly (
source). Donald Trump received 62,979,636 votes (let's call it 63 million -
source). Therefore, 31.5% of eligible voters cast their ballots for him. But none of this matters when you look at approval ratings. Your choice goes from this person vs. this person to thoughts on a single person. Approval rating polls are conducted among voters and non-voters, Republicans, Democrats, and others.
What is a fact is that Donald J. Trump has historically low approval ratings for how the transition is being handled (
source). Could have something to do with his know-nothing appointments to Housing and Urban Development (
1:40-2:00 is a classic gaff, obviously not what he meant, but still), Education (
Devoss), and, to a lesser extent, Health and Human Services.
You guys could take the tack of: 'yeah Donald Trump isn't really a Republican or conservative, but he won, so let's be vigilant when he oversteps and make ourselves heard so he shuts down his 3 AM twitter "diplomacy", but overall we need to support the President.' But instead I see a full-throated defense of many of his outrageous statements, actions, contradictions, and tantrums. That, I don't get.
Finally, I've made a couple of thorough responses to several of you in here that have not been replied to. Is MB just a place to make statements and have petty fights? If so, I'll stop attempting actual discourse. Just trying to figure out the how the culture has changed here.
