As Trump’s time in the office is running out, brace yourself for an insane Christmas news cycle

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The news cycle of the Christmas season is often determined by the lack of serious news. News anchors and executives are going on vacation. Newspapers have end-of-year articles. Recorded shows are taking over.

But you didn’t expect President Trump’s last Christmas in office to be quiet, right?

The outbreak of presidential pardon and roars over the blow up of the Covid relief deal on Tuesday night felt like a harbinger of a hyperactive week to this reporter. “Wow,” Brian Kilmeade said, filling in for Laura Ingraham on Fox. “This show certainly changed quickly. So did everyone else’s schedules when they tried to come home for Christmas.”

“There are 29 days left” in the Trump presidency, and “every day the volume is coming up,” said John Berman, who stood in for Anderson Cooper, Tuesday night on “AC360.” “With a madman in the WH”, David Gergen tweeted, “We are entering the most dangerous four weeks of his presidency.”

Pardon pushed by conservative media

Tuesday’s pardons – including two for men pleading guilty in Robert Mueller’s case – “kick off what is expected to be a flurry of pardons and commutations in the coming weeks as Trump completes his term in office,” the team said. CNN.

You don’t have to search hard on some of these to see Fox fingerprints. Fox’s Pete Hegseth pleaded for pardon for Blackwater security contractors convicted in 2014 for their role in the 2007 Nusoor Square shooting in Baghdad. All four men were pardoned by Trump on Tuesday night, and the WH announcement specifically mentioned Hegseth’s support.

For the record

– Elie Honig on “CNN Tonight” re: excuse me: “I think he’s just getting warmed up …”

– Chris Cuomo’s comment on Trump’s pardon strategy: “He has four weeks left. What else is he telling people now?” Do this for me, do that for me “What? He can pull them out anywhere …”

– Representative Adam Schiff, a last-minute booking on “Cuomo Prime Time,” said Trump’s message was consistent: “If you lie to me, if you are faithful to me, I will abuse my power to protect you. . ”

– Matthew Continetti writing for the New York Times, “Most of the central institutions of the American right,” including talk radio, blogs, and cable, have embraced “reality TV authoritarianism …”.

Trump’s surprise video

Again, the president recorded himself giving a speech and didn’t let the press in, meaning the WH-provided video is the only record. According to CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond, “Few advisers were aware that the president even recorded the five-minute mockery from the garland-decorated diplomatic room in the basement of the residence.” More: “A White House official said aides were blinded by the video of the president and threatened to overturn the emergency relief legislation. Officials had the impression all day long that the president was planning to sign it.”

>> As Tamara Keith from the NPR noticed, “being a spokesperson for President Trump is always perilous,” and “today is just the latest example:” Deputy Press Secretary Brian Morgenstern said Trump “announced his intention” to sign the bill just an hour before Trump suggested otherwise. .

Is Trump just trying to “stay in the news?”

To prove my point about journalists trying, and sometimes failing, to log out, NBC Capitol Hill correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell tweeted this on Tuesday night: “All I have to say is that Trump has had seven months – literally since the Heroes Act was passed – to join COVID aid talks. But he never did. Threating a veto is pure to piss people off – GOP – miserable and to stay in the news. Okay I’m going on vacation again … “

>> Jeremy Diamond made a similar point in “CNN Tonight,” suggesting Trump’s videos are a bid for attention …

What he hears on TV …

That’s what it’s about. That’s always the point! Complaints about the spending accounts piled up on Tuesday, including on Fox, criticizing the $$ included for foreign aid, special interests, etc. “Questions about some provisions in the legislation that helped other countries” were “posed on” Fox & Friends, “one of Mr. Trump’s favorite morning news programs, on Tuesdays,” the Times noted.

On Newsmax, Seb Gorka, Greg Kelly’s substitute, called the spending plan a “utter travesty” and went on and on about “pork” and “corruption.” Later that evening, after Trump filed his veto, Tammy Bruce, who filled Sean Hannity, complained about the ‘deep-seated political morass’ that pushed the $$ through Congress without giving lawmakers time to read it:’ It’s humiliating , it’s disgusting and demeaning. “She sounded just like Trump … and that’s exactly how he likes his favorite shows …

Deeper into delusions

Trump’s social media team posted a second, longer, homemade video to Facebook, all about his refusal to accept the election results. He falsely claimed that he won in a “beautiful landslide” and said “we cannot allow a completely fraudulent election to last.” Shouldn’t the reporting acknowledge that this is delusional?
>> WaPo’s latest state of affairs headline, entitled ‘Republicans engage in open battle over attempts to reverse Trump’s loss to Biden,’ says that ‘advisers and allies who called Trump to check in on him wish a Merry Christmas, are encouraged to go on TV and fight for him amid complaints that others don’t … “

Trump Rewards His Friends, Chapter 1,432

Brian Lowry writes, “As members of the Trump job like Hope Hicks and Ric Grenell receive government appointments, a quick thought: It’s certainly not certain, but I suspect that many of these people can make more lucrative deals in the media space. talking about the backlash that would provoke – in some cases rewarding people for what is perceived as their bad behavior – I just want to note that in the past backlash has rarely stopped the most attentive outlets … “

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