A few thoughts on the Trump speech:
First, if it’s true that federal law enforcement or intelligence agents/agencies intentionally withheld information about Chinese efforts to attack American elections (not necessarily by changing votes) AND if that information was at least assessed as being held with “moderate confidence” (or, obviously “high confidence”), that’s a big big deal. Don’t know if it’s criminal but it would be reprehensible and of course nobody involved should still be in federal employment IF it was as Trump described.
Trump made a LOT of claims about election vulnerabilities, but I think there were some significant weaknesses in his statements: First, he talks as if every state (or even every county within any one state) uses the same system, which isn’t true.
Second, he never made a single claim that any votes were changed by manipulating the operation/tabulation of voting machines.
Third, I suspect that the claimed roughly 250,000 non-citizen voter registrations in that handful of states will be found to be massively overstated BUT even so Trump did NOT make any claim about actual voting by non-citizens, which all studies I’m aware of show is vanishingly rare.
Fourth, if Trump is correct about the massive efforts of China to steal data, manipulate voter opinion, and perhaps even worse goals, he should have immediately stated that the planned summit with Xi Jinping was going to be put on hold. He also needs to STOP constantly complimenting Xi, as is Trump’s habit. By the way, it’s possible that Xi will pretend he’s offended and call off the summit so that they “save face” by looking like the ones taking the initiative.
Overall, some of the claims in Trump’s speech were interesting and, as they say, “big if true”. I don’t particularly trust what Trump said but I don’t rule out that at least some of it could be right. It was remarkable that not once did he claim that any votes were actually changed, and only once did he mention a stolen election. So to the extent that he was talking about 2020, he didn’t make it as personal, as much about his own grievances as he had in the past, which was wise.
I think Trump is right that it’s critical that Americans trust our election systems. He went a long way in the opposite direction yesterday, blowing a lot of smoke intended to get people NOT to trust our systems. That said, he’s also claiming that the systems really aren’t trustworthy. In either case, I welcome the federal government working with states to try to patch any potential system vulnerabilities. If the systems are truly at risk (which I doubt in almost every case), they should be fixed. If they’re not, that should be widely publicized as well. Because it is absolutely true that belief in honest elections is a very close second in importance to the integrity of the elections themselves. If we have honest elections but nobody believes they are, that’s the stuff of revolution (and that’s obviously also true if elections aren’t honest and people know it.)
A couple of quick tactical things: I thought it was a minor mistake for Trump to start the speech with a boring laundry list of claims such as what one might make on the campaign trail, and he should have spent more time on Iran.
Finally, as I suggested when filling in for @guypbenson@GuyBensonShow today, the decision by @ABC and @NBCNews not to carry the speech is (because Trump complained about it) likely to attract some negative unwelcome attention by @FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and threats against the networks.
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In 2007, Lionel Messi held a baby for a photo shoot. That baby grew up to be Spanish soccer star Lamine Yamal!
19 years later, Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal are set to face off in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina!
@SamMonsonNFL We cant do it Sam. The Irish in us won't allow it. We might now both legally be Americans, but our ancestors speak to us through the orange hairs growing in our beards, and they say, "F**k Cromwell and the British, Messi all the way."
Sources report that 500 mercenaries from the former Wagner group lead by Prigozhins son have created a criminal enterprise in the Central African Republic after refusing to be dislodged out the country by the Kremlin effectively acting as their own militia group.
@Maynard2dP@HarryFarthause@brh0203 Shame that you only have 250 years of history that's like 4 generations. Are you guys still wearing the skin suit of the Irish or Italians to make up for it.
@piersmorgan England did NOT win fair and square:
1) cancellation of Norway’s 2-1 goal was wrong
1) Englands 1 goal hit camera wire
Sad and pathetic when FIFA and VAR manipulate end results.
@kangminlee Live footage of Harry Kane not realizing the game is over so he can stop faking fouls (his teammates did all the faking and flopping needed):