Frankly, We Did Win This Election review: a
devastating dispatch from Trumpworld
As well as grabby headlines about Hitler, Michael
Bender of the Wall Street Journal shows us how millions have been led astray
Lloyd Green
Sat 10 Jul
2021 06.00 BST
On election
night in 2016, Donald Trump paid homage to America’s “forgotten men and women”,
vowing they would be “forgotten no longer”. Those who repeatedly appeared at
his rallies knew of whom he spoke. Veterans, gun enthusiasts, bikers, shop
clerks. Middle-aged and seniors. Life had treated some harshly. Others less so.
Some had
voted for Barack Obama, only to discover hope and change wasn’t all it was
advertised to be. Regardless, the Democratic party’s urban and urbane,
upstairs-downstairs coalition didn’t mesh with them. Or vice-versa. Politics is
definitely about lifestyles.
In his new
book, Michael Bender pays particular attention to those Trump supporters who
called themselves “Front Row Joes”. They attended rallies wherever, whenever.
It was “kind of like an addiction”, Bender quotes one as saying.
No longer
did they need to bowl alone. Trump had birthed a community. Their applause was
his sustenance, his performance their sacrament.
“It looked
so neat,” she said.
She also
said she and other Trump supporters who stormed Congress did not do so “to
steal things” or “do damage”. They had a different aim.
“We were
just there to overthrow the government.”
The next
day, Saundra flew home. Trump’s wishes, real or imagined, were her command.
Later in January, two days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Senator Mitch
McConnell declared that the mob had been “fed lies” and provoked by Trump.
Bender
covers the White House for the Wall Street Journal. Frankly, We Did Win This Election
is his first book. It is breezy, well-written and well-informed. He captures
both the infighting in Trump’s world and the surrounding social tectonics.
Trump goes
on the record. The interview is a solid scorecard on who is up or down. He
brands McConnell “dumb as a rock”. The loathing is mutual – to a point. The
Senate minority leader has made clear he will back Trump if he is the nominee
again.
Liz Cheney
occupies a special spot in Trump’s Inferno. The Wyoming representative,
daughter of a vice-president, now sits on a House select committee to
investigate 6 January. But to most of Trump’s party, six months after the
insurrection, what happened that afternoon is something to be forgotten or at
least ignored.
Mike Pence
dwells in purgatory.
“I don’t
care if he apologizes or not,” Trump says of his vice-president presiding over
the certification of Biden’s win. “He made a mistake.”
Once
before, in their second year in office, the two men reportedly clashed over a
political hiring decision. Back then, Trump reportedly called Pence “so
disloyal”.
Pence still
harbors presidential ambitions. Good luck with that.
Bender’s
book is laden with attention-grabbing headlines. He reports Trump telling John
Kelly, then White House chief of staff, that Hitler “did a lot of good things”.
Trump denies it. Kelly stays mum. More than 30 years ago, Trump’s first wife,
Ivana, let it be known that he kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bed.
Everyone needs a hobby.
Bender
writes of Trump urging the military to “beat the fuck” out of protesters for
racial justice, and to “crack their skulls”. The 45th president’s asymmetrical
approach to law enforcement remains on display. “Stand back and stand by” was
for allies like the Proud Boys. Law and order was for everyone else. Political
adversaries were enemies.
Trump now
embraces the supposed martyrdom of Ashli Babbitt, an air force veteran who
stormed Congress on 6 January and was killed by law enforcement.
“The person
that shot Ashli Babbitt,” he said this week. “Boom. Right through the head.
Just, boom. There was no reason for that.”
To say the
least, that is highly contestable.
Members of
Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, cowered behind the doors Babbitt
rushed. Hours later, the bulk of the House GOP opposed certifying Biden’s win.
The party of Lincoln is now the party of Trump.
Focusing on
the 2020 election, a contest under the deathly shadow of Covid, Bender conveys
the chaos and disorganization of the Trump campaign. After a disastrous
kick-off rally in Tulsa, Trump began looking for a new campaign manager. Brad
Parscale’s days were numbered. He was a digital guy, not a major domo.
According to
Bender, Trump offered the job to Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican
National Committee – and niece of Mitt Romney, the Utah senator, 2012 nominee
and, in Trumpworld, persona decidedly non grata. Her reply: “Absolutely not.”
Trump also
sent word to Steve Bannon, his campaign chair in 2016. He declined too. Bannon
was banished from the kingdom for trashing Trump and his family. But he
understood the base better than anyone – other than Trump himself.
There was a
reason Saturday Night Live spoofed Bannon as the power behind the throne, and
that he appeared on the cover of Time. There was no return to court but Trump
did pardon Bannon of federal fraud charges. Not a bad consolation prize.
Parscale
was demoted and kicked to the curb. Within months he appeared in the news,
shirtless, barefoot, drunk and armed. His successor, Bill Stepien, brought
Trump to within 80,000 votes of another electoral college win.
Bender
makes clear that Trump is neither gone nor forgotten. His acquittal in his
second impeachment, for inciting the Capitol attack, only reinforced his desire
to fight another day.
“There has
never been anything like it,” Trump tells Bender. So true.
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