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struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
Mon Jun 17, 2019, 07:30 PM Jun 2019

The telltale cough

By Amy Davidson Sorkin7:19 P.M.

... Stephanopoulos had been asking if Trump would release his tax returns and other records subpoenaed by congressional committees. The answer, basically, was no, but Trump said, “At some point, I hope they get it, because it’s a financ”—here, there was a sound of off-camera coughing — “it’s a fantastic financial statement. It’s a fantastic financial statement. And let’s do that over, he’s coughing in the middle of my answer.” Stephanopoulos agreed to the do-over, and fingered the cougher, Mick Mulvaney, who is Trump’s acting chief of staff ...

“If you’re going to cough, please leave the room,” the President said. “You just can’t, you just can’t cough. Boy, oh, boy.” Trump’s expression took on a hardness, as if he regarded the cough as a willful act of insubordination ...

One can speculate about whether Trump really has a problem with people coughing in his presence, or whether he just likes keeping his staff guessing as to what he’s going to decide the next problem is. There were, needless to say, other ways that Trump might have handled the interruption—for example, by asking if Mulvaney was O.K. As it was, Trump’s response suggested that he operates under the assumption that people do not have much reality beyond their relation to him. He may also have assumed that his flash of contempt would be edited out of the final cut.

Trump had two main messages in the interviews: first, that he is respected, cheered, saluted, and loved. The people crying by the roadside were the ones “that couldn’t get in” to his events. The second message: that his enemies are everywhere—indeed, no President has ever been so persecuted ...

Trump told Stephanopoulos that his basic problem with members of Congress is that “they have their own views, you never know, exactly, but they have their own views” — as if this were news, and a shock ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/donald-trump-and-the-telltale-cough





11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The telltale cough (Original Post) struggle4progress Jun 2019 OP
Early chyron said COS was 'fired'. Softened chyron later on. ? empedocles Jun 2019 #1
Trump needs to have Turbineguy Jun 2019 #2
can't remove what don't exist...nt uriel1972 Jun 2019 #8
An idea PJMcK Jun 2019 #3
That was my first thought malaise Jun 2019 #4
Imagine the books and stories... PJMcK Jun 2019 #5
cough, cough...ixnay on the inancesfay, cough cough htuttle Jun 2019 #6
Trump's "reprimand" was probably another deflection. And live love laugh Jun 2019 #9
For sure JDC Jun 2019 #10
He was warning his boss to shut up. Dave Starsky Jun 2019 #7
yes Grasswire2 Jun 2019 #11

PJMcK

(21,916 posts)
3. An idea
Mon Jun 17, 2019, 07:40 PM
Jun 2019

Was Mulvaney trying to warn Trump about answering the questions about his personal finances?

As usual, Trump was too stupid to understand the warning Mulvaney might have been sending.

Trump is an idiot.

live love laugh

(12,995 posts)
9. Trump's "reprimand" was probably another deflection. And
Mon Jun 17, 2019, 08:15 PM
Jun 2019

here we are trying to make sense of it when it was more likely a predetermined warning signal. I mean who coughs during a taping?

Dave Starsky

(5,914 posts)
7. He was warning his boss to shut up.
Mon Jun 17, 2019, 08:02 PM
Jun 2019

His boss, demented and not remembering the cue to stop, went on with his bullshit.

Grasswire2

(13,564 posts)
11. yes
Mon Jun 17, 2019, 09:22 PM
Jun 2019

People on MSNBC concluded that was the case.

Mulvaney was warning him.

And Big Ass rolled right along, oblivious!


I wonder how many times staffers try to stop Trump from fouling himself.

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