It was a rough start to the week for the president. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, a Trump loyalist who is one of the few staff members who has not left the administration, announced that she is leaving her position. The resignation comes after Conway’s teenage daughter blasted her mother on Twitter and claimed that she was seeking emancipation from Kelly and her husband, GOP anti-Trumper George Conway. This is yet another tragic story of how Trumpism has negatively affected an American family. I wish the Conways well.
While the Conway story unfolded, we learned that Jerry Falwell Jr., one of Trump’s most loyal evangelical defenders, was involved in a sexual tryst that included his wife Becki and a Miami pool boy. Falwell Jr. resigned late last night, but this story is not going away. I am guessing we will know more when former Trump fixer Michael Cohen releases his tell-all book.
Trump continues his efforts to stop the use of mail-in ballots for the November elections. Watch Trump yesterday at the GOP convention in Charlotte as he accepts his party’s nomination. My “favorite” part of this off-script rant in the video below is when Trump claims that this is the “greatest scam in the history of politics, I think, and I’m talking beyond our nation.” Well, I am sure Hitler, Stalin, and others, wherever they are right now, are glad that they are off the hook as the worst political scammers in world history.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG-BfrIFPU0&w=560&h=315]
Almost all of what Trump says in this clip is either misleading or untrue. Meanwhile, Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress yesterday that the U.S. Postal Service should have no problem handling mail-in ballots.
And then came the evening session of the Republican National Convention. Over and over again we heard Trump’s supporters say that he cares about America and all Americans. Unfortunately, this entire first night seemed more like a Trump rally–a direct appeal to the president’s political base. There was very little effort to expand the Trump coalition. And anyone who suggests that Trump is for “all Americans” has had their head in the sand the last four years. He has demonized all his enemies–even dissenters within the Republican Party.
Court evangelical Charlie Kirk started off the night by claiming that Trump is the “bodyguard of Western Civilization” who will protect our families and neighborhoods from the “vengeful mob.” We should all be afraid. He also praised Trump for cultivating a “civil society” in the United States. But if the young court evangelical’s bombastic rhetoric is any indication, I am not sure if he understands the meaning of the phrase “civil society.”
At the beginning of his speech, Kirk identified himself as the leader of Turning Point USA. Why didn’t he mention his role as the founder of Liberty University’s Falkirk Center? Can there be a Falkirk Center now that Jerry Falwell Jr. is gone?
At one point, Kirk surprisingly acknowledged “the complexities of the past.” But there was nothing complex about his speech, nor do we see complexity in anything Kirk writes every day on his Twitter feed.
Here is Kirk’s idea of “complexity”:
This is your daily reminder that Democrats never condemned domestic terrorists burning bibles in the streets of Portland.
Now they’re fighting to keep churches closed and Joe Biden even said he would lock the country down to “stop COVID”
Don’t let the left destroy the Church
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 23, 2020
And then there was this piece of COVID-19 revisionism. Pick it up at the 56:18 mark:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl3q-W4_1cM&w=560&h=315]
This video looks like something that might have run on state television in the Soviet bloc. There was a lot propaganda last night. This was the worst.
And let’s not forget the former Fox News host and Donald Trump Jr. girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle. I haven’t seen anything like her speech since Howard Dean in 2004. Actually, Guilfoyle’s speech made Dean sound like an academic historian reading a paper at a professional conference.
Watch:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQPG0Bmo7D8&w=560&h=315]
I doubt many people noticed, but former Heisman Trophy-winning running back Herschel Walker praised Donald Trump’s ownership of the New Jersey Generals, a team that was part of the short-lived United States Football League (USFL):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7pxx6uokp8&w=560&h=315]
Walker said that when Trump became owner of the Generals in 1984 he “learned about the history of the team.” I am not sure what to make of this claim since the USFL and the Generals were founded in 1983. But it is good to know that Donald Trump is such a sports historian.
There were really only a few speeches that could have been delivered at a non-Trump GOP convention. Two of them came from former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina governor Tim Scott.
The show continues tomorrow.
RECOMMENDED READING
Beware of “insecure narcissists”: Jack Hibbs and Charlie Kirk on the “Global Reset” 
Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA is mobilizing evangelicals to oppose vaccine mandates 
Asbury University revival roundup: February 14, 2023 (7:45pm) 
Court evangelical James Robison: Trump acted “like a little elementary schoolchild”