The Atlantic: The 7 Most Bewildering Moments From Trump's CPAC Speech

[Botany]

The president rambled for more than two hours from the stage at the annual gathering of conservatives. One topic he avoided: Michael Cohen’s explosive testimony against him.


In remarks that quickly departed from the script, Trump scolded the conservative free traders who question his tariffs. He reframed the 2018 midterm elections as a victory for Republicans lucky enough to get his support. He aimed to unify his party against the radical-left Democrats, and he claimed that their Green New Deal would take away Americans’ cars and prohibit air travel. This was not a policy address; this was a rallying cry, all about making it very clear to conservatives that their political success—and their survival—depends on him. Here are seven moments of possibly record-breaking presidential oratory:

About 10 minutes in, President Trump threw out his script:
You know, I don’t know, maybe you know. You know, I’m totally off script, right … You know, I’m totally off script right now. And this is how I got elected, by being off script. True. And if we don’t go off script, our country is in big trouble, folks. ’Cause we have to get it back.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/president-trump-repeatedly-veered-off-script-cpac/584014/

He mounted a ferocious attack on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation:

Robert Mueller put 13 of the angriest Democrats in the history of our country on the commission. How do you do that? These are angry, angry people. You take a look at them. One of them was involved with the Hillary Clinton foundation, running it. Another one has perhaps the worst reputation of any human being I’ve ever seen. All killers. In fact it would have been actually better for them if they put half and half, and Mueller can do whatever he wants anyway, which he’ll probably. But we have conflicts. I had a nasty business transaction with Robert Mueller a number of years ago. I said, why wasn’t that mentioned? He wanted the job as FBI director. I did not give it to him. Why isn’t that mentioned? Jim Comey, Lyin’ James Comey, is his best friend. James Comey is his best friend. And those are a few of the conflicts. Other than that it’s wonderful.

[mobeau69]

1. Sounds like he's nuts and sounds like he's guilty.

Of course he's both. His end is near and our long national nightmare will be over.

[Hortensis]

6. :) He might just have strained even that group's eagerness

for all the Trump they can get. Speaking of long nightmares. The moments of real enthusiasm they were able to feel listening to this broken record skip back over and over again for 2 hours must have been greatly outnumbered by all the times they felt obliged to cheer out of patriotic duty.

Bless their hearts...

[spanone]

2. a lying gasbag. we've come a long way from 'I cannot tell a lie'

trump 'cannot tell a truth'

[Botany]

3. I never knew that we had a democratic female senator from OH

We have 2 Brown (male D) & Portman (male R)

He lampooned Democratic proposals for a Green New Deal:

No planes. No energy. When the wind stops blowing, that is the end of your electric. Let’s hurry up. “Darling, darling, is the wind blowing today? I would like to watch television, darling” ... Their plan would remove every gas-powered car from American roads. Oh, that’s not so bad. They want you to have one car instead of two. And it should be electric. Okay. So tell people, no more cars, no more cars ... It would end air travel. But you’ll get on a train, don’t worry about it. You just have to cross off about 95 percent of the world. And it would force the destruction or renovation of virtually every existing structure in the United States. New York City would have to rip down buildings and rebuild ’em again. I don’t think so. This is the craziest plan. And yet I see senators that are there for 20 years, white hair. See, I don’t have white hair. I don’t have white hair. I see these white hairs, longtime senators, standing behind this young woman, and she’s ranting and raving like a lunatic, and these senators: “Yes, I agree with this. Yes I agree.” The crazy female senator from the state of Ohio. [Both of Ohio’s senators are men; it appears he was instead referring to Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.] The state of Hawaii. She’s like a crazy person. What she said about men is so bad.

[spanone]

4. He's the most ignorant man to ever enter politics and proud of it...so are his pathetic sycophants

[Botany]

5. The story* I have heard is that Trump flunked out of Fordham and daddy bought his way into ...

... the U. of Penn and Donny had other people do the work and take the tests for him too.


*
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[oasis]

15. I hope he lives many years with constant reminders of his downfall. nt

[Generic Other]

14. I wish Judge Judy would rip him a new

She wouldn't put up with Trump's antics for ten seconds.

[SWBTATTReg]

17. If this a portion of his speech, his whole audience must have been on the same crushed up...

pills he's on while making his +2 hour speech. Nuts and on dope of some kind.

Thanks for posting a tiny slot of his speech. I had heard it was nuts, but didn't realize just how nuts.

[Hortensis]

7. Unlikely, but wonder if his vulgar language might eventually

play a role in bringing him down. He was apparently serving that crowd "obscenities" as often as "General Raisin Cain"-type fabrications.

Living among Bible Belt conservatives, I can attest that a "damn" dropped into conversation about child trafficking can generate all the genuine outrage the now-abandoned previous topic should have but did not. That exact situation is what started me reading about personality in politics.

[TwilightZone]

8. Nah, they're hypocrites.

It's perfectly fine when he's attacking the people they want him to attack.

[Hortensis]

10. Of course, and agree. But hypocrisy is yuuuge in this language thing.

It has to be offending and lowering him in the eyes of some who've held that as an iron-clad standard their entire lives. I've never understood their problem with damn and hell (surely shit and fuck are far more vulgar?), but they're totally unacceptable to many. A slur on their religion or something.

Ultimately more unacceptable than if he did shoot someone down in the street?

And after all, what we need is only a fairly small percentage to join the feckless crowd who don't vote.

[Marcuse]

9. They can't handle the truth.

[Hortensis]

12. :) They're fine with truth when they believe it serves them.

When it conflicts with what they "know" to be true, they not only go with what they know but the conflicting info is itself interpreted as proof that their beliefs are correct.

A lesson to all of us to avoid soaking up media-styled revisions of reality and outright lies like the pandemic disease it is. Speaking of serial-watching CNN and MSNBC...

[unblock]

11. omg! the police and the prosecutor *know* each other! how unusual and scandalous!

[PatSeg]

13. "Remarks that quickly departed from the script"???

There was a script?

[SWBTATTReg]

16. Who truly listens to rump anymore? W/ over 9000+ tracked lies, and I'm sure lots more to come,...

this idiot has cried wolf so many times, has called people all sorts of idiotic names, has failed to operate government in the manner it should be and instead, is trying to use it as a tool to push his bigotry and hate onto other Americans.

He has proved his bigotry even just recently by singling out Alabama for special FEMA treatment while all along for the most part ignoring disasters in other American locations (Puerto Rico, FL, etc.). I think the voters of Alabama already know this that other fellow Americans deserve a helping hand when they need it, just as they do now due to the damaging tornadoes. Americans now see what a fraud rump is. rump is killing people. rump is ignoring other Americans. rump is a traitor.