Press Conference
Thursday February 16, 2017
I sat down for lunch around 1:00, and put on the TV just as Trump started his first solo press conference. As always it started as an airing of grievances harping on the same old, same old, Trump probably looking for a Hit as he has had so many Misses since coming into office - and yet I want him to succeed in the time remaining and for some strange reason felt compassion for him today.
He continued on by dismissing the flood of controversies that have been enveloping his administration. He blamed the press (Fake News), leaks, the opposition party, the courts, Congress, and the past administration, also denying allegations of anti-Semitism and racism. He cited campaign crowds and the electoral college as evidence of an adoring public, while claiming he is running a fine-tuned machine inside the White House West Wing and making historic progress.
His speech at times seemed surreal and strange - a bizarre display of presidential behavior if I must say so. Many people I know feel that he's having some sort of a mini-breakdown though he seemed composed later taking questions from the press. The elephant in the room was obviously Russia. Trump bristled at questions on this topic especially when reporters kept pressing him for a clear answer. His Russian Connections again seemed so obvious to those watching - yet he denied and lied. I think there are too many things going wrong and he can't wrap his head around how to control them. I see him caught in a web unable to get free. The more he tugs on it, the more he sinks.
Did I really sit there for one hour and 17 minutes? Yes.
Harold to Raymond Reddington on The Blacklist last night: "Do you want to know why those closest to you betray you? Why you're alone and hunted? It's because even when you try to do something good you cannot seem to understand where your selfishness ends and other people's lives begin." I think I know who stole Reddington's money ... Mr. Kaplan.
