I added this video from Glenn Kirschner, who elaborates on the article where it is finally revealed that, indeed, Trump admitted to losing the 2020 election. I should say that while I agree with many of Kirschner’s overall points, he seemed a little too optimistic - even certain, really – that there would indeed be a trial of Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th Capitol Building riot and the campaign of lies designed to discredit the election and proclaim himself the rightful winner, and claiming himself to be the victim of a massive election fraud that, in fact, he never produced one shred of evidence for. Kirschner again makes compelling arguments against Trump, but the idea that Trump will see the inside of a courtroom, or be held accountable for all of his lies, seems a little too idealistic. Trump has gotten away with not just bad behavior but outright criminal conduct time and time and time again.
During this video, Kirschner dissects Trump’s own version of the events that led to the January 6th riot. He suggests that his supporters at the rally numbered a “million people” and that they were full of “tremendous love” and basically peaceful. He described his own speech as “very modest” and “very peaceful” and, of course, referred to it as a “presidential speech.” In other words, everything was great, maybe even “perfect,” like his infamous phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky withholding military aide until Zelensky provided some favors to Trump a couple of years ago. That was the same “perfect” phone call, of course, that would eventually get Trump impeached.
According to Trump, January 6th went wrong when the day was hijacked by a small group of Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists who, somehow, managed to infiltrate
All of that, of course, falls under the domain of the crazy, conspiratorial nonsense that Trump has uttered consistently all of his life, and which became unavoidable once he rose to political prominence in this country. Those half-baked theories - and half-baked would be putting it kindly - of who was really responsible for what happened on January 6th are just the latest. He of course keeps talking about how he was essentially robbed of the 2020 election, although again, he failed to produce any kind of actual proof of these allegations. In fact, Trump's legal team did not even bother pretending to make the case for massive voter fraud during the legal battles in court, when they were under oath and, thus, would have been held accountable for throwing around conspiracy theories and wild claims like they did outside of the court room. And that should remind us of what Christopher Hitchens once said, and which is sometimes considered his "rule:"
"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."
So with all of that in mind, we always need to pay attention to the little nuggets of truth that grudgingly come out from Trump and his "people" whenever they let the truth slip, somehow. And here is one gem of such a confession by the big man himself. Here is what Donald Trump said during an interview with respected historians that he himself called for, in hopes that his ridiculous excuse for a presidency will be judged more kindly than it likely ever will:
“I didn’t win the election.”
That's right. He admitted here that he in fact did not win the election. He went on to mention some of the enemies of the country who were thrilled at that news, including China and Iran. That might not actually be completely untrue, either. Yet, this is the same man who also had the audacity to claim that nobody was tougher on Putin and Russia than he was.
Laughable.
We certainly cannot expect more from Trump than this. He has never uttered any serious, truthful words in his entire life, unless they were somehow self-serving. Such instances were rare, since he made a career, both in business and now in politics, with making an art form of deceit, of lying. He was well-known as a scam artist long before he ever first ran for the White House back in 2012 (remember, 2016 was not his first presidential campaign), and if anything, his career in politics has cemented his willingness to say and do anything, literally, if he feels he can profit from it in some way. So let's just take this little nugget of truth, this admission, in his own words and from his own mouth, that he did not win the election as an admission, finally, of the truth: Trump lost the election, and he knows it.
Hell, I even suspect that probably nobody knows it more than he does, on some level, even if he will never openly admit it.
That said, we should also be realistic about expectations, too. Many people seemed to seriously expect that Trump would have faced some jail time, or suffered serious consequences for his wrongdoing over the years. And I never understood why that would be, why so many people actually believed that. Kirschner also believes this, as he seems to have serious faith that Trump will have his day in court, and that he will be held accountable and legally punished for all of his deception and mass manipulation. He has far more faith of this than me.
Remember, Trump is crafty. I certainly do not believe that the man is a genius, as Trump himself has repeatedly, and infamously, asserted. But I will concede that if the man is a genius in any way, it is in a very cynical, self-preserving nature. The man knows how to push the envelope and get away with it, over and over again. He got away with it when he swindled people out of their money with all sorts of business scams, and he managed to do it again in his political rise and, unfortunately, his political career. Now, as he is trying to resurrect his hopes to return to office, and claiming as always that the election was rigged and stolen from him, let us not expect too much. If ever there was a "real" Teflon president, it is Trump. He made Reagan and Clinton and Bush Junior, with all of their political slickness and political scandals, look like amateurs. With Trump, there were all sorts of scandals and ridiculous headlines that would literally have discredited any other president seemingly on a daily basis. And the man got away with it, time and time again, specifically because his name is Donald Trump.
Maybe Kirschner and others have not learned that lesson. Maybe they think that finally, they have this guy nailed. But I would not hold my breath for that.
‘I didn’t win the election’: Trump admits defeat in session with historians by Martin Pengelly in New York, The Guardian, April 5, 2022: @MartinPengelly Tue 5 Apr 2022 07.22 EDT
The ex-president also said that Iran, China and South Korea were happy Biden won, adding that ‘the election was rigged and lost’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/05/trump-admits-election-defeat-historians-zelizer-princeton
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