Read on Twitter
Short thread: as a "serious" writer who leans right, I'm often asked what I think of Donald Trump's whole catalog of boastful, braggadocious statements ("I say election fraud here was UUUGE!!!"). I obviously disapprove of many of them. But, there are some major caveats here, son!
(2) First, many of the wildest Trump quotes were manipulated or even made up by the "mainstream" media. Big Orange did not call a random "group of Hispanics" "animals" - he was referring specifically to MS-13. He never said Nazis were "very fine people." And so on down the line.
(3) The same press also gave massive breaks to preferred candidates. As @cthagod recently pointed out, Uncle Job has probably said more objectively racist stuff than Trump - "junkie," "You ain't Black," "racial jungle," literal segregationists "got things done," etc.
(4) In many ways, Trump is more an avatar of the trashy social-media era of politics than something unique. The 2nd-place candidate in the 2016 GA Governor's race has falsely insisted she was robbed for 4 years. The slogan of a popular Congresswoman is "Impeach the motherfu*ker!"
(5) And, being rull rull, I'm a city kid who's not politically correct and isn't too offended by ANY of this. My focus is more on policy than rhetoric...and I would rank the dubiously legal wars of the past 4-5 Presidents as worse "morally" than anything Trump or Biden has said.
(6) In sum: I prefer "gentlemanly" behavior from leaders, but rank it far behind policy in terms of importance. And, I recognize that today's media/social media can make the image of virtually anyone ("scandal free" Obama, "conspiracy plagued" Hunter B) into whatever they want.
