Can we believe that 'special interest aliens' that are individuals with suspicious travel patterns make up any significant part of the present flow of the very poor central american families seeking asylum at our borders. I suspect few of these people have passports or have ever been on international flights where their travel patterns could be tracked. I'd contend that this group of more than 3000 have only scant connection to the current people trying to enter via our southern border.
1
I didn’t watch but let me guess it was a bloviated combination of bragging, lies, bullying, obfuscations, distortions, fabrications ending with lie, lie, brag, brag, name calling, with finale of excessive boasting.
Sorry fat boy I watched Ray Donovan. I like my thugs smart, fit, and sane in a stylish well fitted suit.
Turns out that Trump did not pony out in his talk that he is attempting to use a government shutdown as a means to bend Congress to his whim, and gift him a few billion toward his $25 billion boondoggle.
The merits of this particular whim are not the point. The pint is that this use of a shutdown is an attempted coup, an attempt to make Congress a mere rubber stamp to Presidential directives, a formality without teeth.
1
CNN: “All 4 living ex-presidents indicate Trump's claim that 'some of' them agree with him about the wall isn't true”
Well that has to be fake news, eh? And besides, Trump has a time machine and can talk to he dead.
2
Why would I sign up to listen to more lies, delusions and distortions spewing from this man's mouth? This citizen has had enough. He will certainly talk about nothing else tomorrow but the unprecedented number of households who tuned in to hear his amazing words. I'd rather watch paint dry.
1
Expect him to go way off script. I'm not actually sure he can read anyway; the teleprompter may foil him.
1
I have a problem with the description of the 'watch' list of suspected terrorists in this article...."the watch list itself includes people who are suspected of having ties to terrorism — not necessarily those convicted of terrorism crimes"
How many of the attackers on 9-11 were 'convicted terrorists'....I do not know the number, but my suspicion is that most were not known as 'convicted' terrorists....but were unknown foreign nationals who were sent to the United States in a pre-planned mission to slip through United States borders to commit atrocities against innocent United States citizens. I am neither "Democrat" or "Republican" but someone who has a tiny brain that can think for myself about issues without relying on a hysterical media to blindfold me into not thinking for myself. I hate to think another 9-11 type event would have to occur to have a memory of the problems of a very open immigration policy.
In a bit, the Canadians might be building a wall to keep their southern neighbors out and get Trump to pay for it. The irony would be well…
1
A border thesaurus: big, beautiful wall; concrete wall; cement wall; 10 foot wall; great wall of the South; steel wall; steel slats; Mexico will pay for the wall, who will pay? MEXICO; USMC will pay; even Obama has built a wall for his DC home; beaded curtains (h/t Nancy Pelosi); drapes; venetian blinds (hey, you can see through it); vertical blinds with matching camouflage colors;
Phew, any more suggestions?
1
I wish Rashida Tlaib was given the opportunity to give the Democratic response.
5
We've been in a national emergency for two years now...and this illegitimate office holder, who was placed there by Russia, doesn't have to declare it.
It's clear when he's serving the needs of the Kremlin, stealing from "we the people" to give to the rich, supporting white nationalists and nazis, withholding assistance from certain American citizens in distress in places like Puerto Rico while helping those on the U.S. mainland, making uninformed impromptu decisions about our involvement in places like Syria, seeking to eliminate trust in the free press, working to redefine the notion of real observable fact, profit off of his official position, blow off the problems of the world while golfing a third of his days in office, running an administration whose primary defining characteristic is constant chaos, leaving the professional class of federal jobs unfilled in an effort to control more of what government agencies can do and more importantly what they can't, allowing unelected "officials" at cable news networks to determine the fate of the nation while refusing to actually work with those representatives across the country whom the voters sent to Washington, discovering in this instance that he really hadn't a clue what a shutdown would do and to how many people it would do it, and when he tries to shift blame for his own major blunders by changing terminology from "shutdown" to "strike" - and the list could run on for miles.
Dishonest. Deceitful. Dangerous.
6
Misleading statement: "Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes in the United States than native-born Americans."
The crimes of illegal migrants add to the number of crimes in the U.S., whatever the frequency of these crimes among this sub-class. Thus, the U.S. sees more crime owing to the presence of illegal migrants. The U.S. already has enough criminals. America can get along without illegal migrants and will prosper all the more.
www.numbersusa.com
http://www.fairus.org/
http://cis.org/Stop-Sanctuary-Cities
Illegal immigration a crime:
[found at: https://www.fairus.org/issue/illegal-immigration/illegal-immigration-crime]
3
i wish it was on facebook live i do not trust any news at all new people or tv new they all fake it. funny how they look for fact on trump but fake news on what they put it. come to think of it makes me sick
1
I’ll be watching for him to have a massive coronary, thus liberating America from his tyrannical, despotic, autocratic oppression.
2
As Michael Schmidt, the Republican, stated, this Trump Wall Emergency is as fake as Trump University, Trump steaks and Trump's casinos. Except he wants us to give up our Democratic republic based on his lies and Fox News' hype. Except, he will never give it back to us.
Are we such fools to let this happen.
In order to stop this Federal shut down we have shut down Trump.
5
600 miles of present wall. Should we pull it down? Or is it only Bush Obama Wall good , Trump Wall bad?
Democrats are handing this re-election issue to Trump on a platter............this is how they let Trump climb back into the race.... shocking but true ineptness...
1
Our president has zero credibility. I will be going to bed early tonight. The TV will be off.
1
This charade needs to end or there is no America left. A Russian asset is our “commander in chief”. That is the crisis. Period. Get this criminal out now. Right now. End.
3
"The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
--from "Nineteen Eighty Four" by George Orwell
4
@Kenneth Appears that is what it is coming to.
Resist. Impeach. Remove. Prosecute. Jail.
1
How to watch propaganda is not to watch it.
3
Is Trump going to mention that all of this drama and pain is over 234 miles of wall? What about the other 1800 miles? This is a waste and complete nonsense. I hope Nancy Pelosi mentions this.
3
What to watch for in Trump's address? Absolutely nothing!
Instead watch West Wing and see the only credible candidate for President in 2020, Jed Bartlett.
Trump will undoubtedly use lies and real instances of people killed and raped by illegal (and possibly legal) immigrants to weave his usual narrative. Many people, both supporters and opponents, will be tuned in to watch The Show, because he is an entertainer, a made-for-TV show, not a politician
Then Pelosi and Schumer will do their thing, and pretty much nobody will watch. Several hours later Trump will tweet that his ratings were much, much higher than that of the Democrats, claiming in the process that that demonstrates the American people fully support him and reject the Democrats.
3
Not sure if I'm up for stomaching the lies and grandstanding on live national television. However, to make it more bearable, perhaps we can turn it into a bingo game, with spaces for things like "The Wall," "Steel Industry," "Murderers and Rapists," and "Democrats think. . ." Or maybe a drinking game. Every time Trump says "Hillary Clinton" you have to take a drink. Scratch that, though. We don't want to encourage that kind of heavy drinking.
1
I'm going to close my eyes and plug my ears while I watch this. I hope I don't miss anything!
2
I am a registered Republican. I think the country has the right to manage entry to our national territory. Permitting American citizens to consistently violate immigration laws by hiring those without proper documents creates a magnet for people to seek to enter the country. It is a violation of federal law and a threat to national security to permit such violations unchecked. Factory managers, dairy farmers, restaurant owners, construction bosses, landscape contractors, agriculturalists, and others employing undocumented workers need to be arrested and jailed. Not "educated", not fined, but sentenced to federal prison for violating laws related to employment of aliens. Those who come looking for work may be in violation of our laws but for the most part are acting in a reasonable and understandable fashion. Those hiring them are at best irresponsible, at worst abusive and greedy. I come from a family of farmers who have depended on cheap labor to survive and I have little doubt they hired people they should not have. But I do not blame the laborer but the decision-maker. Farmers should support reasonable guestworker programs as should those looking for nannies, construction workers, housekeepers, and others. President Trump should be enforcing labor laws, not violating private property and environmental protection. His refusal to support close inspection of vehicles entering the United States leads me to suspect he is aware drugs come in through ports of entry and blinks.
1
The President’s casinos were better investments than his wall will be. Let the buyer beware.
3
Not watching either. Best vote at this time, lousy ratings.
3
I'm curious to see how many lies he can squeeze into 8 minutes.
3
He’s such a disgrace. Won’t be watching.
2
This wall distraction just keeps us from hearing about all the other awful things this admin is up to and the progress that Mr. Mueller and his team are making. If trump is worried about border security, why isn’t he paying the American workers that work on border security and TSA?
2
If there is really a "crisis on the border", why shut down the Government? Surely, you need the Government to solve the so called "crisis". And most especially, why shut down the one Department, homeland security, that is needed to end the "crisis".
It makes absolutely no sense. This is a contradiction of terms, an oxymoron, a paradox.
3
More than billions for a wall we need a good beautiful (and cheaper) subway. The commute in NYC is a nightmare, specially weekends
3
All the immigration judges at the Los Angeles Immigration Court, the nation's busiest and largest immigration court, have been furloughed. This is also true for countless other immigration courts across the USA. The DHS attorneys, if they're working at all, are not being paid, along with ICE personnel.
So tell me again how Trump is enforcing the nation's immigration laws through forcing a government shutdown over a wall that his own advisors have conceded was only supposed to be a code word for stricter immigration enforcement?
It is sheer hypocrisy. The people most responsible for enforcing the nation's immigration laws are not working due to the government shutdown. So Trump is acting against what he alleges is most important to him. Again, sheer hypocrisy.
4
Beaded curtain all the way. Make America great again!
3
Donald Trump is the font of bad ideas. Trade wars are easy to win. I will shut down the government. Mexico will pay for the wall. If he declares a national emergency tonight, he will have abused his Constitutional authority. Not just a bad idea, but dangerous to our democracy.
4
I will be watching Stormy Daniels rather than the President. I’ve heard the lies too many times.
1
Why are they wasting air time on this propaganda? None of the networks should be feeding his attention seeking. I certainly won't be watching.
5
It really irritates me to hear Trump say that he feels the pain of those without pay checks . No way can a man of privilege feel the pain of people that live from pay check to paycheck .and right after Christmas when some people go over their budget.
And who will make money for building the wall?
7
Watch for language fed to him by others serving their own interests, not those of the American people.
5
Maybe Trump coming into office has secured the border more than he has realized. He might want to build the wall to keep the people here from leaving.
5
Sorry, not watching!
8
How to watch? Don’t. Please don’t convey the impression, my dear New York Times, that the speech is worth our time.
9
I'm so not looking forward to Trump's rantings tonight. He lies constantly, and he is offensive. Trump doesn't get that the majority of drugs coming from the southern border come in at airports, trucks and vehicles. Think about it, how many drugs can you carry while you walk through the deserts that is very hot during the day and freezing cold at night. They need to carry food, water and their clothes. Use your brain.
10
Simple, 45 will fear monger and lie, his base will froth and foam, the rest of us will be sickened. Par for the course.
10
Why watch a liar lie? Why do the national networks give this fraud face time? There are no commercials! No my mistake, a big commercial for Trump Associates. Fake medicine bought by millions!
9
I won't be watching. I'm afraid that I'll destroy my TV if I have to subject myself to a stream of Trump lies.
12
The national nightmare continues...
9
I'm certainly not watching his speech. I'm sick of seeing his picture in the news everywhere, hearing some idiocy from him every time I'm driving and turn on the news. Next thing he'll decree that we have to post a photo of him in every living room.
11
We have a crisis America and it’s in the White House.
11
How many true things will El Presidente tell this evening.
The over/under is 3.
4
No intention of watching. It will be lies lies lies. All the killings I can think of recently came from white American males not immigrants.
12
Haven't seen a Presidential Wall thumb's-up from Trump's fave yet, Frederick Douglass. Is he still dead? Asking for an unschooled leader of the free world.
10
He won't be giving us anything much new, will just rave on trying to pound his self-serving attitude into peoples' minds and denigrating all who don't agree with the follies dreamed up by his colossal ego. In this case a great xenophobic wall with his name on it, a great ugly monument to a small mind.
4
This is Trump's precursor to declaring an emergency that does not exist. He is laying his foundation for declaring an emergency and shifting his parties' interests towards funding his monument, i.e., the wall.
Why has DOD been funded? Because we are at war.
Ergp his argument will follow the same logic: we must fund Homeland Security, since, this nation is threatened. Illegal immigration and the Opiod crisis is our internal war (problem is, the enemy comes in a different form).
Of course, Trump and his team, including Mitch MCCONNELL & others in Congress without any backbone, will twist the data, if Trump relies upon any data at all to argue for the wall.
In the meantime, a grand jury investigation continues as Trump continues to throw this nation into chaos. He has us just where he wants us. Do we like it? Or is it painful enough to address all of the infirmities this man and our politicians have shown us about the underbelly of our government and how it can be abused when we fail to hold politicians accountable?
One commenter from Virginia mentioned 1930's germany and the rise of Hitler and his party as a striking analogy of what we must guard against in our own country. Everyone should visit their closest holocaust museum or read about those times to see how the German Government used propoganda to forge their ghastly agenda. Don't think Trump wouldn't be so extreme. We have no idea what is his grand design behind MAGA.
4
If the mini me president invokes a national security crisis justification tonight, or anytime over the border wall, that would be bridge too far...... bypassing a co equal branch of government.
......and McConnell is still just whistling.
3
Trump just wants a big wall so that he can put his name in big gold letters on it.
1
What to watch for?
I suspect that Donald Trump will present a new, tremendous, terrific, and virtually fact-free means of spreading needless fear and blatant propaganda. He, along with his crack team of charlatans will introduce a splendid, clumsy, and vapid amalgam of baloney that will become known as a dis-infomercial. The dis-infomercial will of course seem to many observers as a sluggish and amateurish attempt at misdirection, but his words will be taken as gospel truth by a distressingly large number of American citizens.
4
I'm planning to chug a beer every time Trump lies - the big question is whether I'll drown in the first three minutes.
7
The bigger question is if you’ll live. You’re going to be chugging cases of beer. Prepare for an emergency room visit for a stomach pump.
1
We have a true national emergency: Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party.
11
What compels the networks to support this President. Remember that in 2014 they didn't let Obama have air time to talk about immigration.
7
I never took to liars or thieves, so I'll read the transcript and look for rebuttals based on facts.
4
@politicalpetard First, doesn’t this “president” know that in an actual existential crisis the military can defend this country from invasion, which there isn’t. Second, I wish Mexico would send their troops to their border to defend their existential crises, which is being created by an increasingly hostile nation.
Not watching it. Don’t want to support the networks in this crass pandering to advertisers and don’t want to be lied to. Again.
9
There are literally hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens attempting to cross the border each year (303,916 apprehensions in 2017), not to mention an estimated 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States (according to Yale/MIT's nonpartisan analysis released in September), and some people still think this is not a crisis?
Yes, the apprehensions and estimated illegal border crossings are down from the record highs of over a million in the late 90's and early 00's, but hundreds of thousands per year still is no small number.
It seems the statistics regarding crime are muddied because they include legal immigrants with illegal aliens?
Personally, the "wall" seems silly and needless symbolism to the extent any of it exceeds what border patrol has requested. Wouldn't it be better to simply enact the unanimous recommendations of President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, led by African-American, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Jordan? I.e., long overdue chain migration reform; reduction of legal immigration from the 1980's & 90's average of 750,000 per year down to 500,000 per year (to account for predicted labor market changes from NAFTA & automation that have largely come true); shift to merit/skills-based system like Canada; mandatory e-verify; and continuing enforcement vs illegal immigration? Democrats once embraced this. Forget about the "Gang of 8" in 2013. Bring back the Jordan Commission!
4
@GRH
Look. He wants a wall to pander to his racist base, which thinks brown skinned people cause all their problems. We all know it.
Democrats still embrace this. We’re talking about the wall here.
@Mark, yes, I agree the wall is silly, absurd and waste of money but surprised to hear Democrats still embrace these other proposals?
When Senator Grassley introduced legislation for mandatory e-verify last February and March, even taking on the farm interests in his own state, no Democrat crossed the aisle to support him. When Senators Cotton and Perdue introduced the RAISE Act in August or September of 2017 to switch to Canadian skills-based/points system, no Democrat crossed the aisle to support them. Trump has been needlessly divisive and inflammatory, likely making it much harder for Democrats to compromise, but Trump supported these legislative proposals. When Trump proposed chain migration reform and eliminating diversity visa lottery last winter, in exchange for legalization of all registered DACA illegal aliens, plus additional million who never registered, the Democrats refused to sign on. Some condemned even the term "chain migration" as somehow being racist or harking back to slavery because of the use of the word "chain." When politically neutral demographers and academics have used "chain migration" term since 1960's and when African-American, Democratic Congresswoman recommended chain migration reform, eliminating diversity visa lottery, etc. Ms Jordan used term "chain migration" in 1990's. Jordan Commission did not offer amnesty of any sort. Trump offered DACA amnesty. So would love to hear if Democrats still embrace these other proposals.
I've seen a couple of ads about the National crisis at the border, approved by Trump, this afternoon. Just how obvious can this goof-ball be? Subtlety is not his modus operandi, nor is truth-telling. Do any of us believe he will restrict his lying and ranting to eight minutes? Do any of us believe he won’t use hyperbole and out-right lies to try to convince his base? Do any of us believe this has anything to do with border security and danger to our nation from migrants?
Why is Congress allowing the continuation of Trump's circus?
Invoke the 25th and institutionalize this man. He has a serious personality disorder. He is a danger to this nation and the world. He is trying very hard and somewhat successfully to bring this nation down. Every stone Mueller turns over recently reveals another nest of snakes and they aren’t Hispanic migrants. Trump is throwing up a smoke-screen to push Mueller's findings in the background.
8
I cringe to think of the endless series of blatant lies Trump will spew tonight. He's not just an authoritarian wannabe and expert in demonizing propaganda, but is surely using this government shutdown as a ruse to his more ambitious ominous end -- the shutdown of democracy itself.
9
@Christopher
I agree. That is the more serious danger here. This is exactly how dictators come to power - a situation that seems so ridiculous nobody even takes it seriously. That's where a villain like this slips in and makes a brazen power grab.
1
The networks all told Obama "NO" in 2014 when he asked for airtime to speak on immigration. When does the media's greed for ratings and money end? Mr Trump needs to hear "NO." Just once. Why is this so hard?
9
There once was a little boy who cried wolf. . .
When you exaggerate and lie all the time, people stop believing you
8
We stopped believing long ago. Why is he still being given a microphone?
1
You should add....”people tell me” , “everyone says”, “my friend Bob”.....
The list is extensive!
2
What to watch for?
Lies. What else?
7
What to watch for? Lies, lies, and more lies. The most lies ever in the history of OUR country. Bigly,
8
Trump's prime time "address" tonight is going to be another parade of lies, distortions, and stupidity, and which, once again, legions of nitwits are going to embrace as Truth, and about which, once again, the media won't stand a chance of convincing them otherwise.
I may just forget about watching it because the sight of him makes me ill.
10
I'm excited to see what the fallout will be from this fiasco tonight. I believe this will be the defining moment for Mr. Trump's campaign in 2020... especially after the lawsuits rise like a szunami wave to wash away Trump's foolish notions that he can declare a national emergency on trumped up excuses while defying the body of law which now exists, and which declares that he does NOT have the legitimate authority or the power to declare a national emergency just to get funding for a wall that does not need to be built, and certainly not built at the cost of $5.7 billion dollars! I believe we will see coming out all this the president's final recognition that he is NOT the King of America, and he will NOT be president in 2020. Therefore, he will most likely be Richard Nixon's road to the final solution to his failure as a president.
7
Just make sure you don't watch. Read the transcript without fueling him, and respond.
Meanwhile, the Mueller inquiry and state investigations of the Trump campaign, his family members, his foundation, his business dealings and corrupt government appointments once again get bumped from the national spotlight to make way for more divisive distractions.
9
So, the best president in the history of the world may declare an emergency on something that no other president has deemed necessary to declare an emergency for--all while keeping the government shutdown. Next emergencies will be a lost golf ball tomorrow (pesky stroke and distance penalty) or that his TV has a few dead pixels.
And Trump still garners a 40% approval rating. Let’s hear it for critical thinking.
7
I haven’t figured out why people are so vehemently against this except that it is Trump asking for it. No other logical reason. It can’t be the waste. The government wastes more in other programs with every breath.
3
Here’s the million dollar question: Will Fox News carry the Democratic rebuttal after Trump’s speech?
9
I don´t understand why TV networks newspapers and journalists Keep playing Trump´s game giving him prime time to deliver this speech or making a big thing of it. Building this wall is only important for Donald´s ego (not for the interests of this country) What a reality show!
9
@Tess Yes, that's "why."
What is the big deal having a wall or fence or a natural barrier along our border?
Anyone who has done international travel knows of the ritual entering into a country at passport control.
4
it is a huge waste of taxpayer money. give it back in lowering taxes for 90% of the country instead of giving yet another tax cut for the obscenily rich like bush did three times and trump did.
The real issue here is the attack on our constitution via blackmail and the path to dictatorship it facilitates. The constitution envisions a legislature which proposes laws, which are then approved or vetoed by the executive. What's happening here is that the executive is proposing the law and holding the entire government hostage if his law is not handed to him. How does this lead to dictatorship? First the executive will declare he will not approve any government funding that exceeds a three month time period. Then every three months the executive sends proposed laws to the legislature. He informs the legislature that unless these laws are passed he will withhold funding of the government. The constitution provides safeguards, vetoes can be overridden, but if the legislators lack the dedication to the constitution, the overrides will not be forthcoming. Once this happens the constitution might as well be amended to eliminate the pesky legislative and judicial branches.
8
President Trump is not to be believed. You can bank on it that whatever he says tonight to the nation to muster support for a border wall will exaggerate and/or misrepresent the facts as he has been proven to do time and again.
If Trump and his Congressional supporters believe the southern border is a national security threat they should push to have the $5.6 billion cost cut out of the Defense Department’s $716 billion budget. Truthfully, isn’t this what all that money supposed to be for...our national security?
Alternatively, if the border poses a crisis, a potential national emergency, perhaps the wall should take precedence over what might occur beyond the Earth's atmosphere. To this point, how about redirecting a portion of the funds allocated to the new Department of Space (96% of its budget is funded from DoD’s budget).
Because, if not from DoD or Department of Space budgets where will the money come from? Deeper cuts to the EPA? Arts and humanities? Housing and human resources? Education? Healthcare?
The billions Trump wants earmarked for the border amounts to little more than putting a finger in a failing dike. Americans deserve a comprehensive, bi-partisan policy that addresses all the aspects of immigration to the U.S. including security at all points (and ports) of entry, DACA, a legal path to citizenship, and a process for seeking asylum.
Short of this, Trump’s pitch tonight for a border wall is nothing more than the echo of past campaign rhetoric.
4
Why are the major network airing this? This stunt is truly fake news at its finest. What other angry white men will get their manifestos broadcast this year?
9
And why did the NYT make it the top headline?!?
1
This is actually a very scary evening. We are witnessing history. A desperate President using all the power at his disposal to survive by muddying facts about illegal immigration. It will further brainwash his base.
It isn’t funny and shouldn’t be ignored. We have to face it and fight.
12
Many of the comments suggesting we do other, more practical and productive things rather than watch the liar-in-chief are quite apposite. I liked the suggestion to clean the cat box the best. As I have no cat, I'll just take out the trash.
11
To make it easier on everybody particularly the fact checkers, the networks should add an onscreen counter, with footnote references every time he tells a lie, a misstatement or whatever it is you want to call it ... lets just stick with "lie" in this instance, since he does that most of the time.
6
Let's be realistic. This Side Show Bob telecast is aimed at the 52 million or so citizens of Trump's America within America, Trump's enablers and the top 5% of the population. The real America is no longer a consideration for this sad sack in cheap Asian knock offs of expensive suits. If Trump reads a prepareg text, it will be painful to listen as he struggles with any word that has more than one syllable. If he wings it, it will be another embarrassing episode for the real America. Robert DeNiro said it best.
8
I fail to understand why stopping women and children fleeing horrific violence is more important than stopping 70,000 Americans from dying of opiate overdose. Misspent money.
7
I am going to play a drinking game this eve'. - for every utterance of truth by the President I will have a drink.
I expect to not touch a drop.
9
This whole concern about the wall is a sham. If the Trump and his Republican toadies really want to curtail immigration they would find a way to fine businesses who hire people without legal status. If it was very diffcult to earn money, why would people want to come to the US?
3
What do you plan to do tonight instead of watching Donald’s spewing? I’ll be trying to make yogurt.
P.S. Don’t watch! The networks need to get the message that we don’t support the airing of lies. And let’s keep the ratings low!
5
He's unnecessarily creating an emergency for government and government contractor employees and their families. Anericans. Not to mention their landlords and lenders. If anybody out there still thinks he cares about anyone or anything but his own ego, I know some excellent shrinks who can help you.
4
Everyone, please boycott this absurd spectacle tonight. Don’t give Trump any validation by adding your viewing to the ratings. There are many other ways to get coverage if you really want it but don’t let any network think it worth giving Trump television time when they refused to do the same for Obama.
#BoycottTrumpPrimeTime is now trending on Twitter and for good reason!
7
This photograph of the current is an example of how the media unconsciously plays into aggrandizing and thereby supporting the regime of a demagogue. With the photograph, notice how we “look up” to him. Consider how regal and relaxed he appears. The sun shines upon him. Consider how his supporters would view and regard this photograph. The media, including the New York Times, does not realize the social power they wield and wield so carelessly. This is a man who willfully incarcerated thousands of children for his pathetic, misguided political beliefs.
5
I was disgusted by the photo, too. I’m a portrait photographer and the angle of this photo, from low down looking up, is used to give a heroic atmosphere to the subject. Trump is the last person who deserves to be photographed at this angle.
3
I read today that Trump's favorite propagandist, Stephen Miller, is writing the next entry in the reality show. Time to clean the cat box.
5
This appearance should be fun. This from a child of an immigrant who has married two immigrants. so far. And the current husband of a wife whose parents, formerly Communist officials, suddenly became citizens in the last 12 months. And married to a wife whose immigration status prenuptial is questionable, at best
Prediction - theater filled with lies. self-pity, and hypocrisy.
10
There is one national security crisis in the USA today, it's called Donald Trump.
13
Any chance this will be Trump's resignation speech?
8
@Jim
Now THAT I'd watch.
Dear President Trump:
Regarding the border Wall to keep out refugees, please remember that there are always two sides to the same coin, as Brian Bilston has uniquely pointed out in his 2016 poem, Refugees. According to the World Economic Forum, Bilston is described as the unofficial ‘Poet Laureate of Twitter'. Mr. President, as a Twitter aficionado, you should read Bilston’s unusual, unique and timely poem, “Refugees”, below.
Thank you. Bob S
Refugees
Brian Bilston
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
(now read from bottom to top)
7
What to expect?
"the unparalleled combination of mendacity and ignorance" - Max Boot
In other words, more of the same read from a teleprompter with the skill of a 1st grader.
7
What to watch for? a boatload of lies.
7
An address from Trump probably is not going to move the needle much on public opinion. This is starting to feel like Trump's Waterloo.
4
Or perhaps Waco.
Don’t watch. It’s the only thing that will have the desired outcome.
4
I am struck, over and over again,
how news articles in the NY Times
have editorial biases woven into them.
I don't blame anyone from attempting to find a
better life for themselves and their families. However,
the duty of our politicians is to Americans first and that
seems to no longer be the case for many politicians.
If we do not know how many un-documented immigrants
there are in America and the latest study says we do not,
then how do we know how likely those immigrants are to
commit crimes ?
I have asked before and I will ask again, can someone
please explain how un-documented immigration helps
the Poor of America ? After all those two groups directly
compete for jobs/housing/medical care and spaces
in schools.
We need to regulate immigration and we need to ensure
that any immigrant is protected by the labor laws so that
those who do hire them pay them, at least, a minimum wage and overtime and that their work spaces are safe.
If it takes a "Wall" to secure the border then why is anyone
opposed to it ?
4
@John Brown
A major problem developing in this country is a lack of population growth. The birthdate of native born Americans in many States is so low that without documented/undocumented immigrants and their higher (than the native born) birth rate, we would have negative population growth. That’s what is occurring in many Western European countries, Italy in particular. The advantage the US has over Europe is that we integrate immigrants into our culture relatively rapidly; within 1-2 generations. This does not occur in Europe to a great extent. Without population growth the economy cannot expand. Without an expanding economy we will not create more jobs. It’s a bit of a viscous cycle. One that is not often discussed.
@John Brown
Because Trump.
@Kenarmy
I don't think we need immigration as badly as
you say, but I do know that people leave small towns because they cannot make a living wage as Un-Documented Immigrants take those jobs and are paid below minimum wage.
Why must expansion of the economy depend upon immigrants ?
As immigrants become a larger and larger part of the population why will they continually seek to integrate within two generations. The last time I was in Los Angeles, I saw whole sections that did not have single sign in English.
1
What to Watch:
1. Literally anything else
2. See #1
9
This is not entertainment. This is not sport. It's not popcorn time. This is a con by an imposter who was implanted into the institution of our highest office, a man who is by all evidence a Russian puppet who has committed high crimes and treason. This is a platform that the Republicans, Trump and McConnell are using for lies and propaganda, for ulterior motives and profit. We should be in the streets protesting this hostile takeover of our nation. We should be demanding the 25th, Impeachment and indictments. But instead people are sitting in front of a TV to listen to a sociopathic con man whip up hatred and fear among the masses. Don't watch. Don't record it. Don't give it ratings. Don't give it energy.
10
Just read the headline, “What to Watch For...” First thought, LIES, LIES, and more LIES. Pleasantly surprised that in national news tonight both Pence and Sanders were called out, WITH EVIDENCE, for the 4,000 terrorist claim. Fact checking, with evidence, needs to happen each evening. “Claimed, without evidence” is really not good enough.
17
Hey major networks,
Umm, why are you giving an opportunity to this bloviating liar to try to sell a manufactured political stunt, when you wouldn't do the same for President Obama for his 2014 immigration speech?
Take your time. We'll wait.
35
I’ll be cuddling up with Jimmy Stewart and a pooka named “Harvey”. . . “Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' – she always called me Elwood – 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.”
4
Misstatements? Falsehoods?? Exaggerations???
Is there some reason that the New York Times can’t call bold faced LIES exactly what they are??? By using these preposterous euphemisms, you are perpetuating the problem. Wake up America, this country is being destroyed from within. As they say in the horror movie “HE’S IN THE HOUSE!!!!”
23
What to watch for:
Lies
Distortions
Attempt to incite racial hatred.
Attempt to incite hatred of people from South of the US Border
Attempt to incite hatred of muslims.
What a vile person Trump is. the worst I have ever seen.
Please congress, do your jobs and either reign this guy in, or impeach him.
15
As an American citizen, I don't want my hard-earned tax dollars to fund what would be a monument to trump's vanity and bigotry, nothing more. It's good to see Democrats standing firm on this issue and not giving into trump's juvenile demands to fund an impractical, and ineffective solution to a complex problem. A wall is not going to stop the terrorists, crime lords and drug cartels -- the actual "bad hombres" that trump refers to. Given that trump and right-wing media pundits like to frequently and falsely blame them for favoring "open borders", it's up to Democrats present alternative solutions for addressing problems with immigration -- solutions that focus on deporting and keeping the bad guys out, while also aiming to be less punitive and more humane towards those decent people coming here to seek a safer and better life...solutions which reflect American values that celebrate, rather than denigrate, what immigrants bring to our country.
12
@Roberta
If the congress dug there heels in to block every “impractical and ineffective solution to complex problems” the government would be half as large and I would be thrilled. As it is, doing so over this 0.1% of the federal budget is silly.
As an American citizen, I don't want my hard-earned tax dollars to pay for what would be a monument to trump's vanity and bigotry, nothing more. It's good to see Democrats standing firm on this issue and not giving into trump's demands to fund a juvenile, impractical, and ineffective solution to a complex problem. A wall is not going to stop the terrorists, crime lords and drug cartels -- the actual "bad hombres" that trump refers to. Given that trump and right-wing media pundits like to frequently and falsely blame them for favoring "open borders", it's up to Democrats present alternative solutions for addressing problems with immigration -- solutions that focus on deporting and keeping the bad guys out, while also aiming to be less punitive and more humane towards those decent people coming here to seek a safer and better life...solutions which reflect American values that celebrate, rather than denigrate, what immigrants bring to our country.
3
When people illegally enter our country, they are already breaking our country's laws. By ignoring this flagrant violation of our immigration laws, the undocumented immigrants are already starting off on the wrong side of the law. As a country, we shouldn't encourage or turn a blind eye to this illegal behavior. If we do ignore it, it opens up the floodgates to ignore any other laws with which we don't agree.
6
@MarathonRunner
First:
Illegal immigration is down. According the Trump administration itself.
Second:
The folks clustered at our southern border are seeking asylum under Federal and international law.
Third:
A wall does not stop legal requests for admission.
Fourth:
A vast majority of the "illegals" are people over staying their visas.
The Brown Caravan of the Apocalypse is not the problem.
Slats of Steel are not the answer.
8
Asylum seekers are not illegal. Not letting them surrender at the border is. Please visit fact check.org and educate yourself about what is going on at the border. Too bad we can't build a wall to keep trolls out.
2
As I have asked before, if you only get concerned about the roof leaking when there is rain and skip repairs when the weather is good do you really think that's smart?
We have sanctuary cities with safe injection sites because of Democrats. How can they advocate for these things while arguing against a border wall? It's like trying to say there's a problem, but there isn't.
3
@Mark - Those three sentences are in no way connected.
8
@Mark You’re conflating the issues, Mark. The two issues you mentioned relate to the actual physical safety, but, the “wall, fence, barrier” relate to nothing but politics and division, literally and figuratively.
3
Just to clarify, are you saying illegal immigrants are the reason we have safe injection sites? If you are,these are not related.
3
I hope they provide sign language for the hearing impaired, so the hearing impaired can be in on the joke, too.
Address to be followed by the obligatory twitter storm of restatements, denials and strange clarifications.
5
Trump went into this shutdown with gusto and we will not forget that. The hundreds of thousands of civil servants who do good work for not much pay are suffering for the sake of his vanity. We expect so little of him and yet he continues to disappoint.
11
@Elinor
Federal employees are paid better than their civilian counterparts in general.
In a bold move to show he's willing to compromise, Mr. Trump intends to offer Democrats a steep discount on license fees to use his name on the facade.
10
Instead of listing his lies, the networks and commentators should simply list his truthful statements. The list will be very short and we can quickly go back to doing more productive things.
8
Be vigilant! As a reformed Republican (left the party, thanks to Trump), I applaud real (not fake) news. I'm an academic, research based on real data, not phony stats.
9
Data-driven decision making.
Trump normally holds forth in front of a crowd of supporters that is inclined to take his false statements at face value. That Trump is taking his case about the wall to a national television audience suggests that he has become almost delusional about it. It's an applause line in his safe haven and echo chamber, so he apparently assumes it makes sense. This reminds me of a statement in Jane Mayer's profile of Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer for "The Art of the Deal." Trump did not contribute a word to the manuscript, but "as he watched a replay of [Trump} holding forth for forty-five minutes, he noticed something strange: over the decades, Trump appeared to have convinced himself that he had written the book."
Trump is a toxic combination of delusion and pathological lying and it is always hard to know which accounts for any particular falsehood.
But most of the time, his lies are unscripted, something that allows the people who consider Trump a meal ticket to at least partially distance themselves from them. Tonight, with an actual script, we will see if Trump has succeeded in surrounding himself with people willing to turn his lies in to public text. This would be an ominous development in the White House.
For what it's worth, the proper solution to this problem is to form a bipartisan commission on border security, let it draft a report, and vote on a solution based on its -- presumably fact based -- recommendations. Makes too much sense, I suppose.
9
Just a simple question if someone can help please. Trump said in his election campaign he would build a wall and his faithful clapped and cheered. Then he said Mexico would pay for it and they clapped and cheered even louder. Then he was elected and Mexico said they would not pay but as the Republicans had the votes in the House and the Senate why did they not just get the money then??? Now he has created a huge drama using innocent workers as his pawns to try and get the Democrats to give him the money. It is all rather weird he had the opportunity for two years to get his money.
7
@Bev
True but not unusual. Obama best Hillary by opposing a health insurance mandate—and he promised it would cost us $2500 a year less.
1
Another episode of not falsehood, but, flagrant lies. However, those lies fall of deaf ears of his party and adoring fans.
7
How nice of the networks to contribute to broadcasting the first "speech" delivered from the Oval Office of the White House with the expressed intent of gaslighting the entire country. You people got him elected with your 24/7 free coverage for ratings - and now this. After denying Obama the same courtesy because it might seem "too political," you roll over for the guy who repeatedly calls you "the enemy of the people." You're kidding - right?
Memo to management: this is a mentally disturbed circus con man who hasn't told the truth one day in office. Is it too much to ask that you don't hand him 8 minutes of totally undeserved prime time?
You can NOT make this (stuff) up.
22
@gdurt You described my thoughts exactly. Thank you!
4
We already know what to watch for: lies seasoned with racism. There's not much point in wasting time actually watching.
17
@Rick Brown Exactly. Going with blackout. Thanks for making the point.
2
What has happened to us as a nation? I will not waste a minute of my time to listen to this impostor.
13
After supporting the lies of Johnson (Gulf of Tonkin), Nixon (secret wars in Laos and Cambodia), Reagan (Granada, Iran Contra), Bush (Panama, No New Taxes), Clinton (too numerous to count), Bush-2 (WMD, Extraordinary Rendition), Obama (The NSA does not collect data on Americans)... NOW a president's "record of falsehoods, misstatements and exaggerations on the topic will likely be challenged as never before"?
Where has news been all these years…
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
4
Where have you been?
3
@Gerithegreek518
I have been right here experience the decades-long decline of the belligerent American Empire. Thanks for asking.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
What to watch for? That’s easy...the truth. But, look long and hard; truth is not this President’s forte.
10
Two hours before Trump's speech to us. I don't think the 'apprentice' realty show host has the capacity to give other than a rant of racism, hatred, and division.
America in 2019 should celebrate its people of color. We owe it to each generation to make our nation what it is: a diverse group of citizens, striving to make our country caring, loving, and mutually supporting.
Walls are NOT the answer.
6
At this point I can no longer handle the double toxicity of watching Trump's bizarre gestures and facial tics while *also* listening to his lies and inexhaustible malevolence and imbecility. Instead I will wait to read a transcript alongside the excellent fact-checking to be found at the Times and elsewhere. It's best for my health.
During the GWB administration I would have the same automatic response every time I saw the president's frat-boy smirk on a TV across the room: I would take a slow, deep breath--as if I was bracing for a wave of nausea (which often came . . . for the entire, interminable eight years).
When I see Trump's face on TV I have a different, but still automatic response: I hear myself quietly mouthing the phrase "I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry . . " (as well as feeling the wave of nausea).
I seem to be addressing my younger millennial and Gen-Z neighbors. Really folks, I don't know how the country devolved so far so fast. Please know that our present condition is not normal, though it has a long and shameful history. Trump is the logical endpoint for the conservative, Hobbesian politics of the last 30 years or so (with an assist from America's budding theocrats).
Somehow, 40% of my fellow citizens are still apparently on board with the Trumpist horror show.
We have a lot of work to do.
12
A recent analysis from the libertarian Cato Institute found that of 45,000 “special interest aliens” caught at the border since 2007, none has committed terrorist attacks.
Doesn’t this suggest the approach is working? If stopping these people of interest is correlated with zero incidence of terrorist attacks, it’s possible we are stopping the wrong people. But it is also possible that we are stopping the right people, and that by catching them, we are preventing attacks.
3
@Boris Job
No logic please.
And not one potential terrorist got past our porous border? Proof, please!
Since Trump claims he can build the wall without Congressional approval by declaring a National Emergency there is absolutely no reason for him to not approve the funding bills the House has approved. Therefore all the suffering caused by the shutdown rests squarely on his shoulders . If only his base had the critical thinking skills to realize he has admitted this.
8
Trump could solve the illegal immigration problem by
hiring a thousand more border agents for billions of dollars less
than building that wall of shame.
But the real benefit he's looking for is the kickbacks he could
demand of the builders.
That would be another revenue stream to become the word's
richest crook.
7
@sam
I would rather fund a useless wall than have thousands more lawless federal agents crawling across the country.
1
We must all watch Lying Donald's address to the nation. Why? For the reason that we must keep our argument current and fresh.
Just today, I received a response from my Senator. The beginning paragraph spoke to his vote on Dec., 21st, 2018 to fund a wall.
THEN he launched into his boiler plate response of January,2018 - that is correct - not 2019 - but 2018.
You can imagine how his staff has place him in the past and past events. He is cooked.
Of course, he will be slam dunked tomorrow for two reasons.
#1 he is on the surface (and obvious to all) wrong about the need for a wall. He is unequivocally wrong about there being a need for a government shut down (the opposite is true). #3 His office has insulted me and shamed himself. I will not let him get away with either.
Aren't you glad that you have liberal Senators? Don't you wish everyone did? (with credit to Dial Soap).
2
Viewing or listening to this man on TV makes me ill. I'll pay attention to the later edited version.
10
What to watch for in Trump's address? Absolutely nothing!
He will undoubtedly use lies and real instances of people killed and raped by illegal (and possibly legal) immigrants to weave his usual narrative. Many people, both supporters and opponents, will be tuned in to watch The Show, because he is an entertainer, a made-for-TV show, not a politician
Then Pelosi and Schumer will do their thing, and pretty much nobody will watch. Several hours later Trump will tweet that his ratings were much, much higher than that of the Democrats, claiming in the process that that demonstrates the American people fully support him and reject the Democrats.
As to 2020: at the moment the only credible alternative is Jed Bartlett.
5
I have no intention of watching him weave yet another web of lies, yet I feel drawn to watch in the same way we are drawn to play the video of the gruesome football injury, or look at the 15 car pile-up on the highway. Sometimes it is just too hard to look away from the disaster unfolding before our eyes.
6
It has always been trump's goal to provoke or orchestrate a national crisis, so he can declare a state of emergency and justify ruling by presidential decree -- it appears he may have achieved that goal. The trump administration's focus on policies of deterrence, which clearly were never expected to work, has drawn resources away from border security's ability to accommodate and process those immigrants who are coming here legally to seek asylum, over 80% of which are families, mostly women and children. The "crisis" that trump will refer to at the border is a humanitarian crisis of his own making -- of course he won't mention this if he uses tonight's TV coverage to declare a state of emergency. He is setting a dangerous precedent and will create a Constitutional crisis -- more chaos which trump thrives on. Meanwhile, Republicans are STILL refusing to curb trump's abusive powers. At what point do we stop calling this a presidential administration and start calling it an authoritarian regime?
4
If trump relies on a scripted speech tonight, no doubt Stephen Miller will be its author. It'll be chock-full of tough talk, conflated statistics, fear mongering and falsehoods.
The reality is immigration is no more of a threat today than it was 10, 20 or even 50 years ago. On our list of pressing problems, "illegal immigration" isn't the dangerous problem that trump and people like Stephen Miller would have us believe. Mass shootings, healthcare, the stock market, the toll on Americans by trump's tariffs, infrastructure, falling wages, unaffordable housing, high cost of education, the threat of ISIS, cyber security, protecting our elections, betraying our allies -- these are what warrant urgent attention. It's way easier to convince gullible people that illegal immigrants are an immediate threat to them than it is to focus on what the real problems are. WAY easier.
Are there problems with border security and our immigration system that need to be addressed? Absolutely. But a wall won't stop the terrorists, drug cartels and crime lords... the actual "bad hombres" that trump refers to. A wall along the southern border isn't even feasible given the logistics of building one.
trump has become increasingly fixated on the wall to appease his base. Meanwhile, trump puts the entire post WWII world order at risk with his actions that are exponentially more dangerous than those who cross the border from Mexico.
6
This guy is something else, he shuts down the government and creates a national emergency he has to give a public address for to distract the people from the fact that they have evidence of collusion that’s being reported. His campaign guy gave Russian intelligence who knows what, now they only need evidence that he knew anything about it.
5
I'm not going to waste an entire eight minutes listening to Trump drone on and on. I'll just wait for the tweet to come out.
7
Today's AI is very fast, which makes it possible to run real-time subtitles for fact-checking what the President is speaking.
6
The Democrats must not give in on the wall. Let the government stay shut until Trump blinks, even if it takes another month.
7
The only ‘crisis’ Trump faces is that he campaigned on building this wall AND that he would (“Believe me”) have the Mexican taxpayer pay for it. His self-vaunted deal-making ability has failed him and now he must try to get the money from the U.S. taxpayer.
6
The question no one seems to be asking here is: what is Trump's personal financial gain going to be in constructing a border wall, concrete or otherwise? I have been wondering that he might stand to gain since the day he descended his golden elevator in New York to announce his candidacy. It is no secret that his personal organization benefited financially from hosting his campaign events during that time; and hosting official gatherings on his properties since becoming President. Yes, I suppose he may be trying to make a point of national security by posturing so unapologetically for his wall. But the fact that he is speaking lies, using twisted statistics and his paid staff to vouch for him with their own "alternate facts" to back up his reasoning, has to be considered. His past shady business dealings speak multitudes of what may be behind this.
8
Instead of a tantrum, it seems there's an opportunity for true greatness for Trump here, addressing both the immigration and climate change and... national security. Take the $5 billion requested for wall, get a matching $5 billion from Mexico and perhaps $10 billion windfall profits from corporate tax cut and use the resultant $20 billion to instead to build solar-panel factories in US border states and/or in Mexico. Employ the asylum seekers/refugees fleeing Central American violence. Have those same workers sell and install the panels at cost, thus providing lasting employment and all of the associated positive economic and societal benefits for US and Mexico and the world. Or sell at small profit to allow for continuous factory expansion.
6
@Recent grad
Gosh! wish you were in charge of--something.
I'm not watching: there are limits on what a person can take from this man and this manufactured so-called crisis needs a lot of lying and exaggeration to attempt to justify it.
11
The only way I'd watch President pants-on-fire is if I knew he'd be resigning. He created this so called crisis, he can fix it: get Mexico to pay as he promised, or start meaningful talks on immigration reform... and stop playing politics with citizens lives.
17
Here's an idea for a new drinking game...each time he lies, everyone takes a shot. While no one will make it to the end of the "speech" without throwing up, it will still be more entertaining....on second thought, I don't need the hangover. Maybe there's a good French series on Netflix...
7
Sadly, if everyone played that game the emergency rooms across the country would be filled with cases of alcohol poisoning.
4
There was no real crisis until Trump created one, which they "he alone" would solve. But he didn't, and now it has gotten out of his control. I firmly believe that the whole contemptuous Trumpist enterprise masquerading as an administration thought that that this political stunt would divert attention from the Russia probe and its forthcoming revelations and would gin up righteous indignation among his "low-education" voter base. The whole thing is like a Kabuki play. Or maybe like a disaster unfolding in slow lotion - we know it will crash and burn but we're forced to watch every agonizing step. The border is far less of a crisis than Trump is himself. God (or whoever or whatever) save America from him and his enablers.
7
Remember when Keegan Michael-Key stood behind President Obama at the annual Correspondents dinner and "translated" for a cool, calm Obama with "angry Obama?" I'd love to see Alec Baldwin standing behind Trump tonight and "translating" truth to all of Trump's lies.
9
Watch? For what? Why bother? There will be nothing new, the man is a broken record.
What he will say will be the usual torrent of lies and fabrications only with him attempting to read them off a teleprompter for national TV.
I'd rather block a hat.
13
I don’t get it: Didn’t he say that Mexico would pay for the wall? Of course, that was never going to happend, but why don’t the Democrats rub this on his face, now that he wants US tax payers to fund it?
6
What to watch for? Ha. Lies, deceits and untruths. I can ever call him Pinocchio. At least Pinocchio was likeable.
10
absolutely NO thought has been given to how a wall would affect wildlife migration or their hunting areas. this man has NO concept of anything but getting his own way, no matter what the cost to anyone else. he lies psychopathically, he has absolutely NO morals, and he is unfit to be in the office he holds. he is a bully, not a "dealmaker," and impeachment cannot come soon enough.
10
He just wants to put his name on it in big gold letters.
11
The current "National Crisis" is a government that has been shut down because a petulant egocentric childish president has not gotten his way. This one ground (of many) to begin impeachment proceedings ASAP.
6
How about this? Don’t watch.
15
@Deleano Yup, going with blackout. Going to reclaim some good old family time.
What to watch for? How many lies, fantasies, and rude insults he can fit in!
11
I am confused. If Ann Coulter is President, why is Trump giving this address?
16
good article with data!
3
The president consistently uses exaggerations, misstatements, and falsehoods. I share everyone's condemnation of this.
However, congressional leaders do the same. They are as guilty of demagoguery as the president. Each side acts as if the end of civilization as we know it is at stake and tries to instill fear and anger in us.
I wish the paper, and, in particular one of the authors of this article, Linda Qiu, would focus upon falsehoods and exaggerations of both sides. If the goal of this paper is to inform all of us of "all the news that's fit to print", we must know when either side makes a serious ( or ridiculous) misstatement. If anyone believes that misstatements and lies are attributable to only one side, it proves how misinformed they are, and this paper has the responsibility of giving them both sides.
I rarely read "fact checking" articles anymore because it appears to me that the author has been directed to concentrate substantially ( if not exclusively) on statements made by the one side. Moreover, such articles often use opinions, not objective facts, to refute statements by that side.
I want and need both sides. Sorry, but when I know I am only going to get one side, I don't even bother reading it anymore. For the same reason, I don't watch Sean Hannity.
I want balanced and comprehensive truth, not statements that I know in advance will favor or criticize only one side.
1
@Gino G
There is no equivalency here. You're pretending starting a forest fire and lighting a cigarette are the same thing.
Going back to the Thomas hearings, Republicans have crafted one set of lenient rules for themselves and draconian ones for Democrats. The response to Rashida Tlaib despite far worse from Trump is typical.
Trump is simply the most blatant and prolific liar ever elected to a national office in our nation's history.
@Dadof2
I have no quarrel with the fact that Trump is not truthful, but that doesn't excuse the other side from being misleading and untruthful too. If you think that your side is truthful, you are sadly very naive, and are going to be deceived.
Both sides have one motivation - to get re-elected- again and again, and will do or say anything to gain a political advantage.
You have to stand back, think for yourself, and be highly critical even of those you support. Do not get your opinion from cable news. They are in the business of catering to their audience and have no motivation other than to increase ratings. And they get it, all three cable news networks , by riling up their viewers so they will come back for more. Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity are the same person in different clothes.
I worked for years dealing with politicians on the federal and state level from both political parties. I speak from experience.
People are joking here but I find this pretty disturbing - is this another test of what we'll all go along with? Trump slowly pushes the boundaries while we joke about what a dope he is. This is not a harmless stunt.
I hope the NYT tracks down the GOP - we know what Schumer and Pelosi will say, what about the Republicans?
11
Walls have never worked for long in all of human history; they rather are a sign of a declining power that soon after construction was completed was overrun by the very forces that it was supposed to keep at bay. The last such wall stood in Berlin.
But I suppose the wall per se is not even the real issue here: building it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars - a welcome windfall for builders and suppliers (Haliburton comes to mind) that made huge fortunes during the adventurism of another republican president in Iraq, and will be at it again, only under safer circumstances. Trump is in their pocket and will surely profit himself in one way or another: these are his buddies after all. This con game is so transparent, one must wonder how stupid he thinks the taxpayers really are. Totally bizarre!
8
@Reimar Bruening
apparently Trump thinks Americans are VERY dumb: he keeps pulling wool over our eyes, and a substantial amount of people still support and believe in him, no matter what he said or did. whether his "WALL" is effective or not to keep those who want to cross over, just ask El Champo who is on trial in New York City right now: he had tunnels, planes, boats... ferrying drugs to United State. whether Trump is a lying, mean, cunning throat-cutting person, just ask people living around New York metropolitan areas, his former employees, renters, contractors who had been cheated out of livelihood. personally i would not waste my time and energy, listening to more of his lies.
2
Please clarify whether Mr. Trump will broadcast from the Oval Office or the old Nuremberg Stadium where espousing this type of racism has greater historical ties.
11
My anger lately is less at Trump and more at the Democrat's inability to voice a powerful and logical rebuttal. Sen. Schumer reminds me of teacher reading from a textbook and putting me to sleep in a classroom. I hope Pelosi can live up to her recent hype and do better.
57
@Horace Wow. You learned the trump blame game. Aren't you so proud!
29
@Horace
These people are not here to entertain you. Policy is boring, especially when it is good policy. I think that all of the logical and reasonable rebuttals have already been made, repeatedly, by the democrats, numerous pundits, and present and former government officials. In addition, the democrats have already offered to fund this boondoggle in exchange for significant concessions on DACA, and were rebuffed. What more do you want? A song and dance number? A juggling act?
30
@Horace - So, you're looking for powerful logic *and* entertainment value? Huh?
Lots of teachers can deliver on the former, but keeping you from falling asleep may not be a skill they possess (or have reason to care about).
One Elizabeth Warren is eminently qualified to be president: knowledgeable, articulate, brimming with excellent policy ideas, building on years of dedicated and effective service . . . but alas, her zingers are not all that zingy, so you know, she's out.
14
The only good thing coming from this will be the fact we are hearing from our President in a formal & official manner rather than informal, sophomoric tweets. Whether you like him or not this is an important statement & should be treated as such.
8
@John Joke, right?
19
I disagree. He is using an outlet meant to address the nation and representing it as a national emergency. Just due to the context, in my opinion, it is not. The focus on the wall is not the emergency the shutdown that he caused is.
My fear is that he will use this venue to misuse facts and figures to try to garner support for his political stunt. The trouble is, that during areal actual emergency, the next time people will be less prone to listen. An American citizen should (imo) listen to and trust the president during an emergency. For this one, I feel we can’t do that, which adds HUGE risk during an actual emergency.
24
@John - Trump is not going to sound any different than in his tweets. We already know what he is going to say. He will exaggerate the number of refugees coming to the border, refer to them as criminals and propose no new border control plans other than building his wall to put his name on it for posterity and to please his racist, right wing base.
15
I pray that the networks run a fact- check crawl while he's speaking.
195
@martha I believe Trump's strategy is to lie so many times and so fast that the fact checkers can't keep up with him in real time!
23
@martha I wish they would, too, but unfortunately Trump’s cult following, from interviews I’ve seen of them, are barely literate so they wouldn’t understand actual facts.
2
@martha
Nothing of what Pelosi says makes sense...must less be truth...
Watching a Trump speech on purpose? Who does that?
8
Watch?
No!
I plan to hermetically seal myself away. I can listen to a kindergartner who would make more sense and be more truthful.
7
The best argument that Trump could make tonight is to channel Colonel Nathan Jessup from "A Few Good Men:"
You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.
Of course Democrats could counter by pointing out that Jack Nicholson himself, who played Col. Jessup, doesn't think much of Trump or his wall.
2
The photo makes the president looks authoritative, dignified, and strong. Surely NYT could find a picture in which he looks confused and desperate, since that is exactly what's going on.
5
@LT
I find the president in a fake hero position with a
pinhead at the top. Quite a truthful picture.
1
I can't watch. I feel a headache coming on and I have to wash my hair.
9
What to watch for??
LIES in the effort to wield power. LIES to threaten the constitution.
5
Perhaps with this nationwide address tonight , Americans will finally understand what many of us already know - that Donald Trump himself is the national emergency .
10
It is disheartening that we have a president who will be lying, misrepresenting facts and distorting reality tonight.
3
@John M
Unfortunately he is not the first president to fabricate
alternative truths to fit the agenda.
Who knew wagging the dog would be so easy?
While it's legitimate to be concerned over a government shutdown, the economy is shaky and Rocketman is building nukes again. Mueller, SDNY, and Dems are building fact patterns around Russian collusion. And that Republican tax break didn't really help the middle class. But look. Look! A red balloon...
8
I just got a DVD of the old Western TV series, Cheyenne" via mail today. You now know what I'll be watching at 9 tonight.
5
I was born and raised in San Diego. I can safely report that we are not being overrun by gangs, terrorists, or drugs. The only thing I ever had to worry about the border was making sure I was not too drunk when I was trying to cross back into the US after a night of partying in TJ. So, move along nothing to see here.
13
I think Trump is abusing the veto and McConnell is unfortunately going along with it. It's Congress's job to allocate funds, not the President's. The purpose of the veto is to be a check on legislation that's unconstitutional, illegal, harmful or unethical. For the President to veto a bill because it doesn't give him everything he wants, and shut down the country in the process is an abuse of his powers. He should sign the budget bills and immediately secure the border using the money already allocated for that purpose, if it's really an emergency as he insists. He's been President for two years. If the border situation is as bad as he claims, he owns it. It just shows how incompetent and irresponsible he is. When Obama was President he didn't get everything he wanted and he didn't refuse to fund the entire government and shut down the country. He accepted the limitations on his powers and did what he could.
116
@Jill Friedman
Nothing in the Constitution limits the veto to the four areas Ms. Friedman notes. The president can veto any measure for any reason, including that it seems unwise. The fact that Trump uses the veto poorly--to shore up his crumbling self-image--is deplorable, but how does that make his use of the veto different from his exercise of any other presidential power?
That aside, I'm sure that Trump would have no trouble characterizing any bill that does not include funding for his border-wall fantasy as "harmful," bringing it within Ms. Friedman's description. He may even actually believe that, but there is no way to know.
5
@Jill Friedman
reportedly the fund allocated before recent offer from Democrats for Homeland Security Dept using for border security, only 6% (?) had been use, so WHERE is the urgency for another 5.6 Billion, and WHAT crisis ?
6
@Jill Friedman
“When Obama was President he didn't get everything he wanted and he didn't refuse to fund the entire government and shut down the country.”
Oct 2013. 17 days.
2
Though they may not be required to, I hope that the major networks will offer time to the House and Senate leadership to respond to the Presidents message.
This is clearly a political speech, aimed first at a specific demographic, (his own base), not to inform and guide the general population regarding a course of action that is necessary for the welfare of the country.
83
@kamikrazee they are planning to
@kamikrazee Yes, right, and whom do you have as the "opposition"? Schumer (the Senator from Citibank) and Pelosi. As many of those writing here like to say: what could go wrong?
@Andrzej Warminski
Of course, the Networks offered airtime for a response by Schumer & Pelosi. This entire frontal "command & conquer" presentation by our President was all about him getting his way, and his Wall, so that he can claim that he has fulfilled the big promise to his constuents, (and hopefully impress the rest of us) so he can tout this one fact in his 2020 bid for re-election. This whole event was about his bid for re-election...and his success in that is dubious at best. This performance will NOT earn him "gold stars" or buy him another term in office, I would say.
Nothing to see here, move along.....
I will refuse to listen to a man who will lie about the color of the tie he is wearing when you are standing in front of him. Trump's credibility is zero.
And Mitch McConnell is doing a wonderful job, in that he is insuring that the Republicans will loose everything in 2020. He could end the shutdown tomorrow if he wanted. Keep up the good work Mitch!
4
My understanding of this whole debacle may be subject to bias, but try as I might to put myself in another’s shoes, I can’t grasp why it has come to this. If they believe in Trump and have unquestioning loyalty to his worldview, why does he have to go to these lengths to ensure it? As the former Congressman said on Cuomo, there are so many other higher priorities in our nation right now that deserve this kind of focused attention from government including the shutdown ending. Don’t Trump believers have concerns about the future of our planet for their grandchildren, nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran’s tyrant who has murdered his own people, or hundreds of thousands civilians dying in Syria, or 1 out of 6 people in America going to bed hungry, or crumbling infrastructure that’s quickly turning us into Russia, or many not being able to earn a living wage to pay their bills, or the possibility of getting a life threatening diagnosis for loved one and not knowing if health insurance will cover it, or how far behind our nation is falling in public education and what this means for our grandchildren in a global economy, and whether our nation will continue to inspire hope and freedom as that ‘city on a hill’. Any of the above should warrant higher concern than a wall being constructed on our southern border to keep out immigrants whose numbers have been eroding anyway and have been shown to be much less violent and criminal than citizens with easy access to guns! Shame on us!
138
@GraceNeeded Thank you for laying out a most important and forgotten set of facts about what we are not attending to as a country. God help us all as we are subjected to the further erosion of faith in our government.
2
@GraceNeeded This certaiinly shows you to be a kind person witih the right priorities. DT wouldn't understand a single reason why you care so much. He appears to be incapable of human response. Even in his comments about leaving Syria he said "what have we gotten from them." Everythiiing is seen through that prism in Trumpland. Fortunately there are still good people here and hopefully we will survive this.
3
He promised Mexico will pay for the wall and now he's asking American citizens to pay for it? Or was that before he knew how tariffs and shutdown work and is now costing jobs and income primarily to his base. I hope they watch and fall for his lies. They're the ones suffering the most because of him. Trump is taking food out of their children's mouth and they don't even have the courage to speak up. It's almost funny if it wasn't so sad.
81
@Ed
Check out Maine's Senator Angus King on the matter, sheer, unadulterated common sense.BTW King's an independent. Here's the link:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/01/07/senator_angus_king_no_one_in_congress_is_for_open_borders.html
@Ed: In a previous comment, I noted the ignorance of college students at a university known for its liberalism who were given statements to comment upon, told by the interviewer that Trump had made them, which statements were in defense of a wall. Reaction was immediate and vehement, and Trump was denounced as a racist, bigot, misogynist, xenophobe, Then interviewer confessed to being mistaken, that statements made in defense of the wall were uttered by Obama and HRC.After a brief moment of reflection, students resumed their excoriation of Trump, despite the fact that he was not the one who had made the assertions! Go figure! Was reminded of the vast majority of comments in Times newspaper which reflect the same bias!Had a great teacher,Edward Tannenbaum, professor at NYU, greatest authority on the subject of Action Francaise and Italian fascism and who never bit his tongue when it came to criticizing students who had not done the required reading:"You don't know anything" he would declare! If the shoe fits , wear it, no offense!
An utter waste of air time as it will be lie after lie for his base. I hope nobody tunes in as we all know how his mind and ego are solely focused on his TV ratings.
4
If trump relies on a scripted speech tonight, no doubt Stephen Miller will be its author. Expect it to be chock-full of tough talk, a conflation of statistics, fear mongering and falsehoods.
The reality is immigration is no more of a threat today than it was 10, 20, even 50 years ago. On our list of pressing problems, "illegal immigration" is not the dangerous crisis that trump and people like Stephen Miller would have us believe. Mass shootings, healthcare, the stock market, the toll on Americans by trump's tariffs, infrastructure, falling wages, unaffordable housing, high cost of education, the threat of ISIS, cyber security, protecting our elections, betraying our allies -- these are what warrant urgent attention. It's way easier to convince gullible people that "illegal immigrants" are an immediate threat to them than it is to focus on what the real urgent problems are.
Are there problems with border security and our immigration system that need to be addressed? Absolutely. But a wall won't stop the terrorists, drug cartels and crime lords...the actual "bad hombres" that trump refers to. A wall along the southern border isn't even feasible given the logistics of building one.
trump has become increasingly fixated on the wall to appease his base. Meanwhile, trump puts the entire post WWII world order at risk with his actions that are exponentially more dangerous than those who cross the border from Mexico.
6
I've said this before, but had always hoped it would be just hyperbole: trump is itching to provoke or orchestrate a national crisis, so he can declare a state of emergency and justify ruling by presidential decree. It's scary to see that this may actually play out. The trump administration's focus on policies of deterrence, which haven't worked, has drawn resources away from border security's ability to accommodate and process those immigrants who come here desperately seeking asylum, over 80% of which are families, mostly women and children. The crisis at the border is a humanitarian crisis of trump's own making -- of course he won't mention this if he uses tonight's TV coverage to declare a state of emergency. It sets a dangerous precedent and will create a Constitutional crisis -- more chaos which trump thrives on. Meanwhile, Republicans like Mitch McConnell are STILL refusing to curb trump's abusive powers. At what point do we stop calling this a presidential administration and start calling it an authoritarian regime?
4
My friends are going to watch and play "Spot the Lie". Each of us has a noisemaker and the first to sound it off to identify a lie gets a point. I suspect nearly non-stop noises!
8
@Steve...A point!??? Steve, my friend, this is drinking game, so yeah, no points! Get the bourbon/vodka/rum/tequila (or all of'em) and go at it. Teeny tiny shots, though - you'll be putting down a lot of'em. Have a nice night...
Trump to give nation wide address declaring a national emergency? The only emergency is that through typically impulsive, ignorant grandstanding, Trump has painted himself into a corner and has absolutely no idea how to extricate himself. Declaring a national emergency to extract oneself from a self-created political emergency has to be the very definition of abuse of power.
128
I have no intention of watching tonight's speech. There is nothing new there. What does interest me is how many bold faces lies this president can say right to the American public's face. What a disgrace.
To watch gives respect where respect isn't due. To quote Mommy Dearest " I'm not one of your fans!"
5
It saddens me to know that Trump supporters will believe his lies . I myself will watch the reruns of The Sopranos.
4
The national address is President Trump's attempt to use the bully pulpit against the Democrats. He is going to find out that it only works when the American people agree with the President on the issue, and we don't in this case.
In a few days the polls from the national address will be in. Shortly thereafter I expect that the Republican House and Senate leadership will give the GOP members the green light to "defect". When that happens, Congress will pass the Democratic legislation with veto-proof majorities.
10
From all the comments here it seems he has already won. Basically nobody on the right seems bothered that the government has been partially shut down, and everyone on the left seems hysterical about it. If this is really the state of play, then guess who will blink first.
@Oakwood hysterical about not having money to pay for your child’s health care is more legitimate than your callousness. Try living on paycheck to paycheck and then opine. I think you are ethically and morally as sound as your President.
4
I agree with the president that we are experiencing a “national emergency” the likes of which we have never faced before. My only point of disagreement is the cause of the crisis: He says it’s the wall-less border, I contend that HE’s the emergency – a walking, talking national disaster that requires us to take immediate measures to relieve him of his post and return the country to sanity.
18
I’m not familiar with the situation that the government used to issue emergency declaration,but I can clearly say that the president Trump have pursued his benefit ,or surroundings since his passion for USA means to get high authority.From perspective of Japanese,this seems pretty strange and extreme ,factor protecting the nation from dangers of crisis or invasion is a duty for a county or something.
I just want president Trump to be just calm down and make the best decisions for any occasion and case.
3
The biggest crisis facing the United States is this:
We have a president who is a pathological liar, incompetent, and a demagogue.
This fact should be on the front page of every newspaper and be the lead story of every media outlet in the country every day until he is removed from office.
Donald Trump is an unmitigated disaster for our country and the world.
We don't deserve this, and it has to stop.
49
trump does not have "a record of falsehoods"!
NYT and all other media must stop playing nice and state the fact that trump has "a record of flat out bold-faced lying". trump is the Liar In Chief.
NYT and other media must stop enabling trump.
Conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater said (and it fits trump perfectly)
"Small men, seeking great wealth and power have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity."
trump being the smallest of "small men" is nothing but a habitual liar and a charlatan.
22
Just think about this for a minute:
The media has to honestly ask “how much will the president lie” in his fabricated emergency address?” We’ve fallen pretty low.
16
I will not waste my time listening to a con man lie to me and I'm fed up with a Congress that is allowing him in his attempt to become a dictator.
28
What to watch for? Truth!
2
Nothing to see tonight...
Since we have- Wilford Brimley - Bolton- handling Foreign Policy there is an abundant evidence of complete idiocy in the Trump Administration.
If he turns on the National Alert alarms - we must join in on Fox News for our survival.
4
As if anyone can make sense of his lies and gibberish. I’d rather be doing anything.
6
How will we know. Donald Trump is lying? His mouth will be moving and words will be coming out. No secrets here.
16
National Emergency? How about this. The President of the United States has shut down the government, inflicting chaos and hardship on millions of citizens so he can build a wall that will not work and no one wants. …---...
14
Trump, the consummate propagandist, will be in fine form tonight and his doting base will lap it up. I hope that the majority of Americans will be able to discern the lies.
Maybe he will announce a northern border wall as a few terriorists have slipped though this way, I think more than from your southern border.
3
@Liz McDougall Canada is already building a national privacy fence. Raised $6B in two hours eh? You can read details in the Out and Abouter.
(sorry)
Nothing to watch for because I won't be watching his broadcasted lies and more lies. The sound of his voice makes my skin crawl.
19
@Concerned Citizen, I agree. Whenever clips of him talking are shown on TV, I change the channel.
6
Such a shame, I’ll be watching a pot of boiling water around the time of this address.
13
@Daug You've got the right idea. I myself will be watching paint dry.
@Daug
I will be making bread, so I will be watching the dough rise.
For those who don't want to waste their time listening to lies and bluster spewed by a despot put in office because of Russian meddling and high-level collusion, suggest you watch the Texas Tech basketball game at 9 p.m. EST. Or anything else you can find on TV or by streaming. Perhaps "Jeopardy!" reruns, including old ones that will have you cackling at Alex's facial hair and outdated fashions. Or my go-to diversion: Replays of the 1971 Nebraska-Oklahoma football game. (During the Johnny Rodgers TD punt return, remember the mantra: "No flag, no foul.") Tired of seeing alarming and delusional behavior on parade via televised Trump stunts but want to watch something that nonetheless features abuse of power and moral depravity? Download an electronic version of Norwegian author Jo Nesbo's 2018 re-imagining of Shakespeare's MacBeth. (English translation available.) Another bright idea: To see instances where a wall makes sense, watch a professional hockey game. Some sports fans think nothing compares to repeated high-velocity body slams into the boards. Any other great ideas? Please share.
4
Is this article really necessary? We've all been watching Donald Trump for 3 years now, and in that time he hasn't changed one iota.
What to expect? Lies. Lies. Lies. Blaming a bunch of individuals and groups. More lies. Three or four polishings of his own apple. Followed by a few more lies, a couple of whoppers, and, finally, a big smug condescending smirk.
I going to be watching All the Presidents Men at the time, but, that's pretty much what I'd expect Trump's speech to be like. And, while I'm not a gambling man, I'd be willing to bet on this.
5
@Chicago Guy Also "Wag the Dog" with Dustin Hoffman. Excellent film about the power of media in political debate.
1
Why not call it what it is -- an eight minute ransom demand.
27
I am sick of hearing his name. The Justice Department cannot move fast enough.
12
Over/under in Vegas is 27, or three lies a minute.
8
Here's the best advice: DON'T watch it. And, call the networks to let them know you're not watching it. Why submit yourself to being conned by a master?
11
So who's planning to watch the Reality TV president have his very own prime time special tonight where he repeatedly lies to the American public? It's a rerun disguised as new programming. He will just repeat the false talking points. I'll pass.
10
We need a wall on our border. Will it stop all illegal immigration? Of course not, but it will sure help. I am tired of our government not sufficiently addressing illegal immigration just so Democrats can get more voters and so some Democrats and some Republicans can hire cheap labor. I am looking forward to hearing what the President has to say about it this evening.
1
What to watch for? Rambling paranoia based in ignorance. Fear begets fear for the weak-minded who lap up the president's fact-free rhetoric. Slandering the "other" and slapping away outstretched hands of the tired and weak from the comfort of his golden throne.
Murrow said that we are not descended from fearful men, but the next generation almost certainly will be. Fear of empathy and hope. Fear of progress and a brighter future. Fear of a pittance for thy neighbor at no expense to ourselves. Fear of reason and compassion and all the good things that America once stood for. That's what we'll hear tonight from President Trump.
6
Why would I want to watch the man in a bubble speak exclusively to others in the same bubble? No reality here, just nonsense that only the MAGA crowd will believe.
Go have another rally in some backwater place, and leave prime time alone. Those of us outside of the bubble depend on prime time entertainment to get us through this nightmare.
5
Not watching, going with blackout. Trump's political issue isn't a national issue and definitely not a national crisis or emergency. He has successfully built a wall now, a wall between common sense Americans, tolerance, the rule of law, and his dishonest, wingnut WH, cabinet and gop adherents to fear and hatred.
And that wall is already costing 800,000 Americans their paychecks, not to mention contractors and ancillary businesses that depend on workers' patronage. So, consider the "wall" already built. No funding for the campaign gimmick that escalated to his crazy need for a physical wall, simply because gullible gop adherents bought the con. Not a single penny. As Pelosi said, "no wall."
5
I would like the Times to supplement their stream of the President with a real-time fact check, accompanied by a Fact Check Drinking Game. Every time he lies, take a drink!
5
@DaWill Guaranteed alcohol poisoning in 5 minutes.
Oh boy, more FAKE NEWS! How sweet it is to see our President rely upon the media to bloviate and lie- they should shut him DOWN!
2
Not going to watch, but I have been fighting the morbid curiosity of doing so, kind of like observing a slow motion car wreck.
9
We already know his likely make-believe, supported by his made up data and untrue anecdotes, but why would he change his arguments if his 42% voter supporters doesn't change at all? Trump wants to look presidential to his base, that's all. He doesn't expect to change any minds, only to lay the groundwork for his run with emergency powers, his latest "idea". Expect "emergency powers" to occupy the Trump spotlight and headlines into the future. A year from now he will begin his reelection campaign in earnest with 42% support and his fairy tale checklist of accomplishments repeated as often as he declared that Mexico would pay for a wall in 2015 and 2016. He's already tried to turn imaginary tariff income and unrealized USMCA " payments" and "savings" into Mexican payments for a wall that hasn't been extended one inch in two years.
6
“Border security” without a physical barrier is ridiculous. It’s like a house with elaborate 24/7 professional monitoring, but no front door.
If someone trespasses, she/he is immediately entitled to live in the house for about two years until the court convenes in the living room and evaluates the case. During this time the homeowner is responsible for providing food, shelter, education, and health care for the trespasser.
And if the trespasser chooses to not go into the living room when the court convenes, he is still able to live quietly in the rest of the house indefinitely.
And if the trespasser is actually removed from the house, he can return anytime and repeat the process.
Effective home security requires doors that lock. This enables the homeowner to determine who should and should not be allowed to enter. Of course, no locked door can stop 100% of break ins, but that doesn’t mean that a homeowner doesn’t lock the door each night.
Build the wall.
3
@John
Accepting your logic, I'll support a wall with Mexico once you finish the one between the US and Canada.
I live in McAllen, TX and find that doors, locked or unlocked, are generally respected. No invasion here.
This silliness may play in Peoria, but not on the border (where it matters).
1
@John
It feels like you've oversimplified the situation greatly. A 1900+ mile southern border to fence isn't anything like a 2500 s/f house with a door and a security system. The wall of China was started in 7th Century BC and was appropriate for the time and the materials available. Given that fact, I'd say 'we've come a long way baby.' If you have any question on how to outsmart a wall, buy a 12.00 shovel.
@Jmaillot
A locked door or window can be opened for less than $12.
Does that mean that people shouldn’t have doors or windows?
Or does that “oversimplify” it?
1
Trump has already staged a symbolic coup d'état.
He has undermined sectors of our economy, our foreign policy, our rule of law, our health and safety, our standing in the world, our core values that sustained us since our founding, our leadership in science and technology, our long-standing enlightened environmental policies, our progress In race relations, our dedication to a multi-ethnic and multi-religious culture, our commitment to the survival of the human species.
10
Just ask:
Who benefits?
Business benefits when illegal workers enter and flood the labor supply. Larger supplies of labor keep businesses from having to raise benefits or wages to attract scarce workers. So the truth is, if you want to guess who is funding the DNC, look to American businesses and their organizations.
Who els benefits and is probably contributing to the DNC? Drug smugglers, weapons smugglers, traffickers--even foreign nations looking to unload the burden of their unemployed, as they unload their money to safe havens instead of investing it in business to employ their own people.
1
While children blame each other, the country suffers. It no longer matters whose fault it is. Do we want the country shut down until one side accepts the blame and capitulates?
Here are the facts: The President and the Congress each hold power which can prevent the other side from achieving absolute victory. Therefor, whether opponents or supporters of each like it or not, the only-only- way out of the mess is for both parties to reach a compromised settlement. A compromised settlement means that each side gives up something. That's it.
In this case, our nation's survival is not at stake - no matter what anyone says. If each sides gives the other something, it will barely matter to the overall well being of the country. We can scream and yell and blame all we want, but the only way this is going to end is if a compromise is reached.
I know this to be true from decades of experience in negotiating agreements, some very substantial and involving foreign governments. Never say never, because you will be giving up something you want, or accepting something you don't. That's the way it goes.
The president and Congressional leaders can continue, like children, to blame each other, or, like adults, stop blaming each other and work it out. Just like I tell my kids.
4
I understand he is now proposing 1,000 miles of barrier. For those of you on the east coast, that is equal to NYC to Orlando, Florida.
That seems unreasonable.
1
It's called geography. Yes, there is a distance to cover.
I tried to watch his State Of The Union and made it through about 30 seconds. Wonder how long I'll last tonight?
2
The Democrats should have negotiated a televised question-and-answer session with Trump, not a rebuttal that Trump supporters will just shrug off as partisan posturing.
Maybe he's going to announce that he's not going to pay the furloughed Federal employees for the time they haven't worked, but use their unearned wages during the shutdown to pay for the wall? Touchdown dance to follow.
2
This is the kind of fakery that Putin practices in Russia. And Trump's Fox News is not far from a compromised broadcasting arm of the KGB, eh?
18
With a President who has lied 7,200 times to Americans, I think I will clean my toilets during the speech in a symbolic gesture that serves a useful purpose other than listening to more hogwash from the President (for 2 years)
56
Can this ridiculousness be America's "new normal"?? There's a national security crisis, certainment. Its epicenter is in the oval office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. How much more and how long will the citizenry tolerate the flagrant abuse of our Constitution and national resources for personal and private gain? I expect to see cauldrons of boiling tar and feathers being gathered in the Mall any day now.
10
Is someone good at hacking and shutting down all TV network tonight?
15
@Janet - It's called the on-off button.
5
Trump has cornered himself and has no way out now. Pelosi and Schumer have an open field to rip a[art whatever lies he offers tonight. He can on tweet a rebuttal. Humiliating for him.
7
Won't waste my time on the lies and false bravado; however, wouldn't mind reading later about the lowest number of viewers of any televised address.
11
The Republicans' position is it's the Democrats' responsibility to bail Trump out for his repeated Big Lie about Mexico paying for a border wall.
12
I will not watch.
He is a liar.
He has shut down the government and keeps it shut down while McConnell fails to do his job.
Here is how the basic legislative process should work now that the House passed their bills:
-The Senate should vote on the bills the House passed.
-If it passes the Senate, send it to the WH.
-If Trump vetoes, then override if they have the votes.
-If they don’t have the votes to override, start again.
Do you think we should send Mitch the tutorial? Or a link to Schoolhouse Rock tutorial on You Tube: “How a Bill Becomes a Law”
PS just curious...what happened to “I alone can fix it?”
23
@DM
I've been reading and listening to McConnell repeating the mantra that he won't allow a bill to be considered unless Trump will sign it asking myself the same question. I realize the veto override appears in Article I sec. 7, and Trump couldn't recite the first word in the Preamble, but shouldn't Mitch have read that far?
Keep in mind I work in health care with professional staff who don't care what happens. That's the state of affairs for many though often ignored. These are the people who don't vote.
1
Trump will never be able to blame the shut down on the Democrats.
As a conservative pundit, whose name I can't recall, commented many years ago: "You'll never get away with blaming the Dems. The Dems would never shut down the government, they LOVE the government."
8
Not watching, and others who disagree with this theater should not watch either. Trump loves high ratings, so if almost no one watches, we’ve sent an important message.
13
If no one watches, Trump will still claim the highest ratings ever - for any program ever broadcast in the history of US television.
5
How about not watch at all. Its a highly politized address that will likely be full of partisan arguments and not bring a solution closer. I think we should collectively ignore him, as with most toddler tantrums that is often the best course of action.
16
Hello, America. Here is what a president can do under a true emergency. Please read this and see if you are comfortable, no matter what your politics, with allowing Donald Trump to to exercise them:
"Under the powers delegated by such statutes, the President may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens."
No, I didn't think you would be.
13
This is precisely what I’ve always been afraid this “president” would do to achieve his dictatorial ambitions. And then what?
4
We'll keep a light on for you guys tonight, you're always welcome.
19
@Les Schatten Thank you.
1
Thank you, eh?
thank goodness for NETFLIX and Colbert.
12
I think I’d rather watch “The Aprentice” reruns, which is saying a lot, given I have never watched that joke show either.
5
I cannot believe that the networks would actually acquiese to Trump's trumped up political agenda about the border wall.
Like during his campaign he continues to manipulate the media and get free media time. Meanwhile you guys continue eating out of his hands. Wake up folks! Or, minimally make him pay for a political ad.
11
There IS not national security threat! Why do you keep reporting as if there were? It only gives credence to what this is: a deeply dangerous power grab attempt by Trump.
11
Trump dotes on his ratings. Don't give him the pleasure. DON'T WATCH. You know it will be his usual disinformation campaign.
10
It's a car crash, and loath as we are to turn our heads and watch - we'll be watching all the same.
(sigh).... it's the same thing that go him elected.
4
"In a shocking reversal, President Trump has voiced his complete support for a new Amnesty program that will create a legal path to U.S. Citizenship for all current immigrants in the country! The President has also declared that the wall will come down!"
2
I for one can not and will not sit through what ever fantasy Mr Trump has to say about the southern border tonight. I need a break from the daily drumbeat of nonsense and distraction from this White House.
For the past 3-years most everything he has said has been untrue, a stretch of the imagination, or just a rambling disjointed stream of consciousness.
If the American public needs to CONTINUOUSLY guess whether this statement or that claim by the United States President is true how can anyone have any faith in this administration?
The morning will be soon enough to hear from the fact-checkers about tonight's untruths.
5
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the "President Trump isn’t expected to declare a national emergency at the southern border when he addresses the nation Tuesday night about his request for funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico boundary, according to a person who has reviewed drafts of the speech."
However, the New York Time Editorial Board this morning noted that “The number of detainees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities has swelled to unprecedented levels, requiring periodic mass releases.” Trump will probably cite the New York Times and data supplied by the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol to establish a crisis exists without actually declaring a national emergency.
3
A crisis of HIS and ONLY his manufacture.
2
The New York Times and the Democrats are wholly wrong about this. Preventing every action while purporting to be in favor of action is wearing thin. The American voter knows this.
@Hoobert Herver Kansas
Enough said.
I hope the Democrats can sneak in the real news today in their rebuttal that is getting sidelined by the PR stunt:
The Russian attorney that Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort met in Trump Tower to get “dirt” on Hillary is charged with working with the Kremlin GRU in a money laundering case which has ties to Manhattan Real Estate.
AND
Manafort, at the time he was Trump campaign chair, shared polling information with Russian officials and lied about it after his plea bargain.
AND
The Supreme Court rules against mystery corporation from ‘Country A’ fighting subpoena in Mueller investigation.
8
America should boycott the broadcast of this speech and so send a message in a language this president will understand: low ratings. I am really disturbed by all the hype around this evening's address... the media is once again being played by Trump.
9
Bipartisan Coon-McCain bill Feb 2017
1. provide legal status and a path to citizenship for young immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since Dec. 31, 2013
2. calls for the Homeland Security Department to devise a strategy for situational awareness and operational control of the border by 2020.
3. provide a $110 million annual grant for five years to improve coordination between border-patrol agents and state and local law-enforcement officials. It wouldn’t, however, direct any funding for border technology or the more-controversial barriers or wall that Mr. Trump wants.
4. calls for clearing a backlog in the immigration-court system by hiring 55 new judges per year, as well as dozens of staff attorneys, for three years.
5. direct the State Department to submit a three-year strategy aimed at addressing the underlying causes of immigration from Central America to the U.S. Many Central Americans try to enter the U.S. illegally because of severe drug gang violence in their home countries.
TRUMP REJECTS
6
@Dan - Of course, he rejected it. Too many long words.
1
Watch for all the lies. Somehow I doubt we will hear anything else.
32
Reruns of The West Wing on Netflix. That's what to watch for.
20
Line the Border with Trump Casinos....everyone will stay away.
56
Maybe he will announce his resignation.
32
I won't be watching. I've had more than enough of Trump's nonsensical, inflammatory lies for a lifetime.
52
@Jeff Harris
Hear no true facts, see no true facts, and then you won't have to speak any.
2
@Oxford96 Exactly. it's a shame you don't heed such sage advice.
But we'll all enjoy the irony in your statement you can't see.
Watch the guy go off script, unable to contain that monstrous ego.
27
The President’s strategy is just about the most foolish and most risky plan Trump has ever executed. To broadcast untruths, misleading statements, hyped-up scenarios about terrorists and repeating downright blatant lies designed to coerce and change opinion goes on record. It means this: his scurrilous attempt to mislead and change public opinion has nearly 100% nationwide reach, which converts into the highest crime or misdemeanour any sitting president could ever conceivably make. You cannot get a figure higher than “absolute reach” folks. The fact checkers just need to go to the new Congressional committees in the morning and take the oath. Boom! Trump on Toast, oh maybe also lightly diced with a Mexican sauce.
15
"Arizona bears many of the consequences of unlawful immigration. Hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens are apprehended in Arizona each year. Dept... Unauthorized aliens who remain in the State comprise, by one estimate, almost six percent of the population. And in the State’s most populous county, these aliens are reported to be responsible for a disproportionate share of serious crime. See, e.g., Camarota & Vaughan, Center for Immigration Studies, Immigration and Crime: Assessing a Conflicted Situation 16 (2009) (Table 3) (estimating that unauthorized aliens comprise 8.9% of the population and are responsible for 21.8% of the felonies in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
Statistics alone do not capture the full extent of Arizona’s concerns. Accounts in the record suggest there is an 'epidemic of crime, safety risks, serious property damage, and environmental problems' associated with the influx of illegal migration across private land near the Mexican border. Phoenix is a major city of the United States, yet signs along an interstate highway 30 miles to the south warn the public to stay away. One reads, “DANGER—PUBLIC WARNING—TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED/Active Drug and Human Smuggling Area/Visitors May Encounter Armed Criminals and Smuggling Vehicles Traveling at High Rates of Speed.”
The problems posed to the State by illegal immigration must not be underestimated."
Justices: Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer, and Roberts- Arizona v. United States (2012).
4
Let Arizona pay if they are willing to forget that Trump promised Mexico would pay.
5
@TOM. Well done. Facts as opposed to the “Trump is a big meanie” lines that fills this paper and these comments. And note that Sotomayor and Breyer joined the opinion. But the left will say, move along, nothing to see here. I dare say a broken immigration system if not fixed will do far more harm to Arizona in 50 years than climate change.
@Marie
What a wonderful reply--you have accepted as true all the information provided, because it is, and focused instead on the state, as if illegals can't cross state borders. Remarkable.
Trump is a lie wrapped in hate covered in weakness. The wall is a symbol of White Supremacy; a way to keep brown people out of America. Trump's base is scared of not being the White Rulers of America. Economics; jobs is not the issue for Trump base; never was. White Supremacy is what makes Trump strong.Base will stay with him even without the wall; right wing hate media may; repeat may; not.Watch for him to play to White Supremacy tonight. Ray Sipe
25
@Ray Sipe
No, Ray, the wall is not a symbol of white supremacy; it would be if the purpose were to keep out nonwhites, but in fact nonwhites enter legally all the time. The purpose, which victims of DNC propaganda find so difficult to fathom, is to keep out unvetted people.
@Oxford96 No poor sir, he was correct.
Unfortunately for you reality exposed the racist motives behind your movement long ago.
You people are an easy mark, just like Trump.
A few lies. Then a few more lies. And, in the last few minutes, a couple more lies.
22
I'll be watching for fear then lies then terror then lies then self aggrandizing then more lies.
13
so not watching. will take out the trash instead.
17
Don’t waste your time. Instead write to Republican Senators and demand that they grow a spine and quit kowtowing to the Orange Lord of Chaos.
10
How about for every lie he tells he gives up $1 million for the wall and signs one of Nancy’s bills?
10
I feel this is a bit of a dead horse at this point but why are you always so reluctant to say "lie" or "liar" what is the benefit of euphemisms for lying?
8
About Trump's address to the Nation, Melania's jacket said it all: "I really don't care. Do U?"
9
I watched him during the debates. That bloated red rage-face, those angry little balled up fists. No thank you to watching him tonight.
8
I will be watching for the possibility that a meteor shower might pummel his office while he is talking or that a small volcano might erupt in Chevy Chase sending gobs of molten rock to his office a la Pompeii….not Pompeo.
8
Not going to watch this Apprentice re-run, I know all the facts as they stand, which are: Congress already allocated 1.6 or so billion for border security, of which only 10% has been spent. They also offered $25B for a DACA solution which Trump refused. The GOP has controlled the legislature since 2011, with significant majorities under Trump and decided not to fund this wall. Trump shut the government down with total control of all three branches, and now McConnell won't bring House-passed legislation to the floor of the Senate to resolve the stalemate. Meanwhile, fedeal employees are working for free and missing mortgage and rent payments and going without food, which seems pretty much in line with how Trump has run all of his previous businesses, ending in bankruptcy. This is 100% on Trump and the GOP and no amount of showboating on TV will change any of the facts.
32
He is aiming to bankrupt our country
For real
He cares not one whit
He will blame.....anyone else
I think is another comment put it there should be a cost benefit analysis's of does the wall besides maybe increasing security actually have a reasonable chance to economically justify the cost I've seen estimates that we're spending anywhere from 80 to a 140 billion dollars on undocumented immigrants when you look at the total cost I've also read that about a 3rd of the undocumented immigrants are coming from the border, If that's the case and the wall really worked you could probably pay for the wall at a 5 billion dollar cost in a matter of months
@Jdavid
Please provide the sources for your numbers. Breitbart, Info Wars and similar are not acceptable sources.
Let him have his wall. Pay for it with a tax on the rich: 80% marginal rate on personal income of more than $100 million, 70% on 75-100 million, 60% on 50-75 million, 50% on 25-50 million.
8
“Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.”
Article 1, Section 7
It is worth noting that the U.S. constitution does allow for the overriding of a presidential veto.
Mr. Trump does not unilaterally have the power to partially shut down the federal government. If enough Republicans in the house and senate stood up to our would-be dictator, his veto of a spending bill could be overridden. And the shutdown ended.
Trump is helpless without the complacence of GOP senators and congressmen. They share responsibility with the president in prolonging this meaningless though harmful exercise in irresponsibility.
15
Could he pull a LBJ and pledge not to run again? Or a Nixon and resign? I can only hope.
7
What is a crisis in the twisted world of Trump? Certainly not the shut down of the government denying services and pay to its employees. Certainly not his destruction of our standing around the world and the chaos he has caused in our trade. Certainly not that his buddy buddy 'diplomacy ' with North Korea and Saudi Arabia has only led to lies from Kim and a dead journalist. Certainly not that his unbounded corruption is destroying any sense of fair and open government.
Trump's idea of a crisis comes when Ann Coulter or rush Limbaugh wraps his knuckles on FOX news or he misses a round of gold due to presidential duties. The best advice for what to watch for is not to watch at all. His mouth will be moving, but he will be saying nothing at all worth listening to.
4
What to watch? Better suggestion: don't watch. Why give Trump the ratings his ego craves? Instead, read the post-address coverage.
6
I'm going to a movie. I'll read about his filth-driven campaigning tomorrow.
But we really need to conduct another protest in DC against what both Trump and McConnell are doing.
People should march for the right to be decent and humane and for democratic principles - Trump has nothing but contempt for us.
6
Trump sent US army forces to the border just before the mid-term elections. Now they are being withdrawn. So the danger of unlawful immigrants entering the US must be over. Otherwise, why withdraw the troops? Or was that just a fake action to help the GOP in the mid-terms? So now the US must construct a wall to keep out the unlawful immigrants entering the US. Isn't this just another Trump ploy to incite the emotions of his base? Or is this just an attempt to make Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter happy?
4
Watch "Drama Queen Trump"? No. Disinformation through a press that likes being played for ratings isn't my thing. I prefer following a government that is able to govern.
1
Is this the Apprentice bonus clip?
2
I will be watching Armando Iannucci's movie The Death of Stalin at 9 pm. I can't watch The Donald in person anymore, since we all know he just loves all this attention and I refuse to play along. I also think it might be a good thing if he got low ratings, although I guess that might just make him worse. Only the reporters really need to watch. I will catch up with everything after it's all over.
2
@GinaK Extremely appropriate for tonight.
Enjoy the movie.
Apparently, Stormy Daniels has just announced on intsagram that if we all want something interesting to watch tonight at 9pm, she will be folding her laundry in her underwear for 8 minutes.
I know there is something else on TV at the same time, but I cannot remember what it was now...
5
Donald J. Trump has cause terrible problems for Republicans. To remove this problems, Vice President Pence should remove Trump on the 25th amendment.
Instead of Schumer and Peolosi countering Trump, we need an independent auditor on national television immediately after Trump spews his "alternative facts" to fact-check each byte of misinformation he utters. Since he has no concept of separation of powers or checks and balances, this would be an essential check of his misinformation. Would be interesting to note how many lies he can tell in 8 minutes. May be Guinness-book worthy!
3
What to watch for?
The clear message under the muddled message.
The muddled message doesn't much matter, as it changes daily.
The clear message:
Be afraid of others.
They're not like us.
Construe your fear as patriotism.
Pay no attention to those who would ask you
to examine your fears in the light of evidence.
That's fake news.
It's us against them, folks.
If the 'them' includes
a majority of Americans, so be it.
Let's face it,
I can't convince congress.
I can't convince those who've studied the facts of the issue.
Heck, I can't convince most of your fellow citizens.
So prop me up,
because this president thing getting darker by the day
and, frankly, you're all I've got left.
3
I can predict one outcome of the President's address tonight. It will be altered later with a laugh track every time that he deviates from the truth or applauds his alleged prescient "gut feelings." And be seen by millions on the Internet. Could be a top view on YouTube. Instagram and Twitter may crash from too many responses...
And, unlike the United Nations speech, he will have no Nikki Haley to tell him that the hilarity was support.
How to stop this madness:
1)Enforce E-verify for all employment.
2) Switch to merit based immigration - just like Canada.
3) DACA Dreamers and immediate family stays here legally - of course.
This is called sovereignty of our borders.
2
@David
No way. How will Trump staff his businesses?
1
I have a problem with rewarding the illegal immigrant families of the DACA group. No.
Insulting the President is not a constructive strategy. If you want a deal, you will have to meet him halfway.
@Mike Livingston You can only meet someone half way if they go half way so there is a middle ground. Trump does not go half way - it's his way or the highway. You can't negotiate with a person who does not want anything but a total 'win'.
2
@Mike Livingston Why? He started this choas "proudly". He should end it. I could care less about his childish ego.
Your reporting does not hold water: just because the statistics might be lower than expected on illegal border entry does not mean a wall or fence is not worth the effort. That the Dems say $5 billion is a waste to build a wall or fence is laughable; the Feds waste that amount on over-priced toilets. Build the wall or fence; measure the results, and fight over real issues.
1
trump is here because of the political system in this country is broken and just a pinch of white protestant voters (sarcasm). It's getting close to there last stand but not there yet. This is a time when this nation must remember that historically many " superpowers" no longer exist. This entire administration lies! even the vp who probably called in sick when his school was discussing " thou shall not lie" This administration is undermining ever American value I grew up with. I believe there is a Russian agent living somewhere in DC. I hope I'm wrong.
1
What happened to Mexico paying for the wall?
Also, since it's always about him, he must have some way of grifting $$$ out of wall building somehow. And, let's not forget, the emoluments case (MD and DC) is paused right now due to the shutdown (another reason he likely wants to keep things closed as long as possible). So much winning!
7
Not bothering to watch this dog and pony show of lying, illusion and posturing. No wall, no matter what. Don't need to hear a word he says.
44
Affirmation that White House is failing - low ratings. Not watching.
51
He has been off Twitter most of the day. Probably means he is practicing how to be President of the United States. I'm betting they have not been able to get him to look and sound presidential all day so they will be bringing in some Trumpsters to be his crowd. Then he'll be able to read (or somewhat read) the teleprompter and start ad libbing. Will surely be a sight to see.
How sad is all of this for our children and for our country. Let's hope this nightmare ends soon.
44
We have big night planned. First we are going to order a pizza and make a bunch of popcorn. Then watch Mr. Trumps speech. After that, switch back and forth between CNN and FOX. What a night! Way better than a normal night of professional wrestling and reruns of The Apprentice.
We also have some side bets - I am betting Mr Trump does not say "hombre" once tonight. However, I am betting he says "under attack" at least three times.
21
@David C. Clarke David I see you have fully integrated your life goals and dreams with that of the major nitworks. Good for you! I am going to mount a tv to my head so that I can watch the show while jumping up and down on our trampoline. After the show I am going to finally launch myself toward Alpha Centauri in the rocket ship I have been building for the past 4 decades. I am hoping the Donnie will appoint me to be ambassador to whatever habituated planets I find.
1
Watch for the "4,000 terrorists" lie, for starters. The Liar-in-Chief will say "nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists were apprehended attempting to come into the United States" as a basis for the southern wall, when almost all of those terrorists came in through airports, and when the State Department has said there is "no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States." Lies, lies and more lies all dressed up in a national address.
11
" Mr. Trump is using a rare currency — a prime-time address to the nation — to make the case for a border wall with Mexico, an issue that has forced a partial shutdown of the federal government." ....
I disagree: the issue has NOT forced a shutdown. But, a grown man with the mental state of a toddler has forced the shutdown of the US govt. Pathetic. Somehow, there needs to be real-time fact-checking streaming along with the speech.
46
what's the 'over/under' on how many times he says "fake news" and "obstructionist democrats"?
13
Can't stand to hear his voice or see his face, but will grit my teeth and watch.
10
@TJP I agree. I am sick of seeing him. But, I think he'll go off script and utter some inane diatribe, so I'll watch. It's the commentary afterwards that will be the most interesting.
There have been many politicians with whom I have disagreed but to whom I could listen. Trump's steady stream of lies, combined with his sneering delivery, make it impossible for me to listen to him. His speeches are the oratorical equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
13
2020 elections are too far off for this ongoing and never ending embarrassment of a White House. Perhaps its time for the citizenry of this country to peacefully march on Washington and turn up the volume with an American Spring Revolution!
11
Trump is not governing. He's campaigning.
It's a campaign that is antithetical to democracy.
Trump is a nationalist who, on the one hand, condones Neo-nazis - many of whom are admirers of Trump. A white supremacist can murder a counter-protestor in Charlottesville WV, and it doesn't phase him.
On the other hand, he is droning on about how people are "infesting" our country at the southern border, dehumanizing them and criminalizing them in order for the birther to have an enemy that he can barricade his "loyalists" from.
You should never get used to his manufactured crisis and consider this to be normal.
Compare his speech tonight to the speeches made by another "Supremacist" who dehumanized others when he had his loyalists applauding him at his rallies in Germany in the 1930s and realize that Trump should NEVER be regarded as normal OR ACCEPTABLE.
His presidency is obscene.
And so is Mitch McConnell for tabling legislation that could have easily accomplished a 2/3rds majority and thwarted this obscene posturing. McConnell has destroyed his own party, but he should not be able to get away with destroying our country.
To those furloughed, you need to do what the disabled did when McConnell tried to destroy their health benefits.
Bring the fight right to McConnell's front door as well as the White House front lawn.
38
What to watch for: lies, lies and more lies from our embarrassment of a President.
16
How about just don't watch?
23
What to watch for: how many times Trump says "believe me" or "like the world has never seen."
7
Fix Central America, no more migration to USA. If you have a decent life, no one move to foreign land.
3
@N. Garcia Problem is, the USA has tried to 'fix' Central American countries several times, and it has not gone well. And this administration is not capable of doing it any better, if anything it'd be worse.
2
No. We have NO BUSINESS interfering in the internal workings of foreign countries. It's enough they get foreign aid, misappropriated and misused as it is.
Les Moonves lives!! Donald’s not good for the country, but he’s great for CBS ( and NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX...)
4
I’m hoping to watch a resignation!
17
In 2014 after the bipartisan immigration reform collapsed, President Obama wanted announce a series of immigration reforms on TV, to enlist the support of Americans.
According to Vox, "conservative pundits were, at the time, pushing the notion that Obama was essentially seizing power like a Latin American dictator, so essentially anything that refocused the conversation on banal policy details would have played to his advantage. TV networks, however, didn’t give him what he wanted, in part because it was November sweeps time, but officially because he was playing partisan politics rather than addressing a true national emergency."
The question is, why are networks playing Trump's speech? Is it any less political than Obama's? Why are conservatives letting Trump act like a Latin American dictator?
33
@Sherry "The question is, why are networks playing Trump's speech? Is it any less political than Obama's? " Great question . . . It is because Trump actually does $erve the corporate media'$ intere$t$. Our 4th Estate is bought and sold.
How does the cost for the Gateway Tunnel compare to the costs for the wall?
4
Implosion, as we watch. It’s tragic that so many people are the collateral damage.
9
We can watch him in replay if we have the heart to laugh at the dismal spectacle but we should not give him the satisfaction of high ratings on the tv networks.
9
I really can’t watch him. I have blood pressure issues.
48
Trump and his administration are the crisis. Everything he touches becomes a hot mess.
Making a mess of everything and breaking everything (i.e. rules/norms/LAWS even) in the room isn't the work of an outsider.
More like: It's a crisis.
7
Watch for Mr. Trump to look into the camera and lie. This may all be a diversionary tactic, however, as these three stories are all freshly posted on the NY Times site presently:
"Manafort Shared Trump Campaign Data With Russian Associate, Prosecutors Say"
"Supreme Court Stays Out of Secret Case That May Be Part of Mueller Probe"
"Veselnitskaya, Russian in Trump Tower Meeting, Is Charged in Case That Shows Kremlin Ties"
If there is one thing Mr. Trump consistently does to keep his own scandals from taking him down, it's change the subject. Mueller is getting close, and Trump would much rather we talk about the wall and the government shutdown.
So watch tonight for Mr. Trump to say outrageously false things in support of his wall initiative. He will say things that are easily disproven. Pelosi and Schumer will be agape in their response, unsure whether to be diplomatic or to outright call Trump a liar. That's what Trump wants. Everyone will focus on that, even though it's looking a lot more like Mueller has the goods to prove "collusion."
20
According to Border Patrol statistics (one can easily Google the numbers), apprehensions on the southern border, a long used and well recognized measure of illegal immigration, are down OVER 80 PER CENT (roughly 1.6 million to roughly 300,000) since 2000 and that's with more Border Patrol agents than ever. If this wasn't a crisis in 2000, why is it one now?
13
Trump is following Putin's playbook: fabricate an attack, call it a crisis and seize more power. The strategy is not particularly original and there have been many similar diabolic power grabs but Putin's was particularly horrific: Bomb apartment buildings in Russia cities, blame the Chechen rebels, whip up hate and become President. Actually, this is not dissimilar from Russia's invasion into Afghanistan that Trump seems bizarrely familiar with.
What does a real crisis look like?
A crisis is an island hit by a hurricane that knocks out water and electricity leaving thousands to suffer and die.
A crisis is a city with contaminated drinking water.
A crisis is famine caused by indiscriminate bombing that destroys a country's infrastructure and economy.
Let's see if Trump knows what a real crisis looks like and how a real leader should respond.
23
Mr. President,
Please steal the lines from President Johnson's address to the nation, "I shall not seek and will not accept my party's nomination for another term as your President."
25
I'll wait for the transcript.
This POTUS lies so frequently that there is really no point in listening to his real-time speech since it will be full of lies and half-truths with little in the way of actual facts and real substance.
Reagan was able to do the same thing by rambling on and never actually saying anything worthwhile. Reagan's long-winded speeches could easily be condensed down to a sentence or two to get his point across.
Trump rambles too but Trump's rambling is more that of an incoherent madman. He seems to have no clue that most people know he is lying, or maybe he just doesn't care.
This is just going to be a lesson in Trump's political theater where he is going to try to convince his minions that he knows what he is talking about(he doesn't though). I'll be more interested in the Democrats response than Trump's speech as I expect their response to be more intelligent than anything Trump can come up with.
With any luck maybe a few more Republicans will be able to figure out that Trump really has no idea what he is doing, nor what the consequences of his words or actions are.
6
Whats to watch for? All the lies, exaggerations, excuses for his administrations incompetence and twisted logic about how a wall will address the humanitarian crisis that he caused in the first place. Better yet don't bother watching the grifter in chief since he isn't talking to most of us anyhow. They could show this on Fox and hit his target audience where Trumps nonsense is welcomed without question and gives him the adulation he craves all at one time.
5
Trump and his underlings are courting some serious legal jeopardy. Spending federal taxpayer dollars without Congressional authorization is a crime.
A high crime.
For his cabinet officers, there is potential criminal prosecution that can be invoked after Trump leaves office, at which point they have no protection from a pardon. Statute of limitations is long enough to nab them.
As for Trump, it's arguably impeachable, although the Senate won't convict him on this one.
Public opinion will however. Once he blows up airport security scheduling (unpaid TSA agents who will go find work elsewhere to pay the rent) and grinds the air travel system to a trickle, the cameras will be running nonstop, making clips for the 2020 elections that will make Jimmy Carter's follies look trivial.
Pelosi should be introducing a standalone bill right now to fund TSA. Let GOP hang on that one, and the hypocracy of their shutdown..
2
Jan. 25, 2017
Jan 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly, has been clear about his views on a border wall with Mexico: It won’t work.
When asked by senators about his views on a border wall during his confirmation hearing this month, Mr. Kelly, a retired general, said a “physical barrier will not do the job.”
5
Impeachment is an invitation to decades of conspiracy theories and organizing right-wing militias. Two years as a lame duck, slowly twisting in ‘ the wind will do.
3
What awful times we live in, when such a loud cohort of Americans wishes that the national tv stations would block the President's latest effort to rally his base! I am looking forward to the Democrats' rebuttal (we do still have a democracy, folks, and the tv stations seem willing to give "equal time"). It's very important to debunk - in real time - all the lies that we are sure to hear from Donald Trump. Remember, his is the party of "alternative truths" (Kellyanne Conway), and "The Truth Isn't the truth" (Rudy Giuliani), and of course, Sarah Huckabee Sanders on a daily basis (with Kellyanne Conway today explaining that Sarah told some "misfortunate mistakes"). What a crew!
4
Is exaggerations, hyperbole and stretching the truth lying? Critics will say of course; supporters no it's his historical salesmanship "stick." Did he lie about the concrete wall and Syrian withdrawl? Again, yes and no - because some would argue he really believed it would be concrete and the troops would come home now when he said those things. But aides and experts convinced him to change his mind and along with it his rhetoric. POTUS can and should at times change their minds.
Tonight is important to his presidency. All 150 here say yes a liar. Everything he says will be fact checked and results reported by Nancy and Chuck. Let's see what the favorability polls say post address. It will be importantly predictive.
On the plus side there will probably be an uptick in TV sales tomorrow after indignant viewers put bricks through the screen of their old ones during tonight’s broadcast.
“You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”
A Lincoln
3
If one is going to take notes of what Trump says tonight it makes more sense to jot down the truthful statements. It's a lot less work than writing down the lies.
3
What to Watch: Watch President Pathological reprise his Big Con.
6
@Jim Steinberg The ONLY thing to watch will be Nancy Pelosi's rebuttal at the end to turn a light on all of the LIES!
2
There is a national security crisis....but it's in the Oval Office highchair....not at any border.
112
I will not watch the lying Clown make a mockery of our government or our republic. Everything he will say is a lie, because he is a liar, a cheat, a grifter, and a con man.
The only thing I want to watch is the Congress put him in his place - outside the White House looking in from across the barricades, before being led away in handcuffs.
107
Inevitably Trump's 8 minute address will be packed with lies which the networks will spend hours pulling apart and the media tomorrow will be doing the same. This is not a winning strategy for Trump.
15
While they tediously fact-check, he'll simply move on to a bigger, funner set of lies.
To paraphrase an old political maxim, if you're refuting, you're losing.
These times, and this infirm man, call for a different approach.
1
Rather than yet more coverage of the liar's lies, how about eight minutes' worth of factual material, narrated by a person or person known for truth-telling. Suggested topics: (a) what the administration has done to enhance border security with the money it already has; (b) health and custody status of migrant children; (c) the role of American-made weapons in violent crimes and criminal organizations south of the border; (d) the administrations plans to combat drug addiction in the U.S.
398
@childofsol,
Answers:
(a) - nothing.
(b) - poor
(c) - large
(d) - nothing
What were we gonna do with the other 7 minutes you allotted?
22
Where is the cost benefit analysis , or analyses, for the wall? Seems pretty basic that before we spend that kind of money we should have an idea what return we can expect. Basic good business practice.
Of course there’ll be a range of estimates depending on the underlying assumptions, so let’s have several estimates so Americans can decide which seem right and, then, whether the money would be well spent or not.
225
it's not about the money. It's about our values. We don't build walls here.
69
@Charles A security analysis was prepared by the U.S. Border Patrol Agency.
It recommended to build physical barriers (wall/fence) at different points along the U.S./Mexican border.
8
@Charles
Based on my various undergraduate & business school economic & accounting courses, my analysis is as follows:
Lots of cost
minimal benefits
65
No money for a wall! if this is an emergency, I'm a nuclear physicist.
Congress already allocated funding for increased border security, money the administration hasn't spent,
He wants money for a wall only for his political survival. That's obvious.
A campaign lie thus becomes an excuse for shutting down the government?
This president is abusing his power for his own ends. Abuse of power is one of the grounds for impeachment.
99
"What to watch for?" Nothing.
19
No thanks. Much better things to do. Like watching paint dry.
31
@Chana
Yup, I'd rather be dragged through cactus.
This article should have simply been one word: "Don't".
Anything else is sure to be nothing less than intentionally subjecting yourself to baseless assertions, fear mongering, xenophobia, and outright lies. Nobody anywhere has anything to gain from watching this naked propaganda, and every news outlet that airs it ought to be ashamed of themselves.
14
There's also the 'why now' issue, and why was this Not a 'crisis' during the first two years of unified GOP rule?
Nothing related to immigration has deteriorated significantly, and the question lays bare the fact that this exercise is a make-weight negotiating ploy from a guy who's holding a losing hand.
"WOLF"- calling never ends well.
19
But calling "GOP" always does.
Thanks for building our brand.
Hugs and kisses,
Your Grand Old Party
@Lorem Ipsum My party? Used to be, when I was young and foolish. Maybe there's hope for you, too? Maybe not.
1
If this is so important, then, why didn’t he do it while he had his party controlling both the house of reps and senate? What has he been doing the last two years?
If his party didn’t do it for him, why should dems so it?
63
Trump may try to come up with something very strong here. This may be the breaking point, where the only sensible answer for American democracy would be to impeach him.
23
Thanks for organizing this "response in advance." The facts are a great immunization against propaganda.
With $5.7 billion, President Trump could fund those 7,500 open positions Rep. Gonzalez mentioned for 6 years, at $125,000 each/year, with enough left over for the occasional pizza party.
15
@David Doney I find the propaganda coming from the Democrats who are eager to legalize everyone and have never supported deterrence like E-Verify. If you make it so they can't get jobs you will automatically stop a lot of the economic migrants from coming.
1
@judyweller Well, Judy, the GOP had the House and Senate under their control for the last 2 years. A simple majority is needed to get E-Verify into law. So why didn't the GOP do it? Simple answer: They did not want to. They LOVE illegals who work for low wages and are afraid to complain. So try to think about that. Bigly.
5
@judyweller - The building trades and the restaurant business (mighty small margins in the latter) would pretty much collapse without cheap immigrant labor.
The builder's associations overwhelmingly support Republican candidates. I wonder why?
If Trump gets away with declaring a national emergency where one does not exist, it will be a dangerous step, dangerous to Democracy and the country; the first step to impose dictatorial fiats by declaring something [criticism of him?] a "national emergency." If he is allowed, he will see it as a declaration of unlimited powers.
19
We have a crisis every day and that is the only truth Trump has spoken out of a reported 7600 lies since he became president. 7600 lies in 2 years. Think how many he has made since he was born.
Trump causes one crisis after another. Creates one debacle after another. Points fingers at everyone else for the messes he makes and then waits for others to clean up after him.
This is not government for the people but against the people. His government shutdown is proof of these words.
27
For some time, I've made it a practice to lunge for "off" at the first vocal chord of Putin's Orange Twitter Muppet.
I may read the transcript (to the point where I detect the first half-truth), but the man has issued such a dependable discography of diarrheal effluvium that enough is enough. Trump is to Presidential Addresses what "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" is to Christmas music.
If we listened more to the people he's covering for--those who are trying to steal the country--and less to him then we'd all be better informed.
18
The Times article says Trump's speech will be scrutinized but unless it's in real-time through a split screen, crawl, or someone shouting over him offstage, scrutiny aka fact-checking won't affect people who should be affected: the six out of ten people who think Trump's doing a good job; Republican Party members and elected officials who choose to ignore facts and fail to hold him accountable.
All news outlets out to fact-check and correct him--and call him out as a liar of lies--or boyucott the speech or both.
6
Major networks should NOT broadcast this propaganda. They refused to broadcast Obama's address on immigration. On what grounds do they justify giving Trump free airtime?
19
@Jim W, because he's president, what he has to say is newsworthy and he hasn't abused the use of national broadcasting. That said, he will lie and exaggerate and generally say irrational things. Then hopefully the democrats will use their rebuttal time to call him on the stupidity of closing down part of the federal government because of a phony crisis and a real crisis both of which aren't solvable by walls, concrete or otherwise.
I can't wait to hear this highly important address from President Donald J. Trump on border security and the need for the wall. I plan to watch it on FOX, of course, as it will follow the Tucker Carlson Show. I never miss Tucker Carlson.
This address will go down as one of the greatest in the history of great presidential addresses. President Trump will make his case for the wall, a case that must be made for the security of each and every one of us.
Then I will listen to the response from the liberal opposition; listen to their reasons why the nation does not need a wall, why the nation must not be secure, why the nation needs a flood of unskilled labor from Central America, why the nation needs MS-13, why the nation needs a steady flow of drugs; why the left needs to increase its voting block. Need I go on?
All of the reasons why the left does not the wall are the reasons why we need it!
I support the President. I support Trump. America First! MAGA! Thank you.
1
@Southern Boy Illegal aliens commit less crime than US citizens, we're no less secure from illegal immigration, since illegal immigration is down over 80% from 2000, than we were in 2000. Farmers are having a very difficult time finding enough labor to harvest their crops, which is the food that we all eat. Most illegal drugs enter the country through regular ports of entry.
6
Even the walls of Jerico fell. If you're a Christian you should know Walls Don't Stand. The walls at the Alamo didn't hold. The Great Wall of China is obsolete. The Berlin Wall came down. The Trojan Horse in Greek mythology was brought into the City of Troy. A great walled city where Greek soldiers were able to take the city of Troy after a fruitless ten-year siege. WALLS DON'T WORK. So continue to believe trumps lies.
2
@Southern Boy
Why not require eVerify screening for all would be employees?
If there are issues with eVerify (system/logic issues) then the government should work speedily to resolve them. Anyone caught employing a person here illegally should thereafter be fined.
The Times would like us to believe that Trump is not the President. Wrong. He IS the President. That gives him the right to speak to the American people. Journalists who claim that they alone have the right to determine who holds office are a far worse Constitutional threat than anything Trump has to say.
3
@Cloudy
Where did the NY Times say that Trump does not have a right to speak to the American people? And everyone in the country if fully, PAINFULLY aware that Trump is the President of the United States. In fact, it would be kind of pointless to have all these debates about whether to impeach him if he weren't holding office.
What I do not think YOU realize is that Trump's title as president does not make him any less the liar he has been his entire life. It just makes him orders of magnitude more dangerous to the country and world at large. I also think Trump is ignorant about the relationship between the 3 branches of government. Congress is in charge of taxing and spending. There's a lot of ambiguity in the U.S. Constitution, but that much is crystal clear. That's one of the checks on presidents doing whatever they please. If Trump insists on using the military to circumvent limitations on his power, Mueller's report may become a moot point as far as Trump's impeachment is concerned.
2
How far would Trump go in misleading the American people to protect his interests. Trump is obviously compromised by Putin and pushes his false narrative about Afghanistan as a favor it seems. Trump seems to enjoy playing some of the American people as fools willing to believe whatever falsehood he or his administration puts out to protect his image. Trump's taking over the airwaves to campaign to his base is the start of the end of his political career.
7
The oldest literary piece I know of that best describes the futility of walls in deterring a motivated intruder is the nearly 3,000 year old ancient poem/folk song from the Classic of Poetry (Book of Odes), "Zhongzi, Please!"
In three stanzas, we see the outsider Zhongzi climb over three walls (city, compound, and garden) to get to get to his taboo love interest.
So, sure, Walls (and wheels!) are ancient technologies, but people have been climbing them from the moment they were invented.
And I might be, too, if this Trump charade carries on much longer. Crazytown threatens to engulf us all.
7
Trump’s in a box. If he doesn’t declare a national emergency now, he’s lost his chance to claim sufficient emergency exists. If he does declare an emergency he is going to be exposed as a power grabbing executive stepping on core Article I powers and private property rights and he still won’t get a wall.
Trump’s deplorables will be satisfied with Trump acting like a dictator, wall or no wall, so he’s going with option 2.
2
Let’s not watch. Do not give him the ratings he craves. Just read about his lies and fear-mongering the next day.
4
Will all of the undocumented workers who work for the Trump organization be on the audience for this truthful speech?
6
'What to Watch For in Trump’s Immigration National Address', coherent speech? two sentences strung together? a single sentence that does not repeat a word less than three times? anything truthful? any praise that is not directed at himself? or what about any shred of humility?
3
1. None of the 9/11 terrorists came in through the southern border
2. Drugs a demand, not a supply problem.
3. Most to the town closest to the border do not want a wall.
14
Apparently the networks are unanimous is offering Mr T a piece of rope.
I take no comfort in whether or not he will declare a national emergency. There is a national emergency - and it is named "Donald Trump." God bless the United States of America - and pray for us.
16
I will NOT be watching this. And the networks shouldn't cover it. It will be another one of his hate rallies, filled with lies and propaganda.
3
As NYT is inclined to with anything Trump, you completely ignore the fact that we have over 10 million unauthorized immigrants residing in the US. We are perhaps the only country in the world that would allow that many economic refugees (mostly) live AND work in their country without government permission.
to deny that this situation has contributed greatly to the decline of wages for low skilled workers is completely disingenuous.
Our immigration system is also terribly racist in that it allows the Latin economic refugees to scamper across the boarder while the Middle Eastern war refugee must queue up and wait..
Yes, we do in fact have an emergency, Congress has failed to address immigration reform for the past 40 years.. We deserve better from our representatives.
we also deserve more objective reporting from the once magnificent NYTIMES.
2
@Rex you completely ignore that the majority of illegal immigrants came here via legal means over stayed their visas. The answer is not a wall but immigration reform. I agree that this is contributing to "servitude" in the form of meager wages. Then the fault lies on the employers!
1
@Rex You've spoken like a true Trump supporter, ignoring what you don't agree with and exaggerating facts to suit your purpose. Yes, there are over 10 million illegal immigrants living in this country, but the numbers have steadily declined from a peak in 2007 when they representated approximately 4% of the population to today's level where they represent about 3.3%. They are overrepresented in the agricultural and construction industries where they are underpaid for performing work USA citizens dislike. They are far less likely to commit crimes. This is not intended to say illegal immigration is acceptable--it's not--but it does suggest that their presence certainly is not a national emergency. More certainly their presence is not a justification for an ineffective wall which will be a blight on our landscape and an environmental catastrophe. Finally you completely overlook the fact that the waste of $5 billion to build a wall is being promoted only because Mr. Trump wants to appease his base, not because it has any logical justification.
2
@Rex, none of your points has anything remotely to do with Trump and his stupid wall. Its a political stunt and will not address our broken immigration system. As to congress addressing reform, every time it has been tried it has been scuttled by reactionary conservatives who see no value in solving a problem that gives them so much political juice. Finally you might want to check your own racism when describing people from south of the border as scampering across the border.
1
What to watch: Watch him lie some more.
13
Because of his bigoted, campaign promise, and being goaded by his "fake right wing news" acolytes, Trump is hurting millions of other people needlessly due to his very own, Trump shutdown.
Millions more Americans, are being hurt daily with evictions, shut downs, lack of food and shelter, along with the subject federal workers who are also needlessly suffering. Trump could care less about anyone other than himself, his family and friends in their personal swamp, along his increasing his personal wealth.
It's time to stop his parade with this issue. He is aiding in the termination of his "Presidency" in 2020, and perhaps sooner, the longer he continues with his rants and rage.
We did not elect a dictator. We elected and expected a President. He is neither, and does not deserve to continue.
76
Administration: the management of public affairs; government.
So far we have not seen this president manage public affairs.
26
This is all GOP creation and is GOP now.. sponsored by Mitch M.
If Mitch was truly a patriot, he would have supported Obama when he wanted to announce Russian interference in Summer of 2016. He didn't because it favored him and GOP.
And since then, he has been instrumental undermining democracy starting with Judge Garland.
Let's not allow these traitors to get away with any thing much less an emergency of their own making.
183
Totally agree. Mitch is complicit and a traitor. These guys must go.
14
Shelters are overflowing, BCP is having to release people because they don't have capacity, and we are seeing unprecedented numbers of families and unaccompanied minors. You can read all about this on the NYT pages on a weekly basis. We have a refugee crisis at the southern border, and it should be addressed as such. These are refugees from violence, grinding poverty and corruption in Central America. Building a wall is not the answer to a refugee crisis.
86
@Joel G
Actually it is. It doesn’t solve the crisis, but, then again, the crisis isn’t our problem to solve.
I really, really hope the networks delay the live feed by 5 minutes so they can post all of the falsehoods, misstatements and exaggerations up on the screen.
269
This is classic Trump: preening for a national audience. In fact, isn't this what he has wanted all along - a reprise of "The Apprentice" where he can play a character with almighty power? - except now he is the one deserving of a pink slip!
121
@We the People. The Apprentice President. Tell him "You're fired!"
4
The only crisis at the border is a humanitarian one. Shame on this administration.
230
@Paula I agree but I've seen Trump, Sanders, COnway and otheres say the humanitarian crisis is why a wall is needed...! It's beyond gaslighting.
2
Shame indeed; the humanitarian crisis was created by them, for their “base”! There is no national security crisis, apart from Trump et al.
4
Tonight’s special guests will include:
- All of the Presidents who advised Trump to build the wall
- The President of Mexico who will present a check for wall construction
- Someone who has a friend whose uncle knew a guy who heard about an immigrant double-parking.
329
@Jack
There are many who have an empty seat at the dinner table and a box of ashes on the mantle because of crime by illegal immigrants. Have some empathy.
Trump is not entertaining any more; he turned dull and boring the day he was elected. I will watch a movie instead. (Thanks for asking.)
33
What should we watch for? NOTHING!!
All the major networks have capitulated and will be the megaphone for his bloviating bullying bluster.
Here's what you should do tonight:
Go to the library and check out the Schlesinger's "The Imperial Presidency" and once firmly educated on Congress' abdication of authority to the executive branch DEMAND that Representatives and Senators alike unite to strip back as much authority as possible so that our progeny thanks us for saving the Republic from this overbearing ogre and any future would be authoritarian tyrannical megalomaniacs.
Like Lennon said, "The War Is Over (If You Want It)...
90
What to watch for? For starters, I’d say (1) Lies; (2) More lies; (3) Weird syntax and gestures; and (4) Grandiosity.
190
If any wall should be built, it should be along the Canadian border where all the cold air is coming from! But on a serious note, investing billions and billions, and probably more billions, of tax payer money on something that can be out smarted by a ladder and some rope (or if you find yourself at the edge of a border wall, walking around it) is a waste of money.
32
What to watch for: lies. Mr. Trump will lie. The only question is what is the over/under on how many lies Mr. Trump will utter.
39
Why would we watch and listen to a man who has no credibilty? None.
Telling lie after lie. Sewing division, hatred and racism, and twisted sick fantasies.
Mr. Trump has been given more than a fair chance to rise to the occasion.
He may be the POTUS, but he now has zero credibility.
We have already paid attention to this unbalanced individual far more than we should have.
64
The press has certainly had more lies and Miss Representation of the facts than Trump and for those people who say they won't watch, it just goes to show that the left and liberals don't want to know the facts...They ought to be made to pull a shift with border agents on week so they can learn something.
2
@Tony J Mann
Still, a wall fixes nothing.
@Tony J Mann - Have you pulled a shift with border agents? If so, let's hear about that.
In the meantime - go to this link and learn something about facts and misrepresentation. (Note - no capitals required or misspellings)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/
1
@Tony J Mann With all due respect, sir, I'm confused by your comment. If you've read just this article, the one you're commenting on, how can you say the facts are being covered? The article is, pardon the expression, rife with facts. It's why I read beyond the headline--because I want to know the facts and links to footage and other facts in this the article.
Speaking of facts, we all know Miss Representation has already won the 2020 Miss Universe beauty contest.
Let him peddle his lies, and then let the media and others expose them immediately afterward. Whatever credibility he has left will crumble and the truth will reveal him truly as the emperor with no clothes. Perhaps this is the moment in history marked as the fitting end of Trump.
37
Do not give credence to his lies. Do not satisfy his ego with TV ratings. Do not waste your time. Do not watch him tonight. He will be stoking the fires of racism, nationalism and fear; he will be reading you a bedtime story whose ending is the stuff of nightmares. He will be defaming his office and degrading our democracy. The national emergency took place at his inauguration. The remedy is clear: investigate, indict, and impeach. With our persistence, our Congress will take action before it is too late. The only wall we should fund is the one that encloses his cell. The only time I will watch him speak from the Oval Office is the night he announces his resignation. Tonight I'll be watching Rachel!
56
@JS
Unfortunately he is preempting Rachel tonight.
3
Propaganda, exaggeration, lies, they lead to one source, one man, one con, one fraud, one fake. The question is not whether this President can be believed or trusted. The question is whether Donald J. Trump should continue to be given the title, President of the United States of America. The majority of citizens say NO!
30
What I'll be watching at this Presidential Address? The running ticker-tape below the screen showing the lies for every word espoused from Trump's mouth.
6
@NNI I wish I could believe that ticker tape would be running tonight. :(
I hope and pray Trump goes off-script from his prepared remarks, for entertainment value if nothing else.
18
Trump will make his exaggerated arguments, the Democrats will counter with statistical evidence of the truth.
What then?
This is no longer about the wall. It is about the narcissistic whims of an unhinged president. Now is the time for those Republicans in Congress, who know in their hearts they are complicit in their silence, to reconsider their positions. As citizens of the United States of America it is time to do the right thing for the country.
123
@M. Winchester
Well said! Well said indeed.
I am in complete agreement with your well-written comment.
Thanks.
6
@M. Winchester
The right thing is to secure our border, eliminate illegal immigration, be it with a physical wall or a virtual, sensor-based technological wall, and deport 100% of the illegal aliens in the country. Then we can follow up with an expanded guest worker program.
Look carefully when you see his lips moving. It will indicate that he is lying.
25
Tonight Trump is going to use all the reality TV lessons he was taught by Mark Burnett to lie, swindle and fear monger the citizens he swore to protect and defend.
17
We know he is going to lie. He will be speaking. The only people who will seem to make sense of it will be on Fox News.
What have we become?
12
Why would sensible persons allow trump to lie to them? One cannot allow his deceptions into their living room. Much of what trump says is putin's lies about all things Russia. trump does nothing for his base, though they'll never know it.
6
Watch Phony Don?! I’d rather watch paint dry.
13
I won't watch him lie. And, he WILL lie. I'll watch the Democrats for the fact check.
8
By all means focus on "The Wall" so as to divert attention away from Mueller and Russia.
8
Why would anyone waste their time watching this liar speak? I understand the news channels motive to broadcasting his address - they want to provide the public w information directly from the White House - what is supposed to be the most reliable source of information. Unfortunately this administration has proven itself as grossly manipulative of the people it governs and promotes false information. The news channels should not promote the spreading of the falsehoods spewing out of the White House! Is this not the media's chance to stand up to the person who is leading an assault against them?
12
Lies,... and more damnable lies.
To add to the 6,000+ falsehoods Trump has uttered since January 2th 2016 by the Snake Oil salesman who failed at selling steaks, a university, a casino and numerous other business ventures.
The 'Art of the Steal' is a more honest title for the book by this con man called Donald J. Trump Sr. (a.k.a. Individual #1)
I for one will not watch this man lie any more. I'll vote him out of office in 2020 unless he resigns or is impeached before that time.
9
Why would any normal person want to watch this? Most of us are sick and tired of the unending parade of lies. Yes, Trump is "President" but his behavior has so degraded the office that he no longer deserves its platform. I think I'll turn the TV off.
71
This is a Prime Time Campaign rally, for his base. Therefore, I’ll be giving it exactly the respect it deserves. I’ll be watching to see the preview of the new shades of “ springtime orange “ for both his “ hair “ and spray tan. Also, it’s always entertaining to guess which drugs the White House Doctors have persuaded Him to try. Just saying.
3
I will not watch. Not even sure I can listen to his horrid grating voice. He will just spout more inarticulate lies. The Dems, in response, should just play a never-ending loop of him saying Mexico will pay for the wall and that he takes responsibility for the shut-down (indeed that he's proud of it).
21
We already know what to expect, don’t we? Hyperbole; blame game; fear-mongering; lies large and small; thinly veiled racism and not at all veiled xenophobia; a phony declaration of ‘national emergency’ and the threat of unilateral executive action if Trump doesn’t get his hands on $5.6 billion of our tax dollars, just for starters, to throw away on a symbolic gesture for his own aggrandizement in the eyes of the faithful members of his cult of personality disorder.
Perhaps he’ll at least be able to read the ludicrous script — penned by Stephen Miller with input from Sean Hannity no doubt — without stumbling over too many words, making weird faces and hand gestures, and interjecting too many ‘believe me’s’ and ‘strongly’s’ and other Trumpian verbal tics and hiccups to cover the stumbles.
What a pathetic excuse for a President. A walking, talking leadership vacuum. A black hole.
16
I've got much better things to do than listen to "it" speak about anything. It's just gonna be a bunch of lies. Don't you remember the boy who cried wolf. Wolf! In this case i cry "Creep" "Creep"
7,000 plus lies and counting. Please join me in watching a good sporting event instead.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if no one watched?
6
Since trump is holding government workers hostage, perhaps he'll as for a couple of 800 billion dollars and a plane to get him out of the country. Hmm, what else do hostage taker deal for? Oh, escort to the airport, oh, an a russian pilot, who does not expect to return to America. that's about it.
3
Trump is intent on extorting a wall from the American people. Any capitulation to Trump’s bluster and balderdash in blackmail demand will echo on as the rant-and-rage of total oppression of a dictator. Having wrenched his way to a wall provides the momentum and leverage Trump is further looking for to boast how great, all powerful and unstoppable he is.
4
What Trump is doing, holding American workers as hostages in his bid to build a wall only he needs, is disgraceful. He is not a leader; he is a master of lying, deceit, manipulation and showmanship.
He is not a king or a dictator. He should stop acting like one.
His speech tonight will undoubtedly contain "alternative facts", which he just makes up and expects the American people to believe. We're smarter than that.
Democrats and Republicans need to get together and prove this nation is truly a democracy...and that a wall is a complete waste of our tax dollars. Not a waste of Trump's tax dollars because he probably didn't pay taxes. But without seeing his tax returns, who can tell?
5
When I think of all the blowhards I have had to listen to in survival jobs or in playwrights groups, in rehearsals, and even as a child as some insecure grown up tried to throw their weight around, I don't see a way to watch tonight. It is like chalk on a blackboard. The Democrats yes.
5
I thought this said, “Trump’s Imagination Address” , when I first opened the story.
7
There’s nothing to watch “for” tonight when Trump spews his lies. I’m surprised the networks would allow the President this air time knowing very well Trumps penchant for “ exaggeration “ and falsehoods. He’s like a human Random number generator, spewing out statistics that have no basis in fact. What should we watch for from Trump tonight? How about just not watching tonight!
3
I'll be interested to know why the U.S. will now be paying for the wall and not Mexico.
7
We have more to fear from a 'safety' perspective from our fellow American citizens already within our own borders, than we do from any 'dangerous' Mexicans or Central Americans.
Sure, one can always find a 'criminal' or two among the thousands who are trying to come here via Mexico. But why is it that we fear the potential for a criminal or two from Mexico, more than we do from our own country? Well clearly because the prez knows the power of Fear-Mongering, that's why.
Can anyone show a valid example of a 'terrorist' who entered the US via.... Mexico??!! This talk of a 'national security crisis' is classic Trump PR spin, and nothing more. We are in far more personal danger from home-grown terrorists, white nationalists and the NRA.
4
It’s incongrous and surreal that Trump address the nation like real presidents have done in the past. The main difference is that he is a lying sociopath, the others weren’t.
7
Let's all start calling this steel barrier Trump's 'Iron Curtain'.
7
As my mother (the late Miss Scarlett) said, "There is no defense against an accomplished liar."
If our current president is nothing else, he IS an accomplished liar.
Lots of luck to all of us and the USA!
17
OK, he set up the national address.
Let's see what he has to say. Three gets you five that all he will do will be to dig his hole deeper, but you never know.
Regardless, it will be entertaining.
What to watch for? NOTHING!!
All the major media organizations have reduced themselves to nothing more than Pravda and the cowardly echo chamber for his sure to be false inflammatory lies simply by covering it.
Rather than cover this charlatan's charade I propose that America and the world and do something productive and educational...
Go reread Shelley's "Ozymandias" to see how this ends...
7
@Michael there's also the best-seller "Whose boat is this boat".
It's a primer on what NOT to say to hurricane survivors.
..., “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” (Plato)
46
His sycophants in the administration are already out in full force repeatedly lying to the American people. We know full well he will lie; it’s guaranteed. What a sad spectacle.
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What to Watch For in Trump’s Immigration National Address: LIES.
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Trump's promise to build a wall will be the final nail in his political coffin. Who knew? I thought it would be his Russian pals.
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Do we have to watch?
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America rejected McCarthyism once before. Will it again?
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@Shillingfarmer - The consensus to reject took quite a while to build. And McCarthy's long coattails gave us Nixon, Reagan, and the odious lawyer Roy Cohn---not surprisingly, Trump's former lawyer and one of his key mentors.
They were/are all experts in the ways of scapegoating for political gain.
Why would anyone watch this?
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I won’t be watching. I’ll read the transcript later along with the fact checks. Is there any day that goes by when this man isn’t the Liar in Chief?
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So now he is delivering his message to the American people via fake news media?
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This is ridiculous. Give him the 5 billion for his wall and get something you want in return. This is a layup for the Democrats and they're blowing it. Schumer and Pelosi blow through 5 billion before lunch most days. The USA is $21 trillion in debt and these useless politicians on both sides of the aisle are making things worse. Where are the adults? I expected more from the Democrats. Useless!
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@Johnny dangerous
Well, yeah, except Trump isn't offering anything except a choice between materials - would you like that in concrete or steel? A resolution to DACA's legal limbo would be nice, but Trump refuses to talk about anything except his great, glorious wall.
Also, why is Congress obligated to waste taxpayer dollars on a non-solution to a non-problem? Nobody wants the wall, and nobody wants to flush all that money down the drain, either.
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@Joe S. we blew at least 4 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan and this paper gave Bush a red carpet into Iraq.
@Johnny dangerous He will be asking for another $5B in to time under whatever reason he comes up with. Could be a roof, space force, or telepathic slippers. Anyone with a 2-year old can come up with examples. It does not even matter that 5.6B is not enough for even half of the wall. Facts do not matter here: it is all about a glowing lollipop, or an air carrier painted pink. Even his closest staff can not predict what's next. Sure, give him $5B.
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Let's see, what to do tonight?
Get lied to by a born to privilege draft dodging coward or go the movies instead?
'Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse' here I come.
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What to Watch For?
A stream of lies and word salad. We didn't need a full article for this.
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I'd love it if the NYT ran a live fact checker on the bottom line during the speech. Contesting the alternative facts as they appear and not after might have a unique effect.
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No need to prepare dinner tonight folks. We’ll be served a boatload of baloney by this deplorable president.
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great post!
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Watch for a grain of truth. Hint: you won’t find one.
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You want national security? Spend 5 billion of American tax payer dollars to fix our crumbling roads, highways and bridges. Not on a wall.
Besides Trump said Mexico was going to pay for the wall. He said this time and time again. And he said they would enjoy paying for it! Here's one example from The Guardian last May: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3cBvP6b8O4
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President Trump is not going to provide any new arguments for his wall. The news channels already know what's going to be said. Likely all of it has already been fact checked. So why don't the networks have this information ready, as he's speaking? Have a ticker constantly running throughout his address and fact check him instantaneously.
And to be perfectly fair, you have the same opportunity to do it with the democrats' response. Fact check everyone, while they're speaking, and correct and clarify.
11
I, for one, will not be watching Trump's message tonight. There is better fiction available for viewing with far better plots and more credible actors on Netflix or Prime.
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Boycotting it would be best - more meaningful.
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I wish the networks had not granted Trump any prime time. He will just repeat the lies and inaccurate figures and some people in the US will believe him and think there is really a crisis. Actually there is a real crisis in this country and the crisis is that Trump has not been impeached yet.
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I am torn about whether to watch this. Frankly, I think this is a brilliant move on Trump's part, and I fear that it will move the debate in his direction.
And it will make my stomach turn.
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@Cousy I would need far too much alcohol to actually listen to Trump's voice for that period of time, but once he concludes, I will pay close attention to the Dems' reply
.
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The only 'national emergency' on the border is the one that Trump has caused. And whatever happened to "Mexico will pay for it"? This is exactly the type of bait-and-switch that Trump's businesses engaged in for decades in NYC.
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@NH
30,000 unauthorized entries is a national emergency. The wall won't solve the problem, but it is a national emergency.
I'd watch if Mr. Mueller made an appearance and had him arrested on live tv.
Since that's not likely to happen, it'd be a good time to clean the cat box.
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@Ron Brown
That's been my thought, too! Someone mentioned that declaring a false state of emergency is a crime. I'd love to see Mueller stride in and cuff him. I want Mr. Resident and his reality show circus to visit the big house.
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Border security is probably one of the most important national security issues facing the United States today. Our children will be paying for the debts of the 14,000,000 illegal immigrants currently in our Country, on our payrolls, going to our schools, and using our health care system. Interestingly, Democrats were all for more border security until Trump wanted it. The videos of the Democrat presentations on this subject are easily found and often aired. Those who do not take this issue seriously are taking the United States for granted or trying to ensure they do not lose the next Presidential election to Trump. So sad.
@RCS
Does not one of those 14,000, 000 on the payrolls contributes now? Will none in the school system contribute in the future? There is case that many of those will also be paying for debts of native- born Americans too, surely?
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@RCS those on payrolls pay income taxes and Social Security taxes. They won't be able to collect benefits.
They will also be paying state and local property taxes. In many places, it is property is those property taxes that fund the schools.
The only medical care they can get for free is in emergency rooms.
Contrary to what the Trump Administration & RW radio are saying, Democrats are in favor of border security. But, it should be done effectively. There was a bipartisan bill that passed years ago which provided about 700 miles of strategically-placed fencing. There are much better ways to protect our border than filling a campaign promise.
Illegals can't vote. The logistics of in-person voter fraud make it ridiculous. That's why it isn't done on any scale. BTW, that's the ONLY thing that voter-id laws could prevent. See how REAL fraud works in N.C.
If you want to get thise 14m people off the payrolls, keep them off and deter others from coming in, ENFORCE THE LAW. Hiring illegals is a crime. The fines & prison terms apply to EACH INDIVIDUAL hire.
Next time there's a plant raid, bring the senior executives out in front of the caneras, leading the perp-walk. Then, impose the maximum fines and sentences for EACH COUNT to be served CONSECUTIVELY. One or two of these raids will end the practice of hiring illegals. With no work available, there will be a flow of people back across the border.
I'm anticipating something that resembles a Saturday Night Live cold open. But without the humor.
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“and his record of falsehoods, misstatements and exaggerations on the topic will likely be challenged as never before.”
Let’s look for outright lies and stop the pretense of ‘mistatements’ ‘falsehoods’ and ‘exaggerations’ understating the threat he poses to our Constitution.
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Jared Kushner says that tonight's speech will help sway the opinion of Republican members of Congress in Trump's favor.
That is typical of the shallow Kushner, who is more concerned about how the address will be perceived rather than whether it will advance a solution to the impasse.
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@Whole Grains So, Kushner: why is he talking to us and not to Congress?
We know that most of what Trump says tonight will be misleading, inciting, and outright lies. It's just a question of what percentage.
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There is no useful purpose for Trump to address the nation on television tonight about the border with Mexico or the proposed wall. His base does not need to be persuaded and anyone outside of his base will not be convinced. This is not even a case of hearing something directly from the horse's mouth. If that was the purpose of tonight's address, the nation should be addressed by Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity who invented and are pushing the fiction of a border crisis. Trump is only the delivery man.
The only thing that one should listen closely for in Trump's address is a statement that is actually true. Trump may try to slip one in here and there so pay attention.
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@Jay Orchard
-I believe that you referenced the wrong end of the horse. In the unlikely event there is a fact in there it's because he went off-script. That would have Stephen Miller positively tearing his hair out!
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Per the headline, What to Watch For?
A smorgasbord of lies, seasoned with hysteria and hyperbole.
In other words, more of the same TrumpTalk that his base laps up so readily.
I'm more interested in the Democratic rebuttal, which I hope will be rational, statistical, and sympathetic to the furloughed federal workers and other citizens affected by those furloughs. It's time to restore some sanity to American politics.
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I believe most Americans are tired of this President and this “crisis” he created. I see no need to watch.
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Besides the whole forgotten 'Mexico will pay for the wall' pledge, it would behoove Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer to remind the country of the election time caravan crisis with dispatched military which was mysteriously forgotten the minute voting was over, no?
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It is certainly not "essential" that the President travel to the Southern border (or anywhere else) and cause the Secret Service to have to work even longer and harder while not getting paid and, for that matter, cause the country to incur unneeded expense.
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The not ready for print time president.
The more interesting show will be the state if the union. Since doubtful shutdown will vw over anytime soon. Sad .
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You mean the other 28 "national emergencies" were declared by OTHER Presidents, before Trump?
"There are currently 31 national emergencies that are ongoing. The oldest dates back to 1979, when President Jimmy Carter invoked one to freeze Iranian government assets. The Trump administration has issued three emergency declarations so far ... "
I thought we'd worked out that Iranian-hostage thing. I guess not.
ney. not going to watch it. will read Wuthering Heights.
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Were America be facing a real clear and present danger. a truthful Presidential address on the matter would have been given much sooner.
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The speech has got to be a set up. Too easy to debunk. Or do Miller & co actually believe they can sell this fiction?
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I'm watching out for my own sanity so the TV will be off.
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It would be great to see a live fact check running across the bottom of the screen on all the main channels to call out any “alternative facts” and anything that the President just makes up. Preferably followed immediately after the broadcast by a short summary from the anchor to ensure there is no confusion about the factual nature (or otherwise) of what has been said.
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@Andrew is there ANYONE who could type fast enough to 'feed' the chiron?
..., it will be genuinely educating to observe how far mr. Trump’s enablers are willing to go in their increasingly unfathomable support of (flat out) lies ...
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It’s not hard to predict which lies Individual 1 is going to tell this evening, so is it too much to ask for a split screen real time fact checker during tonight’s two minutes hate?
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How quaint. A televised address, during primetime, on the "major networks".
Seems like the headline really reads “they’ve granted him a platform for lying during prime time.”
Of course, it’s a platform to lie, and worse, be divisive! To further divide and annoy and frustrate and devalue the country.
But then again, these aren’t surprises. For what else is to be expected from such an individual?
Really, the question is what will be left of the country when Trump is done vandalizing what’s left of what unifies Americans, when he’s done pitting blacks against whites, citizens against immigrants, the rich against the poor. The question of what will be left. And perhaps what were the roles of those who enabled him, from politicians, to the media.
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Pense, Scalise, any Republican that dares to brave the camera, you can almost see the regretful insincerity in their eyes when they try to support Trump's position. No wonder McConnell sits quietly on the sidelines.
Assuming Pelosi and Schumer bring their A-game, tonight's match-up should prove to be a great follow-up to Clemson's thrashing of Alabama...
2
"The rationale for the emergency power is to give the president the capacity to act quickly to deal matters like with an urgent security threat."
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
If you are old enough, you might remember Ross Perot using pie charts to illustrate his points. Undoubtedly in his desire to clarify how his $5.7 billion will be allocated, Trump also will use advanced mathematical tools. Possibly the same ones used to estimate the crowds at his inauguration.
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@John Brews ..✅✅I am hoping he will also use some Venn diagrams to illustrate his points.
I'm expecting a mixture of lies and toxic rhetoric, which is all that we have been given by this administration.
We'll get a Stephen Miller-style screed on how the country is under attack (it's not) and how people should live in fear (they shouldn't).
Anyone who wants people to live in constant fear, do so so that they may dupe and fleece them.
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The only fear I have is the damages that this administration is doing
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@Suzanne Moniz
What about the "hidden genius" of Jared Kushner?
What about the wisdom of the 1st daughter of the 1st wife aka Ivanka Trump?
2
What to watch for? Surely you jest! We all know how to manage tonight’s Trumpism. First: don’t watch, for the sake of our health. Second, if we look for “highlights” later, expect nonstop lies, exaggerations, bragging. My advice would be to choose a substance of choice to eat, drink, or smoke beforehand. Hopefully, all media reports of the speech will be fact-checked. Finally, try to guess when the Democratic rebuttal will begin so we can actually learn something about the facts surrounding the immigration issue. I hope the rebuttal gets twice the airtime that Trump gets, and twice the viewership.
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@Dagwood
I appreciate your solid advice; as I have a somewhat masochistic streak I will watch comforted by a couple of IPAs, when I was younger my choice may have been to smoke something that is quickly becoming legal but on second thought this performance will be surreal enough-
Enjoy
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@Bob D I was hoping that very few would watch in real time so that the ratings were terrible.
"There are currently 31 national emergencies that are ongoing."
I would have guessed at least ten times that number.
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I won't be watching the President's address and encourage Americans and all broadcast media to ignore it as well. I've got more important things to do -- finish the laundry, get dinner ready for my hard working spouse, finish the laundry, think about care for my elderly parents. This year I intend to try to improve my focus things that matter.
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@Kip Leitner Head in the sand. I love it!
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I’m watching. Nothing like good disaster movie.
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@Kip Leitner, ignoring it won't make it go away...
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