What the Return of Corey Lewandowski Tells Us
Plus: Trump's Medal of Honor insult.
“It isn't a one-off insult of our Troops and our Veterans. It started when he got out of Vietnam by lying about bone spurs, continued on when he tried to kick Veteran vendors off of 5th Avenue, insulted John McCain, insulted Gold Star Families, called our fallen suckers and losers, refused to go to a military cemetery, told the military to stop having wounded warriors perform at ceremonies because "nobody wants to see that." It isn't just that Donald Trump doesn't respect Veterans and their sacrifice. It's that Donald Trump hates Veterans and their sacrifice, because he looks so small in comparison to them.” — Statement from Vote Vets.
Happy Saturday.
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By now, I’m assuming you’ve heard about Donald Trump’s comments on Medal of Honor winners. In a normal and rational political universe, this sort of thing would have been instantly disqualifying. But we’ve seen this before, haven’t we?
Even so, the blowback is significant, and dots are being connected. And some of the reaction (the VFW!) is pretty extraordinary.
But first we need the obligatory weekend dog pictures:
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Two lions.
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Eli at the lake.
Captain Bone Spurs Insults Veterans. Again.
The context makes it even more bizarre: Trump was talking about one of his mega-donors, billionairess Miriam Adelson, who he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his time in office. Trump described the medal as the civilian version of the Medal of Honor, but he said, the Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the military’s top award, because those awarded the latter are “ … either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.” Trump then compared Adelson to Medal of Honor recipients saying, “She gets it and she’s a healthy beautiful woman.”
FFS. But I repeat myself.
Of course, we’ve been here before. And it would be naive to think that this time would be any different. But this was both new and notable: While the organization “Vote Vets” (quoted above) aligns itself with Democrats, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is very different story: It is a conservative-leaning group that usually avoids partisan politics.
But on Friday, The VFW issued a stinging slap-down to Trump’s snarky bullsh*t. Words were not minced, and the statement from VFW National Commander Al Lipphardt is worth quoting at some length:
These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty.
When a candidate to serve as our military’s commander-in-chief so brazenly dismisses the valor and reverence symbolized by the Medal of Honor and those who have earned it, I must question whether they would discharge their responsibilities to our men and women in uniform with the seriousness and discernment necessary for such a powerful position.
It is even more disappointing when these comments come from a man who already served in this noble office and should frankly already know better.
While the Presidential Medal of Freedom maybe our nation’s highest civilian award, the Medal of Honor is more sacred as it represents the gallantry and intrepidity of courageous and selfless service members, often at the cost of grievous wounds and even their lives. It’s because of our Medal of Honor recipients that great Americans like Miriam Adelson have the freedom to live to their fullest potential and make such lasting contributions to our great nation.
We would like to remind Mr. Trump that the 12 times he had the honor of awarding the Medal of Honor as president of the United States, those were heroes not of his own choosing. He bestowed those medals on behalf of Congress, representing all Americans of a grateful nation. We hold the donation of their lives in service to our country in the highest esteem, and so should he.”
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Some other notable blowback:
Author, journalist, and TV writer/producer, David Simon: “This submoronic shitheel gave the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh and Devin Nunes. And because he's utterly ignorant, ahistorical and terrified to read anything longer than his own tweets, it's certain that he hasn't bothered to read the combat accounts of recipients of the Medal of Honor.”
Bill Kristol: "Trump called America’s war dead 'suckers' and 'losers.' Now he denigrates Medal of Honor recipients because some are deceased or injured. Trump has denied making that 'suckers' and 'losers' comment...Now he’s expressed much the same sentiment on camera."
General Barry McCaffrey: “It’s almost impossible to believe that Trump as a Presidential candidate could sound this ignorant. Disordered language. Incoherent thinking. 5th grade stuff.”
Veteran Dario DiBattista: “Part of my first day as a combat replacement in Iraq, was the memorial ceremony for Cpl Jason Dunham. He leaped on a grenade to absorb its blast and save his fellow Marines. He made the Ultimate Sacrifice. Not even close to the same award Rush Limbaugh got. F all the way off.”
See if you can spot the difference:
The return of Corey
Via the Daily Beast: “The man who coined the mantra ‘let Trump be Trump’ appears to be back in the former president’s good graces after years of exile.”
Eight years after Corey Lewandowski was fired as Donald Trump’s campaign manager, the sexually transgressing creep has been rehired…
Among other things, he mocked the handicapped by joking about a 10-year-old migrant child with Down syndrome who had been separated from her mother at the southern border and put in a cage.
“Womp, womp,” Lewandowski said on television in 2018 after being told of the little girl’s plight.
But now, this Real Man of Political Genius is back, and his return is an exclamation point to Trump’s growing panic. For weeks now, the few grownups left in the GOP have been urging Trump to show some discipline and stay on message. And for weeks now, Trump has shown himself unwilling or unable to do either.
This week, Trump was supposed to talk about the economy, and on Thursday his campaign provided him with props and charts. But, as I said on MSNBC, what we saw wasn’t a news conference —it was a rambling stream of grievances, insults, fabrications and gibberish. And that’s pretty much all we’ve gotten from Trump over the last few weeks.
Via the Wapo, this is what he actually talked about:
In other words, this was Trump being Trump. And with the return of Corey, we’re likely to see more of that, because, as the Wapo’s Philip Bump writes, Lewandowski is “a warm blanket for Trump.”
It’s very important to recognize that Lewandowski has no experience in winning a presidential general election. He was at Trump’s side when the businessman launched his 2016 campaign, but was jettisoned after the primaries. He didn’t play a role in Trump’s 2020 campaign, either. So why did Trump bring him on board? Well, one thing Lewandowski — co-author of the book “Let Trump Be Trump” — will champion is letting Trump be Trump…
Lewandowski is a warm blanket for Trump (albeit a very prickly one for everyone else). And that’s the campaign Trump seems to want, a cozy one that lets him wander to a different part of Mar-a-Lago for one news conference or outside the doors of Bedminster for another.
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But the return of Corey is also a reminder of the moral swamp that is Trump’s world. Here’s a flashback to what I wrote when Corey was fired back in 2021 for his drunken lechery:
Many of you are waking up to the news that Trump’s SuperPac is shocked, shocked to discover that Trump’s uber-lackey Corey Lewandowski sexually harasses women, which, as we know, is absolutely unacceptable and intolerable behavior for anyone other than the Pussy Grabber-in-Chief himself.
Corey Lewandowski, a longtime political adviser to Donald J. Trump, was removed on Wednesday from his role overseeing a super PAC supporting the former president after a donor accused him of making unwanted sexual advances and touching her inappropriately at a dinner in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
As Maggie Haberman notes, it’s unclear whether Corey’s exile will be permanent, since he has managed to wiggle himself back from disgrace in the past. But, she writes, in a sentence that deserves a place in a museum of American politics, “Aides to Mr. Trump insist this latest incident is different, particularly because it involves a donor to the former president.”
In other word, asses may be grabbed and thighs fondled, but the donor class shall not be molested. The MAGAverse has standards.
ICYMI, Politico had the story of Lewandowski’s handsy lechery… and it makes for an amazing read. I won’t spoil it by dwelling on the details of his repeated attempts to grab, touch, grope, and maul a Trump donor named Trashelle Odom. Suffice it say that both alcohol and assholery were involved, and it seems supremely unlikely that this was anything close to Lewandowski’s first offense.
“He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful,” she said in the statement about the dinner. “I am coming forward because he needs to be held accountable.”
Beyond the inappropriate touching, however, one detail deserves to be highlighted, because it reminds us about the sorts of people that are attracted to and thrive in Trump’s orbit.
According to the Politico account, Odom told another attendee at the fund-raiser “that she felt intimidated by Lewandowski’s claims that he has control over the former president’s orbit and can determine the fate of those around Trump.”
Lewandowski said no candidate receives the president’s endorsement without Lewandowski’s approval, Odom told the attendee.
In the statement from Odom’s attorney, Lewandowski is alleged to have said “repeatedly that he is very powerful and can destroy anyone,” and that he “is close with President Trump and can get anyone elected or can take anyone out.”
Strong my-dick-is-so-big, mafioso wanna-be vibes here, but also a glimpse into the darker recesses of the mentality of TrumpWorld, even if it comes from a drunken, horny spear-carrier.
The Trumpverse is a cult of bullying. And Mrs. Odom felt the threat.
“Corey was verbally and physically aggressive and forceful,” Odom alleged in a statement. “I was fearful for my physical safety.” She continued: "I was also fearful that Corey has the power to destroy and ruin everything my husband and I have been working on in our business, personal and charitable endeavors.”
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Even though it’s not a new story, it is still worth reflecting on the fact that, until yesterday, Corey Lewandowski fit easily into TrumpWorld’s moral universe, and it is not a coincidence that Trump has managed to gather around him a collection of Coreys.
Think about the wretched refuse who have been drawn into that orbit: Not just Lewandoswki, but crooks like Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Bernie Kerik. Bigots like Darren Beattie, Stephen Miller, MTG, and various drecks on cable television. Grifters like Diamond and Silk, Jenna Ellis, and Dinesh D’Souza. Sleazoids like Jason Miller, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Matt Gaetz. And, of course, nutjobs like the My Pillow Guy, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn. And don’t forget Rudy Giuliani.
I could go on, but you’ve lived through the last five years and are probably trying to forget them. But there’s a pretty clear pattern here….
What is the attraction of TrumpWorld for the worst people in the world?
In return for the requisite fawning, MAGAworld created a moral free-fire zone, a force field against accountability.
Too dumb, corrupt, or sleazy for the rest of world? Not a problem in TrumpWorld.
So no wonder they flocked to it.
For someone like Corey Lewandowski, Trump offered (until yesterday) a world of liberation and redemption, where mediocrity and venality could shelter together under a pugnacious amorality.
But even a Trumpian hall pass from decency comes with an expiration date… at least when it comes to groping actual campaign donors.
BONUS: Guess who else is joining the Trump campaign? Via Noah Rothman: “Trump Welcomes an Apologist for ‘the Butcher of Damascus’ into His Fold.”
[Tulsi] Gabbard positions herself as constitutionally anti-war. But, in practice, she is anti-war only if it’s the West and its partners who are defending themselves. America’s anti-democratic peer competitors, its rogue state enemies, and the constellation of terrorist groups in orbit around them all can act with impunity against their enemies. It seems that it is only when the forces of democracy strike back that Gabbard evinces the “anti-imperialism” she claims to advocate. It’s only when the West stands athwart the expansionist ambitions of its enemies that she becomes concerned by the risk of a global conflagration. It’s not the aggression that’s the problem; it’s America’s response to aggression that is wholly intolerable.
Finally
These people are fuqqing weird.
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Cognitive dissonance alert:
"For weeks now, the few grownups left in the GOP have been urging Trump to show some discipline and stay on message."
I don't like referring to them as the "few grownups left in the GOP" because it somehow implies they have value, when in reality, they have cynically chosen to support a candidate that makes a mockery of the Rule of Law, our Constitution, and our very Democracy, all in service to their own ambitions, greed and desire for power by any means and at any cost.
DJT's brainstorm on the medals likely will not hurt him with his base, because they already are addicted to the left hate and won't consider any other option. That said, I am exhausted with those on the right telling us how lousy the economy is and that we're all going to hell if the Democrats get or keep any power -- the negativity is overwhelming. For my part I want to see media pushback and blowback, on the following fronts, rather than just cede the high ground to the right because they feel entitled to it:
1) The economy is in many ways quite good, a soft landing despite how rough the unexpected pandemic was and the lack of a clear roadmap on how to handle it.
2) Inflation continues to fall, rate cuts are in order, the future looks bright.
3) On 1 and 2 above, we are much better off than most to all of our peer industrialized nations over the same time period. That matters. I heard one talking head the other night, when challenged on that, say, more or less, "I'm not talking about the rest of the world. I'm talking about America." Bullshit. You don't get to pick and choose your reality and leave out what is not convenient. We have managed the crisis relatively well. Much more discussion of that is in order.
4) Yes, some people have been victims of economic hardship, despite planning and preparing well. I feel for them and want to see them helped. But I make no such allowance for those who overspent and undersaved over time and are using inflation and prices as cover for their own poor life choices. I heard someone say recently that she was having trouble paying her basic bills. Yet her body was covered with tattoos. Apparently that was more of a priority to her than food.
In life we tend to get what we deserve more than what we want. Make bad choices, get bad results. Those who think we would be better off under DJT again than what we have had for the last four years -- all things considered, not just cherry-picking certain results and preferences -- have a short memory for how this nation was ripped apart under his "guidance," as the world increasingly turned away from us as global leaders in the process. Because we can do better than that, we should.