We are laughing ourselves to political death
The cruelty is the point.
Donald Trump repeatedly drew laughter from a New Hampshire town hall audience on Wednesday night.
Here are all 16 Trump lines that people laughed at.
“I think that, when you look at that result and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you're a very stupid person, you see what happens.”
“But, look, that was a horrible election.”
“One of the big problems was that Nancy Pelosi, crazy Nancy, as I affectionately call her”
“I don't believe it did. Oh, let me pull it out. I have to pull it out.” (On the January 6 timeline)
“This was the day before. And this was in the form of Twitter. Now I use TRUTH, TRUTH Social. I think it's far superior, OK?”
“But what happened is, [Twitter] took it down. I don't know why. I think they took it down because it was so good. They didn't like it being up there.”
“And, if you remember, I made a video right outside the Oval Office in the Rose Garden. And I'm very proud of that video. I didn't have a script. I don't need scripts, like a certain person that's in there right now.”
“I swear and I've never done that, and I swear to -- I have no idea who the hell -- she's a whack job.” (On E. Jean Carroll)
“Well, you might as well do it now because you'll do it later. Because we have to save this country. Our country is dying. Our country is being destroyed by stupid people, by very stupid people.”
“Because now I'm not president.” (on negotiating on the debt ceiling)
“This is what she does.” (on moderator Kaitlan Collins)
“They didn't raid Biden's house. They didn't raid Biden's house. You know what he -- happened? They put him in the house. That's the one with the Corvette where the documents were laying all over the floor. That was fine.”
“All of a sudden, they raided my house.”
“Are you ready? Are you ready? Can I talk? Do you mind?” (on Collins)
“It's very simple to -- you're a nasty person, I will tell you.” (on Collins)
“She doesn't understand.” (on Collins)
“They think, because I'm leading Biden by 11 points, seven points, nine points, I'm leading DeSanctimonious by a lot”
Taken as a whole, the crowd laughed at:
a) the idea that the 2020 election was fair
b) Trump’s denigrating nicknames for Nancy Pelosi and Ron DeSantis
c) his promotion of his own social media site
d) his attack on Carroll, who the day before had won a civil case concluding that she has been the victim of sexual abuse by Trump
e) the idea that the country is “dying”
f) The FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar a Lago home, which produced more than 300 classified documents
g) Trump mocking and bullying Collins
Watching the town hall, I found the laughter to be BY FAR the most jarring part of the proceedings.
Trump was Trump. He has one gear. One speed. Everything is a full-frontal assault. You know exactly what you are getting. Every. Single. Time.
And Collins did as best as anyone possibly could in what was a nearly-impossible situation. Fact checking Trump in any format is a challenge. Doing so in a live setting is a pipe dream.
But the audience stood out to me as the most surprising and important part of the night. And convinced me — now more than ever before — that Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024.
They love his trolling — of his Republican opponents and, especially, of the media. They like that he just says stuff — seemingly without thinking first. They like that he is rich and famous, and isn’t afraid to say so.
And — and this is the most important and depressing part — they like that he is mean. They like the bullying. They like the dismissiveness of views that don’t align with his worldview. They like the cruelty.
As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic in 2018(!):
We can hear the spectacle of cruel laughter throughout the Trump era. There were the border-patrol agents cracking up at the crying immigrant children separated from their families, and the Trump adviser who delighted white supremacists when he mocked a child with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother. There were the police who laughed uproariously when the president encouraged them to abuse suspects, and the Fox News hosts mocking a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre (and in the process inundating him with threats), the survivors of sexual assault protesting to Senator Jeff Flake, the women who said the president had sexually assaulted them, and the teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting. There was the president mocking Puerto Rican accents shortly after thousands were killed and tens of thousands displaced by Hurricane Maria, the black athletes protesting unjustified killings by the police, the women of the #MeToo movement who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse, and the disabled reporter whose crime was reporting on Trump truthfully. It is not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it; it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump.
That collective cruelty was my big takeaway from the town hall. People loved that Trump was being mean. They reveled in it. They joined in. It made them identify even more closely with him.
I don’t know how you run against that if you are DeSantis or Nikki Haley or Tim Scott. Because as has been proven again and again over the last 8 years, the Republican base likes the meanness. They love that Trump is petty and nasty. It works.
And it’s unique to him. I still remember well when Florida Sen. Marco Rubio decided to get down in the mud with Trump during the 2016 primary campaign. He insinuated — not very subtly — that Trump had small hands and, hence, small genitals. Which led Trump to utter the (still) most unreal line of the 2016 campaign:
I have to say this, he hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee you.
The blowback against Rubio — not Trump! — was immediate and considerable. He abandoned his strategy immediately. And was never, really, heard from again in the race.
Trump is best understood as a sort of ur-bully. He innately grasps what you are most insecure about and goes at it — over and over again. He picks on you — and people laugh and join in so that he doesn’t pick on them next. There’s safety in numbers.
There was a time in our politics (and the politics of the Republican party) where treating other people (even Democrats!) that way would have been considered out of bounds.
That time has long passed. As last night’s laughter made clear, Trump not only isn’t penalized for his nastiness, he is rewarded for it. Which means he will produce more of it — since he is primarily motivated by giving people what he believes they want.
It’s a vicious cycle. And not one I see ending before November 2024 — if even then.
Hillary was right. They are deplorable.
This is as good a time as any, I guess, to criticize CNN for even putting Trump on air last night. Your comments essentially suggest that Trump’s cruelty and meanness was reinforced by the audience. I’d wager there were viewers whose own cruelty and meanness was reinforced by Trump’s act. There is no good that can come from that, and, as you say, is a vicious cycle. CNN has contributed to ramping up that cycle.
You may argue, in defense of your former colleagues (but why?) that covering Trump and giving him his chance to say his piece is the duty of the network. That’s fine for a normal politician or human. But Trump is neither, as he has proven over and over. He is different (as certain members of Congress tried to argue early in his administration – “he’s a different kind of president.”)
Yes he is – different all around. And he must be treated in that way, especially by the press. Sure, Ms. Collins was heroic in her attempt – but Trump just blew her away, as evidenced by the sick laughter.
I saw a quote this morning attributed to Chris Licht, the head honcho of CNN, who, referring to the Trump performance, reputedly (and jubilantly) said “we made news last night; that’s our job.”
I learned as a journalist that my job was to report the news – not to make it. Licht clearly did not learn that. Instead, he and his network are pandering to a sick part of the population in an effort, I guess, to boost their ratings and, ultimately, pad their wallets. Why not just sell heroin?
Trump is not a normal candidate nor person. He cannot be treated that way. CNN ignored the reality of Trump. For other networks, this cannot be repeated.
I know you root for your former employer and colleagues. But, Chris, I think the time has come for you to rethink that position – you don’t deserve to be associated with them.