As Trump spends his time in the office, get ready for a crazy Christmas news cycle

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The news cycle of the Christmas season is often defined by the lack of serious news. News presenters and directors take a vacation. Newspapers run year-end. The recorded shows take control.

But you didn’t expect President Trump’s last Christmas to be quiet, did you?

Tuesday night’s outburst of presidential pardons and anger over the Covid aid deal blast for this reporter felt like a harbinger of a hyperactive week. “Wow,” Brian Kilmeade said as he completed Laura Ingraham on Fox. “This show has definitely changed quickly. So have the schedules of others as they try to get home for Christmas.”

“There are 29 days left” in Trump’s presidency and “the volume is growing every day,” said John Berman, who added Anderson Cooper to the “AC360” on Tuesday night. “With a madman in WH” David Gergen posted on Twitter, “We are entering the most dangerous four weeks of his presidency.”

Forgiveness pushed by conservative media

Tuesday’s pardons – – including two for the men who pleaded guilty to Robert Mueller’s investigation – “kick-start what is expected to be a flurry of pardons and switches in the coming weeks as Trump ends his term.” , noted the CNN team.

You don’t have to look hard to see Fox’s fingerprints on some of them. Fox’s Pete Hegseth has apologized to Blackwater security contractors who were convicted in 2014 of their roles in the 2007 film shooting at Nusoor Square in Baghdad. All four men were pardoned Tuesday night by Trump, and the WH announcement quoted specifically Hegseth’s support.

For registration

– Elie Honig on “CNN Tonight” on: pardons: “I think it’s just heating up …”

– Chris Cuomo’s comment on Trump’s pardon strategy: “He has four weeks left. What else is he saying to people right now.” Do this for me, do this for me, what? What can get them out of anything. .. ”

– Representative Adam Schiff, a last-minute reservation to Cuomo Prime Time, said Trump’s message was consistent: “If you lie to me, if you will be loyal to me, I will abuse my power to protect you. .. ”

– Matthew Continetti wrote for the New York Times: “Most central institutions of the American right,” including talk radio, blogs and cable, have embraced “reality-TV authoritarianism …”

Trump’s surprise video

Once again, the president recorded a speech and did not let the press in, which means that the video provided by WH is the only recording. According to CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond, “few advisers knew that the president even recorded the five-minute spot in the garland diplomatic chamber in the basement of the residence.” Moreover: “A White House official said that the assistants were bypassed by the president’s video and the threat of lifting the aid legislation. Officials had the impression throughout the day that the president intended to sign it.”

>> Like Tamara Keith from NPR noticed, “Being President Trump’s spokesman is always dangerous” and “today is just the latest example:” Deputy Press Secretary Brian Morgenstern said Trump “indicated his intention” to sign the aid bill just an hour before Trump suggested otherwise …

Is Trump just trying to “stay in the news?”

Proving me with the idea of ​​journalists trying and sometimes failing to disconnect a little, NBC Capitol Hill correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell posted on Twitter Tuesday night: “All I have to say is that Trump has had 7 months – literally since the enactment of the Heroes Act – to engage in COVID aid talks. But he never did. Threatening a veto is pure simple to make the people he’s upset with – GOP – miserable and stay on the news. Okay I’m back on vacation … “

>> Jeremy Diamond made a similar point on “CNN Tonight”, suggesting that Trump’s videos are an attempt at attention …

What he hears on TV …

That’s what it’s about. That’s what it’s always about! Complaints about spending bills piled up on Tuesday, including on Fox, with criticism of $$ included for foreign aid, special interests, and more. “Questions about some of the laws that helped other countries were” raised on Fox & Friends, “one of Trump’s favorite morning news programs on Tuesday,” the Times noted.

At Newsmax, Greg Kelly’s supplement host, Seb Gorka, called the spending plan “a total disguise” and went on to say “pork” and “corruption.” Later in the evening, after Trump vetoed it, Tammy Bruce, completing it for Sean Hannity, complained about the “entrenched political swamp” that pushed $$ through Congress without giving lawmakers time to read it: “It’s degrading, it’s disgusting and humiliating.” He sounded exactly like Trump … that’s how he likes his favorite shows …

Deeper into delusional territory

Trump’s social media team posted a second, longer, home-made video on Facebook, and it was all about his refusal to accept the election result. He falsely claimed to have won in a “magnificent landslide” and said “we cannot afford to run completely fraudulent elections”. Shouldn’t the news coverage admit to being delusional?
>> The latest WaPo on the current state of affairs, entitled “Republicans are engaged in an open fight over attempts to overthrow Trump’s loss to Biden,” says “advisers and allies who called on Trump to register or wish him a merry Christmas were encouraged go to the TV and fight for him amid complaints that others do not … “

Trump rewards his friends, chapter 1,432

Brian Lowry writes: “As members of Trump’s orbit, such as Hope Hicks and Ric Grenell, receive government appointments, a quick thought: It’s not a sure thing at all, but I suspect many of these people could make more profitable deals in the media. . And before I talk about the rejection that would cause – in some cases, rewarding people for what is seen as bad behavior – I’ll just note that the rejection has rarely stopped the most hungry access points in the past … “

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