The Witness Chronicles, September 6, 2024

Read this Trump transcript

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

“Houston, We Have a Problem”

Below is a direct quote from Donald Trump when asked about childcare costs

“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.”

~ Donald Trump, speaking at the New York Economic Club, 9/5/24

I freely admit I swiped this directly from Heather Cox Richardson this morning. And this is why. Try reading that quote out loud. Seriously. And then ask yourself if these are the words of a man you want leading our country, and by extension, influencing much of the world.

(Btw, this a direct transcript of his actual words, no editing.)

Then ask yourself why media like the New York Times treat a person who speaks like this as an equal on the world stage with anyone. Putin may be a thug but he can assemble a sentence. Sort of. Actually, I don’t speak Russian so I can’t be sure.

I am sick to death of people responsible for informing the American public about what is going on in the world, acting as if this guy has any credibility whatsoever. And anyone calling themselves a Republican should be enraged that their party leaders support this.

A lot of them are waking up, but oh so slowly. Liz Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz yesterday. Remember that the Cheneys were the right of the right. But it turns out that they, like many old school Republican Conservatives, still had pride in their country and what they were trying to do for the American people.

I completely disagreed with them and what they represented, but right now I respect her for doing the right thing, because she knows what the right thing is. No one had to explain it to her.

Try to imagine anyone trying to explain what the ‘right thing’ is to Donald Trump. If he paid any attention to you, he would be mocking or ridiculing you. There is no ‘right thing’ in his world. Based on what is quoted above, there is no anything in his world.

Yet, we would elect him to guide the country forward. Shame on us.

Tuesday September 10th we will see this man in action, on live TV, debating Kamala Harris. The same man who spoke this gibberish when asked a straightforward question about a topic that impacts a huge number of Americans: how to care for their children while trying to make a living.

It’s certainly not an issue Donald Trump ever had to think about. So, as far as he is concerned, it doesn’t really exist. And neither do most of the issues we deal with daily. Paying bills, saving money, taking care of our parents, the damn weather…real stuff. But our reality is not the reality of the right.

Or, it seems, the fair and balanced media that are enabling a man who speaks like this by giving him equal coverage, meaning that some poor writer has to decipher whatever he said and turn it into something coherent.

How the hell is that ‘fair and balanced’?

This is not a minor thing. We have a society that learns from compacted headlines, and can’t be bothered with the details. If the media puts out a soundbite about 10 million undocumented immigrants storming our border, that becomes a reality for many. Without questioning the source or its sources.

Trump knows this and it has propelled him into the highest sphere of American politics. Next Tuesday, those of us paying attention may see what he really is, unfiltered. A man who has nothing except an overwhelming need to protect himself from the consequences of his actions.

Not your interests, not the future of the country, not our security, not anything other than staying out of jail.

That is what he really thinks about the cost of childcare. He doesn’t.

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