Rick Newman at Yahoo says Trump’s promise of a middle class tax cut before the election could be “his boldest lie yet”:
For those wondering if it really works this way—no, the president can’t roll out a tax cut on short notice like this. There’s no procedure for cutting taxes via presidential resolution. Only Congress can initiate a tax cut (or hike) and Congress is out of session until after the midterms. So it’s impossible for Trump to cut taxes in time to buy your vote, as he seems to wish he could. [...]
Trump seems to be trying to convince voters that a theoretical tax cut he lacks the authority to implement will resolve all the things they don’t like about the tax cut Republicans have already passed. Just close your eyes and wish your paycheck were larger. Then cast your vote before you open them.
Here’s Tina Nguyen’s take at Vanity Fair:
Arguably his most brazen falsehood, however, came in response to a question about Ted Cruz, who Trump was flying out to Texas to support. “He’s not Lyin’ Ted anymore, he’s Beautiful Ted. I call him Texas Ted,” he said over the roar of helicopter blades, extolling the virtues of a man whose wife he’d insulted in the past. A reporter reminded him that he’d once accused Cruz’s father of being involved in the J.F.K. assassination, to which Trump replied: “I don’t regret anything, honestly. It all worked out very nicely.”
Meanwhile, writing in The Atlantic, former White House counsel Bob Bauer explains how Trump’s lying about Russia’s attack on the 2016 election could be the basis for impeachment:
As Philip Bobbitt shows in his supplement to Charles Black’s landmark study of impeachment, a “conspiracy to pervert the course of a presidential election” by “acting in league with a hostile foreign power” is clearly a basis for removal. So, too, is any false statement made to impede an investigation into this kind of conspiracy—including false statements to the public. A clear precedent is the article of impeachment on obstruction passed by the House Judiciary Committee in the proceedings against Richard Nixon. It included a charge that Nixon had made “false and misleading public statements,” which were “contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government.”
It is entirely possible that Trump has made “false and misleading public statements” of exactly that sort.
On the topic of midterms, Stephen Collinson at CNN explains Trump’s campaign of fear:
Donald Trump is waging one of the most inflammatory closing arguments of any modern campaign, lacing his midterm rhetoric with easily disprovable claims that are building on the fact-challenged foundation of his presidency.
On a final note, don’t miss Eugene Robinson’s column on the political power of black women this election:
If a “blue wave” does let Democrats seize the House, protect endangered Senate seats and win key governorships, it looks likely that the party will have African American women to thank. [...] President Trump’s idea of appealing to black voters was having music superstar Kanye West come to the Oval Office and rant about how Hillary Clinton’s campaign didn’t have enough “male energy” to suit his taste. Going out on a limb here, I’m going to predict that that won’t work. I know a lot of black women who might want to give West a hug and get him some help but none who would take his political advice.
The coordinated, nationwide GOP response — suppressing the black vote — seems likely to fail as well. Even the purging of some 50,000 voters, most of them black, from the rolls in Georgia is marginal given the state’s total population of more than 10 million.
Four hundred years of history have imbued African American women with steely determination. We may well see the result when the midterm votes are counted.
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