Meaning, why is the press normalizing this shocking and unheard of news story, casually slipping in mid-article references to the president of the United States as being "erratic"? And doesn't "erratic" behavior (i.e. unexplainable actions that threaten the country's standing) basically represent grounds for removing Trump from office, via the 25th Amendment?
Most D.C. journalists just don't want to be part of a national discussion about Trump's fitness for office, which is why the same newspapers that demanded Bill Clinton resign from office remain silent on Trump today. The press appears to be terrified of the fitness-for-office framing because of the right-wing backlash it would create. The media's lack of serious, constant attention is especially galling considering how much time and attention news outlets these days are giving to documenting so-called "gaffes" produced by Democratic candidates. These are relatively trivial verbal missteps that are sometimes portrayed as possibly campaign-ending miscues. But Trump's mental incapacity largely get a pass.
"To not mention the batshit craziness with which Trump approaches issues of huge importance like a national emergency, to turn a blind eye to the way he behaves in front of all of us, is journalistic dereliction of duty," stressed Medhi Hasan, host of the Deconstructed podcast. "It’s media malpractice."
When the issue of Trump's obvious instability does get mentioned, it's often to portray Trump as being wily and savvy. "I can't assess the president's mental state, but I will tell you is my sense of it, covering him for a pretty long period of time now, is that he's more crazy like a fox," CNN's Jim Acosta recently noted, suggesting that Trump's incoherent ramblings were all part of a larger communications strategy to stay two steps ahead of the media. That's the exact wrong message to be sending about Trump and his deeply erratic ways—that it's somehow all pre-planned and doesn’t represent a dangerous path for the country.
Meanwhile, the calls of concern are growing louder, and they're not coming from the fringes of our political debate. "This guy is having a complete and total meltdown," tweeted Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, suggesting constitutional steps should be taken to remove Trump from office. "The President is a raving lunatic. He is not well," tweeted former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. And from retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey: "Trump cancels trip to Copenhagen because the Danes won’t let him “buy” Greenland. Trump wants Russian dictator who seized Crimea, invaded Ukraine, hacked US elections back into G7. Erratic. Unstable. Dangerous."
On MSNBC, host Lawrence O'Donnell devoted an entire segment to Trump's mental failings. And appearing on CNN, longtime Trump chronicler David Cay Johnston addressed the issue forcefully. “Given how common mental illness is, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that at some point we’re going to have a mentally ill president,” said Johnston. “That’s what we’ve got now.”
That's how the media should be dealing with Trump's manic instability: forthrightly and unapologetically.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.
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