With Minneapolis on fire, Donald Trump made a short statement to the press. Instead of discussing the incendiary situation in Minnesota, where he sent the National Guard in to protect private property from protesters, he used his 8-minute statement to only bash China over their treatment of Hong Kong.
Trump read off of a teleprompter and his remarks were very, very short. After he finished his recriminations of China, he took no questions from the press, ignored Minnesota and hightailed it away from the podium with his posse following close behind.
That was the most cowardly presser I've ever seen a sitting US president hold. It was more of a televised rant than a presser, actually.
Chuck Todd and Katy Tur manned the response desk on MSNBC to discuss his remarks. They immediately expressed their disbelief that Trump never mentioned the volatile situation which took place directly after the policeman who killed George Floyd was arrested and charged with manslaughter.
Todd said, "Look, it's not lost I think on a lot of people to see, #1 Katy, he had nothing else to say. He went right to that -- stuck to teleprompter and walked right out."
"There's a city that's smoldering right now, there are people across this country, the black community is in pain," Tur agreed.
"There's a pandemic and the president tried to clear it all up, or at least clear his part in potentially inflaming those tensions with a tweet earlier today. Didn't want to take any questions from reporters," she said.
"I got to ask, is the president afraid to lead right now?" Todd wondered.
"I mean he just seems -- that's -- to not engage at all, to not - I just -- that seemed like he was just afraid of this," he continued. "He doesn't know what to say and we're struggling as a country right now and that's -- no matter what you think -- the president of the United States can't bring himself to say anything about a midwestern city that's smoldering. "
Tur then took apart all of Trump's leadership failures since the news of the coronavirus was reported.
"The country is hungry for leadership. Hungry for it. They want clarity. They want clarity when it comes to this pandemic," she said. "What should I do? Should I wear a mask? What rules do I need to follow? Is it safe to leave my house?"
"There's an entire community of people that have been hurting for 400 years in this country and they want a president to acknowledge that and if they can't understand it, then to say, 'Yes, I can't understand it but I hear you and I will right that wrong, or at least I'll try," she explained.
A disgusted Chuck Todd made some sense: "Yeah, yeah. well, in some ways maybe they decided he wouldn't be credible as a spokesperson on some of this stuff either."
Trump's whole political instinct is to find somebody, something or some other country to blame in order to hide his own deep inadequacies.
Donald's horrific tweet about shooting protesters said it all.
Trump cannot lead, he can only whine.
