S. E. Cupp (almost) gets it right!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2020

Trump very sick, unwell: Last evening, we watched our personal hero, Kaitlin Collins, being interviewed on CNN.

We were surprised by the gratitude we felt.

We'd seen Collins behave like an actual journalist at several of President Trump's most recent gong-show "briefings." As we watched her interviewed last night, we felt a true sense of admiration for the way we'd seen her perform.

This morning, along comes S. E. Cupp, a columnist at the New York Daily News. Her new column isn't as perfectly correct as Collins' recent performances were. But Cupp comes pretty darn close.

All across the upper-end press, journalists have agreed not to say what they actually think about President Donald J. Trump. As of this morning, Cupp and the Daily News have walked away from that "gentleman's agreement."

Her column carries the headline shown below. Others should go there too:

The president is not well: The umpteenth reminders of Trump’s mental state and the consequences

Cupp comes very close today to saying what she means. She almost says that President Trump seems to be mentally ill in some way, or cognitively impaired.

She does say that he seems to need professional help. And in her closing paragraph, she refers to him as "our very sick president."

In our view, comparing Trump to a "mentally unstable" child is a bit of a dodge on Cupp's part. We also think she could have been a bit more clear in her use of language.

We'd like to see Dr. Bandy X. Lee directly acknowledged, with her analysis described in straightforward professional terms. A columnist doesn't have to say she agrees with Lee's diagnosis of Trump. But it would be constructive and accurate to report that sensible, high-ranking specialists think he's dangerously disordered.

We think Cupp could have done a bit better. But he's pushing in the right direction when she writes copy like this:

CUPP (5/6/20): It’s a frightening commentary on the slow normalization of this completely abnormal behavior that we can greet the undeniable deterioration of the president of the United States with mere shrugs. And the only concerns from his inner circle seem not to be about the mental instability itself, but the political ramifications of it being exposed in daily press briefings.

[...]

The giant orange elephant in the room isn’t that Trump’s impaired judgment might cost him the election; it’s that it may well have already cost American lives.

Waiting until November to get Trump out of harm’s way is the only real option we have. The Constitution’s 25th Amendment, designed to remove a president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” is inarguably applicable but politically impossible.

So, like worried parents, we’ll just wait anxiously, hope the worst doesn’t happen and that there’s a light at the end of this very dark tunnel. Until then, who knows what our very sick president will do next?

Cupp says Trump is "very sick." She says he may well be “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

She calls his behavior "completely abnormal." She describes an "undeniable deterioration."

We'd like to see her say it in a slightly more straightforward way—this president seems to be suffering from a major psychiatric, psychological or cognitive disorder. That said, she's rowing the boat in the right direction—though that does take her upstream.

Elsewhere, the children refuse to visit this topic. Each day, they pretend to be shocked, shocked by Trump's most recent statement or behavior.

They keep clucking at this daily parade like it's a moral issue. They simply won't say that he seems to be disordered—that he may well be some dangerous version of "mentally ill."