Sykes performs bafflement on Morning Joe!

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2024

Also, who is Karoline Leavitt? Years ago, we advanced the following dictum:

It's all anthropology now.

What did we mean by that? We meant there's no reason to expect a serious improvement in the national discourse.  All that's left is the attempt to discern why we behave as we do.

We human beings don't seem to be wired for sterling performances of that type. We're stuck with our deeply imperfect human nature, pretty much all the way down. That fact has become quite clear at this point in time.

Below, we'll ask you to think about the behavior of a major Trump campaign spokesperson. First, though, consider what Charlie Sykes said on today's Morning Joe.

Charlie Sykes is a good, decent person. Here's a thumbnail, as prepared by the leading authority:

Charlie Sykes

Charles Jay Sykes (born November 11, 1954) is an American political commentator who was editor-in-chief of the website The Bulwark. From 1993 to 2016, Sykes hosted a conservative talk show on WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was also the editor of Right Wisconsin which was co-owned with WTMJ's then-parent company E. W. Scripps. Sykes is a frequent commentator on MSNBC.

For twenty-three years, he hosted a conservative talk radio show—but then, along came Donald J. Trump. Today, Sykes is a persistent anti-Trump voice on MSNBC programs. 

He'll be voting the same way we will this fall. Tens of millions of fellow citizens won't.

Sykes is smart, and he's anti-Trump. This morning, in the wake of the recent incident at Arlington National Cemetry, he offered a lengthy assessment of Candidate Trump.

We'd be inclined to describe this as a performance of bafflement, as an unconvincing assertion of paradox:

SYKES (8/29/24): Well, this is the great paradox of Donald Trump. His own record of non-service is, of course, well documented. But so is this long record of denigrating the service of others and his contempt. And yet he continues to wrap himself as the champion of the military. And many veterans seem to think that he is an ally of the military. But you walk through, you look at this picture that you’re showing, right now. I mean, there’s something deeply unnatural about this:

Who poses, posing with a thumbs-up in front of a grave of a fallen soldier? Who does that? Somebody who, frankly, just does not understand what this sacrifice means.

And you go back through, whether it’s the attack on John McCain for being a POW, or his suggestion at one point that he did not want the disabled veterans to be in an Independence Day military parade because it would make him look bad. Or his comments to his former chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, when they went to Arlington in 2017, and they’re standing next to John Kelly’s son Robert, who was a lieutenant, who was killed in Afghanistan. And Donald Trump said to General Kelly, “I don’t understand why they do this. What’s in it for them?” Or when he refused to go to the military cemetery in France, calling them “losers” and “suckers.”

And, you know, for people who have been around Donald Trump, this continues to be shocking that someone who is the commander-in-chief just does not seem, at some core of his being, does not seem to understand why people give their lives for their country. And again, you want to talk about cognitive dissonance, this is a man who wants to be thought of as “America First, USA,” the defender of American strength. And yet, when it comes down to it, time and again, whether it’s Gold Star families, whether it’s Medal of Honor winners, there’s something broken in Donald Trump that makes it impossible for him to understand that kind of sacrifice and heroism.

Who behaves the way Donald Trump does? Who says and does the kinds of thing Trump persistently does?

"Who does that?" Sykes asked at one point. We'll assume he knows that one fairly obvious type of answer lies in the realm of medical science—in the realm of mental health / mental illness / severe clinical "personality disorder."

He also knows the rules of the game—he isn't supposed to say that. He ends up with this euphemistic performance of bafflement:

Who does [things like] that?...Something is broken in Trump.

Do you believe that Sykes was saying what he really believes about Trump? We'll guess that the answer is no, but he's willing to go on at length, declaring the matter a "paradox."

Years ago, none of the adults in a mythical empire were willing to say that their emperor was lacking a new suit of clothes. Today, with one exception, Blue America's pundit corps all stage a similar performance. 

Simply put, this is the best we American humans seems to be able to do at this point in time. 

"Something we were withholding made us weak," Robert Frost once wrote. In the current circumstance, there's no way to know how this widespread act of withholding is going to turn out.

Then too, there's 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. This morning, on CNN, she refused to answer John Berman's simple repeated question.

The exchange was transcribed by Mediaite's Tommy Christopher. How do we explain such soul-draining evasion as this, especially from someone so young?

BERMAN (8/29/24): You say that Donald Trump was the candidate of stability. Why was Donald Trump, over the last 36 hours on his social media, reposting slogans from QAnon and reposting misogynistic, sexist content about Vice President Harris?

LEAVITT: Well, look, I don’t think your viewers at home are concerned about social media posts.

I think they are concerned with the news of the day, and the news of the day is that a Venezuelan illegal immigrant crime gang has taken over a hotel in rural Colorado because of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s open border policies. The news of the day is that, again, gasoline prices are 50% higher today than they were under Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Can you answer—

(CROSSTALK).

BERMAN: Do you know why?

LEAVITT: The news of the day—

BERMAN: Do you know why he reposted that content?

LEAVITT: I haven’t been able to talk to President Trump yet this morning because he is calling in to media interviews, unlike Kamala Harris, who has been avoiding the press for more than 40 days.

And we’re excited that CNN finally has the opportunity to question Kamala Harris tonight about her disastrous record. And we hope that Dana Bash and we’re confident that she will we’ll ask tough questions of Kamala Harris’s record.

Because, again, Americans aren't concerned with social media posts and silly memes. They are concerned with the problems that are plaguing them in their families right now. And they need and deserve answers to the questions of Kamala Harris. Does she still support a ban on fracking? Does Kamala Harris still support eliminating cash bail for violent criminals? Does Kamala Harris still support decriminalizing illegal immigration? 

And again, I ask, and I hope CNN will ask Kamala Harris this tonight. Does she why does she believe she deserves a promotion when she has been responsible for the failures of the past four years?

BERMAN: Did you ask Doctor Phil, or did you tell Doctor Phil what questions you hoped he would ask before interviewing Donald Trump?

LEAVITT: No, we don’t have to do that. Unlike the Democrats who have—

BERMAN: Okay, okay—

LEAVITT: —questions to Democrat candidate in debates.

BERMAN: And so I want, I will talk about—I will talk about the interview in a second here. But I do want to ask you, again—the social media content reposted by the Republican nominee in the last 36 hours. How do you explain it? How do you explain why he is reposting content from QAnon and this misogynistic content?

LEAVITT: Again, I will say I have not spoken to President Trump about that content this morning, and I don’t think Americans are concerned with social media posts.

But you said misogynistic. I assume you’re also going to say that the posts were demeaning to women. I think what’s demeaning to women is what has been allowed to happen over the last four years.

I think what’s demeaning to women is the fact that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are allowing an invasion of illegal criminals into our country, many of whom have proven to be rapists and murderers. I think what’s demeaning to women like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Gray and Rachel Morin is the fact that they are no longer with us because of the policies of this administration, and that is what voters and your viewers care about, John.

BERMAN: Well, look, I think the voters can care about a number of things. And when there’s content being reposted that uses QAnon slogans and when there are these sexist, misogynistic posts, it’s interesting to me that you can’t, you’re not—you don’t think they’re bad. You have no problem with them.

LEAVITT: I didn’t say that. I said that I—

BERMAN: Do you care? Do you care?

LEAVITT: I care about what’s happening to our country right now. I care about the fact that, as a new mother, baby formula is 30% higher and costs more than it did under President Trump. I care about the fact that we have a vice president, or vice president today who wants to be the president of the United States, that hasn’t sat down for an interview in more than 40 days to explain her position.

Berman tried and tried and tried and tried. Leavitt just kept evading, in a wide assortment of ways.

It got worse than that among the Trump staffers who slimed the woman who tried to maintain established rules at the national cemetery:

First the woman in question was shoved, then she was aggressively slimed. As we've noted many times, established studies seem to suggest that severe, clinical "personality disorders" are more widely found within the society than a layperson might understand.

Charlie Sykes is a good, decent person. We're often stunned by Leavitt's behavior. After that, it gets much worse. It gets pretty ugly back there.

This is the world of real human behavior. For better or worse, our journalists refuse to discuss clinical mental health disorders within the political context.

In this way, they shut off us off from a major part of possible discernment—from our ability to start to understand the real events of the actual human world.

Fuller disclosure: Frost went on to say this:

Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender...

It was ourselves we'd been withholding! Or at least, so the poet said.