According to journalist and political commentator Paul Waldman, a deep dive into Donald Trump's words in Thursday's debate indicates he is still going to prepare his followers to revolt if he loses the presidential election in November.
In his column for MSNBC, Waldman said all the attention being paid to President Joe Biden's difficulties during the debate obscured the evidence that the former president has grown worse when it comes to pushing lies, racism and more deep-seated grievances.
"It was truly a bravura performance of mendacity and deceit," he wrote of Trump. "Reading through the transcript, it becomes clear that there was not a single answer Trump gave that did not include some awful prejudice, a preposterously misleading statement or an outright lie, often more than one."
Using that observation as a jumping-off point, he claimed Biden will continue to take the high road as he goes forward, while Trump will "continue to lie about matters large and small."
Trump's debate answers about the 2020 election that he lost and the Jan. 6 insurrection he incited indicate that he will "... prepare his supporters for another violent burst of rage should he lose this year as well."
"Asked whether he’ll accept the results this year, he said, 'If it’s a fair and legal and good election — absolutely. I would have much rather accepted these but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous,'" the analyst wrote before adding, "To any reasonable observer, that means 'no.' Everyone knows Trump will not accept the results of the election unless he wins."
Summing up, he continued, "This debate proved yet again that no one is quite sure how to deal with Trump’s blizzard of deception: not the news media, not his opponents, and not the voters. He won’t be shamed into telling the truth, his supporters don’t seem to care, and his lies only grow uglier as time goes on. But even if no one can make him stop, the worst thing would be to pretend it doesn’t matter."
You can read more here.
