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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everybody. Tim Moore from the Bulwark. I just got off MSNBC with Chris Hayes and Jamelle Bouie and we talked about what else, the rumors about Donald Trump's health that were going around this weekend and what was behind those and why did they proliferate and what that says about our society. It was actually a fun little chat and I think that there were some insights I haven't got into in other places on this. I was going to wear a costume and I was encouraged quite full throatedly by managing editor Sam Stein to wear a costume on the Chris Hayes show, but I wimped out. So I explained on the show what I was going to wear. So you can stick around for that on the other side. You know, I think that our discussion is, you know, there's some chuckles about the whole thing, but I also think there's something ominous underneath about living in a society where this kind of thing happens and what that says about what kind of society we are. So stick around for that. Subscribe to the feed, tell your friends, do all the things comment, let me know what you think about my outfit. Whatevs you want. We'll see on the other side. We got a lot more coming on this page soon. How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead? You see that? No, people didn't see you for a couple days. 1.3 million user engagements as of Saturday morning about your demise. Really?
- [01:26]
B
I didn't see that. You know, I have heard it's sort of crazy, but last week I did numerous news conferences, all successful. They went very well. Like this is going very well. And then I didn't do any for two days and they said there must be something wrong with him.
- [01:42]
C
There you have it. The President of the United States is alive and well, his typical self. But while the online speculation over the long weekend turned out to be just that, the growing curiosity about Trump's well being might be at least a bit understandable, given considering that this White House has not given us any reason to trust what it says on just about anything, especially when it comes to the health of a man who is the oldest to ever take the oath of office. Jamelle Bouie is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. Tim Miller is a former spokesman for the rnc, now a writer at large for the Bulwark. And they join me now. Tim, I found that I mostly did stay off social media this weekend, but the Times where I sort of managed to, I was like, wait, what's going on? Did I miss Something did, actually, something happened. And why do you think there is this sort of phenomenon that has been gathering force recently?
- [02:36]
A
Yeah, I thought about wearing my white lab coat for this segment, Chris, but I decided not to. I think that this phenomenon is based around a few things. One, Donald Trump is extremely, extremely old. And so people have speculation about him. I think that number two, as you alluded to, they lie about everything. And I think that his last medical report said he weighed he had the physique of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, I'm pretty sure, as far as height and weight is concerned. And so they lie about his health. And so when you have things like weird bruises on your hands and huge cankles and you're not in public for 48 hours in a different administration, in the Jimmy Carter or George H.W. bush administration, they would have provided a statement and people would have believed them. Right. And they don't. This administration, you can't do that. So I think that's another reason things get out of hand. And look, the only thing I have one maybe agreement with Alex Jones, maybe a disagreement with some viewers on this point. But the one other thing that drives this is Trump does have an insane schedule and he has a very, very public schedule. It's not like he's a coal miner or whatever, it's not a physical job, but he's a 79 year old man who's out talking like five hours a day in front of cameras and traveling internationally. If you've ever traveled with a senior citizen internationally, do you think when they land they're gonna do a two hour conference? Like, you know, so he keeps a very intense schedule. And then he went away for three days and I think he was probably worn out and I think that led to the speculation.
- [04:05]
C
Separate and apart from Trump, I find the centrality of the president to everything we think about American politics to be, to be not good, to be actually kind of one of the things that has fed into how we've got to where we are today, I totally, 100% agree with that. And I do think also, Tim, part of what's driving it as well as I think there's a sense a lot of people had that there was a lot of speculation about Biden's health. There was a lot of talking about Biden's health. There's been even a long sort of, sort of mea culpa sort of self recrimination in some of the press that there wasn't enough talk about Biden's health. And I think some People are like, well, this guy is, like, super old and does clearly have some physical issues in front of him. And also does seem to, like, blank out sometimes. Or, like, his brain seems mushy. Although is it any mushier than it was before? I don't know. And a little bit of, like, frustration. That's not like even Stephen, I guess.
- [05:01]
A
Yeah, I think that there's probably some of that. It's also on people's mind, you know. Right. I mean, like, the gerontocracy side of this thing. Y' all said Mitch McConnell, you know, froze a couple of times recently. You know, we've had this and several other cases. So I think that is something that leads to it. But I could not agree more with Jamel, just, by the way, just both on this notion that, like, this do does carry echoes of what you see in other countries. I was talking to one of my colleagues today. I was talking about how it was reminiscent of how Castro was dying for 20 years and then finally happened. It was too late. I do think there's a little bit of something to that for sure, and that it reflects poorly on the centrality of the presidency in our lives right now.