By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Last week’s prime-time TV address from the White House showed us again that, despite his family’s great wealth, neither his nanny nor his tutor apparently took time to read “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to the little rich boy who later became our 45th and 47th president.
Had they done so, it is likely that Mr. Trump would not have wasted his time and that of the millions of Americans who watched the 26-minute telecast billed in advance as “must-watch TV.”
The White House and its MAGA faithful were convinced that the truth finally would prevail after six years of endless investigations into whether or not the 2020 presidential election was rigged to prevent Trump’s reelection.
But, as many expected, his new message revealed no new evidence of election fraud or interference. Basically, he rehashed widely discredited allegations that even his own attorney general, William Barr, said in 2020 were groundless.
However, the President did use a different strategy this time because he concentrated on so-called “vulnerabilities” in our country’s election infrastructure but without providing any proof that they were actually compromised.
National media commentators generally identified four weaknesses in the President’s message:
(1) The key allegations have been widely disproven;
(2) Trump claimed that China had become the leading suspect in the theft of voter data in the U.S. and the Chinese quickly issued a strong denial;
(3) Trump again strong-armed the TV networks into covering the event but not all complied; and
(4) Congressional leaders said the President’s talk likely damaged the already slim chances of the “SAVE America Act” becoming law. That bill, stalled in Congress since early this year, would require Americans to show photo identification and prove their citizenship in order to vote.
The bill is considered a critical piece of the Trump campaign promise to enforce immigration laws.
As Aesop told it originally, the little shepherd boy cried “wolf” two times and laughed when the villagers rushed to help and no threat existed. But when he did it a third time the villagers stayed home while the real wolf ate the sheep….and the little shepherd.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
