Democrats Debate Dictators While Trump Acts Like One: A Closer Look

-Democrats yell at each other in a chaotic

debate

as President Trump tightens his authoritarian grip on power. To learn more about this, it's time for "A Closer Look." The 2020 election will be a referendum on whether we want to preserve what remains of our Democratic institutions or whether we want to complete the slide toward authoritarianism we have seen under Donald Trump. And that decline is not only real: after Trump's acquittal in the impeachment trial, it is accelerating. It is noticeable both by Trump's increasing anarchy and by his posture. I mean,

look

. He leans as if he is accelerating.

It literally

look

s like he is sliding downhill on skis. If you gave him a little push, he would fall like a Jenga tower. The Trump White House has literally been drawing up lists of supposedly disloyal government officials, purging them from the administration, installing unqualified cronies in high-profile positions, insisting that it has the right to interfere in criminal cases to protect its allies, and claiming that, Not only is he above the law, but is he himself the law? -I am allowed to get fully involved. Actually, I guess I'm the country's top law enforcement official. -No! You are not a law enforcement officer.

You would never pass the background check in the first place. Or the physical. You don't even know... You don't even know the sound a gun makes. -Ah ah ah, bink! -Is that a gun or a duck's mouth? Beak! Furthermore, Trump, by declaring himself the country's chief of police, makes it clear that he desperately wants to be a police officer, when, at best, he is more like that strange traffic cop that no one really knows and who doesn't seem like pay attention to it. traffic. Alright, kids, let's go. Just be sure: avoid the cars. And by the way,

while

he is tightening his own authoritarian grip on power, Trump just emerged from a trip to India, where he befriended another authoritarian nationalist, Narendra Modi, who detained thousands of Muslims and passed a citizenship law that discriminates. against Islam and, instead of commenting on any of that, Trump said, in a press conference before leaving India, that he wanted to avoid being controversial, so as not to ruin his trip. -I thought they were two fantastic days.

They were two fantastic days. I won't be controversial at all because I don't want to waste the two days, plus the two days of travel, on one answer, one small answer. So I'll be very conservative with my answers, if you don't mind. -It's so strange when Trump just openly says what he's doing. He's like a guy on a date who says... Normally, I'd be cheap, but tonight I'll pay the bill for you to have sex with me. But tomorrow breakfast is on you. Trump, of course, has a deep affinity with his fellow authoritarians. He is always trying to imitate or impress them, whether it's Modi or Putin or the time he sat in the Oval Office with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and literally held up a giant poster of all the weapons he had sold them. . , like a sixth grader presenting a class project on the military.

Did you know that the army has planes, tanks and ships? Democrats are trying to decide who has the best chance of defeating Trump, and fortunately, last night we got answers to that important question, in a calm, well-organized

debate

on CBS with clear questions, in which everyone took turns speaking. and we could all hear his answers. -First of all... No. -Bernie, let me go. Let me go. -I think...Tom, I think he was talking about my plan, not yours. -Opposition to obstructionism -Time out. -It is not a discretion from a long time ago. -I think he recognized me. -Mayor Bloomberg, you are supposed to have said -I never said that. to one of his... -Oh, come on.

I wrote that law. -That bill, along with... You didn't write that bill. -I did write. -I wrote that bill. -I wrote the invoice. Let's talk about what it adds up to. -Let's talk about mathematics. -Let's talk about mathematics, actually. Well. -Let's talk about mathematics. -So here's the math. -If we don't do anything, -The things you have... -The truth is, Pete... -One at a time. -The Americans -- -Donald -- Donald Trump -Senator Klobuchar. -Bernie. Bernie. Donald Trump -- -This has to stop. -Let me answer. -Reparations and challenge- -Thank you, Bill. Senator Klobuchar, ask. -Records for that, for this entire campaign. -New theme.

New topic, senator. -Jesus! Does the C in CBS mean group? That was... I mean... It was like watching a family dinner if the special ingredient in the mashed potatoes was cocaine. I've seen more polite conversations between New Yorkers fighting over a taxi. "Hey, I was here first!" "Oh yeah? Then why was my hand raised?!" With so much at stake for the 2020 elections, Democratic candidates spent some time, in particular, fighting over their own foreign policy positions. Now, let's be clear: there is no comparison to Trump on this issue and any false equivalence between Trump and any Democrat is absurd.

I mean, Trump has taken his praise of

dictators

to new levels, emulating them and even boasting that he and Kim Jong-un "fell in love" with Kim's beautiful letters, which he boasted about or showed to the journalists several times. Trump loves holding pieces of paper. He's like a high school senior running into the house with his college acceptance letter. Mom, look! I entered Pyongyang University! At least that's what he says. I can not read. And yet, even as Trump has lavished praise on one authoritarian nationalist after another, Republicans and Democrats alike attacked Bernie Sanders for comments in which he praised, not Cuba, but Cuba's literacy program.

Now, as fact-checkers have noted, Sanders' comments on Cuba mirror those of President Barack Obama in 2017, shortly after entering open diplomatic relations with Cuba and yet when Bernie tried to point that out in the Democratic debate in last night. , some people in the crowd tried to boo him, much to Bernie's surprise. -What I said is what Barack Obama said, in terms of Cuba. That Cuba advanced in education. Yes, I think... Really?! -Yeah! -Actually?! -Bernie Looks like you just got in line at the deli. Actually?! Are you going up? Let me see your ticket. That's handwritten! That's handwritten!

That's not from this store! Mean

while

, former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg has praised authoritarian leaders, such as China's Xi Jinping, whom he has said is not a dictator. And, last night, Bloomberg again refused to call Xi a dictator, but, somehow, even worse than his comments about a repressive dictator was his blundering of multiple boring, pre-written jokes that he tried to include in his responses. . -Mayor Bloomberg, as mayor of New York you declared war on obesity. You banned trance fats in restaurants and tried to do the same with big sugary drinks. So if he becomes president, will he push those policies at the national level as well? -Well, I think that what is right for New York City is not necessarily right for all other cities; otherwise you'd have a naked cowboy in every town.

So let's get serious here. Foreclosure is not a problem with the mortgage market, but it was a problem for the communities where it was done and we stopped it. Let me also say, since I have the floor for a second, that it really surprises me that all of these... my fellow contestants up here, I guess, would be the right word to describe it, given that no one pays attention to the clock. . I'm surprised they show up because I would have thought, having done a good job beating them last week, that they would be a little afraid to do it. - Yes.

Let me put it in terms that a New Yorker would understand. Mike Bloomberg went out of his way to make that joke, he had to take FDR to the BQE, he accidentally ended up in the LIE and, now, all of his competitors are in the FU. Now, Mike Bloomberg could have easily stayed out of the race and spent his money to help whichever Democrat won the nomination or he could have simply offered Trump himself the money to resign. You know Trump would take it. Trump has never, in his life, passed up the opportunity to make money.

If you asked him to sell the presidency for a billion dollars, he would say yes and then quietly remove the sticker from his desk that says, "For sale, $10." And yet Bloomberg decided to instead enter the race himself because he cares more about stopping progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. In fact, he basically admitted it himself in leaked audio from 2016, in which CNN reported that he called Warren scary. Honestly, the way Warren has destroyed him in the debates, he should be scared. Last night, for example, he highlighted allegations that Bloomberg harassed and discriminated against pregnant women at his company, including an incident in which he allegedly told a pregnant employee, "Kill her." Now, Bloomberg has denied making the comment, even though The Washington Post reported that a former Bloomberg staffer said he witnessed the conversation and then, after the debate, MSNBC host Chris Matthews asked Warren if she thought Warren Bloomberg was lying and his direct response seemed confusing.

Mateos. -Do you think the former mayor of New York said that to a pregnant employee? -Well, a pregnant employee surely said yes. Why shouldn't she believe him? -You think she's lying. -I believe the woman. -You think she's lying. -Which means she's not telling the truth. -And why would she lie? Because just to protect yourself. -Yeah. And why would she lie? I mean, that's the question, Chris! -Curse! Look at her face! He really can't understand. Why would he lie, just to protect himself? It does not make any sense! Powerful men never do that! Warren asked the question perfectly.

As soon as she turned him around, Matthews malfunctioned like a robot that had been given an unsolvable riddle. "Could God make a rock so big that he couldn't lift it?" Mistake. Mistake! We are watching our current president tighten his grip on power and reach out to authoritarians around the world. Meanwhile, a former Republican billionaire is trying to buy his way in the Democratic primary because he's afraid of progressives like Warren and Bernie. And, when Bloomberg insists that he is the only one who can beat Trump, the rest of the field looks at him and says... -Really? -Yeah! -Actually?! -This has been "A

closer

look." ♪♪