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🇺🇸 Trump's Townhall

🇺🇸 Trump's Townhall

Plus, is this new Apple device ready to replace the iPhone?

May 16, 2023

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Good morning, and happy Tuesday! The famous ‘Black Panthers’ World War II tank unit is rolling onto the big screen in ‘Come Out Fighting’. Here's the trailer.

Plus, is this new Apple device ready to replace the iPhone?

Also, do you have foot pain? This company is on a mission to end that once and for all.

FLAG POLLS

🐘 Monday, May 15: 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination: Trump 55, DeSantis 17, Pence 6, Haley 4, Ramaswamy 4, Scott 2, Elder 1, Christie 0, Hutchinson 1, Sununu 0 (I&I/TIPP)

🐘 Monday, May 15: 2024 Kentucky Republican Presidential Primary: Trump 70, DeSantis 14, Pence 4, Haley 3, Ramaswamy 3, Christie 2, Scott 1, Hutchinson 0, Sununu 0 (Fox 56/Emerson)

🐘 Monday, May 15: Kentucky Governor - Republican Primary: Cameron 35, Craft 18, Quarles 15, Deters 10, Harmon 4, Keck 3, Cooper 2, Clark 2 (Fox 56/Emerson)

📉 Monday, May 15: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 42, Disapprove 56 (Rasmussen Reports)

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QUICK CLICKS

Durham Report Drops, Bill Banning DEI, Luhansk Before Counteroffensive

US: ‘There’s Nothing To This, But We Have To Run It To The Ground,’ Anti-Trump FBI Agent Strzok Said: Durham (Daily Wire) + Durham report on Trump-Russia investigation released (CNN)

US: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill banning DEI initiatives in public colleges (NPR)

US: Biden abruptly cancels speech honoring fallen officers during National Police Week (Fox News)

World: Ukraine strikes Russian forces in Luhansk before expected counteroffensive (The Guardian)

US: Rudy Giuliani sued for $10 million by former aide over alleged sexual assault (Reuters)

US: Man with baseball bat attacked staffers at Rep. Gerry Connolly's office, police say (CBS News)

World: Biden backs 'whoever wins' in Turkish election (POLITICO)

POLITICS

Trump's Townhall

Screengrab CNN

Last week, former President Trump participated in a town hall hosted by CNN in New Hampshire. The interview was far-ranging, touching on Trump's legal troubles, immigration and the southern border, the Ukraine-Russia war, and the debt ceiling, among other topics.

Reporting from The Right: Trump fires back at critics slamming his town hall: ‘did the right thing’ Brooke Singman, Fox News

Reporting from The Left: Anderson Cooper addresses criticism about Trump town hall Anderson Cooper, CNN

From The Flag: Some on the left have been critical of the town hall and CNN, especially considering Trump's view of the 2020 election and his claims of voter fraud. The event drew 3.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data. Here's more from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Trump Captivates Town Hall Audience, Won't Back Down

Voices on the left complaining about the town hall are advocating for censorship and "disinformation."
CNN's Kaitlan Collins assumed she could steamroll Trump with embarrassing questions and misstatements of facts, but she failed.
The audience was made up of GOP primary voters, but CNN asked questions Democrats care about, giving the event a sideshow feel.

Trump CNN Town Hall: Media Leftists Hardest Hit Tim Murtaugh, Washington Times Opinion: "It’s striking that critics who argue that CNN should not 'platform' Mr. Trump are actually advocating the exact opposite of journalism. We’ve already established that Mr. Trump is newsworthy. So, ignoring the man would be … what, exactly? Not journalism, that’s for sure. Instead, what they support is a form of disinformation in itself, because often the most insidious form of media bias is in what journalists do not cover — that is, what information they withhold from the public. It’s this same urge to censor that caused Mr. Trump and many others to be purged from certain social media platforms as well. And what’s nuts is that the ones advocating the suppression of information also truly believe that they’re the ones upholding journalistic ethics. And maybe that’s the most ominous thing of all."

A few thoughts about the CNN town hall with Trump Patricia McCarthy, American Thinker: "The man does not shy away from potential political disasters; he thrives on them, runs straight at them, unafraid. ... Host Kaitlan Colllins clearly thought she would have the upper hand. Coming from the bubble of leftist propaganda that is CNN’s principal reason for being, of course she believed she would be the hero of the event. But she got her comeuppance within the first few minutes. ... She forgot that Trump has had years and years of experience with boorish and ignorant pretend journalists who hate, loathe and despise him. She clearly has no experience with an outlier with so many IQ points on her. ... Given Trump’s age, she perhaps expected a man with Biden’s impaired abilities and assumed she could and would mortify Trump with her meant-to-embarrass questions and mis-statements of fact."

One more opinion piece from the Right: How CNN Just Boosted Trump Ben Shapiro, RealClearPolitics

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Voters Should See the Naked Truth: Trump Hasn't Changed

Trump did well to fire up his base but did little to show swing voters that his behavior has changed since 2020.
Critics of CNN's decision to air the town hall have it wrong: voters should be exposed to leading candidates, and creating a media bubble accomplishes nothing.
CNN is repeating the mistakes it made in 2016 by treating Trump as a source of entertainment rather than a hostile politician.

Trump's town hall was a disaster for the GOP Marc Thiessen, Washington Post Opinion: "Trump’s performance must have elated his hardcore supporters. But they are not going to decide the 2024 election. The next president will almost certainly be chosen by a few hundred thousand swing voters in a handful of purple states. Imagine that you are one of those swing voters, who liked Trump’s policies but did not approve of his behavior in office ... Did this performance persuade you to return him to the Oval Office? Or were his rants and barrage of insults like fingernails on a chalkboard, reminding you of the behavior you detested but not so much the policies you liked? This town hall should be a wake-up call for the GOP. Trump has not learned a thing from his 2020 defeat. He has not developed the message discipline he lacked as president. He has not figured out that the path to another term is not simply energizing his base."

We're Asking the Wrong Questions About the Trump Town Hall Bill Sammon, New York Times: "When a reporter holds a politician’s feet to the fire by asking him tough questions, that does not mean she or the network endorses the politician’s answers. We need to reflect on why televising a town hall with a leading candidate, no matter how abhorrent he is to a portion of the country, could inspire not just outrage at his performance but also fundamental questions about a television network’s decision to host the candidate. The Constitution does not bar Mr. Trump from running, and our democracy does not bar him from running — yet CNN should not ask him tough questions? Since the 1960 debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, television networks have played a role in our country’s politics. ... The United States is a mature democracy. We must trust voters to assess candidates and the media to provide more, not less, information."

One more opinion piece from the Left: CNN's Trump Debacle Shows Media Hasn't Learned Chris McGreal, The Guardian

FLAG THIS

Why Does Polling Come Up Short With Trump?

Polling done ahead of the 2016 presidential election was notoriously inaccurate: many predicted a wipeout victory for Hillary Clinton and few gave Trump any chance.

A recent analysis from POLITICO argues the polls were even less accurate in 2020.

This led to changes by some polling organizations, including CNN and its vendor SSRS, who began mailing out surveys that could be completed by phone or online.

Not everyone is convinced the industry has things right heading into 2024, including Democratic pollster Andrew Baumann who said, "I’m still worried about 2024. I don’t think that any pollster should be out there feeling super confident that we have everything fixed, because we were confident that we did after 2016. And we didn’t.”

On average, do you trust political polling in the US?

FLAG FINDS

Serene Sneaks, Garden Upgrade, Endless Summer

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WATERCOOLER

First Academy Awards Ceremony, Questions for Your Kids, Shark Noises

31st Academy Awards Presentations, Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, 1959

On May 16, 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out its first awards at a dinner party for around 250 people held in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

Pocket: What to Read If You Miss Watching Saturday Morning Cartoons

Romper: 24 Questions To Ask Kids When They Get Home From School

Today I Learned that sharks don’t make sounds. Across 400-500 species, no one has ever found an organ even capable of producing sound.

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