Rachel Maddow Destroys the ‘Bizarre Spectacle’ of Donald Trump’s Health Con Job

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:11 pm

If you have had a difficult time following all the ins and outs of Donald Trump’s medical history, if you’re thoroughly bewildered by what Rachel Maddow terms the “compelling” con of Trump’s “ridiculous circus,” you’re not alone.

Maddow takes you through a run-down of events from the opening salvos on her show in August, to Trump’s non-reveal on the Dr. Oz show, when he handed Dr. Oz a piece of paper that is seen by no one else and remains a mystery today.

Maddow explains,

“Ultimately, bottom line, we’ve still got nothing, and maybe we shouldn’t care. But the Trump campaign remains the only presidential campaign in US history to have made such a hash and such a bizarre spectacle out of what is usually a totally run of the mill part of the presidential campaign.

Watch courtesy of MSNBC:

Trump handed Dr. Oz something. He wants people to believe what took place was the release of his medical records. He even said that was what he was doing. “Should I do it?” Yet what took place was nothing of the sort. There was no revelation of medical records.

Maddow expertly disassembles the exposes the nature of the charade in just a few words (emphasis added):

“If you’re a real showman, if you’re good at being a showman, you can distract from all that and more with a little bread and circus. A real showman can convince people they have seen something even if they have not actually seen it. There has been no release of information about Donald Trump’s health. Nobody other than that guy on TV has seen anything new about Donald Trump’s health today even though a lot of people have now convinced themselves that he has made some new disclosure about his health. A great showman can pick something, pick any one thing, and be so ridiculous about it that everybody stops whatever else they were paying attention to before and pays attention to that ridiculous circus instead…That’s what showmanship is. It’s a con, but it’s very compelling.”

Americans know nothing more today than they knew yesterday about Turmp’s health. As Maddow concludes, it makes you feel like you need to wash. What Trump ultimately accomplished then was to make us all feel dirty by association, and as a result make us all want to take a bath. Which is no small thing.

And Donald Trump’s health? Kurt Eichenwald, who has traded more than a few barbs with the Trump campaign over the last day or so, seems to agree with Maddow. He tweeted, “Donald Trump will play the ‘tomorrow I’ll show you’ shuffle all way 2 White House unless reporters do their job and find answers themselves.”

It is more likely we will see more of Trump’s “compelling con” than any answers, because nobody has proven more adept at dancing around those answers than Donald Trump.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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