Vintage Whine

   After just 214 days of his first term, the president is already well into his re-election campaign.
   In Phoenix, AZ, on Tuesday, he wallowed in the adoration of his hard-right base of supporters, attacking one of his favorite targets, "the fake news media," for supposedly not covering his speeches fairly and accurately.
   Specifically, he insisted that the news media did not quote accurately his criticism of the demonstrators in Charlottesville, VA, last week. To prove that, he said, he read from a copy of his prepared remarks, in which he condemned "in the strongest possible terms," the bigotry and bias shown during the disturbance.
   Reality check: TV and print media did report exactly what he said, including the part where he denounced bigotry and bias "on many sides," a phrase that he used twice in his original speech. However, he left out that phrase at the rally in Phoenix.
   News anchors were quick to pick up that sin of omission, and played clips of the relevant portions of each talk, both the original in which he ad libbed the phrase "on many sides," as well as the Phoenix appearance where he read the prepared text without the blaming phrase.
   The rally in Phoenix was promoted and paid for by his re-election committee, which was organized and registered soon after his inauguration Jan. 20.
   There had been reports that he would issue a presidential pardon for ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of disobeying a federal court order to stop harassing Latinos in Maricopa County, the area around Phoenix.
   But he did say, "but not tonight," and suggested that Arpaio,  who was defeated in his bid for re-election, "has nothing to worry about," a clear suggestion that a presidential pardon would indeed come soon.
   At no time during his speech did he mention the name of the woman who was killed in Charlottesville when an automobile was deliberately driven into a crowd of demonstrators.
   At previous campaign rallies, he has said that protestors and demonstrators "should be roughed up." And he has claimed that his popularity is so strong that "I could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes."
   
   Also at the Phoenix re-election campaign rally, he repeated his promise to build a wall on the southern border of the country to keep out immigrants, "even if I have to shut down the government to pay for it."
   This is a real danger, since the federal government must soon introduce a new budget for the upcoming fiscal year, at the same time acting to increase the government's debt limit. Otherwise, the federal government will be unable to continue borrowing to pay for existing programs.
   Other news reports indicated that the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have not spoken to each other in weeks, since their last interaction ended in a shouting match in which the president assailed McConnell for not protecting him from a Senate probe into allegations of Russian interference in last year's election.