OK.
So we already talked a little bit about the
unrest that we saw over the weekend in different
cities across the country, clashes everything
from pepper spray.
Trump trucks with flags driving into people.
I mean, we just saw all sorts of different
stuff.
And the point I tried to make was that arguing
about what percentage of the unrest and violence
is coming from from either side, from each
side is not really an effective use of time.
And that even though it's counterintuitive,
I believe that chaos and unrest helps Donald
Trump secure reelection if it does anything
at all.
Well, outgoing Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway
was recently interviewed and she said that
from her perspective, the more chaos there
is she used the words anarchy and vandalism,
the better it is.
And in terms of the choice between Trump and
Biden on public safety and law and order,
now, I happen to agree with her.
I think she's completely wrong on the facts.
In other words, Trump's president now and
the chaos he's pointing to is happening now.
That doesn't really justify reelecting Trump.
So I disagree with her that it actually illuminates
who would be better on this issue.
Vice Vice President Joe Biden was vice president
for eight years.
We didn't have this type of chaos then.
But from a political standpoint and in terms
of who supports which candidate, I believe
she is right.
Let's take a look at what she had to say.
I noticed there was a quote today from a restaurant
tour in Wisconsin saying, are you protesters
trying to get Donald Trump reelected?
He knows.
Full stop.
And I guess Mayor Pete knows full stop that
the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and
violence reigns, the better it is for the
very clear choice on who is best on public
safety and law and order.
When I was in Fort McHenry, less so.
A logical person would say, wait, wait a second.
Trump is president and it's chaotic.
You don't expect that same president to fix
the issue, you change president if you want
the issue fixed, reelecting the guy during
whom's during whose presidency there is chaos
isn't going to stop the chaos.
The reality is that they are creating these
images of chaos with footage from Portland.
It's being strategically disseminated.
Look at some of the usual suspects, some of
the so-called enlightened centrists on the
Internet who claim to be unbiased arbiters,
but who are furthering this exact narrative
that things would be far less chaotic if Trump
gets reelected.
They use this to rile up their base.
Trump has been doing it for a while.
We saw it during the RNC using the phrase
violent anarchists or anarchists, as Trump
often says, mispronouncing it up, Marxists.
They talk about socialist, communist, etc.,
who are out there and they want to hurt the
police and they want to hurt people.
And all of this different stuff.
This is called chaos, PR chaos, public relations.
And it is counterintuitive.
I get that it's counterintuitive and I understand
why some in the audience don't agree with
me.
Vladimir Putin has used this stuff.
Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel previous to privacy
used more what we would call fear public relations
than chaos.
Public public relations.
But it's certainly related.
And the idea is that when your let me let
me see how I can explain this in the clearest
way when your poppy when your constituents
are the ones more likely to be activated by
chaos.
The fact that the chaos is happening under
your watch doesn't hurt you.
And if there are a whole bunch of people,
remember, half the country doesn't vote.
But there are a bunch of people in the nonvoters
who would support Biden if they voted.
And there's a whole bunch of people in the
nonvoters who would support Trump if they
voted for.
You can find an issue that disproportionately
activates your side.
It really doesn't matter if it's idiotic to
suggest that, hey, it's chaotic under my watch.
Reelect me and I'll stop the chaos.
The lack of sort of logic in that actually
doesn't matter.
The Biden campaign is increasingly understanding
this Trump step.
Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield,
said over the weekend Trump is deliberately
inciting violence, and I believe he is because
he believes it will benefit him.
The United States globally has become a joke
under this presidency.
And Donald Trump is doing something that should
be laughed out of office, which is trying
to get reelected by gaslighting people about
the current state of affairs.
Trump had a failed Corona virus response.
It caused chaos.
It cost medical chaos, cultural chaos, economic
chaos.
Trump then blames the chaos on the left and
says, reelect me and I'll fix this.
Wait a second.
You caused it.
Trump is essentially trying to be both the
arsonist and the fireman.
Right.
Create the crisis and present himself as the
hero who can fix it.
And to that end, he is manipulating the bases
of both parties and getting the bases of both
parties to play active roles.
Understand the I don't want to call it genius
because I don't know that it's calculated.
But what Donald Trump is doing by inciting
violence and unrest is he's activating the
so-called law and order people on his side
to get out and vote.
And he's also activating the people on the
left who are furious about what's going on
to go and protest.
And while most of the protesters are overwhelmingly
peaceful, it is going to foment the narrative
that he wants of an angry, out-of-control
anarchist left, which is not accurate, but
it is doing things to both bases that I believe
benefits him.
Now, unfortunately, fact checking this won't
help.
We've been fact checking it for a long time.
It's beyond fact checking.
And I'm assuming I don't have to say this
to you.
When the incumbent president believes that
generating more chaos in the streets, retweeting
videos of street fights, as Trump did over
the weekend, which I will tell you about,
it is not a good situation when that is what
the incumbent president believes will get
him reelected.
It's even worse when he might be right.
And, of course, this strategy disproportionately
works on people who can easily be bamboozled.
There are a lot of those people in Trump's
constituency.
So the question is, what should we do?
I don't have an answer for you today.
I'm going to think about it and hopefully
follow up with you later this week.
If you have thoughts, I do want to hear from
you.
You can let me know via
Twitter
at David Pakman.
