I’m Isaac Saul, and I’m the executive editor at Tangle where I write an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day — then “my take.” For more political analysis like this, !

John Kelly’s Comments

Four kinds of Trump stories

The “threat from within” and the “bloodbath”

Trump’s typify another kind of story. Here, Trump took flak for promising a “bloodbath” if he isn’t elected president; in context, however, he was very obviously for the auto industry. But news outlets and the Harris campaign have since told voters Trump was promising political violence. This is bucket #2: things Trump says publicly that are then distorted or deceitfully edited by political opponents and the press to make him look bad.

Categorizing John Kelly’s story

How I view the buckets

And I mostly ignore bucket #4. Anonymously sourced stories are important and often credible, depending on the context. In instances of national security, there are usually good reasons for people to go off-the-record. I’ve had sources go off-the-record. I know how it works. In articles where anonymous quotes support actual hard evidence (like leaked documents), one can usually trust that the source has a good reason to be guarded about their identity. But when anonymous stories about an offensive thing someone like Trump said are the story, I just have a hard time taking it seriously.

I have conflicting feelings

Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants — the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has , “They’re poisoning the blood of our country” and “They’re destroying the blood of our country.” He that many have “bad genes.” He has also been more explicit: “They’re not humans; they’re animals”; they are “cold-blooded killers.” He to his opponents — American citizens, some of whom are elected officials — as “the enemy from within … sick people, radical-left lunatics.” Not only do they have no rights; they should be “handled by,” he has said, “if necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

We know Trump

Trump’s biggest liabilities

There are plenty of good reasons to be skeptical about breathless takes that Trump is going to destroy our democracy, or skeptical about anonymous sources attributing ugly comments to him. And there is more than enough good reason to believe that Trump won’t turn the U.S. military on his political opponents. But Trump is actually saying that’s what he’d do, and he and his team are going to need a much better response to the concerns about those statements — otherwise, these kinds of stories aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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The Four Kinds of Trump Stories was originally published in The Political Prism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Democracy is dead already — you stole the last election, so don’t tell us you are protecting democracy.

Good. We’ve been waiting for someone who would fight. (And we love the cruelty — serves you libs right.)

We are divided. You are the enemy, not the Russians or China or even Iran.

He was draining the swamp. Next time, we hope he burns the rest down.

He’s hilarious. You just shouldn’t take him literally.

Why the Democrats Are Flailing was originally published in The Political Prism on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.