When your opponents can run a minute of your own blathering, it pretty much proves you blew it. But this is not simply another gaffe for Trump or even another dumb idea like the wall. This was an extended conversation reflecting the grotesque ignorance and total unfitness of the man who at every turn has failed to protect the country during the worst domestic crisis since the Great Depression. It illustrated how he intellectually corrupts those around him, forcing them to sacrifice their own credibility to defend his inanities.

During the preceding three years, when Trump critics pointed to his incompetence, racism, cruelty, lying, contempt for democracy, economic illiteracy or xenophobia, his defenders would retort “but tax cuts” or “but Gorsuch.” Essentially, they argued, we had to forget about everything else because Trump had bestowed upon the right their precious tax cuts (along with a sustained recovery) and Supreme Court picks that gave conservatives a 5-4 majority on most cases.

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The apologists ignored that any conservative president would have produced similar results or that policy ends do not justify the destruction of civility, decency or democracy. Nevertheless, it was enough to keep on board the wealthy donor class and the right-wing evangelical Christian hypocrites who were pleased to overlook his un-Christian conduct and character for the sake of some judges. It was enough to satisfy those willing to be persuaded and unwilling to admit their vote for him had been a tragic mistake.

Now, however, the disaster that Trump has been utterly incapable of addressing has wiped out the value of those tax cuts (and the stock market) and taken more than 50,000 American lives. Whatever his apologists’ defense, the response to his previous (now virtually imperceptible) accomplishments has been obliterated by “But Lysol” — that is, his mind-boggling unfitness leading him to ignore real threats and promote dangerous behavior.

The more Trump’s sycophantic aides defend him, the worse he looks and the greater the concern that he has created a cult that is unable to inform or educate him. Coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, as she has done so often, refused to contradict Trump outright on Sunday on “Meet the Press,” thereby “perpetuating an unscientific, untested, single study presented by a nonscientist from the Department of Homeland Security,” as NBC’s Andrea Mitchell put it. Meanwhile, sentient politicians were compelled to reiterate to the public, as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) did, "Unequivocally, no one should be using disinfectant to digest it to fight covid-19. Please don’t do it. Just don’t do it.”

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Well, Trump has said dumb things before, you say. Very true, but in a presidential campaign, there are times when a candidate says something that essentially seals his fate by epitomizing the deepest concerns about his character, values or policies. For Mitt Romney in 2012, it was his comments at a fundraiser that “47 percent who are with [President Barack Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them. … I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” This was the Monopoly man in the top hat, the heartless capitalist speaking. Any chance he might have had to defeat the incumbent president went flying out the window.

In 1976, it was President Gerald Ford’s debate comments: “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration. … I don’t believe that the Romanians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don’t believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union.” In an instant, the caricature of a befuddled, inept president sprang to life; no amount of damage control was going to revive his campaign.

Trump has decided to run for cover, insisting now that the news conferences are a “waste of time” while aides suggest he will not be appearing or at least not appearing as often as he had been. The Biden campaign can mourn the loss of new material for their campaign ads, but the last and most compelling message, Trump’s reckless and unbelievably dumb Lysol advice — what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called “embalming” — is left hanging. We have the perfect encapsulation of a president whose defects make him not simply useless but a menace to America.

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