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“7 stories to know” is a new Monday series showcasing stories that may have been ignored in the crush of news over the past few weeks, and stories that have continued to evolve over the weekend. Expect to read coverage about health, science, and climate that frequently takes second chair to what’s happening at the top of the page, plus information from local sources that the national media may have overlooked.
1. Trump’s willingness to mock disabilities is his most disgusting trait
The list of Donald Trump’s personal detestables is long, but at the very top of that list may be how he believes mocking people’s disabilities is a perfectly acceptable form of humor. It was a feature of his 2016 campaign, such as when he cruelly mocked a New York Times reporter’s physical disability, and it continues through Daily Kos’ Jessica Sutherland’s weekend report on how Trump has made mocking President Joe Biden’s stutter part of his regular schtick at campaign rallies. That follows earlier instances in which Trump also claimed that Biden was senile and mocked him by pretending to totter around the stage.
Voters in 2016 found Trump’s willingness to mock the disabled his most objectionable trait. It even made the 2017 Golden Globes broadcast, when no less than actor Meryl Streep blasted Trump for a “performance” that was intended to make the audience “laugh and show their teeth.”
Trump’s mocking of disabilities “kind of broke my heart,” Streep said.
But what do Trump’s fans think when they’re laughing along with their man as he openly mocks physical and mental disabilities? This past week, The Atlantic reporter John Hendrickson visited a Trump rally to ask. What he found was a long cascade of the same things Trump fans display when confronted by anything their candidate does, whether it’s instigating insurrection or lifting rhetoric from Adolf Hitler—a toxic combination of denial and justification.
Naturally, Hendrickson found plenty of Trump supporters who prove only how right Hillary Clinton was in 2016.
“Trump is a good man,” Miller said. “He’s not perfect. Biden is not handicapped. He’s just an ass, and he does not care about this country.” She went on, “If Trump made fun of Biden, well, like I said, he’s not perfect, but it wasn’t about a disability. It was about how he has made this country dysfunctional, not disabled.”A bit later, she told me that “Biden doesn’t stutter; he’s mentally incapable of running this country.”
The same person who made those comments expressed her sympathy for why Hendrickson, who has a stutter, might be concerned. Then went right back to blaming the media for mentioning the issue while defending Trump.
