The Stream

The Brew: When Will Joe Go?

By Al Perrotta Published on July 19, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Happy Friday!

That’s a wrap for the GOP convention. Last night, former President Donald J. Trump delivered a speech unlike any we have heard from him before. (We fully cover that in a separate story, “Given a Second Chance at Life, Trump Makes the Most of His Moment.”)

Last night also featured Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan.

This is not your pappy’s Republican Party.

All told, the RNC can pat itself on the back for a job well done (excluding the platform’s abandonment of most restrictions on abortion) and even if the whole nomination of Trump and J.D. Vance almost got overshadowed by a dog — namely, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s bulldog Baby Dog, who was an actual convention delegate.

(Please, no Kristi Noem jokes here.)

Just one of the oddities of a week that began a fraction of an inch from catastrophe. But first …

The Joe-Goes Countdown: Obama Hires People to Throw Biden Under the Bus

Two things we know. First, the clock is ticking on Joe Biden’s candidacy. Second, despite what Joe may have thought for their eight years in office together, Barack Obama is not his buddy. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Obama is telling allies that Biden’s path to victory is “greatly diminished” and the president must “seriously consider” his viability. What’s telling is that Obama is not saying this publicly — or going directly to Biden to urge it. He’s using his allies to leak his thoughts.

It’s rather astonishing to see the “threat to democracy” crowd working so hard to do away with the democratically decided Democratic primary process.

Still, Biden’s campaign continues to insist he’s not going to withdraw. Despite their denials, we do have to begin considering the follow-up question. Sen. Marco Rubio put it this way: “If Democrats believe Biden doesn’t have the mental acuity to be their candidate, how can they allow him to continue to be our president?”

Meanwhile, we got an update Thursday from Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor. The president’s still suffering mild upper-respiratory symptoms from COVID. However, he “doesn’t have a fever and his vital signs remain normal.” Do we believe the report?

Joy Reid: ‘It’s All a Fake!’

Given the shock of the assassination attempt and the dismay at just how badly the Secret Service bungled its one job, I figured we should start with a comedian. When we think of the pantheon of the great black female comedians, like Moms Mabley and Whoopi Goldberg, it’s time we add the name Joy Reid.

Sure, she plays the role of an MSNBC host, but clearly that is only performance art, with a commitment to the role matched only perhaps by the late, great Andy Kauffman. After all, what she’s saying now is either comedic performance art … or she needs to be committed.

Joy Reid posted a riff that is so unhinged, so absurd, so devoid of reality, it has to be witnessed or else you’d think we were making this up.

Reid is actually claiming that Donald Trump was not struck by a bullet, but by flying glass. “We still don’t know for sure whether Donald Trump was hit by a bullet, whether he was hit by glass fragments, whether he was hit by shrapnel.” (Despite the fact that the shooting took place in an open-air field, with no glass objects anywhere in sight.)

In case you are thinking, “Well, that’s something she posted from home, perhaps after downing a few too many,” consider also what she said Wednesday night on air: Reid suggested Joe Biden recovering from COVID would be just as brave as Trump rising to his feet seconds after being shot with a high-powered rifle.

“’Should he be fine in a couple of days,’ doesn’t that convey the exact same thing?” she asked. “That he’s strong enough, older than Trump, to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age.”

Hillbilly Elegy Movie Created a “Monster,” Says Variety Film Critic

Meanwhile, Variety’s top film critic is upset that the 2020 film version of Hillbilly Elegy “may have created a monster” by elevating J.D. Vance via his compelling life story of overcoming childhood struggles.

“It was that dimension of Vance’s narrative that clearly attracted director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer — both self-avowed liberals, who may have created a monster by legitimizing his origin story, much as The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett did by giving Trump a reality TV spotlight back in 2004,” declared Peter Debrudge.

Debrudge says the film contributed to the “mythmaking” that helped Vance win his Senate seat. While the critic begrudgingly admits Vance’s work did help explain Trump’s appeal, he uses that appeal to take a cheap shot at Trump supporters. (Because that’s what you do when you feel the power of the elite slipping away.)

On page after page, Vance argues that a vast segment of white working-class Americans has been feeling disenfranchised. Offensive as it may sound to some, the ‘Make America Great Again’ concept appeals to voters so preoccupied with their own day-to-day reality that they aren’t nearly as focused on the rights of others — Black Americans, immigrants, welfare cases.

Debrudge can grumble all he wants. Viewership of Hillbilly Elegy has jumped 1,000% since Vance was named Trump’s running mate.

A Script Rewrite: An Absolutely Brilliant, Creative Summary of the Secret Service Fiasco

Hollywood writer/executive producer Joseph Mallozzi has taken what happened Saturday in Butler, Pa., and imagined the Secret Service part of the story as a Hollywood script. And he did a savage critique of it, as if he were delivering script notes for a more believable rewrite.

This is flat-out brilliant. It is also a devastating indictment of the Secret Service.

Perhaps my favorite section:

Can we not have the shooter spotted on the rooftop by the attendees? While I appreciate your attempt to ramp up the tension, having 30 minutes pass between the moment people point him out to when he finally takes the shot really feels like a stretch. Instead of all these people spotting him and shouting at authorities to no avail, how about making it a lone child instead? Say a three year old loses their balloon and watches it drift skywards, past the rooftop, where he sees the man on the roof. He turns to his mother and says: “Mommy, there’s a man on the roof!” But when his mother looks, there is no one there as the shooter has ducked down and the roof fully obscures him. His mother, of course, dismisses her son’s comment as the product of a child’s imagination.

Strange: NYC Councilwoman Bites NYPD Deputy Chief

Democratic New York City Councilwoman Susan Zhuang was arrested Wednesday during a Brooklyn protest for biting a NYPD officer. It’s Alvin Bragg’s New York, after all. She’ll get off by claiming to identify as Joe Biden’s dog.

The NYPD seems shocked, since Zhuang is actually known as a friend to law enforcement.

“Councilwoman Zhuang has been a great partner with the NYPD for a long time,” Chief of Patrol John Chell insisted. “But the actions today, by assaulting one of our police officers, a deputy chief, by biting him viciously in the arm, I can’t explain it right now.”

Zhuang was charged with assault in the second and third degrees, resisting arrest, and obstructing government administration.

Along the Stream

Coming up at 7 a.m. Eastern Time, Stream contributor Timothy Furnish offers “Praising Caesar, Not Burying Him: How Trump Changed the Ending of Shakespeare’s Play.”

Jules Gomes’s latest is up, a fascinating look at how a “Cardinal Restores Excommunicated Anti-Fascist Priest Shaming Church’s Alliance With Mussolini.”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
The Good Life
Katherine Wolf
More from The Stream
Recommended
More

Equipping Christians to Engage Culture

Connect with Us