#3: Abusing the bully pulpit
Many of the experts pointed to Trump’s inflammatory and divisive rhetoric as a stark abuse of power, albeit not criminal, and probably not impeachable either. But they said Trump abused the bully pulpit by using his platform to brazenly spread lies and conspiracies, attack political opponents of all stripes, and praise bad actors like white nationalists and authoritarian leaders.
CNN and other news outlets fact-checked thousands of lies that Trump told during his tenure, far surpassing the cherry-picked political spin or occasional whoppers told by past presidents.
“Trump abused the bully pulpit to intimidate witnesses, literally bully people and spread disinformation. It’s never been done on the scale that he did it,” said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who testified as a Democratic witness in favor of impeachment in 2019
ABUSING THE BULLY PULPIT
Trump says both sides to blame amid Charlottesville backlash
Trump unleashes on Kavanaugh accuser
Trump attacks another African American lawmaker, and calls Baltimore a ‘disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess’
Fact check: Breaking down Trump’s 654 false claims over 14 weeks during the coronavirus pandemic
Many of Trump’s comments debased the public discourse and were blatantly racist or fanned the flames of existing divisions. Others were detrimental to public health. Last year, he often downplayed the risks of Covid-19 and promoted unproven treatments. The experts said these were shameful misuses of his bully pulpit that literally put Americans in danger.
Larry Diamond, an expert on democratic governance at the Hoover Institution, said Trump “has massive responsibility for creating the normative atmosphere in which extremism, hatred, racial bigotry and violent imagery have prospered and metastasized.” Diamond noted Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists at the 2017 Charlottesville rally to his praising of QAnon in late 2020.
“The amount of lies that came out of this presidency was corrosive to our political culture,” said Joe Goldman, president of the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation that studies voter attitudes toward democratic institutions and works to strengthen democracy. “In theory, you could pass new laws to address many of the norm violations we saw under Trump. But earning back people’s trust is much harder to do.”
Many of the experts pointed to Trump’s inflammatory and divisive rhetoric as a stark abuse of power, albeit not criminal, and probably not impeachable either. But they said Trump abused the bully pulpit by using his platform to brazenly spread lies and conspiracies, attack political opponents of all stripes, and praise bad actors like white nationalists and authoritarian leaders.
CNN and other news outlets fact-checked thousands of lies that Trump told during his tenure, far surpassing the cherry-picked political spin or occasional whoppers told by past presidents.
“Trump abused the bully pulpit to intimidate witnesses, literally bully people and spread disinformation. It’s never been done on the scale that he did it,” said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who testified as a Democratic witness in favor of impeachment in 2019
ABUSING THE BULLY PULPIT
Trump says both sides to blame amid Charlottesville backlash
Trump unleashes on Kavanaugh accuser
Trump attacks another African American lawmaker, and calls Baltimore a ‘disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess’
Fact check: Breaking down Trump’s 654 false claims over 14 weeks during the coronavirus pandemic
Many of Trump’s comments debased the public discourse and were blatantly racist or fanned the flames of existing divisions. Others were detrimental to public health. Last year, he often downplayed the risks of Covid-19 and promoted unproven treatments. The experts said these were shameful misuses of his bully pulpit that literally put Americans in danger.
Larry Diamond, an expert on democratic governance at the Hoover Institution, said Trump “has massive responsibility for creating the normative atmosphere in which extremism, hatred, racial bigotry and violent imagery have prospered and metastasized.” Diamond noted Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists at the 2017 Charlottesville rally to his praising of QAnon in late 2020.
“The amount of lies that came out of this presidency was corrosive to our political culture,” said Joe Goldman, president of the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation that studies voter attitudes toward democratic institutions and works to strengthen democracy. “In theory, you could pass new laws to address many of the norm violations we saw under Trump. But earning back people’s trust is much harder to do.”
