O’Malley goes Godwin's Law on Trump

[Mr. Morden]

A few days before he makes his big return to Iowa (to campaign for Lykam, but presumably also to drop breadcrumbs for 2020), Martin O’Malley does a an interview with Alan Colmes, which you can listen to in full here:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5250156109001/?#sp=show-clips
https://radio.foxnews.com/2016/12/15/omalley-the-gop-was-hijacked-by-the-fascist-campaign-of-donald-trump/

In it, O’Malley makes clear that his strategy for setting himself apart from the rest of the 2020 field is through liberal use of the f-word:

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[Mr. Morden]

And why is Martin O'Malley relevant?

He's relevant because he seems to be testing the waters for a 2020 presidential run, and this is the 2020 presidential election board.

[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

Here's one of O'Malley's most recent tweets (not about Trump, but about the House GOP trying to gut the ethics office):

https://twitter.com/MartinOMalley/status/816305625311412224

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Maybe this is O'Malley's shtick for 2020: To use more provocative language in his attacks on the GOP than most of his rivals will.  I mean, obviously the other Dems are criticizing the same things about Trump and the GOP, but O'Malley seems to be trying to set himself apart by using language like "fascist" and "authoritarian".

[Mr. Morden]

O’Malley’s recent tweets continue the trend:

https://twitter.com/MartinOMalley/status/820095055516106756

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https://twitter.com/MartinOMalley/status/820476452478939137

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Someone should create a Martin O'Malley tweet generator.  Just randomly create a sentence that includes "Trump", "racist", "fascist", "Nazis", etc.

[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

O'Malley is the true trendsetter of the 2020 presidential campaign.  Months after he started calling Trump fascist, Bernie Sanders now says that Trump is moving the country in an "authoritarian" direction:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/06/22/sanders-warns-of-authoritarian-direction-under-trump/?utm_term=.1b5ab756a5fd

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[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

O'Malley's use of hyperbolic language to describe Trump and associates continues, now saying "They knowingly committed treason"...though I guess it's not totally clear if he includes the prez himself in this, or just Don Jr. and the other campaign officials in the Don Jr.-Russia meeting:

https://twitter.com/MartinOMalley/status/884588185887674368

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[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

And now O'Malley calls Trump "unfit for office":

https://twitter.com/AlexWitt/status/919560641010073600

I think it's an interesting question: re: how far will the 2020 Dems go in saying that Trump is unsuited to the presidency.  Will they call him fascist, mentally unwell, etc.?  O'Malley is already going there, and as long as one of the candidates is willing to do it, the media will ask all the others if they agree.

[Mr. Morden]

*bump*

And now O'Malley calls Trump "unfit for office":

https://twitter.com/AlexWitt/status/919560641010073600

I think it's an interesting question: re: how far will the 2020 Dems go in saying that Trump is unsuited to the presidency.  Will they call him fascist, mentally unwell, etc.?  O'Malley is already going there, and as long as one of the candidates is willing to do it, the media will ask all the others if they agree.

Just because it's extreme doesn't make it untrue that Trump is unsuited to the Presidency or is mentally unwell (it's been debated elsewhere on this board whether Trump is a fascist and I argued that he's an 'aspirational fascist' or whatever term was used.)  

If you are denying these things, I don't think that makes it so.  I think you are suffering from 'normalcy bias.'

No, I'm not denying it.  I'm just saying that it's unusual for presidential candidates to talk about the opposing party's president in such stark terms, and I'm legitimately curious as to how far the 2020 Dems will go with this.  For now, O'Malley's going farther than the others tend to.  I don't hear Elizabeth Warren using the "f-word" (fascist) to describe Trump, nor Kamala Harris talking about Trump's mental health.  If, tomorrow, you asked them those questions straight up, they'd probably skirt the issue, saying that Trump is ideologically extreme and that he has serious character problems and so forth, but they probably wouldn't put it in the terms that O'Malley does.

But I'm not sure that that's going to last forever.  Maybe two years from now, Dem. primary voters will be pushing the presidential candidates to condemn Trump in stronger terms than they have so far.

[Mr. Morden]

I think Elizabeth Warren has said she isn't going to run for President

She hasn't.  She said she isn't running right now, but that's present tense, not future tense:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=233345.msg5772512#msg5772512

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She has pointedly refused to make any kind of promise that she's going to serve her full Senate term if she's reelected next year, and she's acting like a presidential candidate:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/us/politics/democrats-president-2020.html?mcubz=3
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/us/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-democrats-presidential-election.html

So nothing's certain at this early stage, but is she one of the 10 most likely people to end up joining the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination?  I'd say yes.