A number of other news outlets have also given their impressions, none of them very good.
However Ezra Klein of Vox News seems almost shaken by what he read in the interview:The president of the United States is not well. That is an uncomfortable thing to say, but it is an even worse thing to ignore.
This is nothing new as a lot of people, including licensed psychologists have suggested that Trump is likely mentally ill.
However Klein seems to be really confronting that possibility for the first time here.
And he gives a a number of examples from the interview to support his concern.
Here is just one of them that I also found quite shocking:
As for Trump’s contention that “it’s been proven that there is no collusion,” it’s hard to even know how to begin responding to that. In recent months, Trump’s former campaign manager and national security adviser have both been charged with crimes by Robert Mueller, and the investigation is not just ongoing but apparently widening in its scope and ferocity. Yet here is Trump’s take:
"I saw Dianne Feinstein the other day on television saying there is no collusion. She’s the head of the committee. The Republicans, in terms of the House committees, they come out, they’re so angry because there is no collusion. So, I actually think that it’s turning out — I actually think it’s turning to the Democrats because there was collusion on behalf of the Democrats. There was collusion with the Russians and the Democrats. A lot of collusion."
Sen. Feinstein has not said that she, or any of the ongoing investigations, has concluded that there was no collusion. What she has said is that investigators believe Trump may have obstructed justice in his efforts to derails inquiries into collusion:
"The [Senate] Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well and it involves obstruction of justice and I think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice."
It speaks to Trump’s habits of mind, to the sycophantic sources from which he prefers to get his news, that he heard something Feinstein said and has come to believe she has absolved him — yet misses the actual thing she said that threatens him.
Essentially it appears that Trump is not simply rejecting news that he finds critical of him, but is actually unable to even hear that news.
We have heard that Trump's daily briefings are shaped so as not to unduly upset him, but it really seems likely that even if he heard facts that displeased him he may not be able to absorb them or ascertain their meaning.
Here is how Klein ends the post:
This is the president of the United States speaking to the New York Times. His comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed. This is not a partisan judgment — indeed, the interview is rarely coherent or specific enough to classify the points Trump makes on a recognizable left-right spectrum. As has been true since he entered American politics, Trump is interested in Trump — over the course of the interview, he mentions his Electoral College strategy seven times, in each case using it to underscore his political savvy and to suggest that he could easily have won the popular vote if he had tried.
I am not a medical professional, and I will not pretend to know what is truly happening here. It’s become a common conversation topic in Washington to muse on whether the president is suffering from some form of cognitive decline or psychological malady. I don’t think those hypotheses are necessary or meaningful. Whatever the cause, it is plainly obvious from Trump’s words that this is not a man fit to be president, that he is not well or capable in some fundamental way. That is an uncomfortable thing to say, and so many prefer not to say it, but Trump does not occupy a job where such deficiencies can be safely ignored.
I agree with every word of this.
Simply put so long as Trump remains in the White House he puts this entire nation at risk, and that cannot be considered mere hyperbole.
Sometimes people respond to suggestions that Trump be impeached with "Bu would Mike Pence really be any better?"
And the simple answer to that is "Yes, of course he would, because at least he is sane."
Source http://ift.tt/2Ca8wbx
