The episode reflected a now-ingrained political calculus for Republicans when confronted with outrageous utterances from a vindictive president who detests being criticized. Instead of addressing the content or the person responsible, Republicans long ago determined that the least politically fraught avenue is to ignore it altogether, in the hope that the outrage of the day quickly fades. It has proved a steady bet, given that Mr. Trump’s Twitter provocations almost always give way to yet another frenetic news cycle, often generated by the president himself. “Most of the time when the president tweets something that seems crazy, somebody else tells me.”“I don’t mean to be flippant,” he added. “When I wake up in the morning, the president’s tweets are not in the top 100 things I think about.”

Source: New York Times June 09, 2020 23:26 UTC