The Republican Party organized March4Trump events around the country today and the rally at Hot Springs was typical — I count about 200 including media and several counter-protesters. The opposing sides engaged a time or two across the hedges.
(Trump is reputed to have said that these were the biggest marches in the history of the solar system, with the crowd in Hot Springs exceeding that at the Big Shootout in Fayetteville in 1969.)
I liked the take on Seuss by an anti-Trumper in Hot Springs.Just down the street, Brian Chilson ran into former Rep. Loy Mauch, the Confederate irregular who waved his freak flag high.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford found the recipe for a peaceful town hall — hold it in relatively rural Arkansas at 8 a.m. Saturday, far removed from the state’s major cities at a community center in Heber Springs. It was heavily promoted on Republican social media outlets.
David Koon reports that the crowd was friendly to the Arkansas Republicans and asked mostly pro-Trump questions. Might Cotton some day favor the state’s capital with a public viewing? Koon messaged me the following with photos:
But the Heber Springs session came before news of Donald Trump’s latest: Based on no evidence, he claimed then-President Obama wiretapped his Trump Tower phone before the election. Obama naturally said he did not. Many, including Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ben Sasse say it’s imperative that Trump provide more details and that the matter be fully disclosed. Either a) Barack Obama did something illegal or b) a secret federal court that authorizes wiretaps got sufficient evidence to warrant listening in on Russia’s great friend Trump.
Trump also took time from leading the free world to poke at Arnold Schwarzenegger. Really.
Tom Cotton urged people this week not to put too much stock in alarming things said by unidentified sources in news articles. How about alarming, unhinged things uttered by the president himself on his Twitter account?
Was Trump getting out ahead of another damaging story about his contacts with Russians? I like the sound of that frequently expressed theory for the latest Twitter eruption.
Oh yeah. This is an open line