By GEORGE BALL

The first presidential debate was a disappointing fiasco that underscores what many of us already sensed. In this election our country is on trial, we are the jurors, and our verdict will define what we are as a nation.

While elections always matter, the importance of this one reflects our current dysfunctionality.  But it is also an opportunity. Because I have personally seen many ordinary Americans do extraordinary things in trials when serving on a jury.  By extraordinary, I mean stepping outside oneself to embrace a responsibility to another person – be it the defendant, the victim, or a fellow juror.    By leaving predilections and habits behind and doing the hard work of focusing on the truth of what is at issue in the case.

How will we meet that responsibility now?  How do we decide whom to vote for?

Put the debate debacle aside.  There is a better way.  We can (and should) make up our minds about the election the same way we decide most things that really matter. That is, by applying our life’s experience and common sense to what we already know and can still learn about the candidates.

We can learn a lot about Trump from others who really know him. Not “deep staters” or “never Trumpers,” but rather people Trump personally picked to serve in his administration who worked shoulder to shoulder him at the most senior levels. Here is how several of those people have described what they saw, firsthand.

James Mattis – a four-star general – earned the Bronze Star for valor in combat and commanded large bodies of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mattis.  After he retired from the Marine Corps, Mattis was picked by Trump as his Secretary of Defense, but after 2 years in that role felt compelled to resign. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-former-generals-james-mattis-joseph-votel-sound-unprecedented-ncna1069771.

Mattis later revealed his reason for doing so. In an unprecedented open letter written after Trump wanted to police American streets using active duty military personnel, Mattis observed that

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/.

Trump picked John Kelly – a three-star general – as Secretary of Homeland Security and, later, White House Chief of Staff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kelly. After serving two years in those roles, Kelly was reportedly no longer on speaking terms with Trump and resigned. Id. Referring to Mattis’ open letter, quoted above, Kelly noted  that “[h]e’s quite a man, Jim Mattis, and for him to [criticize Trump]  . . . tells you where [Mattis] . . . is relative to the concern he has for our country.” Kelly also warned that “we need to look harder at who we elect. I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?” https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/politics/john-kelly-agrees-with-jim-mattis-on-trump/index.html

Dan Coats, who was Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, reportedly told Mattis that “[t]o [Trump] . . ., a lie is not a lie. It’s just what he thinks. He doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie.’” https://www.nationalreview.com/news/mattis-told-then-dni-coats-they-may-be-forced-to-take-collective-action-against-unfit-trump-according-to-new-woodward-book/.

Which almost precisely matches how Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s older sister (and a retired federal judge) described Donald Trump; that is, as a person with “no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this. . . .  His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God . . . . The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/maryanne-trump-barry-secret-recordings/2020/08/22/30d457f4-e334-11ea-ade1-28daf1a5e919_story.html

John Bolton served in the Justice Department, State Department and as US Ambassador to the United Nations under two Presidents (Reagan and George W. Bush).  Trump selected him as National Security Advisor in April 2018.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bolton.

They worked together for 17 months.  Bolton has concluded that Trump is without

any guiding principle — that I was able to discern other than– what’s good for Donald Trump‘s reelection. Now, look, you can’t take the politics out of politics. It plays a role in every aspect of decision making in the executive branch. But there’s no coherent basis, no strategy, no philosophy. And decisions are made in a very scatter shot fashion, especially in the potentially mortal field of national security policy. This is a danger for the republic.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-john-bolton-interview-abc-news-martha-raddatz/story?id=71287825

Rex Tillerson left his role as chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil to serve as Trump’s first Secretary of State. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Tillerson.  He worked with Trump for 13 months, and knew him to be “a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘[t]his is what I believe.’ ” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/07/rex-tillerson-trump-undisciplined-doesnt-like-read-tries-do-illegal-things/

That is what Tillerson shared publicly.  It has been widely reported that in private Tillerson was more succinct – describing Trump as a “moron.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/03/13/tillerson-reportedly-called-trump-moron-months-later-hes-out/419673002/.

Are these descriptions true?

At a trial one way to assess the truthfulness of what a person says is to see how many others are also saying it, and whether the speakers were in a position to know.  Another is to look for objective facts outside a person’s control that are consistent with what that person says they have observed.  In other words, corroboration.

The reliability of these two reinforcing pathways is easy to illustrate. Imagine that it rained while you were asleep.  When you woke up, your three children all said they saw it rain earlier.  You looked out the window and see puddles in the street and low hanging clouds.  Now it’s time for you to go work. What do you do?  You grab an umbrella.

We have just read the views of Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff, Director of National Intelligence, National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, and Trump’s older sister.  They certainly know the President. And they know him well. Viewed singularly or in combination, what emerges from these descriptions is a man profoundly unfit to serve as President or, indeed, in any role involving the public trust.

Are these views corroborated? Let’s look.

Trump’s Tax Returns

There is a reason why Presidents release tax returns.  It tells the American public what money they have, how they got it, whom they may owe it to, and whether they have paid their fair share of taxes. Every sitting President since Jimmy Carter (who served 40 years ago) has released his tax returns.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/us/politics/trump-taxes.html.  With one exception – Donald Trump.

In a televised 2011 interview, Trump said that “I’d love to give my tax returns. I may tie my tax returns into Obama’s birth certificate.” Days later, Obama released his long-form birth certificate. And Trump did not release his taxes. Id.

In 2014, Trump told an Irish journalist that “[i]f I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely.  And I would love to do that.” Id.  Then Trump did run for office, and no tax returns were produced.

Instead, in a September 2016 Presidential debate Trump, asked when he would release his tax return, replied “I’m under a routine audit, and it’ll be released. And as soon as the audit is finished, it will be released.” Id.

Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, notes that presidents are automatically audited each year they are in office. Id. But nothing prevents an individual from making his tax returns public while an audit is underway, and there was no legal reason for Mr. Trump to hold back his tax returns. Id.

To the contrary, “[t]he excuse that he’s under audit is a non-excuse,” Mr. Rosenthal said. “He’s always under audit.” Id.

Just days ago, Trump’s actual returns were leaked to the New York Times, generating a rather spectacular story. Trump denies that reportage. And he has still not released his tax returns.

COVID-19

There is little new to be said about Trump’s response to this national (and international) tragedy.  Two data points do, however, seem particularly telling.

One concerns masks. As of yesterday, Trump simply would not wear one despite the recent testimony of Dr. Robert Redfield (Trump’s choice to lead the FDA), who told Congress under oath that “I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70%. And if I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will.” https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-masks-health-experts/index.html

In so stating, Redfield was sharing the considered view of the FDA, NIH, WHO, CDC and many, many others.  Trump, however, was unconvinced.  This may change at least for a little while now that Trump is himself Covid positive.  Or not.  Noting that health experts who now advocate public mask-wearing were once opposed to it, for many months Trump was (and likely still is) “somewhere in the middle.  I understand both sides of the argument.”  https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/trump-has-not-been-clear-in-support-of-masks/

What is that other side?  Well, according to Trump “[m]asks have problems, too,” and “[t]here are a lot of people think that masks are not good,” https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/trump-has-not-been-clear-in-support-of-masks/

Trump chose to highlight Dr. Stella Immanuel, a physician from Houston, as one of those people.  In a video Trump retweeted, Dr. Immanuel “claims to have successfully treated 350 people ‘and counting,’ including older patients and some with underlying medical conditions. “You don’t need masks, there is a cure.” The President “thought her voice was an important voice, but I [otherwise] know nothing about her.” https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-trump-hydroxychloroquine-video-retweet-20200728-lmhsggqh3jcjppd5ej5f2tnpvy-story.html.

Though this “important voice” goes squarely against the science, it did fit comfortably within Dr. Immanuel’s broader approach to medicine.  In particular, Dr. Immanuel

alleged [five years ago] that alien DNA was being used in medical treatments, and that scientists were cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious.

[has blamed] medical conditions on witches and demons  . . . [whom] she says . . . ‘turn into a woman and then they sleep with the man and collect his sperm… then they turn into the man and they sleep with a man and deposit the sperm and reproduce more of themselves.’

. . . .

offers a prayer to remove a generational curse, originally received from an ancestor, but transmitted through placenta.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53579773

When Trump touted Dr. Immanuel in late July, we had suffered some 140,000 Covid deaths. https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/coronavirus-case-numbers-in-the-united-states-july-28-update.  By the end of August, over 183,000 Americans were dead.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53976793. Less than 5 weeks later, we are at over 212,000 deaths – and America continues to lead the world in that grim category. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#news

The second COVID-19 data point is bleach.

During a White House Corona Virus Task Force briefing, Trump publicly mused “[a]nd then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?  So it’d be interesting to check that.” The President then pointed to his head, saying “I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177.

The problem here is that “[i]njecting bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst,” according to Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System.  This, Dr. Calello added “can definitely be a fatal event.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/us/politics/trump-inject-disinfectant-bleach-coronavirus.html

Perhaps that is why Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, was blinking hard and looking at the floor when Trump made his Covid treatment suggestions at the Task Force briefing. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/us/politics/trump-inject-disinfectant-bleach-coronavirus.html

It also bears mention that Trump’s musings about bleach have likely had real consequences. For example, calls to New York City’s Poison Control Center for exposure to specific household cleaners and disinfectants jumped more than twofold within 18 hours of Trump’s briefing. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2020/04/25/calls-to-poison-centers-spike–after-the-presidents-comments-about-using-disinfectants-to-treat-coronavirus/#355caf221157

Mail in Voting/Trust in the Electoral Process

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the only way he can lose in November is if the election is “rigged.” https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/512424-trump-the-only-way-we-are-going-to-lose-this-election-is-if-the

And he has tied this rejection of our right to vote to claims about mail in voting, alleging “I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election, I really do [because] I think it’s subject to tremendous fraud . . . . With mail-in ballots, people can forge ’em . . . [and] [m]ail-in voting… will lead to the most corrupt election in USA history.’” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trust-trumps-false-rhetoric-vote-mail-resonating/story?id=71887848.

Among the problems with this claim is that it is untethered to any fact.  Indeed, voting by mail is more secure than in person voting. according to work done by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and others. https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2020/07/research-voting-mail-says-its-safe-fraud-and-disease/166990/.

Christopher Wray, whom Trump elevated to head the FBI, also recently told Congress (under oath) that “we have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise.” https://apnews.com/article/elections-voting-fraud-and-irregularities-christopher-wray-voting-mark-meadows-3399947a5e1364dce3e4efe80f40e6e0.

Mitch McConnell – not exactly a deep state stalwart, has likewise rejected Trump’s rigged election claim. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/20/mitch-mcconnell-rejects-mail-in-voting-concerns-th/

And, to date, a review of some

90 state and federal voting lawsuits found that judges have been broadly skeptical as Republicans use claims of voter fraud to argue against such changes, declining to endorse the GOP’s arguments or dismissing them as they examined limits on mail voting. In no case did a judge back President Trump’s view — refuted by experts — that fraud is a problem significant enough to sway a presidential election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts-voting-fraud-claims-republicans/2020/09/28/ceff1184-fda2-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.html.

Although I am not a Presidential scholar, it seems incredibly unlikely that any other President in American history (or serious contender for that role) has ever sought to discredit the electoral process in this manner.

North Korea

Trump claims that because of his meetings with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, “everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1006837823469735936.

One problem with this claim is the U.S Department of the Army’s recent estimate that North Korea possesses between 20 and 60 nuclear weapons (with the capacity to produce 6 more per year), is weaponizing small pox and anthrax for potential use against the United States, employs an “army” of 6,000 computer hackers, and possesses the world’s third largest stock pile of chemical weapons. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/08/18/national/northKorea/US-Defense-Department-North-Korea-nuclear/20200818170800386.html.

Current and former U.S. intelligence analysts and nuclear experts have likewise concluded that Kim has actively “opened new routes for circumventing sanctions while his factories quietly churn out more nuclear warheads and bigger missiles to carry them.” https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/As-Kim-wooed-Trump-with-love-letters-he-kept-15610615.php

Though undoubtedly briefed many times on this perilous state of affairs Trump has a different take on Kim, who has likened their relationship to “a Hollywood romance.” Id.  According to Trump, Kim “likes me. I like him. Some people say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t like him.’ I said, ‘Why shouldn’t I like him?’“.  https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-praises-kim-jong-un-vietnam-summit-2019-3.

Paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels

Stormy Daniels is an adult film star.  Meaning, without putting too fine a point on it, she is paid to engage in sex acts on film.  She was also “paid $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement just before the 2016 election about an alleged affair that she had with Trump in 2006,” which both Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have effectively admitted occurred. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormy_Daniels%E2%80%93Donald_Trump_scandal

Many people have affairs. Presumably, some number of them are with professional sex workers.  But it seems unlikely that many of those affairs generate a $130,000 hush money payment. And it must be vanishingly rare to have the person paying that hush money (while married to his third wife) also seek the Evangelical vote for president.

But Trump did just that, telling church leaders that “Christianity is under tremendous siege . . .” but if he were elected president, “[y]ou’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/us/evangelicals-trump-christianity.html

The QAnon Conspiracy

The QAnon movement, which broadly claims that “Trump is secretly battling a global network of billionaire pedophiles, devil-worshipping Democrats and baby-eating Hollywood stars and their ‘deep state’ counterparts’” embedded in the U.S. government, has been characterized as “the first far-right extremist conspiracy theory in the modern era to penetrate mainstream American culture and Washington politics.” .  https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/men-qanon/story?id=73046374.

The reason for that penetration is Donald Trump.  Again, walking a path no other national political figure has walked, Trump shared this view of QAnon at a White House press briefing:

“Well I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much — which I appreciate,” he said, adding, “I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”

A reporter pressed him about “this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals — does that sound like something you are behind or a believer in?”

“Well, I haven’t … heard that,” Trump replied. “But is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? I mean, you know, if I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it. I’m willing to put myself out there.”

Id.

Joe Biden’s Alleged Senility

During a recent interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, President Trump said “Biden can’t put two sentences together. They wheel him out. He goes up — he repeats — they ask him questions. He reads a teleprompter and then he goes back into his basement.” Asked whether he thought Biden was senile, Trump replied “I don’t want to say that” but then went on to claim that “Joe doesn’t know he’s alive, OK? He doesn’t know he’s alive,” and challenged Biden to take the same senility test Trump had taken. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/transcript-fox-news-sunday-interview-with-president-trump

The test Trump was referring to – the MoCA test — is a 10-minute exam designed to detect mild cognitive impairment. It uses approximately 30 questions to evaluate basic cognitive skills  – such as short-term memory, visual cues, language and orientation – based on the test taker’s ability to repeat phrases like  “[t]he cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room” and to distinguish between drawings of animals like a lion, a camel and a rhinoceros. The MoCA test was administered to Trump in early 2018 by Navy Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, who was then the White House physician. At a news conference “[Admiral] Jackson said he would not have recommended that Trump undergo the cognitive assessment but that the president requested it.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/29/trump-montreal-cognitive-assessment-test/

Closing the Circle

Five people that Trump picked to be senior members of his administration have each described him as profoundly unfit to serve as President.  So has his older sister. Are Trump’s views (expressed in Trump’s own words) on the range of issues covered in this article consistent with the same lack of character, truthfulness, judgment, and capability that his intimates have described?

In a word – yes.

Which is not to suggest that Joe Biden is an ideal candidate. One can certainly argue Biden has been too accepting of the democratic view (writ broadly) that our individual lives are defined by ethnicity, gender, and race.  Sometimes, Biden misspeaks.  Sometimes, what Biden says is inaccurate. Not infrequently, Biden is just plain wrong.

But we know a few other things from about Biden from his 40 plus years in public service.  We know that Biden listens to more than his own ego, reads, asks questions, changes his mind, accepts responsibility, wants to unify the country, is not trying to suppress our vote, wears a mask, is not vicious, is not senile.  And he is not a moron.

Our country is not on the verge of a civil war or the end of the American experiment.  But this election does offer a stark choice that, if wrongly made, will have lasting consequences.

It is time – indeed, past time – to do the hard work of focusing on what we are as a nation. Freedom is a verb, and by our vote we honor those who have come before, are with us now, and are yet to be born.

We all know what our country can be, should be, and needs to be for us and for our children.  We can make it so, one American at a time.

Cast your verdict. Vote this week. And consider convincing at least three of your friends and acquaintances to do the same.