Editor's Note: This week's "Meet The Press" was a Special Vote Watch edition, and it must have been taped on Wednesday at the latest because given the week's events in the aftermath of Geoffrey Goldberg's bombshell story in the Atlantic magazine released on Thursday, in which President Trump disparages the United States' war dead, disabled veterans and our P.O.W.'s calling them losers and suckers. We'll comment on this Special Vote Watch edition, but we'll be more timely and poignant this week than our namesake. (Hey, can't blame them, this administration runs everyone in the press ragged so they could use a longer break, and we only comment once a week... work/ life balance is vital.)
Way back on May 26, 2013, we posted an article entitled Our Soldiers - Recognized and Unrecognized, which is the most widely read post on this blog. The primary reason must be this referential list:
The total number of deaths in U.S. major wars:
American Revolutionary War: 25,000
War of 1812: 15,000
Mexican-American War: 13,283
U.S. Civil War: 625,000
Spanish-American War: 2,446
Philippine-American War: 4,196
World War I: 116,516
World War II: 405,399
Korean War: 36,516
Vietnam War: 58,209
The Gulf War: 294
Afghanistan: 2,031
Iraq War: 4,487
Total: 1,308,377
Over 1.3 million "suckers and losers," according to President Donald Trump. The Atlantic story has been verified by The Washington Post, Fox News, CNN and the Associated Press among others, and given the president's past comments it's easy to see the truth in his statements.
Think about that... Died for the cause of the Revolution or of ending slavery, sucker. Why did the U.S. fight on the side of the allies in WWI? (a question asked by Mr. Trump) So the Marines who died at Belleau Wood, losers. The Greatest Generation... losers. Didn't get out of service in Vietnam? Sucker. Disabled in Afghanistan or Iraq... don't expect to be included in any parades for the military.
It's difficult to comment on something so alien in the mind of every American, that we wouldn't honor our war dead and veterans; and that it is our president making these statements is all beyond our collective comprehension.
What can we possible say that hasn't already been said about this with the exception of pointing out the obvious, which is a vote for Donald Trump is a vote of profound disrespect for our military, and supportive of antithetical statements and feelings in contrast to every president that has preceded him.
And speaking of the vote, this entire Special Vote Watch edition of this week's "Meet The Press" is directly due to the chaos and doubt through statement and action that President Donald Trump sows every day. If we had two candidates (instead of only Joe Biden) who actually believed in democracy then this "special edition" probably wouldn't even be necessary, but oh well, here we are.
Mr. Todd checked off a series of issues concerning election officials this November that included voter suppression, election meddling and the possibility of voter fraud because of mail-in ballots.
Here's the good news as we see it. Given the amount of scrupulous attention that this election has been getting for the past two years already with marches on the streets and litigation in the courts already at full speed and 330 million other observers, in the end we feel that we will get it right. Everyone watching and drawing attention to every aspect in every corner is a good thing.
That little optimist bit is in spite of the Trump Administration's efforts. It's no wonder that 52 percent of Trump supporters don't trust mail-in balloting, it reflects the president's comments. Mr. Trump, the hypocrite, votes by mail. Mr. Trump, he idiot and accessory to felony, has told his North Carolina supporters to vote twice and see what happens.
The Trump Administration has been trying to kneecap the Post Office, as we all know, which has provided the opening for conservative lawyers to question the security of drop boxes such as Ben Ginsberg did today. However, in Ohio the Secretary of State Frank LaRose outlined that the drop boxes have 24/7 security cameras and are emptied by a bi-partisan team every day. Listening to the other respective election officials in Michigan (Jocelyn Benson) and North Carolina (Karen Brinson Bell) they have been working in the same vain to ensure ballot integrity. No secretary of state in either party wants to have the vote in their state mismanaged - that's failing democracy on your watch - and you don't want to go down with that on your record, no mention that your career is basically over at that point.
For average voters, let us, it's essential to be factually informed on the election laws of your state and yes, to plan your vote but outside of that right now you can't worry about what you can't control.
Panel: Janai Nelson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Education; Michael Waldman, NYU Law School; Clint Watt, fmr. FBI agent and NBC security analyst
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