The GOP debate. NY piles on Trump. And goodbye WaPo, it's been fun. This and more.

By Gary Abernathy

The winner of the GOP debate? It doesn’t matter.

Once again, the leading contenders for second place in the Republican primary gathered Wednesday night to pretend like one of them might win the GOP nomination. Who won? None of them. Donald Trump remains about a gazillion points ahead of them in the polls, and that’s not going to change.

Once again, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley came off as the most poised, most well-spoken and most qualified, and if the goal is to win in November 2024, she’s clearly the best candidate. But for most Republicans the goal is revenge, and that’s why they’re sticking with Trump.

Are there more debates scheduled? Yes, with the next one being Nov. 8. But why?

The NY pile-on against Trump should trouble everyone

This week, a New York judge took it upon himself to render a decision on Donald Trump even before the case went to trial. Seriously.

As the Associated Press reported:

Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.

Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee Trump Organization operations.

If not successfully appealed, the order would strip Trump of his authority to make strategic and financial decisions over some of his key properties in the state.

The case was scheduled to go to trial on Monday. At a trial, the prosecution presents its case, the defense responds and offers rebuttals, and so on. But the judge decided to pre-empt that and just make a ruling now. Astounding.

It’s no exaggeration to say that when it comes to Donald Trump and New York, the standards that apply to most people in most cases are a little different for Trump than for everyone else, as previously demonstrated. The New York judge in this case has decided not to even wait for a trial to begin before rendering a decision against Trump on the accusations that he inflated the value of his properties. Mind you, these accusations aren’t coming from the banks or lenders who would supposedly be hurt by such a thing. These charges are coming from a New York prosecutor.

Even the judge seemed confused by his own ruling. In a separate story, the AP reported that when questioned by Trump attorney Christopher Kise, the judge struggled to explain the actual scope of his decision.

“Is it the court’s position that those assets are now going to be sold or just going to be managed under the direction of the (receiver)?” Kise asked.

Engoron turned to speak with his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, sitting by his side at the bench, before returning to the microphone a few minutes later.

“I’m not prepared to issue a ruling right now but we will take that up in various contexts, I’m sure,” Engoron said.

That’s a pretty important distinction, but the judge didn’t know. Wow.

Trump’s attorneys should have been allowed to carry out at trial the right of everyone who is accused to mount a defense, which a “summary judgment” precludes. Amazing.

Even the MM can’t ignore illegal immigration anymore

You know illegal immigration has grown completely out of control when even most of the mainstream media can’t ignore it anymore.

One of the latest pieces pushing the panic button is the New York Times, today featuring a piece highlighting the fact that in New York City, hotels, businesses and schools have been turned into shelters and are bursting at the seams.

But what’s noticeable in the mainstream media coverage, be it in newspapers or on nightly network newscasts, is the focus on the most sympathetic cases of illegal immigration – the small children, the parents seeking a better life for their families, the women escaping hardships in their home countries. These are all true, but focusing on them ignores the reasons many of us are aghast at what’s happening: The unvetted criminal element freely entering the country.

What most mainstream media outlets go out of their way to ignore is the deadly drug trade flourishing at the border and the stories of people – often men traveling alone or in groups of men – with criminal backgrounds, often involving violent crime. They are illegally flowing too often unchecked across the southern border.

If President Biden doesn’t stop pointing fingers at others and take responsibility for this disaster – and then do something effective to address it – it will go a long way to making Americans turn back to Donald Trump, even with all their misgivings about the former president.

A government shutdown looms, but it too shall pass

Every time the threat of a “government shutdown” looms, we read what a disaster it will be. Well, it probably would if it lasted for more than a couple of weeks, which it is unlikely ever to do. But if the deadline comes and goes with no deal and a temporary shutdown happens, few will notice.

Because of the partnership between the Democratic Party and most of the mainstream media, Republicans are always blamed for the shutdowns. And so it was a little surprising to see a couple of recent polls finding that the public would pretty equally blame both parties if a shutdown happens. But that wouldn’t last.

Someday, we’ll once again elect adults to Congress who pass budgets as they’re supposed to rather than short-term continuing resolutions and all the other gimmicks. But that’s not in the foreseeable future.

Farewell, WaPo (and other platforms). It’s been fun.

In June 2017, I was serving as publisher and editor of The Times-Gazette in Hillsboro, Ohio, when an email arrived out of the blue that would set me on a new career path.

The email was from Ruth Marcus, the associate opinion page editor and longtime columnist at The Washington Post. Ruth said that the Post was working to ensure that the diversity of national views about President Trump was reflected in the opinion pages of the Post.

“I have read your pieces on him and wonder if you might want to provide your perspective on the administration for Post readers,” she wrote.

Since 1983, except for the years I worked in politics or government, I had written weekly columns at the local newspapers where I had worked, often on national political issues. Ruth had indicated she had read my recent pieces about Trump and was offering me the chance to share my views on one of the biggest and most historic legacy media platforms in the world. I said yes.

Through the years, when people asked me what my dream job would be, I usually responded that it would be working as a syndicated columnist. And so working as a Washington Post columnist – with my columns appearing in newspapers across the country and even internationally through the Post’s news service – more than fulfilled that dream.

Over the last six-plus years, I have written two or three columns each month – nearly 200 in all – on Trump and many other subjects. My goal was not to defend Trump – sometimes I did, but I was also often critical of him – as much as it was to defend the millions of Americans who supported him against the charges of racism or ignorance or other slights that came their way through much of the mainstream media. I also weighed in often on topics ranging from covid to abortion to guns to race relations in general, along with many other issues.

That led to invitations from other media platforms ranging from various cable news channels to radio programs to podcasts and, most consistently in recent years, PBS and the “PBS NewsHour.”

During the past year, though – as I often expressed to my wife and other close family members and friends – I wasn’t sure how much longer I wanted to keep doing it. Any of it. Since 2017 I’ve operated on a series of one-year agreements with the Post, and when my most recent one came close to expiring, the new opinions editor – facing budgetary challenges that were detailed in a New York Times article in July – suggested going forward on an arrangement short of a formal contract.

For me, that served as the impetus to make a decision I had long been toying with – stepping away from all public media roles and instead pursuing behind-the-scenes writing and communication opportunities outside of journalism. And so, for the foreseeable future, the only political commentary I’m likely to continue doing on any platform is here with occasional “Abernathy Road” newsletters.  

I’ll forever be grateful to Ruth Marcus, as well as the late Fred Hiatt, the longtime Post editorial page editor whose unexpected passing two years ago was a tragic loss. It was an honor to have known him.

I had the chance to work with many Post editors, and I admire them all. But I have to offer a special note of appreciation to Michael Larabee, the editor who I only somewhat jokingly called my “handler.” It was Mike who edited the bulk of my Post columns, and I came to trust his judgment. Mike did not share many (or any?) of my political views, but his only goal, I knew, was to challenge my thought process to make sure I was presenting my best arguments. He has become a friend. Thank you, Mike.

It was also an honor to be associated with the “PBS NewsHour” as a frequent fill-in on the Friday “Brooks and Capehart” segments when David Brooks was unavailable. My thanks to producers Ian Couzens, Ali Schmitz and Kyle Midura, along with everyone else behind the scenes at the NewsHour (especially makeup artist Leah Margosis, a fun person who thankfully can work makeup miracles). Having the opportunity to work with the great (and legendary) “NewsHour” host Judy Woodruff and, after she stepped down, Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett was an amazing experience. And being paired with Jonathan Capehart kept me on my toes. Jonathan is a smart and classy journalist and analyst, and it’s been an honor working with him.

It’s also been great reconnecting regularly with “The Voice of West Virginia,” Hoppy Kercheval, on his statewide radio show, occasionally joining “Beyond the Beltway” with Bruce DuMont, appearing frequently on the BBC (including when the BBC came to Hillsboro and set up shop in The Times-Gazette offices) and so many other interviews and conversations over the years.

Of course, living in Trump Country, the biggest feedback I got from friends and family was whenever Fox News had me on (“Fox & Friends” also came to Hillsboro for one of their famous diner segments at Momma’s West Main Cafe), or the time that Rush Limbaugh read one of my columns from start to finish. It was crystal clear where most of my neighbors got their news.

But each of the opportunities that came my way – including multiple visits to places like Columbia Journalism School in New York and Georgetown Day School in Washington to speak to some of the most remarkable young people in the world – sprang from writing for The Washington Post. It’s been an exciting chapter in my life, and I’ll always be grateful. My Post columns are all collected at this link.

As it turned out, my final Post column was something special to me, an unusually lengthy piece about a trip to Ukraine taken by my longtime friend Jim Nathanson. I’m happy that this essay served as my finale in the Post, since it was unusually personal. Along with recounting Jim’s emotional and physical journey, it allowed me to touch on the theme of respecting differing viewpoints, a frequent refrain of my columns over the past six years. You can read it here.

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