Literary Corner: Eloquent

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Asked if Trump plans to address a nation in crisis, Nat Sec Adviser O’Brien tells @jaketapper that Trump has already made “very eloquent remarks” about the protests and George Floyd death.

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) May 31, 2020

 

Elegy

by Donald J. Trump

It’s a local situation, 

but we’re also making it 

into a federal situation,^a 

and it’s a terrible thing.^b 

We all saw what we saw,^c

and it’s very hard to even 

conceive of anything other 

than what we did see.^d

It should never happen,

should never be allowed 

to happen, a thing like that. 

But we’re determined 

that justice be served, and I 

spoke to members of the family^e — 

terrific people, and we’ll be 

reporting as time goes by.

^a How do you federalize a situation, and why?

^b A terrible thing that you're federalizing it? Or a terrible thing in general? Will the federal situation exhibit a different degree of terribleness than the local one, or not, and if not, or if you don't know, why are you telling us?

^c That's kind of always true. What did we see? I mean, you might be talking about the video of a white cop weighing down on a black man's windpipe, with his hands in his pockets and a contemptuous smile on his face, for long minutes until the black man was dead? or was there something else you wanted to talk about?

^d Because as far as that goes, you now, I can easily conceive of something else I might have seen, like a police officer interacting courteously with a community member even if he's suspected of a crime, and especially NOT MURDERING HIM.

^e "He didn't give me an opportunity to even speak," [Philonise] Floyd said. "It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like 'I don't want to hear what you're talking about.'" (CNN