COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 06/11/2019
Jon Allsop
AHEAD OF IMPORTANT ELECTIONS YESTERDAY in several states—most notably Kentucky, Virginia, and Mississippi—President Trump did what he does best: made the story about himself. His media boosters did what they do best and rowed in behind. Trump’s Monday night rally in Kentucky—where Matt Bevin, the unpopular Republican governor, faced a tough race against Andy Beshear, the state’s Democratic attorney general—was a case in point. Bevin, Trump said, is a “pain in the ass,” but voters should turn out and reelect him anyway. Trump gestured toward the assembled news cameras. “If you lose, they’re gonna say, ‘Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world,’” he said. “You can’t let that happen to me!”