Fake News Media Drops Phony Russia Collusion Story And Starts On Trump ‘Mental Illness’ Narrative
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a former constitutional law professor at
American University, sponsored legislation in April that would set up an
independent commission to determine if any president no longer has the
physical or mental capacity to perform the duties of the office. The
25th Amendment to the constitution was ratified 50 years ago and calls
for such a body but it was never set up. The bill now has 28
co-sponsors and while more can't be added until Congress goes back into
session, Raskin says there's been "a sudden spike after every acute
episode" involving Trump's behavior.
by Geoffrey Grider August 24, 2017 When Republican
Sen. Bob Corker said last week that President Trump hasn’t “been able
to demonstrate the stability” needed for success and recommended
he “move way beyond himself,” it was news mostly because Corker has been
one of Trump’s key supporters in Congress.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
You’ve got to hand it to the fake news media, they may be frauds but
boy, they never quit. After beating the drums on the phony Russia
Collusion story, which had no basis in fact or reality, they have now
simply abandoned it and started on the phony ‘Trump is ‘mentally ill’
narrative. So pop some corn and get ready for at least a full year of an
endless array of “experts” trotted out in every news cycle, to show how
Trump is ‘mentally ill’ and must be ‘removed from office’.
Then James Clapper, who served in top intelligence jobs under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama,
Wednesday morning questioned Trump’s “fitness to be in this office” and
said he was worried about the president’s access to the nuclear codes.
Clapper, who had a long military career, is a close friend and longtime
colleague of Trump’s Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, a former Marine
Corps general.
“If in a fit of pique he decides to
do something about Kim Jong Un, there’s actually very little to stop
him,” Clapper, former head of the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, said on CNN. “The whole system is built to ensure rapid
response if necessary. So there’s very little in the way of controls
over exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty damn scary.”
Fake News Media Question President Donald Trump’s Mental Stability
Until now, talk of Trump’s erratic behavior and alleged narcissism
was common on social media, late-night talk shows and among political
opponents. But Trump’s “fire and fury” comments about North Korea, a
raucous rally in Arizona Tuesday and changing response to the violent
protests in Charlottesville, Va., crossed a line for ‘some Republicans’
and brought the conversation into the mainstream, even among some
supporters.
A poll by the media and technology company Morning Consult over the weekend showed 55% of respondents said Trump was not stable.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a former constitutional law professor at American University,
sponsored legislation in
April that would set up an independent commission to determine if any
president no longer has the physical or mental capacity to perform the
duties of the office.
The 25th Amendment to the constitution was ratified 50 years ago and calls for such a body but it was never set up.
The
bill now has 28 co-sponsors and while more can’t be added until
Congress goes back into session Sept. 5, Raskin says there’s been “a
sudden spike after every acute episode” involving Trump’s behavior.
“We
need every tool in the constitutional tool kit to be able to deal with
the unfolding and accelerating crisis of presidential power in America
today,” says Raskin.
Raskin notes the commission
would also be in place if future presidents can no longer serve, but
former New Hampshire Republican Sen. Gordon Humphrey urged the New
Hampshire congressional delegation this month to support it because
Trump is “impaired by a seriously sick psyche.”
Speculation
about the president’s mental health has also spawned a cottage industry
of psychiatrists and authors opining on his fitness for office.
Yale
forensic psychiatrist Bandy Lee is consulting with Democratic members
of Congress and other psychiatrists about setting up an expert panel to
advise Congress about Trump’s mental health. Lee, who said she is
speaking out because of Trump’s “dangerousness,” edited the upcoming
book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, to which 27 mental health professionals contributed.
Psychiatrist
Allen Frances, meanwhile, who conceived of the diagnostic definition of
narcissistic personality disorder, is coming out next month with his
own book,
Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump.“Narcissistic
personality disorder describes a debilitating need to project
grandiosity so as to fight the inner feelings of low self-worth,” says
Lee, who works internationally on predictors and prevention of violence.
“In extreme forms, narcissistic personality disorder is one of the
disorders most associated with violence and is sometimes considered to
be on the same spectrum as antisocial personality disorder, or
sociopathy.”
Frances
says he doesn’t think Trump has narcissistic personality
disorder because it hasn’t caused him distress and impairment. Besides,
he says, it’s voters who should have the final word.
“He’s
not going to be defeated by a bunch of mental health workers saying
he’s crazy,” says Frances. “The way to defeat him is political.”
Unlike
all the emphatic people who were “grieving openly about the terrible
loss of life and threat of racism” after Charlottesville, “narcissists
care more about being right or promoting a point of view,” says
psychiatrist Judith Orloff, author of
The Empath’s Survival Guide, which includes a chapter on narcissism.
“If
a narcissist is forced to comply with a belief they don’t really have,
they will go through the motions of ‘saying the right thing’ but then
retract their statement when they have a change,” says
Orloff. “Narcissists aren’t open to being told what to do and they will
rebel against that.”
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After Trump’s declaration
a week before Charlottesville that military action by North Korea would
be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Lee and four
other psychiatrists who contributed to her book wrote a letter to all
members of Congress.
“It no longer takes a
psychiatrist to recognize the alarming patterns of impulsive, reckless,
and narcissistic behavior — regardless of diagnosis — that, in the
person of President Trump, put the world at risk,” read the letter to
Congress. “We now find ourselves in a clear and present danger,
especially concerning North Korea and the president’s command of the
U.S. nuclear arsenal.”
ony Schwartz, who co-authored Trump’s 1987 book
Art of the Deal but then became one of the president’s sharpest critics
, had stopped speaking publicly about him in recent months but
appeared on MSNBC Sunday and
discussed Trump’s narcissism and impulsivity. Schwartz, who runs a
human resources consulting firm called the Energy Project, also
contributed to Lee’s book. He tweeted Sunday that Trump is “prima facie
mentally ill,” noting that one doesn’t need to be a psychiatrist to see
it.
Schwartz says he decided to talk about Trump again because of North Korea and Charlottesville.
“I
am deeply worried that Trump’s deep deficits and his resulting lack of
self—regulation and judgment puts our country and the world at risk of
obliteration,” he says.
These may be scary — crazy,
even — times, but many psychiatrists including Orloff refuse to comment
directly about the president. Some say it’s unethical and unfair to
those with mental illness to do anything close to rendering a clinical
opinion on a public official’s mental health. The White House seems to
agree.
“With all the ‘medical opinions’ out there
it’s as if doctors have left their practices due to the Obamacare
disaster and are now attempting careers in TV,” White House press
secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “This is nothing more than
another absurd attempt to attack the President. It did not work during
the campaign, and it will not work now. “
The Goldwater Rule
Even so,
a leading mental health association is loosening restrictions on some
of its members. The American Psychoanalytic Association last month gave
members permission to discuss Trump’s mental health publicly without
concern for what’s called
the Goldwater rule.
The psychoanalytic association has psychiatrist members, but also
includes psychologists and other types of mental health counselors.
During the 1964 presidential campaign, the magazine Fact published
the results of a survey about questions surrounding Republican Sen.
Barry Goldwater’s mental health. After losing the race in a historic
landslide, Goldwater sued the magazine and won a libel suit, an
extremely difficult accomplishment for a public figure. Since then,
psychiatrists have generally steered clear of analyzing the mental
health of public officials.
“If one has questions
about an individual’s public behavior or capacity to govern, it’s
incredibly problematic to conflate with a mental illness,” says
psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School professor Rebecca Brendel.
Democrats continue to question Trump’s fitness for office
Brendel
is a consultant to the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric
Association, which authored the Goldwater ethics rule. It says
psychiatrist members of the American Psychiatric Association shouldn’t
offer a “professional opinion” about someone in the public eye … “unless
he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper
authorization for such a statement.”
Doing so when
it’s about an individual a psychiatrist hasn’t treated diverges from
established treatment methods, which include “careful study of medical
history and first-hand examination of the patient,” wrote psychiatrist
and APA President Maria Oquendo.
Mental illness and
physical illness “are not clearly so separate,” says Brendel, who
asserts that a medical assessment is required to make sure any apparent
psychiatric symptoms aren’t caused by medical problems.
Lee,
who is no longer a member of the psychiatric association, says she
respects the Goldwater rule but disagrees with what she says was an
“expansion” of the rule issued in March that said a psychiatrist
compromises “both the integrity of the psychiatrist and the profession”
by offering any public opinions or comments about public officials.
She
isn’t making a diagnosis and agrees that doing so “from afar is not
only unethical, but impossible.” “I only mention words and behaviors in
relation to the president that point to his dangerousness,” says Lee.
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