"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." -- Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire
That was the iconic line in the famous play (and movie) by Tennessee Williams, by which poor Blanche effectively admitted to having lived a life of prostitution. So when Tim O'Brien used that same line about Donald Trump, you know he was doing it with malice aforethought, and with the unmistakable goal of making the same insinuation against the president.
O'Brien uttered his insult during his appearance this morning on CNN's New Day. O'Brien was touted as the author of the book Trump Nation that claimed Trump was misleading voters by claiming to be a billionaire. (Trump sued him.)
CNN did not note O'Brien works for Bloomberg Media, and took a sabbatical from that to work for Mike Bloomberg for President during the Democratic primaries, the Mike Bloomberg who's now pouring money into Florida to beat Trump. Or that O'Brien used to run the leftist Huffington Post website. Today's topic was the latest New York Times hit piece on Trump's tax returns. Oh, and O'Brien used to work for them, too.
JOHN BERMAN: Tim, because you know more than the rest of us about this, though I know you can't talk about the specifics of what you see, we want to know your top line on this story. And you just published your own story, saying these taxes show that the president is a national security risk. Why?
TIM O'BRIEN: Yeah, I think that Donald Trump is a national security threat. Someone whose business, who's in businesses that are being ravaged right now by the coronavirus pandemic, putting his business under stress, and also has a lot of debt, that he'll either need a financial rescue for, or he'll be forced to sell some of what he has, is somebody who is a potential mark for foreign interests or other interests that want to get to the president.
The fact that Donald Trump relies on foreign holdings, overseas holdings, to buttress his finances to the extent that he does is a national security problem.
. . .
You can't have a president in the Oval Office who's not transparent about his finances and is also under financial duress, and is dependent on the kindness of strangers to survive financially.
From there, they went on to mock Trump for the Times report that he deducted $70,000 on his hair care for The Apprentice as a business expense.
O'Brien concluded with the Mike Bloomberg for President pitch, speaking to independent voters: "Donald Trump said, I'm going to go to Washington and look out for the little guy. And lo and behold, he was laughing all the way to the bank and he's laughing at them. And I think they need to look at these numbers and really question their loyalty to him."
