Vee

Charles Blow breaks it down:

Another Cosby lawyer jumps ship.

Apologies if this has been posted - we've seen some of these linkages before, but others are all-new to me.

There are a lot of clueless white people out there - Vox interviewed yet more of them the other day in one more "heartland" piece we're all tired of - who surprisingly express a lot of sympathy for black folks and Jews, etc. and hatred for the Nazi marchers. Yet they still have their go-to: Blame the far left antifa types, say Trump is trying, and that it's "both sides" and the "extremes" on both sides need to be stopped. That is their cognitive dissonance that masks their unconscious, passive racism and gnawing racial fear of a changing America - that allows their psyche a measure of dignity and shelter from their subconscious shame for voting for Trump out of fear of a changing world. Sure, they don't mind the blacks or Jews (or gays or whoever) they know (or say they don't, anyway) but being displaced by them is another story - hence why Trump got elected. And so the mental defense tactic, however unconscious, is this: Separate themselves from the white supremacists and try to assign an equal share of blame to the political left. "We're not like Those People." They're just a little afraid of how eight years of Obama made them feel about the future they see in the mirror. What Charlottesville - and now today's disaster - did was rip the last fig leaf away from their ambivalent denial. That's why this reaction is so intense and getting bigger. Every moment Trump crumbles, he implicitly indicts more of his shrinking base, who cannot tolerate what they see in themselves through him - and turn away, or finally, at last, disavow him. Which is why he is now at 34% and falling. This is not the beginning of white America finally facing its own shadow self, but it may be the beginning of the beginning. Ana Navarro back at it: No - those talking points were thrown together afterwards. What Trump had in his jacket were other pre-scripted remarks he did not use.

I'm not a big AC fan but this is pretty good.

Kelly today:

I don't think that was Todd's take, and it certainly hasn't been that all day. Nobody is calling him presidential right now except a few outliers like Newt. I have as much venom and skepticism towards Beltway pundits as anyone (and I am no Chuck Todd fan), but virtually all those press - even a few folks on Fox - are united with full-throated disgust today. That is important, and it carries that message to the few remaining uncurious, ambivalent and passively 'economically racially anxious' middle of the country.

I give Kelly a week. Two on the outside.

"The Council" refers to Trump's ever-dwindling businessmens' Manufacturing Council, from which execs are dropping like flies since the weekend.

Another Fox contributor is mortified - Charles Krauthammer is an evil goblin but this is gold:

Flashback to 24 hours ago from a report asking if Trump would go to Charlottesville:

Charles Pierce on today.

I think a lot of people know. But not everyone is able to safely say that on national television. Even Lil Paul is feeling feisty:

Large portions of CNN especially will always think it's just a game, a political calculus. But there are some people there who do take it seriously. That whole organization has tried to play it down the middle for years. What the media is rapidly learning over the last eight or nine months is that this is no longer a game.

David Axelrod just said on CNN that "several people in the administration think they have to protect the country from what he wants to do".