CLEVELAND, Ohio – Charles M. Blow can communicate in many media, but on Saturday he used words, and he used them earnestly, bluntly, passionately and eloquently to register his disgust with the Trump presidency.
The standing ovation for New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow after his Saturday afternoon talk where he criticized President Donald Trump on February 18, 2017 at the Cleveland Public Library. (James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer)James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer
The widely read New York Times columnist called the president “a 70-year-old toddler,” “pathological liar,” “the Grand Wizard of birtherism against President Obama” and “a demi-fascist.”
He said Trump has “assembled one of the least-educated cabinets in recent history,” and his appointments are “agents of idiocracy.”
Normally, Blow skewers Mr. Trump in his New York Times op-ed column, but his forum Saturday was a stage in the Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library as part of CPL’s Cleveland Conversations series.
He drew more than 300 — a capacity crowd — to the auditorium and an overflow of 75 more who had to watch him on video in a second-floor conference room.
Blow wove together fascinating details about abolitionist Frederick Douglass and presidents Lincoln and Trump.
Trump, he said, wants to shut down dissent in this country. By contrast, Douglass was one of Lincoln’s harshest critics, but the president “still invited him to the White House to hear him out.” They ultimately developed a deep friendship, and Lincoln called Douglass, “one of the most meritorious men, if not the most meritorious man, in the United States.”
“That is what leadership and growth look like,” Blow wrote in a recent column. “Lincoln grew from the association with and counsel from his onetime critic, to become one of the greatest presidents America has ever known.”
He said Trump’s recent remarks suggest that the president has no idea who Douglass was and may even think he is still alive, even though Douglass died in 1875. Blow quoted Trump as saying “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more, I notice.”
Blow’s evolution into a Times opinion writer is unusual. He started out as a graphic artist and designer, ultimately becoming the Times’ prize-winning design director for nine years. He went on to become art director of the National Geographic before returning to the newspaper, according to his official bio. His column appears regularly in The Plain Dealer.
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