Peggy Noonan: Trump Hasn’t Lost His Moral Authority Because He Never Had It

RUSH EXCERPT:

NOONAN: "You know, I think one of the things we were talking about that you showed in your what I thought were fabulous interviews with J.C. Watts, who was so bracing, and Andrew young, who seemed so wise and at a grandfatherly distance, but the subtext of the questioning was has the president lost his moral authority because of the events of the past week. I thought about that, and I think the problem for him is that he did not lose his moral authority because he did not have moral authority, and you cannot lose what you do not have. The whole tale of the first seven months of his presidency was I know I’m unusual, I know I’m different, I know I have things that have been offensive to people in my past. However, I’m going to grow into this figure who is the serious, moral, serious guy. This was another moment in which he didn’t do that. I’d also just say quickly, one of the baseline things you want from a president during a crisis is you want a calm in the storm. You want a stable center. You don’t want a guy who loses his temper, starts talking like this, gets defensive, and just makes everything tear a little farther apart."