Something matters, at least for a day.

I don't think he knows what happens to those people.

On a stage in front of this backdrop Donald Trump said that Hillary Clinton's bodyguards should disarm since she is so anti-second amendment so "see what happens to her".

It was the latest in a pair of days full of missteps for Trump starting with his appearance on Jimmy Fallon last night where he took a few shots at Anderson Cooper as well as making fun of his press corps for getting stuck on a plane and being unable to attend a rally. This morning marked the opening of Trump's brand new DC hotel, where you can buy wine by the spoonful if you so desire for some reason.

Why is that a big deal? Well the campaign has been making signals over the last couple days that Trump would address his Birther beliefs this morning and finally put to rest a controversy that has plagued him, except it totally hasn't plagued him at all and no one really was paying attention to it because the press has given the man a free pas for the past year and a half, so basically the campaign was bringing up an issue that put Trump into direct conflict with President Obama at a time when the President is sporting approval ratings higher than they have been at almost any other point in his career.

There is a way to handle that, lie basically, you can say that Trump never outright said Obama is not a US citizen and that he was simply asking questions based on a controversy started by the Clinton campaign in 2008, not a single word of that is true but it is the only possible way to spin a change in stance like this and have any shot at coming out of it looking good.

That... did not happen exactly.

Instead we got a half an hour late start followed by thirty minutes or so of Trump talking about his new hotel, followed by another thirty minutes or so of military veterans talking about Trump, followed by three lines:

"Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it, you know what I mean, President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period."

After that he took the camera crews who were there on a tour of the hotel, while having guards bar the reporters present from following, and of course took no questions at all.

This appeared to have been the last straw for the mainstream press outlets, except Fox News of course. They have spent the entire day devoting coverage and commentary to topics that are... critical of Trump to say the least, extensive coverage of the Congressional Black Caucus basically saying they think Trump is a piece of shit, interviewers growing spines and actually challenging things Trump campaign spokespeople say, and even bringing up Trump's ex-wife Ivana and her statement in a book about him having raped her.

CNN in particular seems pissed, and this is lovely to me as they have been the network that has bent over backward to not challenge any of Trump's statements, even going so far as to hire ex campaign manager Corey Lewandowski who is still under an NDA as well as a Non-Disparagement Agreement with the Trump campaign as a commentator.

The thing is though, these articles and such kind of require preparation, and they all seemed pretty much ready to go as soon as Trump did his thing this morning, which suggests to me that some element of the media was purposefully holding this coverage back and finally couldn't do so any longer.

The theme this election has been "nothing matters" and for the most part it has been true, the DNC mattered, and the Khans in particular did, but other than that very little hurt Trump during the primaries and the general because the press was unwilling to challenge him, going so far as to say that calling someone a liar is making a value judgement, and the press should just report on the facts. That was NPR saying that by the way, an organization that stands to suffer if the GOP wins the presidency, but apparently has no balls at all.They aren't alone though by any stretch, as anyone who has seen any campaign coverage well knows.

But then Trump decided to shit on the press these last couple days and suddenly things start to matter again, suddenly lies are fact checked, and horrible things he says, does, or are said about him are seriously talked about and campaign spokespeople are challenged on their statements. They are treating him like a real candidate now and not some sort of reverse ratings pinata that hits them until candy goes into it. I stretched that metaphor to the breaking point, but I will let it stand.

At least for today, I hope it lasts longer and this becomes the new normal, there is progress that can be made here if both candidates are criticized and forced to defend their statements, it is healthy and good.

So yeah, finally something matters, today.