The saga of Trump蘑菇视频 human pretzels
Donald Trump ignited his most recent outcry all by himself. He voluntarily invoked the ongoing civil fraud cases against Trump University at a campaign rally in San Diego on May 27th.
According to Trump, the U.S. District Court Judge hearing the cases, Gonzalo Curiel, is a “hater,” who just happens to be a Mexican. Curiel, by the way, is an American, who was born in Indiana, 1,332 miles from Mexico.
Aside from Trump’s need to take remedial geography lessons, he should take a civics lesson or two. His implication that a judge whose parents had been Mexican immigrants was doing him wrong, sent Trump’s surrogates scurrying to defend him.
That mess may have died down if it hadn’t been for his subsequent statements in Wall Street Journal six days later. According to Trump, because of Curiel’s “Mexican heritage,” he shouldn’t be presiding over his fraud case, because it presents a clear “conflict of interest.” Ironically, that statement was published on the same day that the nation’s most powerful Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, formally (but sheepishly) endorsed his party’s presumptive presidential nominee. But Trump wasn’t finished.
Three days later, Trump appeared on CNN, and during a face-to-face interview with Jake Tapper, he avoided directly answering Tapper’s questions about the possibility that his statements about Curiel could be consider racist — 23 times. Trump repeatedly answered, “I’m building a wall.” That would’ve been an OK answer if Tapper had asked him, “Who do you think will build a wall?” But he hadn’t.
The smoldering embers that Trump had ignited with his initial statements had soon become a forest fire. Republicans everywhere reacted with disdain.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who’d been the lone high-level Republican Trump supporter, maintained his support but claimed, “I couldn’t disagree more” with Trump’s statements.
Paul Ryan, who’d only days before, fallen on his sword to offer his support for Trump, said, “Claiming that a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of textbook definition of a racist comment. And he added, “I think that that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
Ryan, like many of Trump’s supporters, have to twist themselves into pretzels defending a man who they believe has racist views. More bluntly, how can these folks look themselves in the mirror?
Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who railed against Trump during his failed presidential run, but who later vowed to support him anyway, is now having second (or perhaps third) thoughts. He called Trump’s most recent outrage “The most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy.” He’s also claiming that this is a great time to un-endorse Trump, if anybody is hesitant to support a man who has unsavory opinions.
McConnell, Ryan and Graham are prominent Republicans who see their party in a tailspin thanks to Trump.
Trump does have unquestioning supporters. His paid surrogates can be found all over the 24-hour news channels defending him, no matter how he makes a mockery of logic. It is an unenviable task. To them, it’s the media that are at fault for all of the controversy — not Trump.
Sometimes their defense of Trump is downright laughable. Katrina Pierson is Trump’s National Spokeswoman. She appeared on CNN and was told that Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, had written that if his father was still alive, it would be the first time he wouldn’t support a Republican presidential candidate. Pierson bristled at that statement.
“I think everyone could try to assume what somebody else would do, but you simply can’t do that,” Pierson said.
To be honest, she was on safe ground with that statement. She should have stopped there. She added that Michael Reagan “doesn’t know what Ronald Reagan would do, because, in fact, I think Ronald Reagan would support Mr. Trump.”
Five minutes after I heard her say that, there was a knock on my door. There stood an emergency crew, and I had to tell them that I was OK. That the loud thud my neighbors had just heard — was my jaw hitting the floor!
Edward A. Owens is a three time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net