You aren’t going to get anywhere nitpicking Trump. He was clearly trying to rebuff the concerted attempt to link him to Duke. On the end of the above quote there is a silent but implied “to anywhere near the degree that you lying media scumbags keep insinuating I am familiar with white supremacy”.
Heh bullshit. There isn’t an American who keeps up in any way with the news who doesn’t know who Duke is and what his political views are. (Especially when Trump has already made a statement dealing with the same subject.)
You can parse words all you want, it would have been very easy for him to just say, “Look, I already dealt with this topic. See my response then.”…or, to repeat it. But he didn’t, for the pure and simple reason that he wants the votes, no matter how few they may happen to be.
That was kinda brutal, Fear. I mean, you could have been nicer about it, kinda sidle up to it in easy steps. You know, like, “Well, maybe this Republican group is not as substantial as you’ve been led to believe…”
Of course, there is a lot to be said for simply flinging it to the ground and pounding a stake through its heart. Direct, efficient, entertaining as all git out…
I suspect Trump has in mind Thai-style libel laws. In Thailand, even if you write the truth, sticking 100% to the facts and never in the least give even the semblance of a personal opinion, if it can be shown that your comments resulted in a financial loss to someone, you can be sued, and you will lose. This is why you never, ever see, say, a negative restaurant review in the local newspapers.
No, Trump doesn’t need the votes of the 453 people who give a shit about David Duke.
He was rebuking the attempt to associate him with Duke, by refusing to go along with the presumption implicit in the demanded renouncement. It’s what he does. He constantly re-frames these appearances and debate questions to his own benefit. They all do it to some degree, the candidates and the journalists. He is just very good at it, and does it non stop.
And the fact checkers were not nitpicking, they sure are going somewhere as most do look at that an indeed know what a joke Trump is. Because soon the contest will go for all Americans and not just for 45% or so of Republicans that support Trump no matter how much a cad he is.
Just to clarify, there are negative news reports over here, but there’s a fine line to walk. Believe me, after my years working in the local media, I’ve seen how you really have to watch your shit. It’s even easier to sue someone in Thailand than it is in the US!
That’s how that bastard Thaksin used to go after reporters he did not like when he was prime minister. He would sue them, and being a dollar billionaire he had the resources to keep the cases tied up in court forever, thereby bankrupting the defendants.
So he lost an election twenty five years ago. How many of those 671k people do you imagine are still alive?
Twenty five years. If Robert Byrd can go from Klan member to being the Democratic Senate Majority Leader in roughly the same amount of time, then Duke can surely go from losing gubernatorial candidate to being an obscure nobody in that amount of time, if only the media and left wing, protest-happy, activist crowds would let him fade. But those relationships are symbiotic.
Just good enough for the Republicans, not for all. Again, the polls are showing that Trump is falling further down in the last weeks in the match up against Clinton even more and it is clear that for most Americans what Trump is doing now is not working.
All true, but what you are overlooking is that a Duke endorsement (even if repudiated by the candidate) can draw a lot of votes from 2) and 3) and, with racial tensions running as high as they are this cycle, even some from 1) – and that all of that does say something about the candidate (even if he repudiates, etc.). There is no way that a Duke endorsement is not something that matters or is not newsworthy, the way a CPUSA endorsement would not be.
Keep telling yourself that. Someday you might even believe it.
There were a thousand ways Trump could have made that particular point explicit. And yet, he didn’t. He knew exactly what he was saying, and it wasn’t because he was irritable about the press asking a question twice.
Trump has announced he will skip next Monday’s FOX-sponsored debate to make a “major” speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).