In a USA Today op-ed, Senator Jeff Sessions complains that the press “totally misconstrued” Trump’s thoughtful analysis of how a Hillary Clinton administration could lead to new limitations on Second Amendment rights.
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At a later event in Iowa, Trump was asked how voters are supposed to know when he is and isn’t being sarcastic. No one should be surprised.
HH: I’ve got two more questions.
“He shouldn’t have gotten out the way he got out”, Mr. Trump said. It was a shocking incitement to political violence. “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. A lot of people think maybe he doesn’t want to know about it”.
We all understood exactly what he was saying.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had privately expressed frustrations at Trump’s delay in endorsing House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan in his primary contest for re-election.
On Wednesday, Trump first introduced the attack line at a rally in Sunrise, Florida. Republicans said Obama was slow to recognize the threat when he said in 2014 that the Islamic State was a “JV” – junior varsity – team even though they gained ground in Syria and Iraq.
Obama last month declared Trump “unfit” for the presidency after a spat with the parents of a decorated Muslim soldier killed fighting for the USA army in Iraq.
DT: No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. He’s the founder. He founded ISIS. “I promise you, when Donald Trump and I arrive at the White House, we’re going to bring all of that to an end”.
“Obviously I’m being sarcastic”, he said, “but not that sarcastic to be honest with you”. If you were walking down the sidewalk and someone coming toward you was screaming those words verbatim, you’d cross the street.
“They can take a little story that isn’t a story and make it into a big deal”.
A group of about 70 Republicans, including five former members of Congress, called on the Republican National Committee to stop helping Trump in the wake of his recent remarks.
Some people rushed to Trump’s defense, pointing out that he might have meant that Obama is responsible for the rise of ISIS, rather than literally founding the group.
He repeated the claim the next day in Miami – jabbing Clinton as “the most valuable player” for the group – and on radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show.
“Well, I disagree”, Trump replied, and Hewitt moved on. “I think you probably did”, he said.
Trump has previously criticized Clinton for supporting the Iraq War in 2003 while she was a US senator. If the cheering crowds at his hate-filled rallies are happy, Trump is happy.
“They used a bad picture of Hillary and I said, ‘No way you’re going to do that – that’s no fair, ‘” Trump added about one card, saying it now has a “beautiful picture of Hillary”. This won’t be the last Floridians see of Trump or Clinton. He even gave a teleprompter-aided speech Monday that was generally praised by conservatives, who clearly are willing to grade their candidate on an absurdly generous curve.
Beyond quoting Trump, he offered no proof to back up his claim.
Trump regularly blasts the media for distorting his comments, including when he said Friday that “these dishonest media people, they’re the most dishonest people, they say ‘Oh, did he mean that?'” “They just sat back and waited, and when we left, basically, ISIS was formed”.
There are 89 days left until the general election in November.
Trump’s exercise in self-awareness is a marked departure from his usual tenor on the campaign trail, where for months at rallies he would tick through poll numbers showing him winning as if they were sports scores of his favorite team. Now Trump seeks to delegitimize the likely next president as well by claiming the election will be rigged. It was born out of the terror group Al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew in strength in 2006 following Republican president George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
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Mr Trump denies that this conversation ever took place. He abases our democracy – and Republican elected officials abase themselves by supporting him.
