Trump said Obama would have thrown him under the bus, too. He then answered the question: “I don’t think so!” Had he defended Obama, he would have been condemned for that. “No chance!”
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He also said, in true Trump fashion, that the President wouldn’t have raced to his defense if someone said something bad about him. “A no win situation!” he tweeted. “Their religious liberties are at stake”.
Santorum insisted he wouldn’t correct an event attendee’s questions or statements, even if they were controversial or offensive, a response that echoed his comments following a similar exchange with a supporter in 2012.
The incident evoked a moment during the 2008 campaign when Republican nominee John McCain took the microphone away from a woman who said she didn’t trust Obama because he was an “Arab”.
“Is anyone really surprised that this happened at a Donald Trump rally?”
An unremarkable showing at Wednesday night’s Republican debate, where the frontrunner drew attacks from his many rivals, had some observers wondering if Trump frenzy is finally on the wane.
Speaking in front of Trump and other guests at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, the president mocked the wealthy billionaire for his support of the so-called “birther movement”.
Trump tweeted Saturday morning about the controversy.
“Donald Trump not denouncing false statements about hateful rhetoric about Muslims is disturbing, & just plain wrong. But I’ll leave that to Trump”.
But Trump did not back down, saying on Saturday it was the first time in his life he had caused a controversy “by NOT saying something”. “I was appalled”, asserted front-running Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “He has been trafficking in prejudice and paranoia throughout this campaign”.
Trump got hammered by the left for at least failing to reject the questioner’s ideas and at most capitalizing on nativist sentiment by endorsing the idea that it’s all right to “get rid of” Muslims.
A recent CNN poll found that about four in 10 Republicans and 29% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim.
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“How about we talk about the challenges facing this country?” “It’s called Muslims”, the unidentified man said after the real estate mogul and former Atlantic City casino mogul called on him to ask a question from the crowd.
