A Fake, Still

The excuses came fast and furious.

The Trumpists had to come up with some excuse after the candidate said

Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish — the 2nd Amendment.

By the way, and if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the 2nd Amendment people —  maybe there is, I don’t know.

But — but I'll tell you what, that will be a horrible day. If, if Hillary gets to put her judges — right now we're tied. You see what's going on. We're tied ’cause Scalia — this was not supposed to happen.

Pro-Trump pundit Kayleigh McEnany stated "I think he's referring to the fact that the National Rifle Associationis the most powerfurl lobby, hands-down, in the United States. So if anyone can stop a very anti-2nd Amendment agenda, it would be the NRA and the 2nd Amendment folks."

Straining to demonstrate balance toward an evidently unbalanced remark, the Los Angeles Times' Jill Ornitz contends it "is difficult to hear what supporters were shouting as Trump gave his remarks and whether he may have riffed based on what they were saying." She did not say what the supporters may have been shouting that would have justified encouraging them to murder the next President but any candidate- even Donald Trump- is aware that his or her words will be transcribed as spoken.

"I've been a little busy," said House Speaker Paul Ryan to imply he hadn't seen the video of his party's presidential candidate encouraging the assassination of a President. He added "It sounds like a joke gone bad. You should never joke about that. I hope he clears it up quickly."

This is a classic. When this eventually blows over, Ryan can claim it was "cleared up" and maintain his support of Trump while as long as it is an issue, it has not been "cleared up." And all without condemning his Party's nominee.








Trump's campaign can claim to have "cleared it up quickly,"Communications advisor Jason Miller alleged

It’s called the power of unification — 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.

Obviously that's gibberish, especially given that Trump was referring to the post-election period when he prefaced his dangerous remark by "if she gets to pick the judges."  As if to make sure people understood him, he added "that will be a horrible day. If, if Hillary gets to put her judges.... this was not supposed to happen."  He is confident it will happen.

So if the nominee intended to make a joke as Ryan suggests, his campaign begs to differ. Either Trump, as his campaign implausibly rationalized afterward, was referring to mobilization of gun supporters to keep Clinton out of the White House.or he was encouraging supporters of the Second Amendment to utilize their right to bear arms to prevent President Clinton from appointing liberal judges.

Either way, it was not a joke or, in the Speaker's words, "a joke gone bad." Either way, Paul Davis Ryan, trying to have it both ways, is wrong. (I was going to say "dead wrong." But this is not the time.)    He is wrong in the same tortured fashion he promptly reiterated his support of Trump after labeling the nominee's remark about a Mexican-American judge "sort of the textbook definition of a racist comment."   He remains the "Biggest. Fake. Ever."










Share |