President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

That's not why he's an awful person.

 

The express train from "he didn't say it" to "he did say it but it was taken out of context" to "it's good that he said it" would be fascinating enough on its own, but it's paired with the person being defended being unable to keep track of which step they're supposed to be on.

 

For the sake of argument, let's grant that Congresswoman was out of line by going public with the content of Trump's call to the widow and her perception that Trump was disrespectful, and the presumably unquestioned fact that the call upset the widow.

Here's what Trump and his team did in response:

– Trump immediately escalated things by publicly calling Wilson a liar who "fabricated" the quote she attributed to him. Not that the snippet was taken out of context, or that his tone was misunderstood. He said explicitly that he didn't use those words and that Wilson lied when she said he did.

– The next day, Chief of Staff John Kelly concedes that Trump in fact used the words he insists he didn't use. (Though Trump has continued to tweet that Wilson is lying about him saying them. Because, in your words, "The thing is, Trump is Trump." What are you gonna do, right?) Then Kelly went on to tell a story of Wilson grandstanding inappropriately at a public event to name a new FBI field office after two fallen FBI agents. He told this story in significant detail. Unfortunately virtually every material detail was wrong.

– When the tape of Wilson's actual speech surfaced to prove that Kelly was wrong – or lying – the WH press spokesman said Kelly shouldn't be questioned because he's a four-star general. Never mind that he's no longer a general but rather a prominent public official in a civilian government.

– This morning, the soldier's widow backed up Wilson's account "100%" – just as another family member who heard the call already had – and says that Trump initially stumbled by not seeming to know the soldier's name, before reading it off the report he said he had in front of him. Moreover, she says she was upset by the call and Trump's tone. Trump almost instantly tweets that the widow is wrong, that he had a "very respectful" call and "spoke his name from the beginning, without hesitation."

But yes, what we should be focused on is Wilson being out of line and the press "running with it." Trump and his administration lying, and then claiming to be above questioning about it, well, that's to be expected. Everyone should just get over it already. And maybe if the press and 63% of the public were nicer to him, he wouldn't have to be a big meanie all the time, or something.

 

Think about it this way. Trump made a grieving widow of an American soldier cry, and that's easily only the fifth at best most objectionable thing to come out about him in this specific story.

1) Apparently promising another dead soldier's family a personal check that he then didn't send, only to (allegedly) hastily send it when the media found it.

2) Nakedly lying about his level of involvement in paying respects to dead soldiers to their families, claiming far more involvement than he actually had to that point.

3) Nakedly lying about past presidents' involvement in this tradition, claiming they hadn't done it when they had.

4) Claiming "proof" that the conversation did not say what his spokespeople admitted it said less than 24 hours later.


Making a grieving American soldier's widow cry barely makes the top 5 list of worst things he did in the story about how he made an American soldier's grieving widow cry, and the story itself isn't in the top 25 worst things he's done in the last two years.

And that's not including his staff, who under his responsibility claimed that it was inappropriate to criticize four-star generals on military matters despite him having a verifiable record of calling specifically four-star generals stupid losers in regard to military matters.

 

You don't expect YF to actually read the articles he links here, do you?

 

How does one perceive a "stumble" on a name? I hate to belabor this, but again, we're talking about something subjective.

Did he mispronounce it? Did he pause? We have no idea. And, again, I have no doubt that the widow did perceive this.

I believe there are fair criticisms to be made regarding Trump's response to the politicization of his phone call, and the media coverage of it.

But, the criticism of his performance in delivering a condolence call is both unfair, and unsupported by any evidence.

 

Obvi.

I certainly don't believe that all actions should be judged by precedent, just found a little humor in that line of defense. Nothing more, and back to the shadows with me!

 

Still no discussion of Niger and B-52s? We are no better than the media AND Trump. See, that's my point.

 

This isn't totally true. The Congresswoman's and the widow's interpretation is evidence. You may not accord it much weight, but it's evidence.

 

Nobody lied about it. They weren't saying that was the entirety of the conversation, just that he said it. And you keep trying to lie and make that ridiculous distinction because he finally did something even you aren't comfortable defending. Just once, regain a shred of credibility for yourself by admitting he fucked this up.

 

We already know there were multiple people in the room, because that's how we knew his initial comments about the call are a lie. They've confirmed this.

It's pretty easy to envision him either desperately waving someone over, or someone realizing he didn't know the name and rushing over, and they put the report in front of his face and that's when he knows the name. In fact I'd bet big money that's precisely how it happened.

This could be due to a lack of preparation. Or it could be due to age. Shit, my mom had to stall a customer service rep one time while she got out the phone book to look up her own number.

 

He's Only an Asshole 90 Percent of the Time
Trump/Pence 2020