Donald Trump’s performance during his on-stage televised interview with a panel of three reporters from the National Association of Black Journalists is being criticized as “clearly racist” and “completely unhinged,” with media critics praising the reporter who began the interview by reading a selection of the ex-president’s attacks on Black politicians and Black journalists back to him. But one journalist, Washington Post columnist and right-wing talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, is rushing to Trump’s defense.
Many journalists, including Black journalists, felt was it inappropriate to host the criminally-convicted ex-president who has a decades-long history of racism and, over the past nine years since he first launched his presidential campaign, has made bigoted and racist remarks.
Former CNN commentator Keith Boykin, the co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition, one day before the controversial interview, had written: “As NABJ gives a platform to Trump, I would hope they ask him about the many times he attacked Black journalists like Yamiche Alcindor, April Ryan, and Don Lemon.” He provided video support:
As NABJ gives a platform to Trump, I would hope they ask him about the many times he attacked Black journalists like Yamiche Alcindor, April Ryan, and Don Lemon. But Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner is on the panel, and she has shown herself to be in the tank for Trump. pic.twitter.com/J5D7meLfWU
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 30, 2024
On Wednesday, Trump walked on stage one hour late – he claimed 30 minutes, and claimed repeatedly it was because the NABJ’s sound equipment wasn’t working, while journalists reported it was because the Trump campaign did not want real-time fact-checking.
RELATED: ‘Self-Immolating’ Trump Should Drop Out After ‘Disastrous’ Interview: Critics
As he sat down, ABC News’s Peabody Award-winning senior congressional and lead campaign correspondent Rachel Scott began what was slated to be a one-hour interview. (The Trump campaign pulled Trump out after 34 minutes. Entire video here.)
“I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room, sir. A lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today,” Scott acknowledged up front. “You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States; which is not true. You have told four congresswomen of color who are American citizens to go back to where they came from. You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabid’ to describe Black district attorneys. You’ve attacked Black journalists, calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask are ‘stupid’ and ‘racist.’ You’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question, sir, now that you are asking Black supporters to vote for you: Why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”
Journalist Hugh Hewitt served in the Reagan White House, was a professor of law at the conservative Chapman University, and in Trump’s early days as a presidential candidate Hewitt flip-flopped between supporting him and saying he should be replaced on the GOP ticket (with Ivanka Trump).
“During the 2016 campaign, he warned that Trump did not have ‘the temperament to be president’ and said the Republican Party failing to deal with the consequences of Trump winning the nomination was akin to ‘ignoring Stage IV cancer,'” Politico reported in 2018.
Hewitt supported Trump in 2016 and 2020.
On Thursday, Hewitt ran to Trump’s defense.
“As we wait to see if the Middle East explodes, I’m going to play all of former President Trump’s interview before the NABJ yesterday. I’ve never seen a more unprofessional opening of an ‘interview’ than that offered by ABC’s @rachelvscott to former President @realDonaldTrump,” Hewitt declared.
That did not go over well with many journalists and critics.
READ MORE: Trump Flails as Fox News Forces Him to Defend Picking Vance: ‘He’s Not Against Anything’
“Why is quoting the former president’s own words to him unprofessional? I’m certain you’ve done the same in your long career in news. It’s standard practice and topical given the substance of his past comments contrast sharply with what was intended as outreach to the audience,” responded CNN anchor Jim Sciutto, who offered Rachel Scott “Kudos.”
Hewitt responded to Sciutto, suggesting Scott took Trump’s words “out of context,” and implying she wasn’t a real journalist because she opened with a hard-hitting question rather than niceties:
“I often. indeed usually, press guests. I often use quotes, but not out of context. I try not to be argumentative. And, crucially, when a guest accepts an invitation –guests over the years including you, @HillaryClinton and @JohnKerry etc– I do not begin with a non-question litany of accusations. It was a completely unprofessional opening attack. It is also an example of why the media is loathed in the United States. Agenda journalism at its worst. An important opportunity was missed because the ‘journalist’ was doing performance theater, not an interview.”
Rachel Scott’s opening question to Trump was similar to Fox News’s Megyn Kelly’s opening question to Trump in 2015 at a GOP presidential debate.
Many critics are defending Scott.
“Rachel Scott was professional because she set up her question with verified contextual evidence detailing Trump’s own actions and words. The question was relevant because Republicans and Trump’s supporters have been pounding on VP Harris’s identity as ‘DEI hire’ in media,” wrote media critic Susan Bordson.
The Atlantic’s Norman Ornstein, and AEI Emeritus Scholar, served up a broader critique: “Hugh Hewitt is simply an embarrassment. And all of those outlets from the WaPo to NBC who featured him should be embarrassed for doing so.”
Veteran conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes on Wednesday praised Scott, saying, “today [she] became A Legend.”
Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign chief strategist Mathew Dowd, now a Democrat and political pundit, wrote, “Rachel Scott of ABC News showed Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, and many others how it should be done in this moment in our countries history. Brava to her.”
Anti-racism activist and writer Tim Wise, a senior fellow at the African American Policy Forum declared, “Rachel Scott did more to hold Trump accountable than every white journalist in this country combined ever has, at least to his face. They never ask hard questions like that. They’re too afraid or whatever.”
Scott does not appear to have commented on the Trump interview, but Thursday morning filed this report with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Former Pres. Trump falsely questions Vice Pres. Harris’ race and Black identity during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago. @rachelvscott reports. https://t.co/mXa4QaV37r pic.twitter.com/tyXJFIw4ak
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 1, 2024
Watch the videos above or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘GOP Has No Answer for This’: Pollster Says Harris Campaign Close to Becoming a ‘Movement’
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OPINION
Published
7 days ago
on
July 30, 2024
By
David Badash
Before and after he launched a barrage of attacks against Fox News, Donald Trump Monday night sat down with Fox News host Laura Ingraham who asked him about a wide range of issues. From his damning remarks Friday saying people won’t have to vote again if they vote for him in November, to asking if he will leave office after four years if elected, to asking why not debate Kamala Harris, to asking him to defend choosing U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential running mate, Trump served up responses that critics say did not quell concerns.
Many made clear they believe the interview did not go well.
“Trump was on Laura Ingram tonight rambling through nonsense answers that even made her cringe,” remarked Professor of Political Science James D. Long.
On Trump’s defense of his remarks to a conservative Christian group, declaring this will be the last time they will have to vote, the ex-president’s response elicited this headline from the often message-massaging New York Times: “Trump Declines to Back Away From ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ Line.”
Calling it a “horrifying interview,” The New Republic Friday morning reported, “Fox News’s Laura Ingraham practically begged Donald Trump to walk back his threat. He refused.”
READ MORE: ‘Disdains Democracy’: Chief Justice’s Role in Trump Immunity Sparks Legal Experts’ Outrage
Ingraham told Trump (video below), “They’re saying that you said to a crowd of Christians that they won’t have to vote in the future.”
Trump did not deny his remarks, despite being pilloried for them since they were first reported Friday.
Instead, Trump claimed Christians “don’t vote.” According to Pew Research, nearly two-thirds (64%) of the country identifies as Christian.
But here was Trump’s response, as Media Matters reported:
“I had a tremendous crowd, speaking to Christians. I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot. I think I’m in 97% or something. And they’re treated very badly by this administration, okay? Catholics are treated unbelievably, they’re like persecuted. And if I might say, before I go into the other, Jewish people, if you’re Jewish and you vote for Biden or the Democrats or Kamala or whoever’s going to run, I guess it’s going to be her.”
“But, if you voted for her or the Democrats, you should have your head examined because nobody’s ever been treated so badly by this — this administration is destroying Israel, etcetera, etcetera. So, with respect to like a statement like I made, that statement is very simple. I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again.’ That’s true. Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. ‘You never vote. This time, vote.’ I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote.”
Mediaite reported Ingraham “helped the former president navigate current political attacks in a manner that some may not recognize as an acceptable journalistic standard.”
She then interrupted his remarks, saying, “Well, you don’t meant you have to vote for you because you have four years in office?”
“Look,” Trump replied, “look, Christians are known — do you know who else doesn’t vote? Gun owners don’t vote.”
Veteran journalist and professor of journalism Bill Grueskin responded to Trump’s exchange with Ingraham on his Christians “don’t vote” comment, saying: “Ingraham keeps throwing life preservers to Trump, and Trump keeps yelling he wants concrete blocks instead.”
Ingraham asks Trump about his comments telling Christian backers they won’t have to vote again in 4 years. Trump responds by saying Jews should have their heads examined if they vote for Dems. Ingraham presses him & Trump doesn’t exactly quell concerns he wants to end elections. pic.twitter.com/khGeauqp9S
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2024
Ingraham urged Trump to defend his choice of JD Vance, who has been a drag on the ticket and caused even Republican Senators to question his choice.
READ MORE: Trump’s ‘Weird’ VP Running Mate Doesn’t Represent ‘Normal’ Ohioans: JD Vance’s Congressman
Vance’s remarks over the past few years, which appear to have escaped any vetting by the Trump campaign, have made headlines since Trump announced his pick.
Chief among them are Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comments.
“We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via, via our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made,” Vance said in 2021. “And so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too. And it’s just a basic fact… Kamala Harris. Pete Buttigieg. AOC. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Ingraham asked Trump, “what can you say to our viewers tonight to reassure them that this was an excellent pick?”
“Well, first of all,” Trump replied, “he’s got tremendous support, and he really does, among a certain group of people, people that like families.”
CNN’s Harry Enten last week reported, “JD Vance is making history as the least liked VP nominee (non-incumbent) since 1980 following his/her party’s convention. He’s the first to have a net negative favorable rating.”
Trump continued, claiming Vance “made a statement having to do with families. That doesn’t mean that people that aren’t a member of a big and beautiful family with 400 children around and everything else. It doesn’t mean that a person doesn’t have, he’s not against anything, but he loves family, it’s very important to him. He grew up in a very interesting family situation, and he feels family is good. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong in saying that now.”
Ingraham: What can you say to reassure us that Vance was an excellent pick?
Trump: He made a statement about families. That doesn’t mean people a member of a family with 400 children— it doesn’t mean— he’s not against anything pic.twitter.com/g6paWV3Ids
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 29, 2024
Watch the videos above or at this link.
RELATED: JD Vance Suggested America Should ‘Punish’ People for Not Having Children
This article has been updated to include the quotes from The New Republic
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OPINION
Published
1 week ago
on
July 29, 2024
By
David Badash
U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), the disgraced, “ethically dubious” former U.S. Secretary of the Interior who literally rode into Washington on his first day in 2017 on a high horse and left amid ethics scandals with his “tail between his legs,” is baselessly concocting a claim suggesting the attempted assassination of ex-president Donald Trump by a lone 20-year old registered Republican might be a “plot” of the U.S Government.
Zinke, a conspiracy theorist who promoted the same false, anti-Obama “birtherism” claims that Donald Trump used to launch his 2016 White House run, talked to Fox Business on Monday, weaving a tale of Trump being a “movement” supported by Americans who are not “woke” and were not comfortable watching the Olympics.
The 62-year old Congressman’s remarks come as Speaker Mike Johnson’s House of Representatives, now on an extended vacation until September 9 with a shutdown deadline just three weeks after, announced the formation of a 13-member bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination.
Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, is not on the task force, but Fox Business invited him to talk about the assassination attempt.
READ MORE: Trump’s ‘Weird’ VP Running Mate Doesn’t Represent ‘Normal’ Ohioans: JD Vance’s Congressman
“Ronald Reagan was 1.5 seconds between when he was shot and in the car – remember he didn’t get shot directly as a fragment. So with President Trump, all you know is he’s bleeding, you don’t know [inaudible] there’s one shooter, two shooter, elevated position, and what happens they bring him down but he should have been wrapped in a ballistic blanket and gone two miles before he noticed he had his shoes not on,” Zinke told Fox.
Trump, within seconds of the gunman unleashing what reportedly were eight bullets, four times demanded, “Let me get my shoes.”
“So there was a number of breaches, and here’s where it boils down to: We know there was negligence. We know there was incompetence. We know there was break of protocol, communications, etc. But was this incompetence willful and knowing? That’s what I want to want to know,” Zinke declared.
“Did you willingly and knowingly put the president in a position by atrophying the security and allowing this to happen?” he asked, apparently baselessly. “Look if it was knowing and and and you knew for a fact that your lack of security and bringing it down would put the president at risk, that brings it from assassination plot, you know, attempt into the area of a plot – big difference between an attempt and a plot and we’re going to find the answers.”
That’s when Congressman Zinke went further in on his assassination “plot” claims.
“What government agency, department, division has the full confidence of the American people? And I can tell you it comes down to zero,” Zinke declared Monday.
As Secretary of the Interior, Zinke, “racked up 18 federal investigations into his behavior in under two years,” leading Citizens United for Ethics and Responsibility (CREW) to declare him “one of the most ethically dubious members of President Trump’s Cabinet.” In its report updated in 2021, CREW wrote, “a few of these investigations have cleared Zinke of wrongdoing, [but] many remain ongoing,” despite Zinke having been forced out of office at the end of 2018.
READ MORE:‘Super Creepy’: Vance and Masters’ Belief Politicians Have to Have Kids Called ‘Repugnant’
“Zinke has been a shameless handmaiden for the special interests. His staggering ethical abuses have delivered a serious and lasting blow to America’s public lands, environment, clean air and clean water,” Nancy Pelosi, who was soon-to-be again Speaker of the House, said at the time, The Guardian had reported. “Americans are confronted with an administration of unprecedented corruption, cronyism and incompetence, which has shown zero respect for the office or taxpayers’ money.”
Zinke on Fox continued his remarks, saying, “Trump is as much of a movement as he is a candidate, because America is not comfortable where we are. We’re not comfortable with watching the Olympics, you know, disgusting display, dishonorable. We’re not, you know, we’re not comfortable with with the woke. We’re not comfortable about beating, getting beat up on foreign shores. So this is a movement, and I think the assassination plot, if it is a plot, I’m hoping it is an attempt and not a plot. I mean just the number of inconsistencies and break in protocols and comms and negligence and incompetence. What’s America supposed to think?”
GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke suggests that the Trump assassination attempt was part of a government “plot” to take him out pic.twitter.com/4o7D5JGDiZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2024
GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke: “Trump is as much of a movement as it is a candidate, because America is not comfortable where we are. We’re not comfortable watching the Olympics. Disgusting display, dishonorable. We’re not comfortable with the woke.” pic.twitter.com/XXGZIAeAGd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2024
Watch the videos above or at this link.
READ MORE: JD Vance Suggested America Should ‘Punish’ People for Not Having Children
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OPINION
Published
3 weeks ago
on
July 19, 2024
By
David Badash
The fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday is being panned by pundits, political strategists, grassroots voters, and even some in the press, as many express shock and condemnation over Donald Trump’s presidential nomination acceptance speech, or, as one critic put it, the “clinically-insane Trump speech.”
Chris Wallace, the former long-time Fox News anchor turned CNN commentator declared he was “disappointed,” and suggested Trump’s 90+ minute speech (transcript) helped President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.
Trump’s speech got off to a good start, Wallace said, but after awhile the GOP nominee, “couldn’t keep up the act, and so we started hearing about ‘crazy Nancy Pelosi,’ and cheating on elections, and talking about Biden. Frankly, it was a long speech, it was a rambling speech, it was a speech by an older man and I couldn’t help but think that the people who are going to be happiest tonight are not the people at Trump headquarters, but the Democrats, maybe at Biden headquarters, maybe at the headquarters of the people who think they are going to replace Joe Biden, but Jake, we have ourselves a presidential campaign again.”
Chris Wallace reminds the panel that Trump is Trump.
“There’s something a phenomenon in this campaign called ‘Trump amnesia,’ and that’s the idea that a lot of people have forgotten what they either liked or loathed about Trump during his four years as president.” pic.twitter.com/zwZKbdOePZ
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 19, 2024
READ MORE: ‘Stop the Attacks’: 1400 Black Women Leaders Demand DNC Support Biden and Harris
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale reported Trump delivered at least 22 “falsehoods” during his remarks, including that when he left office, “the world was at peace.”
“A remarkably dishonest acceptance speech.”
Trump lied 22 times during his acceptance speech. pic.twitter.com/QjzouVBRo6
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 19, 2024
Even The New York Times, which critics say has often ignored or whitewashed Trump’s worst remarks and weaknesses while focusing on President Biden’s – to the point of calling for Biden’s exit but not Trump’s – ran this headline overnight, invoking the ex-president’s 2017 inauguration speech: “Trump Struggles to Turn the Page on ‘American Carnage’.”
“On the last night of the G.O.P. convention on Thursday, Donald J. Trump promised to bridge political divides, and then returned to delighting in deepening them,” the paper of record reported.
Meanwhile, conservatives – former Republicans and current, Never-Trump Republicans – led the criticism on social media Thursday night and into Friday morning.
The Lincoln Project’s Stuart Stevens, a top political strategist and former Republican, panned Thursday night’s GOP convention: “A man who beat his wife introduced a Republican nominee found liable of sexual assault the judge called rape. And the Republican Party thinks it’s great.”
“I’ve watched thousands of political speeches in thirty years in the business. This was by far the worst,” observed Mike Madrid, the Latino GOP political consultant and Lincoln Project co-founder, calling it “an unmitigated disaster.”
“Is anyone else seeing this with their own eyes?” Madrid asked on social media, referring to Trump’s speech. “Maybe, just maybe, this is what independent voters saw at the debate.”
“The [media’s] gonna call for his withdrawal after witnessing this obvious cognitive decline right?” Madrid also asked.
READ MORE: ‘Democratic Machine’ Strategists Behind Move to Oust Biden: Ex-Congressman
He summed it up in one word:“Fiasco.”
Former Republican U.S. Congressman Denver Riggleman declared: “Media should demand Trump step down based on mental issues and incoherence.”
Fred Wellman, the former Lincoln Project executive director had a few words for top Democratic donors dissatisfied with President Joe Biden: “Hey Democratic big donors! Shut up and get back to work. Jesus. We are going to beat this loser like a drum.”
“The View” co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a Republican who opposes Donald Trump wrote: “If this clinically-insane Trump speech does not get Democrats out of their defeatist doldrums, and focused and energized around electing their nominee -instead of tearing him down- I don’t know what will.”
She added, “And you all are screaming that Biden has dementia….?”
Former Republican Rick Wilson, an award-winning political TV ad expert and Lincoln Project co-founder decimated Trump’s speech and invoked the nominee’s top campaign chiefs:
“Trump’s speech was, objectively, the single worst convention acceptance speech in modern history. It was a ramblefuck disaster from start to its long-delayed finish, and nothing is going to make it better. You know. I know it. LaCivita and Wiles know it. Utter disaster.”
Former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh added, “And one more thing: I don’t want to hear anyone in the media talk about Biden’s cognitive decline without also talking about Trump’s cognitive decline. Thanks.”
Republican Sarah Longwell, a political strategist and publisher of the conservative news and opinion site The Bulwark, commented throughout Trump’s speech.
“What would [you] say this speech is about?” she asked toward the end. Minutes earlier she remarked, “Rambling man.” And: “I dunno, this weirdo seems pretty beatable.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘Have to Stop This Psychopath’: Conway Launches PAC Focused on Trump ‘Mental Instability’
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