Trump Unfairly Expected to Answer Questions

Going back to the debate, which really was the most fun thing that happened this week … now Trump is whining that Lester Holt “went after” him and asked him unfair questions.  In truth, Lester Holt was barely there and only occasionally got in a word edgewise.

But in reviewing the transcript, it struck me that Holt spent more time aiming questions at Trump simply because Trump wouldn’t provide simple answers. Hillary Clinton would answer questions. She spoke in complete sentences that got right to what she wanted to say. Trump would spew out word salad, and Holt kept having to ask the same question again. For example:

HOLT: Mr. Trump, we’re talking about the burden that Americans have to pay, yet you have not released your tax returns. And the reason nominees have released their returns for decades is so that voters will know if their potential president owes money to — who he owes it to and any business conflicts. Don’t Americans have a right to know if there are any conflicts of interest?

TRUMP: I don’t mind releasing — I’m under a routine audit. And it’ll be released. And — as soon as the audit’s finished, it will be released.

But you will learn more about Donald Trump by going down to the federal elections, where I filed a 104-page essentially financial statement of sorts, the forms that they have. It shows income — in fact, the income — I just looked today — the income is filed at $694 million for this past year, $694 million. If you would have told me I was going to make that 15 or 20 years ago, I would have been very surprised.

But that’s the kind of thinking that our country needs. When we have a country that’s doing so badly, that’s being ripped off by every single country in the world, it’s the kind of thinking that our country needs, because everybody — Lester, we have a trade deficit with all of the countries that we do business with, of almost $800 billion a year. You know what that is? That means, who’s negotiating these trade deals?

We have people that are political hacks negotiating our trade deals.

HOLT: The IRS says an audit…

TRUMP: Excuse me.

HOLT: … of your taxes — you’re perfectly free to release your taxes during an audit. And so the question, does the public’s right to know outweigh your personal…

TRUMP: Well, I told you, I will release them as soon as the audit. Look, I’ve been under audit almost for 15 years. I know a lot of wealthy people that have never been audited. I said, do you get audited? I get audited almost every year.

And in a way, I should be complaining. I’m not even complaining. I don’t mind it. It’s almost become a way of life. I get audited by the IRS. But other people don’t.

I will say this. We have a situation in this country that has to be taken care of. I will release my tax returns — against my lawyer’s wishes — when she releases her 33,000 e-mails that have been deleted. As soon as she releases them, I will release.

(APPLAUSE)

I will release my tax returns. And that’s against — my lawyers, they say, “Don’t do it.” I will tell you this. No — in fact, watching shows, they’re reading the papers. Almost every lawyer says, you don’t release your returns until the audit’s complete. When the audit’s complete, I’ll do it. But I would go against them if she releases her e-mails.

HOLT: So it’s negotiable?

TRUMP: It’s not negotiable, no. Let her release the e-mails. Why did she delete 33,000…

HOLT: Well, I’ll let her answer that.

All that verbiage, and he never answered the question. Then we turn to Secretary Clinton:

HOLT: He also — he also raised the issue of your e-mails. Do you want to respond to that?

CLINTON: I do. You know, I made a mistake using a private e- mail.

TRUMP: That’s for sure.

CLINTON: And if I had to do it over again, I would, obviously, do it differently. But I’m not going to make any excuses. It was a mistake, and I take responsibility for that.

Done and done. Of course, it would have been better had she made that statement earlier, like about 2012. She has her own problem with directly responding to criticism. But she got it right on Monday.

But that’s a pattern that was repeated as the night wore on. Holt asked Clinton a question, and she would answer it. Holt asked Trump a question, and some weird steam-of-consciousness ravings would come out of his mouth that were barely related to the question. So Holt would push the question a couple more times, and Trump would get more agitated and belligerent.

But in truth Lester Holt said very little during the debate, and for long stretches of time it was just the two candidates reacting to each other.

6 thoughts on “Trump Unfairly Expected to Answer Questions

  1. I can’t deal with that dead ferret-headed, Cheetos-colored, festering anal pustule anymore!

    I can’t watch TV or listen to the radio, and not see/hear him.
    Especially when nothing is ever his fault, and he didn’t say what’s clearly right there on the video and audio!

    My mother and I are sick of him.

    11:59 pm on Nov 8th can’t come fast enough!!!

  2. I’m confident we won’t wake up on 11/9 to Trump as President Elect. I don’t think this election is as close as its being reported, for reasons of ratings. That there are many more voters than not who actually see Trump for what he is, someone who is just not suited to be President, and that having him as President would be disastrous for the country.

    What’s of more concern are the seeds of “unfairness” Trump is planting in the minds of his supporters. His narcissism is such that he cannot accept defeat, and will cry foul when he loses. A lot of his supporters, already having lived through the “unskewed” poll nonsense of 2012 that made them think Romney was a lock to win, will now be faced yet again with what they will see as unfairness, and Trump will have no problem riling them up.

    Thanks in part to how the media is covering the race, I don’t think most people realize what a dangerous time this is in our nation’s history.

  3. It’s 3am.

    The President’s White House phone rings.

    But he can’t answer it, because he’s too busy rage-tweeting about how someone offended him that day – or, maybe back in the early ’90’s – probably by telling the truth about him.

  4. Evidently, the strategy of saying anything that comes into his head has been very effective for Trump. You can imagine that with his money, his reputation for vengeance and his position as the head man of a large business, few of the people around him ever challenged him. It is probably a totally new experience for him.

    The classic was his response when Lester Holt told him the “stop and frisk” had been ruled unconstitutional. He couldn’t abide being exposed so immediately, so he worked in a few old chestnuts like the “against the police” judge. If you put out the right talking points and buzzwords, that’s what the audience hears and they see Uncle Donald being grilled for speaking the truth, which is symbolized by the stream of talking points. The fact that he has just been caught saying something untrue or ignorant gets lost.

    From the standpoint of how we perceive and interpret the world the world, Trump is a goldmine. It’s like watching “Coyote” or the “Trickster” come to life.

  5. Here’s a little aid for any diehard Trump supporters out there. Read the following link and compare what you’ve read to any words that have come out of Trump’s mouth. See if you can notice a difference in the quality of minds between President Obama and the Donald. I know that Trump claims to have the best words, but for some reason it’s just not apparent.
    http://time.com/4514543/obama-transcript-shimon-peres-memorial/

  6. Swami,
    t-RUMP does know all of the best words – you know, the negative ones, like:
    Fat.
    Crooked.
    Corrupt.
    Stupid.
    Rigged.
    Lying.
    Etc…

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