Donald Trump’s national spokeswoman on Monday suggested that Trump’s own sister, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, could be biased as a result of her gender.
“If somebody were to say to her she was biased in regard to some case because she’s a woman, that would be awful, wouldn’t it?” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Katrina Pierson of Trump’s sister, Federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry.
“Well, it would depend on her past and decisions she made as a judge,” Pierson replied. “There is no question that there are activist judges in this country.”
Trump has pushed this stance heavily in the last few weeks, arguing that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing a fraud case involving the now-defunct Trump University, is “biased” against him because of his “Mexican” heritage. The presumptive GOP nominee took this identity-based argument for unfair treatment further on Monday, arguing that a Muslim judge could “absolutely” be biased against him, too, because of his proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the United States.
As Blitzer pointed out, many of Trump’s fiercest supporters urged him to drop the racial attacks, which they say alienate minority voters and undermine the independence of the judiciary.
Pierson said Trump had no plan to “start saying and doing what everybody else says to say and do.”
“He is not backing down because the media wants to pressure, call him names, call him racist,” Pierson said. “Doesn’t matter which GOP individual comes out, they’re not there and they don’t have the facts. That’s why Mr. Trump is the nominee.”
Republicans have jumped on Donald Trump for attacking the integrity of the judiciary. Some current and former leaders include House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said Trump’s criticism was a ‘textbook definition of a racist comment,’ and ethically-challenged former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said it was ‘inappropriate.’
So let’s follow Donald Trump’s “common sense” logic that only people who he has not offended can fairly evaluate a case against him.
An American judge with Mexican heritage is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his plan to build a wall with the United States and Mexico.
An American judge who is of the Islamic faith is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his plan to ban all Muslims entering into the United States and to have a database of every Muslim person living here.
An American female judge is unable to preside over any of his cases (unless she’s a ’10’) because of his repeated sexist and misogynist comments towards women.
An American judge with African heritage is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his racist tweets and calling black protesters “not people.”
An embattled Donald Trump urgently rallied his most visible supporters to defend his attacks on a federal judge’s Mexican ancestry during a conference call on Monday in which he ordered them to question the judge’s credibility and impugn reporters as racists.
“We will overcome,” Trump said, according to two supporters who were on the call and requested anonymity to share their notes with Bloomberg Politics. “And I’ve always won and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.”
There was no mention of apologizing or backing away from his widely criticized remarks about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing cases against the Trump University real-estate program.
When former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer interrupted the discussion to inform Trump that his own campaign had asked surrogates to stop talking about the lawsuit in an e-mail on Sunday, Trump repeatedly demanded to know who sent the memo, and immediately overruled his staff.
“Take that order and throw it the hell out,” Trump said.
Told the memo was sent by Erica Freeman, a staffer who circulates information to surrogates, Trump said he didn’t know her. He openly questioned how the campaign could defend itself if supporters weren’t allowed to talk.
“Are there any other stupid letters that were sent to you folks?” Trump said. “That’s one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren’t so smart.”
Brewer, who was on the call with prominent Republicans like Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, interjected again. “You all better get on the page,” she told him. Former Reagan aide Jeffrey Lord said Tuesday on CNN he was also on the call.
In response, Trump said that he aspired to hold regular calls with surrogates in order to coordinate the campaign’s message, a role usually reserved for lower ranking staffers than the nominee himself.
The e-mailed memo, sent by Freeman on Sunday, was cc’d to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski; Hope Hicks, Trump’s top communications staffer; and Rick Gates, a top aide to campaign chairman Paul Manafort. It informed surrogates that “they’re not authorized to discuss matters concerning the Trump Organization including corporate news such as the Trump University case.”
“The best possible response is ‘the case will be tried in the courtroom in front of a jury—not in the media,’” according to the e-mail, obtained by Bloomberg Politics.
Hicks declined to address the specifics of the conversation with surrogates.
“The call was scheduled in order for Mr. Trump to thank his supporters and congratulate everyone as the primaries officially come to an end,” Hicks told Bloomberg Politics. “Many topics were discussed and it was a productive call for all parties.”
Trump’s five weeks as the presumptive nominee have been marked by several missteps: A refusal to release his tax returns; confusion among donors over which super-PAC to give money to; audio of him using a pseudonym to act as his own publicist; and failing to donate to veterans groups as promised until pressed by the media.
But the most incendiary controversy has been his handling of Trump University.
Trump ignited the controversy when he defended his real-estate program by saying Curiel has an inherent conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage, because the candidate has proposed building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration. Curiel was born in Indiana, and Trump’s complaint has been criticized by Republican leaders, legal experts, and other commentators. Trump on Sunday broadened his argument by saying on CBS that it’s possible a Muslim judge could treat him unfairly too, because of his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
“I should have won this thing years ago,” Trump said on the call about the case, adding that Curiel is a “member of La Raza.” Curiel is affiliated with La Raza Lawyers of California, a Latino bar association.
A clearly irritated Trump told his supporters to attack journalists who ask questions about the lawsuit and his comments about the judge.
“The people asking the questions—those are the racists,” Trump said. “I would go at ’em.”
Suggesting a broader campaign against the media, Trump said the campaign should also actively criticize television reporters. “I’d let them have it,” he said, referring to those who Trump portrayed as hypocrites.
Here is Trump surrogate Jeffery Lord trying to convince a CNN panel that Trump wasn’t being racist but shining a light on racism.
Here is Trump surrogate Jeffery Lord calling Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan a racist:
Here is Trump surrogate Carl Paladino trying to explain that Trump isn’t a racist, he just can’t get a fair trial because of race.
Here is Trump surrogate Healy Baumgardner incorrectly stating it wasn’t Trump who first called attention to the judges’ race.
Here is Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany making the same argument as Jeremy Lord, claiming that anyone who points out the bigotry of Trump’s statements is themselves guilty of bigotry… somehow.
Here is Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson making the argument that Donald Trump is correct because he is the Republican nominee.
Here is Republican New York Representative Lee Zeldin explaining how Donald Trump’s comment was racist, but he’s still voting for him.
When Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appointed a Muslim judge in 2011 he caught flack for it from the conservatives because of their fear of other people. (As you can see it didn’t start with Trump.) To his credit, Christie stood by his judge and called their unsubstantiated fears “crap.”
Now watch 2016 Trump surrogate, Republican Governor Chris Christie, explain how even though he personally never heard Trump’s comments that we should all move on and to ask him only after the general election is over.
Donald Trump reversed his stance on U.S. military intervention in Libya on Sunday, saying he would have authorized “surgical” strikes to take out strongman Moammar Gaddafi — even though he’d previously said the world would be better with Gaddafi in power.
“I didn’t mind surgical. And I said surgical. You do a surgical shot and you take him out,” Trump said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
It was a notable change from the position he’d staked out at a Republican presidential debate in Texas in February.
“We would be so much better off if Gaddafi would be in charge right now,” Trump said then. He has also hit Clinton over the U.S. intervention in Libya in his stump speech.
It’s the second time Trump has reversed his position on Libya. In a 2011 video, Trump said that “on a humanitarian basis, immediately go into Libya, knock this guy out very quickly, very surgically, very effectively, and save the lives.”
On Sunday, he still sought to blame former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
“I wasn’t for what happened. Look at the way — I mean look at with Benghazi and all of the problems that we’ve had. It was handled horribly,” he said.
He added: “I was never for strong intervention. I could have seen surgical where you take out Gaddafi and his group.”
While Trump has changed positions on how the United States should have handled Gaddafi, he’s now advocating a sharp escalation in the U.S. military’s role in Libya.
He asked at a rally in Fresno, California, two weeks ago why the United States isn’t “bombing the hell out of” ISIS in Libya.
“ISIS has the oil. And then you say if ISIS has the oil, why aren’t we blockading so they can’t sell it? Why aren’t we bombing the hell out of … ” Trump said, stopping short as he pivoted to slamming Obama as “grossly incompetent.”
He’s also made blasting Clinton’s foreign policy judgment a staple on the campaign trail.
“She doesn’t have the temperament to be president. She’s got bad judgment. She’s got horribly bad judgment,” Trump said two weeks ago in Anaheim. “If you look at the war in Iraq, if you look at what she did with Libya, which was a total catastrophe.”
Clinton, meanwhile, unleashed on Trump as ill fit to serve as commander in chief on Thursday in a high-profile speech.
“He’s not just unprepared — he’s temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility,” Clinton said.
Trump said, “on a humanitarian basis, immediately go into Libya, knock this guy out very quickly, very surgically, very effectively, and save the lives.”
Republican Debate: Shouldn’t have taken him out – February, 25 2016
“We would be so much better off if Gaddafi would be in charge right now.”
Interview: Take him out – June 2016
“I didn’t mind surgical. And I said surgical. You do a surgical shot and you take him out.”
Donald Trump on Sunday hinted at a broader argument that judges of specific religious and ethnic backgrounds may not be fit to hear cases against him.
Last week, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee suggested that Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel — whose parents are Mexican — should not preside over fraud lawsuits against Trump University, a for-profit university formerly owned by Trump.
“If it were a Muslim judge, do you also feel that they wouldn’t be able to treat you fairly because of that policy of yours?” host John Dickerson asked.
“It’s possible, yes,” Trump replied. “That would be possible, absolutely.”
Dickerson pushed Trump, asking whether the real-estate magnate was unfairly discrediting judges because of their ethnic background.
“Isn’t there sort of a tradition though in America that we don’t judge people by who their parents were and where they came from?” Dickerson asked.
“I’m not talking about tradition — I’m talking about common sense,” Trump said.
Trump’s assertion that Curiel is not qualified to fairly hear Trump’s case because of the judge’s parents’ nationality has ignited a firestorm of criticism from the real-estate mogul’s political opponents.
In a Saturday speech in California, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton slammed Trump’s “prejudiced, bigoted attack” on Curiel.
“This is not just another outlandish, insulting comment from Donald Trump, and it is not normal politics. This is something much, much more dangerous,” Clinton said.
She continued: “Judge Curiel is as much of an American as I am, and he’s as much of an American as Donald Trump is. But he has Mexican roots. So to Donald Trump, that means he can’t do his job. Well, Donald Trump’s not just wrong about Judge Curiel. He’s wrong about America. He’s wrong about what makes this country great.”
So let’s follow Donald Trump’s “common sense” logic that only people who he has not offended can fairly evaluate a case against him.
An American judge with Mexican heritage is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his plan to build a wall with the United States and Mexico.
An American judge who is of the Islamic faith is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his plan to ban all Muslims entering into the United States and to have a database of every Muslim person living here.
An American female judge is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his repeated sexist and misogynist comments towards women.
An American judge with African heritage is unable to preside over any of his cases because of his racist tweets and calling black protesters “not people.”
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.
Paxton’s office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page internal summary of the state’s case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar.
Owens, now retired, said his team had built a solid case against the now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but was told to drop it after Trump’s company agreed to cease operations in Texas.
The former state regulator told The Associated Press on Friday that decision was highly unusual and left the bilked students on their own to attempt to recover their tuition money from the celebrity businessman.
Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate.
A federal judge overseeing one of the class action suits unsealed documents in the case earlier this week, then ordered some of those records to be withdrawn from public view, saying they had “mistakenly” been released.
Trump has personally attacked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel as “a hater of Donald Trump,” claiming he is biased against Trump because of his Hispanic heritage.
“We’re in front of a very hostile judge,” Trump told a crowd in San Diego on May 27. “The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he’s given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative.”
“What happens is the judge, who happens to be — we believe — Mexican. Which is great. I think that’s fine,” he said. “You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, OK?”
Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana. Curiel’s parents, however, are Mexican, according to a 2002 New York Times report of the judge’s work in the Southern District of California’s narcotics enforcement division.
Despite the lawsuits, the presumptive GOP nominee said Thursday he plans to reopen Trump University once the legal cases are resolved.
As CBS News reported in September, Trump University closed not because of litigation, but because students were not signing up for its Gold elite mentoring program that cost $35,000. The university, as a result, could no longer afford to fulfill its commitments to the students who had already paid.
A June 2010 memo from Trump University said the program was facing “significant operations risk” and it closed a month later. A former employee told CBS News that the program was “run into the ground.”
According to the documents provided by Owens, his team sought to sue Trump, his company and several business associates to help recover more than $2.6 million students spent on seminars and materials, plus another $2.8 million in penalties and fees.
Owens said he was so surprised at the order to stand down he made a copy of the case file and took it home.
“It had to be political in my mind because Donald Trump was treated differently than any other similarly situated scam artist in the 16 years I was at the consumer protection office,” said Owens, who lives in Houston.
Owens’ boss at the time was then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state’s GOP governor.
The Associated Press first reported Thursday that Trump gave donations totaling $35,000 to Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign three years after his office closed the Trump U case. Several Texas media outlets then reported Owens’ accusation that the probe was dropped for political reasons.
Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said Friday that the governor had played no role in ending the case against Trump, a decision he said was made farther down the chain of command.
“The Texas Attorney General’s office investigated Trump U, and its demands were met – Trump U was forced out of Texas and consumers were protected,” Hirsch said. “It’s absurd to suggest any connection between a case that has been closed and a donation to Governor Abbott three years later.”
Paxton issued a media release about the cease and desist later Friday, saying Owens had divulged “confidential and privileged information.”
Owens first learned about the state’s action against him on Friday afternoon when contacted by the AP for response.
“I have done nothing illegal or unethical,” said Owens, a lawyer. “I think the information I provided to the press was important and needed to be shared with the public.”
Paxton faces his own legal trouble. He was indicted last year on three felony fraud charges alleging that he persuaded people to invest in a North Texas tech startup while failing to disclose that he hadn’t invested himself but was being paid by the company in stock. Paxton has remained in office while appealing the charges.
Texas was not the only GOP-led state to shy away from suing Trump.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi briefly considered joining a multi-state suit against Trump U. Three days after Bondi’s spokeswoman was quoted in local media reports as saying her office was investigating, Trump’s family foundation made a $25,000 contribution to a political fundraising committee supporting Bondi’s re-election campaign.
Bondi, a Republican, soon dropped her investigation, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.
In New York, meanwhile, Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Trump over what he called a “straight-up fraud.” That case, along with several class-action lawsuits filed by former Trump students, is still ongoing.
There’s been no shortage of reflection and celebration when it comes to the remarkable life of Muhammad Ali. That’s essentially the deal when you’re one of the most beloved figures in American sport and American culture in general. He was the champ, he stood for his beliefs and ranks as a true one-off.
Among the tributes pouring in as the public remembers The Greatest is one from presidential candidate and “it’s 2016 and everything seems to come back to this guy” press magnet Donald Trump. The current GOP hope for the White House marked Ali’s passing with a tweet very much in the voice of The Donald.
Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!
Naturally, the internet went “wait, isn’t that the dude that’s been making incredibly controversial remarks about Muslims?” To which a healthy stockpile of receipts replied, “YUP!” It was pretty much instantaneous that a certain infamous tweet was placed in the spotlight to dispute Trump having a pro-Ali stance.
Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling?
While Trump has called Ali a personal friend in the past, the boxing great has spoken out against the Presidential candidate’s ban on Muslim immigrants.
Donald Trump called out “my African-American over here” during a rally in Redding, California, pointing to a supporter in the crowd.
Trump was responding to the intense rioting between protestors and his supporters that took place in San Jose last night. In the middle of his nearly endless spiel, Trump began talking enthusiastically about an incident that happened in Tucson in March, in which protestors wearing white KKK hoods were beaten by a black member of the crowd.
While reciting this anecdote, Trump further breaks off to wonder about how that man is doing. In the process of that tangent, he (presumably) points out a different black person in this particular crowd, which produces yet another jaw-dropping moment in the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump:
We had a case where we had an African-American guy who was a fan of mine. Great guy, in fact I want to find out what’s going on with him. You know what I’m — Oh look at my African American over here.
“Look at him,” Trump added, directing the crowd’s attention. “You know what I’m talking about, OK? So we have an African American guy at one of the rallies a month ago. And he’s sitting there behaving. And we had protesters sitting inside the arena.”
“Everybody thought the African American was against me, and it was the opposite,” Trump insisted. “He was like this great guy military guy. We have tremendous African American support. The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back to our country. We’re going to bring jobs back.”
Trump’s spokesperson Hope Hicks told CNN that he didn’t mean anything by it. “He’s just referring to a supporter in the crowd; there’s no ill will intended, obviously,” Hicks stated.
What is something a slave owner says for $300 Alex?
Gregory Cheadle, a Republican California congressional candidate, confirmed to CNN he was the supporter to whom Trump pointed. He told the Record Searchlight, a local newspaper, he was happy to be cited by Trump.
While Mr. Cheadle may not have been personally offended by the remark, that does not absolve Donald Trump for his comment. For those who this may require an explanation, saying things like, “Oh look at my African American over here” sounds like Trump is interacting with black people for the first time. And this isn’t a isolated incident but just the latest in a long line of racially-charged comments from the billionaire.
Donald Trump actually started off his rambling anecdote speaking about how gentle and respectful he treats protesters at his rallies, which he claims is not very often. This is not true. Virtually every single rally is interrupted with protests. Donald Trump just the day prior screamed “Get him outta here!” at a protester at the rally in San Jose. This is also the same Donald Trump who promised to pay legal fees for supporters who attacked protesters who interrupt his rallies.
There’s persistent … and then there’s Jake Tapper.
The CNN anchor posed the following question to Donald Trump on Friday:
Let me ask you about comments you made about the judge in the Trump University case. You said that you thought it was a conflict of interest that he was the judge because he is of Mexican heritage, even though he is from Indiana. Hillary Clinton said that that is a racist attack on a federal judge.
Trump deflected to talk about his border wall and Clinton’s emails, among other things. So Tapper tried to steer the conversation back to whether Trump’s complaint about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was racist. Trump deflected again. Tapper tried again. And again. In all, Tapper made an astounding 23 follow-up attempts.
Tapper’s relentlessness ultimately paid off. He finally got a straight answer out of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
TAPPER: If you are saying he cannot do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?
TRUMP: No, I don’t think so at all.
Tapper refused to drop the subject until Trump offered a yes-or-no answer. It was clearly an exhausting effort. But it showed that even Donald J. Trump can be worn down by a journalist who never gives up.
As House Speaker Paul Ryan explained, Donald Trump’s recent remarks saying a judge presiding over a lawsuit involving his business was biased solely because of his Mexican heritage is “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
Was Donald Trump’s racist suggestion last week that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an American of Mexican descent, could not fairly preside over a lawsuit about so-called Trump University simply an off-the-cuff remark? If so, Trump seems to have decided to go with it. The Wall Street Journal reports:
In an interview, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Mr. Trump said.
Donald Trump’s claim that a person can not perform their job for the singular reason because their heritage is a textbook example of a racist quote.
The Republican candidate’s insistence that Gonzalo Curiel cannot preside impartially simply because of his ethnic heritage flies in the face of established precedent. Trump’s claim is irrelevant, as ethnicity plays no apparent role in the Trump University case. His argument also sits in uncomfortable contradiction to his prior claims that “the Latinos love me.”
Trump’s statement is troubling for a variety of reasons. Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who had immigrated from Mexico, and Trump has referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and criminals. But the case at hand involves an allegedly fraudulent series of real-estate seminars Trump set up—in other words, it has nothing to do with ethnicity whatsoever. He has discovered that by grossly insulting a group to which a judge (sort of) belongs, he can then argue that the judge is tainted. As Peter Beinart of The Atlantic, among other observers, has pointed out, Trump’s demand that an unblemished judge step down from the case amounts to an attack on the independence of the American judiciary.
(Editor’s Note: Today is a short day so the ‘reality’ section is from our cited source and not our own.)
Hillary Clinton gave a speech on foreign policy that was a direct attack on Donald Trump, whose own foreign policy knowledge is lacking in such a way that CNN has now chosen to fact-check in real time so that viewers can see when he reneges on something he’s said, like his belief that Japan should have nukes.
Trump hasn’t taken well to her speech. He has attacked those who lauded it and gone after Clinton, too. Just as he did yesterday when he tried to claim that he never spoke out in favor of Japan getting its own nuclear arsenal, he tried to insist that everything Clinton said about him in her speech was a lie.
In Crooked Hillary's telepromter speech yesterday, she made up things that I said or believe but have no basis in fact. Not honest!
She responded with a link to her site, The Briefing. That link leads to a quote-by-quote breakdown of her speech. Each assertion made about Trump’s beliefs is backed up with a link to the interview or press conference during which he said it.
From saying he has no issue with abandoning our allies in NATO to the direct quote in which he insisted he knows more about ISIS than America’s own military generals do, the takedown is thorough and scathing.
Donald’s twitter response to Clinton’s evisceration of his foreign policy was largely seen as massive disappointment. Many pundits waited eagerly to see how he would respond, how he would defend his positions, and were left with a few poorly-spelled tweets attacking her for using a “telepromter.” Ironically, a few days later Donald Trump himself turned to a teleprompter for his primary victory.
So we wanted to take the time and fact-check both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
1. “This is a man who said that more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia.”
2. “This is someone who has threatened to abandon our allies in NATO, the countries that work with us to root out terrorists abroad before they strike us at home.”
TRUE. In a March 30 town hall on MSNBC, Trump repeatedly suggested he will threaten NATO countries to bear a bigger burden, ultimately saying “If we have to walk, we have to walk.”
CHRIS MATTHEWS: We don’t need NATO?
TRUMP: Do you think — no, we don’t really need NATO in its current form. NATO is obsolete, and we’re spending disproportionately…
MATTHEWS: How do you walk from NATO, The Middle East, North Asia, China, all these relationships? Just drop them all?
TRUMP: Look, NATO is…
MATTHEWS: We have old deals we have to stick with.
TRUMP: … is 68 years old.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
TRUMP: OK, you have countries that are getting a free ride. You have countries that benefit from NATO much more than we do. We don’t benefit that much from NATO….Why aren’t they reimbursing us? Why aren’t they paying a good portion of the costs?
MATTHEWS: Well, that’s fine. It’s a good argument if you can get it. But if the alternative is we walk…
TRUMP: And we’ll get it, I’ll get it, I’ll get it. I’m the messenger.
MATTHEWS: If the alternative is we walk…
TRUMP:If we have to walk, we have to walk.
Comments start around the 6:30 mark.
3. “He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world, which would cause an economic catastrophe far worse than anything we experienced in 2008.”
TRUE. In an interview on CNBC, Donald Trump broke with tired clichés about the evils of federal debt accumulation. “I am the king of debt,” he said. “I love debt. I love playing with it.”
I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” Trump said. “And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can’t lose.
This idea would indeed cause a global financial crisis. By suggesting an unorthodox approach towards cutting the national debt… not paying it then renegotiate terms. Such a renegotiation risks creating financial turmoil because U.S. Treasuries are considered the safest assets on the planet and a major benchmark for valuing other securities. Calling into question their safety could cause borrowing rates to rise and create confusion in the markets.
Trump later said the media misunderstood his comments. However while Trump did not say the word ‘default’ he explained the exact definition of the word default in his proposal. And his new answer to print money can lead to higher inflation and was almost just as bad of an idea.
4. “He has said that he would order our military to carry out torture.”
TRUE. During a campaign event at the Sun City retirement community on February 17, 2016, Donald Trump said that he supports waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques because “torture works” in the questioning of terrorists.
“Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works,” Trump said. “Okay, folks? Torture — you know, half these guys [say]: ‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works. Okay?”
5. “He says he doesn’t have to listen to our generals or our admirals, our ambassadors, and other high officials, because he has quote, ‘a very good brain.’”
TRUE. Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded:
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”
“I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are,” Trump said. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff.”
Then as evidence, Trump claimed he had predicted the rise of Osama bin Laden, a statement for which was a total and absolute lie.
6. “He says climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.”
TRUE. And complete and total nonsense.
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
7. “He has the gall to say that prisoners of war like John McCain aren’t heroes.”
TRUE. At the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July 2015, when moderator Frank Luntz brought up Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Donald Trump said:
He’s not a war hero.
Then went on to say.
He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? Perhaps he’s a war hero, but right now he’s said some very bad things about a lot of people.
Trump caught flack from every direction but refused to change his stance on McCain. When asked by ABC News whether he owes McCain an apology, Trump said:
No, not at all.
Then continued:
People that were not captured that went in and fought, nobody talks about them. Those are heroes also.
Later when confronted with his comments about McCain by a veteran and supporter at a rally, Trump flatly lied that he never made those comments.
8. “He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin…” and picks fights with our friends, including the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the German chancellor, the president of Mexico, and the Pope.”
“I will tell you, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an ‘A,’ and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.”
9. “and picks fights with our friends – including the British prime minister…”
TRUE. On Good Morning Britain in May 2016, Trump was asked about comments by British Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the U.K.’s Conservative Party, who said that Trump’s suggestion Muslims should be barred from the United States was “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
“It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship,” if he were to win the presidential election in November.
“I think they’re very rude statements and frankly, tell him, I will remember those statements. They’re very nasty statements.”
11. the German chancellor…
TRUE. Donald Trump told Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon that he was highly critical of Germany’s Angela Merkel saying she is “a catastrophic leader” and that “she’ll be out if they don’t have a revolution.”
Everyone thought she was a really great leader and now she’s turned out to be this catastrophic leader. And she’ll be out if they don’t have a revolution.
12. the president of Mexico…
TRUE. Donald Trump sparked outrage among Mexicans and Latinos over comments he made when he kicked off his Presidential bid when he claimed Mexico sending its “rapists” and criminals to the U.S. and calling for a human-proof wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep them out.
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
Mexican President Pena Nieto attacked the “populism” of the Trump campaign, which he said sought to put forward “very easy, simple solutions to problems that are obviously not that easy to solve,” and then compared Trump to Hitler:
“And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity. That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis. And I think what (they) put forward ended up at what we know today from history, in global conflagration. We don’t want that happening anywhere in the world”
13. and the Pope.
TRUE. Trump faulted Pope Francis for planning to visit the Mexican border to pray with migrants:
I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico. I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is. They’re making a fortune, and we’re losing.
Pope Francis then made the observation that that Mr. Trump “is not Christian” in proposing deportations and a wall with Mexico.
Donald Trump responded saying Francis’ criticisms were “disgraceful” and “unbelievable,” said the pontiff will “wish and pray” that the real estate mogul were President “if and when the Vatican is attacked, and he contended that the Mexican government had hoodwinked the pope into criticizing him.
14. “He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia.”
I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, Miss Universe contest, which was a big, big, incredible event. An incredible success.
