Category: Unpresidential

Trump Gets Heckled Ten Separate Times During North Carolina Rally

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Protesters disrupt Trump rally in Raleigh

Donald Trump has been heckled at rallies before, but this time, in less than an hour, Trump was heckled at least five separate times. A few of those protesters could be heard chanting “Black Lives Matter!” In every instance, the crowd booed and/or drowned them out with chants of “USA! USA!” After one of the hecklers was escorted out, Trump railed against what he expected the media coverage would be, saying the press always exaggerates people disrupting his rallies But as CNN’s Noah Gray reported tonight, there were potentially up to 10 separate incidents.

Reality

Violence at Trump rallies by supporters is the norm.

Media

Links

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/politics/donald-trump-raleigh-protesters-black-lives-matter/

Trump Stereotype Jews At Republican Jewish Forum

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When Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition, he tried to relate to the crowd by invoking the stereotype of Jews as talented and cunning business-people.

“I’m a negotiator, like you folks”

Trump said, before referencing his book “The Art of the Deal.”

“Is there anyone who doesn’t renegotiate deals in this room?” Trump said. “Perhaps more than any room I’ve spoken to.”

The presidential candidate then predicted he would not gain the support of Jews in his bid for the White House because he is independently wealthy.

“You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money,” he said, adding that, “you want to control your own politician.”

Reality

Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC News that such remarks “made a lot of people nervous, first because he made what many viewed as an anti-Semitic joke about how all the Jews were in business … [and] he didn’t seem to know the issues.”

Other Jewish-oriented news agencies were not happy about Trump’s remarks.

The online newspaper Times of Israel called it offensive stereotyping. “Trump on Thursday invoked a series of stereotypes about Jews that are often deemed offensive and even anti-Semitic.”

The Jewish news site Forward.com called his remarks “cringe-worthy.”

However the Anti-Defamation League at the time said: “We do not believe that it was Donald Trump’s intention to evoke anti-Semitic stereotypes.”

Trump later made more missteps with the Jewish community by calling his policy “America First” which has historical significance, and tweeted out images that came from neo-Nazi websites with anti-Semitic imagery.

Ironically, Trump has many close Jewish family members. His daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism in 2009 before marrying the real estate mogul Jared Kushner. Trump and Kushner raise their two children in an observant Jewish home.

Media

Links

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-kasich-donald-trump-jewish-coalition_us_56607915e4b08e945fee587c

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/back-donald-trumps-tumultuous-relationship-jewish-voters/story?id=37811413

 

Trump Proposes Killing Terrorist Families

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In an interview on Fox & Friends the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he’d like to “take out” the families of terrorists.

“I would knock the hell out of ISIS… [and] when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. I say ISIS is our number one threat, we have a president who doesn’t know what he is doing and all he’s worried about is climate change, he thinks climate change is something that’s going to go kill us.”

Reality

All four Geneva Conventions from 1949 contain “Common Article 3,” which applies to “armed conflict not of an international character.” What does that mean? The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 2006 case Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, ruled that “armed conflict not of an international character” means a war that is not fought against a sovereign state. (A sovereign state simply means a country with a recognized government.) Since groups like ISIS are not considered sovereign states, that means that Common Article 3 applies to the current war on terrorism.

According to Common Article 3, people who are taking no active part in the hostilities “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely… To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever … violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.”

Experts said this language would make Trump’s approach a violation of the Geneva Conventions, assuming that the family members were not taking part in terrorist activities.

Media

Links

http://time.com/4132368/donald-trump-isis-bombing/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/dec/17/rand-paul/rand-pauls-right-geneva-conventions-bar-donald-tru/

Donald Trump Mocks Reporter With Disability

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Trump mocks reporter's disability

The New York Times is angry that Donald Trump appeared to mock one of its reporters who has a physical disability, but the candidate denied Thursday that he was mimicking the reporter.

In a statement Trump said:

I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski (sic) is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence

After confronted with backlash, Trump backtracked and in his speech at a rally:

I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago. If Mr. Kovaleski is handicapped, I would not know because I do not know what he looks like. If I did know, I would definitely not say anything about his appearance.

In an article The New York Times then pointed out that Serge Kovaleski covered Donald Trump extensively for many years, rebuking Trump’s claim that he does not know him. Trump responded with even more insults:

Serge Kovaleski must think a lot of himself if he thinks I remember him from decades ago — if I ever met him at all, which I doubt I did.

“He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a newspaper that is rapidly going down the tubes.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Trump claims he has the world’s greatest memory, but now he claims he doesn’t know a man who covered and interviews him for The New York Daily News for ten years.

Media

Reality

Serge Kovaleski and Donald Trump

Trump mocks Serge Kovaleski

By stating, “You should see the guy”, then making hand and arm motions to imitate him Trump obviously knows who Kovaleski is, as Trump was Kovaleski beat for many years. To debate otherwise requires a burden of proof.  Trump said things about Kovaleski’s appearance and clearly mocked a reporter with disabilities.

Links

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/us/politics/donald-trump-says-his-mocking-of-new-york-times-reporter-was-misread.html

Trump Would Approve Waterboarding in a Heartbeat

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Trump approves waterboarding in Columbus, OH

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he not only would bring back waterboarding, the controversial interrogation technique discontinued by the Obama administration, but also would “approve more than that,” even if such tactics prove ineffective.

“Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your ass I would — in a heartbeat.”

Trump said to loud cheers during a rally at a convention center here Monday night that attracted thousands.

“And I would approve more than that. Don’t kid yourself, folks. It works, okay? It works. Only a stupid person would say it doesn’t work.”

Trump said such techniques are needed to confront terrorists who “chop off our young people’s heads” and “build these iron cages, and they’ll put 20 people in them and they drop them in the ocean for 15 minutes and pull them up 15 minutes later.”

“It works,” Trump said over and over again. “Believe me, it works. And you know what? If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway, for what they’re doing. It works.”

Reality

Torture is illegal, unethical, and simply does not work. When a subject is in pain, people will say anything to get the pain to stop. Most of the time, they will lie, make up anything to make you stop hurting them. That means the information provided during the time of torture is useless. It is irresponsible to forget the lessons we learned during the war against terror for Donald Trump to suggest a war crime.

Media

Links

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/23/donald-trump-on-waterboarding-if-it-doesnt-work-they-deserve-it-anyway/

Trump Mistakes Syrian Refugees for Illegal Immigrants

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Twitter

Donald Trump sends anti-refugee tweet, “13 Syrian refugees were caught trying to get into the U.S. through the Southern Border. How many made it? WE NEED THE WALL!”

(h/t Los Angeles Times)

Reality

These were not illegal immigrants trying to evade authorities, instead these were legal asylum seekers following legal asylum protocol.

“To obtain asylum through the affirmative asylum process you must be physically present in the United States. You may apply for asylum status regardless of how you arrived in the United States or your current immigration status.”

 

 

Trump Says He Would Bring Back Waterboarding

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Donald Trump would “absolutely” bring back waterboarding as an accepted form of interrogation, he said today on ABC’s “This Week.”

Trump characterized waterboarding as a form of “strong interrogation” that is “peanuts” when compared to tactics used by ISIS against its hostages.

“I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they do to us,” the Republican presidential candidate said. “What they’re doing to us, what they did to James Foley when they chopped off his head, that’s a whole different level and I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation.”

Trump also said he does not want to close any mosques in the United States but he does want to put them under surveillance. He previously said it may be necessary to close some mosques if it is determined “bad things are happening” in them.

When asked if he wants blanket surveillance across all the nation’s mosques, Trump said “strong measures” are necessary.

“The people that are involved in those mosques, they know who the bad ones are and they know who the good ones are, but they don’t talk,” he said. “We have to surveil the mosques.”

Trump also said those on terror watch lists should be restricted from purchasing guns if they are a known “enemy of state.” Currently, someone one a terror watch list can legally purchase a gun in the U.S.

“If somebody is on a watch list and an enemy of state and we know it’s an enemy of state, I would keep them away, absolutely,” Trump said, while emphasizing that he is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.

“If we have an enemy of state, I don’t want to give him anything,” Trump said. “I want to have him in jail — that’s what I want. I want to have him in jail.”

Reality

Torture is illegal, unethical, and simply does not work. When a subject is in pain, people will say anything to get the pain to stop. Most of the time, they will lie, make up anything to make you stop hurting them. That means the information provided during the time of torture is useless. It is irresponsible to forget the lessons we learned during the war against terror for Donald Trump to suggest a war crime.

Media

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/donald-trump-bring-back-waterboarding-35357550

Links

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-bring-back-waterboarding/story?id=35354443

Trump Tweets Wildly Racist and Inaccurate Stats

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Donald Trump, the leading candidate in the Republican presidential primary, tweeted a graphic with fake statistics about murders in the United States.

The statistics are also racist and wildly inaccurate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/668520614697820160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The original tweet was removed so the pic no longer shows, but on the internet nothing is forgotten.

image

Reality

The graphic cited the Crime Statistics Bureau in San Francisco as its source — although that does not exist and the statistics are, quite simply, made up.

In reality, the FBI shows that 82 percent of white homicide victims were killed by other white people and 15 percent of white homicide victims were killed by black people, and 91 percent of black homicide victims were killed by other black people.

So where did the image and the bogus statistics come from?

Blogger Charles Johnson, of Little Green Footballs, was unable to determine its source through a Google Image search or tineye.com — but he was able to find the earliest tweet using the graphic.

pic.twitter.com/vGXcO5xCgk

— Non Dildo’d Goyim (@CheesedBrit) November 22, 2015

The account’s avatar is a modified swastika used as the symbol of the neo-Nazi German Faith Movement, and the account profile expresses admiration for Adolf Hitler: “A detester of any kind of sick perverted dildo waving marxism and liberalism,we Should have listened to the Austrian chap with the little moustache.”

The image was posted on the conservative Sexy Patriot account shortly before Trump shared it.

There’s no indication Trump was aware the graphic seems to have originated with a neo-Nazi, but a quick Google search should have revealed the statistics as inaccurate — and its racist suggestions are plainly obvious.

Links

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/11/22/3724965/donald-trump-tweets-fake-racist-and-wildly-inaccurate-murder-statistics/

Trump Condones Roughing Up Protester

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Trump supporters beat Black Lives Matter protester

Trump instructed security to eject a Black Lives Matter protester from a campaign event in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Get him the hell out of here, will you please?” Trump asked. “Get him out of here. Throw him out!”

The protester was shoved by the police out of the venue and heckled by Trump supporters, who shouted, “Get the fuck out of here, man,” and “Tase him!”

Following the altercation, Trump went on Fox News and said:

Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Comments like these add to the growing evidence that Donald Trump supports and condones violence against people with different ideas.

Media

Donald Trump Tells Black Lives Matter Protester To Get The Hell Out

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Trump yells "Get the hell out" to protester

At a campaign rally in Birmingham, AL, Donald Trump was interrupted by a Black Lives Matter protester. Trump then told event security to ‘get him the hell out of here’ and then related to an incident earlier this week involving an obese man who heckled Trump at a Massachusetts rally.

Media

Links

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/donald-trump-fayetteville/473169/

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