Friday, November 20, 2015

THIS IS WHY IT'S OK TO ASK TRUMP LEADING QUESTIONS

In my last post, I said that Kevin Drum was right to note that Donald Trump didn't exactly say to Hunter Walker of Yahoo Politics that he'd impose Nazi-style measures to restrict the rights of Muslims in the U.S. -- he just said he'd look at a lot of measures, and failed to reject the Nazi-style measures Walker brought up.

But now Trump appears to have specifically endorsed a mandatory database for Muslims in America:
Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for president, told NBC News on Thursday night that he “would certainly implement” a database system tracking Muslims in the United States.

“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump said in Newton, Iowa, in between campaign town hall events....

When asked whether Muslims are legally obligated to sign into the database, Trump responded, “They have to be — they have to be.”
As MSNBC's (non-embeddable) video shows, Trump is asked, by reporter Vaughn Hillyard, "Should there be a database system that tracks the Muslims here in this country?" The following video picks up with Trump's response:



TRUMP: There should be a lot of systems, beyond database. We should have a lot of systems. And today you can do it. But right now we have to have a border, we have to have strength, we have to have a wall, and we cannot let what's happening to this country happen anymore.

HILLYARD: But that's something your White House would like to implement.

TRUMP: Oh, I would certainly implement that. Absolutely.

HILLYARD: What do you think the effect of that would be? How would that work?

TRUMP: It would stop people from coming in illegally. We have to stop people from coming into our country illegally.
Now, there's Trump's escape hatch if he decides to walk this back. Hillyard has asked about a database to track "Muslims here in this country," and Trump seems to be talking about Muslims coming into this country. But if the two are them are speaking at cross purposes, Trump never tries to pin Hillyard down on what he's asking, even though he's been on the spot about oppressive measures for much of a day. Clearly Trump doesn't have any problem with your belief that he would do these things.

Hillyard goes on to ask, "Do you go to mosques and sign these people up?" And Trump replies, "Different places. You sign 'em up at different--" Can he really not know there that Hillyard is asking about Muslims already living here?

Well, maybe. But if you don't think Trump is planning to oppress citizens, then you think he's incapable of processing a not particularly fine distinction like this. Even that, in a potential president of the United States is frightening.

Here's what follows:
Later, Trump was repeatedly asked to explain the difference between requiring Muslims to enter their information into a database and making Jewish people register in Nazi Germany. He responded four times by saying, “You tell me.”
He doesn't even get it. Does Trump think imposing Nazi-style restrictions on U.S. Muslims is okay, or is he incapable of seeing how the two policies resemble each other? Evil or stupid?

Well, good for Hunter Walker for starting this conversation. Yes, he asked leading questions, but now we've seen all this from Trump. Too bad it will probably push him to 40% in the GOP polls.
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3 comments:

  1. Never Ben Better9:04 AM

    Evil AND stupid.

    Evil: Yes, he thinks this is a good idea for dealing with those scum.

    Stupid: No, he has no perception of how this equates to what the Nazis did.

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  2. Victor10:16 AM

    At one point, it was kind of cute watching T-Rump and his followers - kind of like watching apes in the zoo in their cage(s), and marveling and commenting about how human they sometimes are.

    But now, the lead ape and his followers are all uncaged. And it's not cute anymore.
    It's dangerous, evil, and stupid!

    And exactly how ISIL would want us to react.

    At least, for the next 13+ months, we have a sensible person as POTUS, and not one of a series of carnies and clown, all trying to out-bizarre one another, to appease to their base base (sic).

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  3. mlbxxxxxx12:19 PM

    Too bad it will probably push him to 40% in the GOP polls.

    Not sure why this is "too bad." And don't give me head-to-head polls say blah, blah, blah. Head-to-head nat'l polls right now are almost meaningless, certainly not dispositive.

    It still looks to me like Trump is a one-man GOTV machine for Hillary -- and he is still really unlikely to be the actual nominee but may well have a hand in setting the tone of the GOP convention which could be very good for us a la Buchanan '92. But if he should get the nomination, the Buchanan '92 effect would be increased exponentially.

    Personally, I'd much rather see Trump at the top of the GOP polls than anyone else -- especially Carson.

    ReplyDelete