Ive been treated very unfairly by the RNC, Donald Trump told CNNs Anderson Cooper, in a townhall forum that Trump threatened to boycott because he complained that CNN treated him unfairly. What did CNN do to treat Trump unfairly? They had commentators on panels that criticized him. What did the RNC do to treat Trump unfairly, and thus negate his pledge to support the partys nominee whoever it turned out to be? Er Mitt Romney criticized him.
No, really:
Lets face it The Pledge has been a joke for some time. It served a purpose until the primaries started, which was to keep Trump from bailing out of the GOP process and launching a third-party bid. Over the last couple of months, though, its been clear that Trump is too self-absorbed to rally troops on behalf of someone else, and too thin-skinned to accept criticism, let alone defeat. No one who has paid any attention to Trumps antics over the past year could possibly have thought that Trump would campaign for someone else, or even have anything nice to say about someone who beat him to the nomination.
If Trump thought Cooper would be sympathetic to this kind of argument, he got a surprise tonight. Cooper dressed him down for acting like a child when it came to the War Of The Wives:
Cooper asked Trump about his ongoing feud with rival Ted Cruz, which started after an anti-Trump super PAC circulated a racy image of Trumps wife, Melania. Trump later retweeted an image of Melania next to Cruzs wife, Heidi, in what Cooper called an unflattering pose. Trump said he thought the photo of Heidi was nice, and when pressed by Cooper, said, I didnt start it.
Cooper responded by telling the Republican frontrunner with all due respect, thats the argument of a 5-year-old, adding that every parent knows that. Thats the problem, Trump retorted. Exactly that thinking is the problem this country has. I didnt start this, he started this.
If Trump believes that the RNC staged Mitt Romneys criticism to make him look bad, does anyone think for a moment that Trump would take a loss at the convention as just the breaks of a well-fought contest? Puh-leeeeeeze. Trump either spikes the ball, or he takes it and goes home. There is no room in his world for another quarterback, and anything but cheerleading is all the evidence Trump needs to claim victimhood.
Let's see. Trump refuses the pledge at the first debate. Then he takes the pledge. Then he rescinds it. Then he signs a pledge on camera. Now he rescinds it again.
A man of his word, he is not.
And this was a timely story, as I was just being lectured yesterday by a Trumpkin here at LF about the Amazing Donaldo taking the pledge so other candidates should be expected to support him if he is the nominee.
With Trump, you get to keep the 2nd Amendment. Without him you get Hillary, and a Democrat Supreme Court.
Bye-bye corporations as people. Bye-bye gun rights.
It's all linked in train, like cars on a cable, forcing you to choose between someone you can't stand, and policy positions that, once lost, will never be recaptured again.
I never considered the pledge worth the paper it was written on (and that's true of all the candidates btw). What struck me as revealing during the town hall was Trump again revealed himself to be just another NY liberal .A questioner asked him what the 3 top priorities of the Federal Government was . His answer :
1. Security (no real issue there )
2. Healthcare
3. Education. That is not an answer that a constitutional limited government conservative would give . When asked to elaborate by Anderson Cooper ,he went into one of his typical incoherent spewing of pablum demonstrating he had no grasp of any of the issues.
All he really needs to do is memorize the Preamble to the Constitution. That would be a good start .(to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.) .
Or he could look into the text to find the few powers designated to the Federal Government . Article I, Sec. 8; Articles II-V; Amendments XIII- XVI, XIX-XX, XXIII-XXVI. All can be catagorized as :
1) Defense, war prosecution, peace, foreign relations, foreign commerce, and interstate commerce 2) The protection of citizens constitutional rights , and ensuring that slavery remains illegal 3) Establishing federal courts inferior to SCOTUS 4) Copyright protection 5) Coining money 6) Establishing post offices and post roads 7) Establishing a national set of universal weights and measures 8 ) Taxation needed to raise revenue to perform these functions. Beyond that he can quote James Madison Federalist #45 The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. But Trump doesn't believe in small government that has it's powers limited and enumerated in the Constitution . He believes in a big expansive government with powers defined by the Executive . A typical lib.
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato
Whjo are you supporting? Hillary, Bernie or Lyin Ted Cruz the adulterous scum.
I'm supporting Lyin Ted Cruz the adulterous scum.
In fact, those are nothing more than "claims" of adultery made by a notorious tabloid that has endorsed Trump, affairs vigorousy denied by all supposedly involved. One of the women is Trump's spokeswoman. She denies it too.
OTOH, your candidate is an admitted serial adulterer who says he has never asked God's forgiveness for anything. So Trump actually is an unrepentant adulterer who seems to have no conception at all of Christianity, other than "I eat the cookie".
"A questioner asked him what the 3 top priorities of the Federal Government was."
Based on your smarmy response, it appears the questioner should have asked him what the 3 top priorities of the Federal Government wasshould be. Then you would have gotten the answer you wanted.
Trump wants to get us out of military foreign entanglements, wants to end Obamacare and privatize healthcare, and wants to end Common Core and turn education over to the states.
It was a two-part pledge -- support the chosen candidate and not run third- party. He signed it on the condition that he be treated fairly.
Has Trump been treated fairly by the GOP?
By the way, both Cruz and Kasich, when asked if they would support Trump if he was the nominee, refused to answer.
"A man of his word, he is not."
Seems to me it's the GOP that is breaking it's pledge to Trump. But so typical of you -- Trump gets maligned, strikes back and you rag on Trump for his response.
Cruz gets Common Core wrong too. Common Core is already a state program . 'Race to the Top 'was a stimulus program that gave subsidies as an incentive for States to adopt Common Core. 40 States adopted it . 10 did not . That means that the Federal Government does not directly control it beyond the monetary incentive . The 'Every Student Succeeds Act'(passed in December 2015 )makes it very clear that the federal government cant influence local decisions about academic standards. So what Cruz and Trump are proposing already was done by Congress, and there is no longer any federal connection to Common Core.
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato
Trump has a history of supporting European-like socialized medical care . His newly found support for 'privatizing ' national healthcare was a pivot to get Republican approval.
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato