From the time Donald Trump announced his run for President of the United States, the media has ran story after story about the inflammatory rhetoric that has come to define his campaign. Time after time media outlets run sound bites featuring the latest provocative statement from Trump. And usually Katrina Pierson, the spokesperson for the Trump campaign, finds her way onto a split screen accusing the media of twisting what was said. It has become the favorite battle cry for Trump and his campaign. Accusing the media of political bias is almost certain to receive thunderous applause and "Make America Great Again!" chants. And indeed the media has an element of bias, though it seems that Trump often times ignores the bias when it is in his favor. But has the media twisted his words? Politicians, even the most principled ones, are prone to gaffes. Mitt Romney's 47% comment comes to mind. Depending on your political affiliation, you either thought the 47% comment was blown way out of proportion or was offensive to a little less than half of the country. People fight for their candidates and that's understandable. But when gaffes happen as frequently as they do in the Trump campaign, at some point it's the candidate and not the media. None the less, for every gaffe Trump supporters have an explanation:
Trump supporters will defend this statement claiming that he clearly meant illegal immigrants and not all immigrants. To say he means all immigrants, they argue, is a deliberate twisting of his quote and is out of context.
"He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." (July 18, 2015)
Not exactly sure what the defense is for this statement. Someone could point to statements McCain made that were critical of Trump so Trump was counter punching. But I'm not sure McCain could have said anything that would have warranted Trump's response.
"She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base." (August 8, 2015)
Trump supporters have claimed that he meant to say "whatever" as opposed to "wherever." I'm glad we cleared that up, simple misstatement. Or, some supporters take another approach insisting she started it with her unfair questions.
"Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" (September 9, 2015)
Trump supporters might argue that his attacks on Carly Fiorina was fair since she had risen to a level in the polls to warrant attacks. But come on Trump supporters, how can you stand by him after a statement like this? Attacks on her business record are fair game. But personal appearance?
When asked about whether or not there should be a database of Muslims Trump responded with:
"I would certainly implement that. Absolutely. There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases. We should have a lot of systems." (November 20, 2015)
Trump supporters might argue that this is a matter of national security. But how could someone who claims to support the second amendment be okay with such a flagrant disregard of the first?
Referencing a protestor at a rally in Birmingham:
“Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing. I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a trouble-maker who was looking to make trouble.” (November 22, 2015)
Trump supporters might agree with him and say the protester should not have been there in the first place. Or they may try to contrast that statement with a separate one where he said about a protestor "Don’t hurt ’em. You can get ’em out, but don’t hurt ’em." (October 23, 2015)
“Now, the poor guy — you've got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don't know what I said! I don't remember!'" (November 24, 2015)
Trump supporters might reiterate Trump's response about the incident where he claimed he did not know the reporter and wasn't mocking him.
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on." (December 7, 2015)
Trump supporters will argue that this is again a matter of national security and that a ban just makes sense. Others will argue that it is a temporary ban and would not be permanent and don't understand the outrage over a temporary solution.
"@WhiteGenocideTM: @realDonaldTrump Poor Jeb. I could've sworn I saw him outside Trump Tower the other day! " (January 22, 2016)
A Trump supporter would likely argue that it was a re-tweet from an apparent white supremacist and therefore not something Trump himself should be held accountable for. They may even argue that while the source may be a white supremacist, that the tweet is not inherently offensive.
After receiving an endorsement from David Duke and being asked about said endorsement, Trump responded:
"I don't know anything about David Duke. I don't know what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacist. I don't know. I don't know, did he endorse me, or what's going on?" (February 28, 2016)
The supporter might argue that free citizens are free to endorse who they wish and Trump cannot possibly control that. And he may not have known who David Duke was or what organization he belonged to (despite denouncing the group and Duke in 2000) which explains why he didn't denounce the endorsement.
"Look at those hands, are they small hands? And, he referred to my hands --'if they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee." (March 3, 2016)
The Trump supporter will again say it's a counter punch. But why on earth is he referencing his penis in a presidential debate?
"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them. Just knock the hell, I promise you, I'll pay your legal fees." (March 13, 2016)
The supporter will argue that this is directed at a person who threatens Trump and not a person who just attacks a protester. So then they will argue it is not condoning violence.
“You go back to a position like they had where they would perhaps go to illegal places. But you have to ban it. There has to be some form of punishment.” (March 30, 2016)
I don't exactly know how the Trump supporter would defend this. People who are pro-choice have an obvious objection, but the pro-life movements official stance is that abortion has two victims, the baby and the woman. And therefore they do not believe in punishment for the woman. Again, I do not know what supporter might say other than Trump clarified the statement later on but messed up that response as well.
“I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I’m telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, OK? But we’ll come back in November. Wouldn’t that be wild if I’m president and I come back to do a civil case? Where everybody likes it. OK. This is called life, folks.” (May 27, 2016)
"I have had horrible rulings, I have been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall.... He's part of a society that's very pro-Mexico and that's fine. It's all fine. I think he should recuse himself." (May 31, 2016)
A supporter might argue that Trump's stances and the judges heritage do create a potential conflict. But as Jake tapper points out in the interview, Trump is invoking race as an impediment to the judge's ability to do his job. Kind of the text book definition of racism.
And finally a tweet featuring this photo:
The supporter would likely repeat Trump's statement that it was a basic star, perhaps a sheriff's badge as opposed to a Star of David. Perhaps people confused it for a Star of David because it is a Star of David.
At what point doe these statements and tweets stop being gaffes blown out of proportion by a biased media and start becoming a pattern of a reckless candidate unfit to become President of the United States? Every candidate makes a gaffe. But Trump seems to make them on purpose and doubles down on factually incorrect, sometimes outright offensive, comments.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt on some of these statements, Trump supporters still have to make peace with the fact that he has attacked women, a veteran who absolutely is a war hero, a man with arthrogryposis, an American born judge because of his race, supported a policy disregarding the first amendment, and essentially condoned the attacks on a Black Lives Matter protester in November. And this gives him the benefit of the doubt on his immigration comments assuming he truly meant illegal immigrants and not immigrants as a whole. But even then his comments are questionable at best. Any Trump supporter would be hard pressed to express support for everyone of these comments. And this does not even touch upon comments he made before his presidential run. Again, at what point is it not a media bias, but a pattern of reckless and offensive acts from a man who lacks the temperament and class to become President of the United States.
