On Thursday evening, Donald Trump kept to his usual routine — using Twitter to attack the media. But he did so in a very laughable way. After spending all of Thursday doubling down on his comment that President Obama is “the founder of ISIS,” he criticized the media for taking him seriously.
“Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) “the founder” of ISIS & MVP. THEY DONT’T GET SARCASM?” The Donald tweeted. Perhaps if he had made the “founder of ISIS” comment once, in a humorous way, this would make sense. The problem is, he repeated the claim numerous times, and even clarified his position, rejecting an offer by radio host Hugh Hewitt to dial back his comments.
Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) “the founder” of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016
At a rally in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday, he first made the comments. “ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS, OK? He’s the founder. He founded ISIS. And I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton. Cofounder — crooked Hillary Clinton.”
Hmm… what is that, four times he said it — in the space of two minutes? And he wasn’t done. Thursday morning on CNBC, he repeated the claims. “He was the founder of ISIS, absolutely,” The Donald declared. “He was the founder — absolutely, the founder. In fact, in sports they have awards, he gets the most valuable player award. Him and Hillary. I mean, she gets it, too.”
Then came the Hugh Hewitt interview. “Last night, you said the president was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace,” Hewitt suggested. Trump disagreed. “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS.”
Hewitt pressed him further: “But he’s not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.” Here was opportunity number two for Trump to say, “Oh yeah, I was just joking. It’s called sarcasm.” But he didn’t say that.
Here’s what he did say: “I don’t care. He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?”
The Donald went so far as to insist that the comments were not a mistake. “No, it’s not a mistake. Everyone’s liking it. I think they’re liking it. I gave him the most valuable player award.” But when he asked Hewitt if he liked it, the host said flatly, “I don’t.”
Again, Hewitt gave Trump a lifeline: “I think I would say they created, they lost the peace. They created the Libyan vacuum, they created the vacuum into which ISIS came, but they didn’t create ISIS.”
The Donald threw this explanation right in Hewitt’s face: “Well, I disagree. I mean, with his bad policies, that’s why ISIS came about. If he would have done things properly, you wouldn’t have had ISIS. Therefore, he was the founder of ISIS.”
There are at least ELEVEN times he repeated the allegation, and five times he had the opportunity to deny it and to walk it back in a friendly conservative space. This isn’t liberal bias against Trump — he created this mess. Now, he’s blaming the liberal media for taking seriously comments The Donald stated, repeated, defended, clarified, and stood by firmly.
There isn’t media bias going on here: reporting what Trump says, repeats, defends, clarifies, and confirms is exactly what the media exists to do. If it was not supposed to take such comments seriously, when it is ever supposed to do so?
Trump was clearly serious, and he cannot rewrite history to say he was being sarcastic. That’s the kind of historical revisionism that progressives and dictators who control the media engage in. No conservative should just stand by and let The Donald do it.
Next Page: The best Twitter reactions to Trump’s ridiculous “SARCASM” statement. Hugh Hewitt suggested such reversals should become an Olympic sport.
Yes. Currently being discussed. New event in 2020 Games? Not sure what to call it though Parallel universe bars? https://t.co/MVLV8NVN1j
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) August 12, 2016
Insane?
@realDonaldTrump It wasn’t sarcasm AND you clarified for Hugh Hewitt that you meant what you said. You’re insane! @CNN
— Sheila (@SheilaInCT) August 12, 2016
Sarcasm? Trump wouldn’t accept that justification.
@realDonaldTrump @CNN sarcasm? If someone called you the founder of bankruptcy in Atlantic City, even as a joke, you would probably sue.
— jay cowit (@jaycowit) August 12, 2016
The Donald needs to make sarcasm great again.
@realDonaldTrump Make sarcasm great again, sir.
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) August 12, 2016
You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
@realDonaldTrump does the 1,000,000th person to point out that you don’t know what sarcasm is win a prize
— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) August 12, 2016
Here’s the real question.
@realDonaldTrump How much of what you say is only “SARCASM” and not to be taken seriously?
— Matt Small (@newsmatt) August 12, 2016
What’s it like to cover politics this election cycle?
“So what’s it like covering politics this year?”
“Hmm, trying to think of a good analogy…”pic.twitter.com/89vCRgKOuA— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) August 12, 2016
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