Donald Trump defended his buddy Roger Ailes, who was just forced out of Fox News in the wake of multiple accusations of sexual harassment, as “just a very, very good person.” Trump dodged when asked if he is being advised by Ailes.
Trump appeared on Meet The Press yesterday. After calling his ugly, “Let me scare the s*** out of you” speech “optimistic,” and keeping up the pretense that he’s not releasing his tax returns because of an audit, among other topics, the discussion turned to Ailes.
According to New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, an independent investigation has so far found “more than 25 people” who have come forward “to describe instances and episodes of sexual harassment” at Fox News. But Trump, who has boasted, “I cherish women. I think I’ll do more for women than Hillary can ever do,” all but dismissed the women who claim to have been harassed as liars.
From the NBC News transcript, with my emphases:
CHUCK TODD: Finally, Roger Ailes. Is he helping you? Is he advising you?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to comment. But he’s been a friend of mine for a long time, and I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them. And even recently, and when they write books that are fairly recently released, and they say wonderful things about him.
And now all of a sudden they’re saying these horrible things about him. It’s very sad. Because he’s a very good person. I’ve always found him to be just a very, very good person. And by the way, a very, very talented person. Look what he’s done. So I feel very badly. But a lot of people are thinking he’s going to run my campaign.
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, well—
DONALD TRUMP: My campaign’s doing pretty well.
Don't you feel cherished already, ladies?
Watch it below, from the July 24 Meet The Press.
Truman, that’s been my sentiment. Clinton should be 5 or a bit more points ahead and coast to the finish line 10 points ahead.
However, witnessed CNN’s John King talking about Hillary and the media. We’ve heard a lot of this before but he pointed out in the early Bill Clinton White House years she’d come back in Air Force One, drink wine with the press corps, and they’d share some light moments. However, the endless investigations and attacks have driven a wedge. So the theory goes the press greatly resent her. Donald Trump may be a clown and complete a—hole but he thrives off the media so gives them good access. They eat it up even when he trashes them. Even when their peers are banished from his events – which shockingly gets next to no coverage in the msm.
Maybe that’s why I see this normalization of the election in the media. Maybe they want a horse race. But the media has given Trump and Sanders many passes they wouldn’t give Hillary.
PBS and CNN were Fox-lite at #RNCinCLE. Written off by some as networks need to look neutral to slightly positive at conventions. Yet, early coverage looks like they’re going to be Fox-lite in Philadelphia and pile some wet blankets on it. I hope I’m wrong.
To all, the electoral map is a huge Clinton favorable. Anderson Cooper, after driving a long discussion over DNC-gate where he seemed intent to discuss nothing else for the entirety of his show, prodded John King into showing him how Trump can beat Hillary on the electoral map. The upshot is it isn’t easy but Anderson seemed satisfied The Donald has several avenues open to him.
Seeing Michael Moore (note I’m not a fan & have never seen his movies) on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” I’m quite convinced he’s totally sincere in his fear of Trump and he’s simply trying to raise alarm bells so liberals will take the man seriously. Moore was not his jovial self when he scolded Maher and his panel. Moore’s scared.
I’m hoping I won’t be hitting the panic as well after the DNC convention.
Oh, and the easy quip against Nate Silver is he gave Trump no chance to get the nomination. Nate’s come back with a plausible explanation but my confidence in him needs a couple of warm fuzzies before I get too comfortable with his analysis again.
And like I said earlier, this wikileaks out of the Kremlin has got to be trouble for Trump. How can it be otherwise?
http://www.electoral-vote.com
If you add up the “Strongly” and “Likely” electoral votes on both sides, you will see that Hillary Clinton leads, 235-174. Ergo, because a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win, Clinton needs ONLY 35 VOTES out of the “Barely” and “Exactly Tied” pools in order to win — “Der Furor” (i.e. Trump) NEEDS 96, MORE THAN TWICE the total Clinton needs. In my opinion, I would NOT give Michael Moore’s recent prediction about Trump winning ANY CREDIBILITY WHATSOEVER (yet), because here are two things Moore forgot to mention: First, even if, by some wild miracle, Trump DOES carry PA, OH, MI, AND WI (these are the four states that total the 64 electoral votes that Moore cited), HE CANNOT WIN without carrying AZ (a state with a VERY HIGH Latino population) AND NC as well (remember, Mitt Romney won both of these states in 2012). Furthermore, remember that, since 1860, NO REPUBLICAN HAS WON THE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT CARRYING OHIO — and if Clinton wins Florida, IT’S GAME OVER — even if Trump DOES win Ohio.
“CHUCK TODD: Finally, Roger Ailes. Is he helping you? Is he advising you?”
Here’s my answer: IS THE POPE CATHOLIC??
’Nuff said.
Even on Fox News last night, even Brit Hume admitted that this latest email story isn’t much of one. Bill O’Reilly is of course trying to fan its flames, but he has no credibility on such matters in any case. I expect that Limbaugh and Hannity will also try to blow it up, but they’re expected to do so.
The long term of this campaign suggests that Trump will continue to embarrass himself in public, and that Clinton will maintain her slow but steady approach.
I’m actually curious about the attention Michael Moore is trying to get for himself now. He was a big Sanders supporter and is now trying to sell his story about how he thinks Trump is going to win the election. But at the end of his op-ed, he says “in my next column, I’ll talk about how we can prevent it”. In other interviews, he’s said he thinks Clinton will need to use satire to fight Trump. My instincts say that Moore just wants to see an outrageous campaign year – even farther over the top than what we’ve already been seeing. I agree with him that people need to pay attention and not assume anything. But Trump is by no means guaranteed to win this election. Moore’s assumption is that a lot of Clinton’s voters stay home. If people get the word out, that won’t be the case.
Debi Wasserman Schultz’s email fiasco is another bump in the road for Hillary to overcome. Emails have not been kind to Hillary.
Assuming no more surprises, Hillary should, and hopefully will, get a nice bounce coming out of her convention.
My view is the media is trying to normalize this election. So past racist quotes of Trump defending his discriminatory landlord practices targeting blacks, his foul language like shouting “motherf—ker” in speeches, his violent rhetoric, his grade school name calling, etc. are laughed off or completely ignored as him being the colorful, nontraditional The Donald.
I witnessed NPR and PBS, who I generally admire, downplay greatly the divisions at #RNCinCLE. The Trumpsters who endlessly cry baby about a “rigged system” packed a committee to ensure delegates were bound to Trump. Getting almost no was the Utah delegation against it’s witnessed be forced to vote for Trump because of state law. I could go on and on.
Meanwhile, watching CNN last night it’s obvious the ‘libs’ over there are chomping at the bit to raise a narrative of a pro Bernie convention fight. NPR spent an entire segment on a small group pro Bernie protesters in Philadelphia raging it’s the “death if the DNC” and how Hillary is “the devil” they will never vote for.
I could go on and on but how many torpedos can the Clinton campaign take before it sinks?