The former president of Trump Productions, Andy Dean, tried to defend Donald Trump’s birther moment by saying “I’m not sure” what religion President Obama is and claiming “nobody on planet earth” but Trump had been able to prove Obama was born in the U.S.A.
Last night, Megyn Kelly hosted a lengthy segment about Trump’s now-infamous town hall birther moment in which he failed to challenge or correct questioners who called Obama a foreign Muslim. She asked Dean, her first guest in the segment, what the Trump team’s defense is.
Dean claimed that Trump just “shrugged his shoulders and laughed a little bit because it was a pretty aggressive question.” Dean then tried to suggest that maybe Obama really is a Muslim – as Trump has repeatedly suggested on Fox News. “
DEAN: As far as what Donald thinks, I mean we all know that President Obama went to Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church. And what religion that is, I’m not sure because we remember Rev. Wright saying, “God damn, America. That’s in the Bible.” I’ve read the Bible, I have not seen that passage yet.
Dean then wrongly gave Trump credit for proving Obama’s citizenship.
DEAN: We know that Barack Obama’s a citizen of this country – one of the reasons why we have definitive proof is that Donald Trump got Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate and once he produced that, there’s been no controversy since.
In the first place, Obama had proved he’s a citizen with a short-form birth certificate that is good enough to get a passport with but was not good enough for Trump in 2008 – three years before Trump began his birther shtick. FactCheck.org did an extensive investigation and concluded Obama was “Born in the U.S.A.” In 2011, FactCheck revisited the issue when Trump started harping on it. Their result? “Donald, you’re fired!”
Secondly, Trump has continued to question Obama’s citizenship even after the long-form birth certificate was released. As recently as June, 2015, Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I really don’t know” if Obama was born in the U.S.
Dean continued, “It’s pretty impressive, if you look at Donald Trump’s pure negotiating skill, that nobody on planet earth was able to produce this document until Donald turned this into an issue.”
Kelly did not correct the record. She did nicely challenge Dean by saying, “So then, [Trump’s] in the best position to turn around to that man and say, ‘We know he’s a citizen, sir. We know that because I pushed for him to release it and he did. And that question has been resolved. Period. Let’s move on.’”
Dean again tried to make it about Obama and Wright. He acknowledged that Trump “could have said that but by that exact same logic, think of this: Why didn’t Barack Obama, according to that same logic, stand up at Jeremiah Wright’s church and say, ‘Hey, Jeremiah, not Goddamn America.’”
Kelly rightly labeled that “a deflection.” Noting that Obama is already the sitting president, not a candidate as Trump is, Kelly added, “That fish has swum, that ship has sailed.”
Dean continued to insist he was making a valid point.
Finally, Kelly said, “You seem to be dodging. Are you uncomfortable on this issue? Why can’t you answer… why didn’t Donald Trump look at him and say, ‘He is not a Muslim, he is an American citizen, I’m the man who made him produce his birth certificate?’”
Dean agreed, “That could have been an answer.” But, he argued, “When Donald’s answering questions at a town hall, he doesn’t give the perfect, politically correct answer at every moment to satisfy the media.”
The thing is, it’s not just the media. Democratic and Republican candidates are going after Trump over this.
After Dean, Kelly also spoke to Fox News’ Christ Stirewalt and Howard Kurtz. She also took some obligatory swipes at Hillary Clinton during that part of the discussion.
But you gotta love Kelly’s closing line: She noted that Trump had “bailed out of” a major campaign event in South Carolina, citing “some business reason that has not yet been produced publicly.” Kelly continued, “Hillary Clinton came out tonight and said he’s taking a time out. She suggested what he’s doing tonight is taking a time out to think hard about what happened. It’s almost like she’s accusing him of taking an unscheduled vacation.”
Watch it below, from the September 18 The Kelly File.
You cannot trust the affluent 1 percent that influence our politics, the dynasties as the Bush’s and Clinton’s and YOU can name your own? It’s paramount we don’t miss this chance go by, in not standing with a tough man who takes no BS from anybody and that’s Donald Trump. I cannot see Carly or the majority of the other former Governors, except Senator Ted Cruz battling in Congress for the peoples rights with any strength? Trump will take no nonsense and closed down any probability of illegal aliens granted a path to citizenship. As for Bernie Saunders, the Marxist-socialist our welfare system will be worthless, because not only illegal aliens be financially supported, but millions of ‘Deadbeats’ who live amongst the hard working Americans will also be dead weight on our society.
With anybody than Trump as President, everything will remain the same? The Leftist and corporate media are doing their level best to undermine Trump run for the Oval Office. Special interests will buy the loyalty of the politicians on top. Mexico, China and Japan along with others foreign governments will buy the loyalty of Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton and with them illegal immigrants will keep pouring through our porous border, without Trumps wall or harsh enforcement. With trumps expert knowledge of management and business, he will balance the so called playing field in commerce and clean out the rot.
E-Verify will remain optional, instead of MANDATORY. The level of benefits for illegal aliens will go from over $100 billion and upwards. Obamacare will remain the same and insurance companies will monopolize each state they thrive in, with no has interstate commerce of health care. Trump will reveal the moral corruption that arrives in the beltway daily with lobbyists hands full checkbooks and hidden accounts. They will be ready to move unknown amounts of dollars in the private bank accounts or safe deposits in foreign countries, like the Jersey Islands near Britain and the Cayman Islands, where the IRS has no authority. Superior Businessman Trump will demand countries as Saudi Arabia will pay their fair share in oil royalties to stabilize risky regions, as in the Gulf War where America took out Iraqi bad guys and got zero in return.
trump will handle Iran with an iron hand and not with Obama or Kerry feather tickling that radicals in Tehran. Under King Obama we have not only become the laughing stock of the world, but disingenuous dictators think we have become a nation of debtors and pussycats? Mark my words Israel is NOT and this administration may think the can control our middle eastern ally, but one bad move from Iran and nothing will be left in a short space of time?
The Vets will remain 2 class citizens and the owners of America will continue to make massive profits. I personally will wash my hands on the corruption that is alive and well in Washington, going about my days and forget about the whole obnoxious mess that is Washington. I don’t trust the GOP establishment or Democrats; what’s left? Individually it will probably not be worth voting, as not only do citizens vote, but non citizens illegally vote as well. We have a huge problem in the US, a good many people cannot read or write and their education standard is way behind the rest of the world. It’s a shame that millions of American people have no conception of the verbal diarrhea that emanates from the career entrenched hierarchy? I want absolutely nothing to do with Rigged Politics, and it will be easy to recognize that the American People cannot win? The SILENT ONES who don’t normally vote, will go back to surviving the best way they can?
So I went back and re-read the previous paragraphs to see what he meant by “that exact same logic,” and to tell the truth, I could not figure it out.
P. S. Spellcheck makes me crazy sometimes. My previous paragraph read “So I went backhand…” until I corrected it.
Trumps ‘logic’ goes something like this.
At a hypothetical town hall meeting some guy asks if Obama is mastermind behind ISIS, did Hillary kill Vince Foster, do Democrats hate America worse than the Nazis so get outlawed, and what’s his favorite color?
The Donald says his favorite color is blue then later claims he didn’t hear the entire question so what’s all the fuss about. ;^)
“Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don’t think so!”
“This is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something.”
“If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance!”
And my personal favorite…
“If I would have challenged the man, the media would have accused me of interfering with that man’s right of free speech. A no win situation!”
Foaming right-winger Chris Stirewalt? Yeah, I get he’s one of Megyn’s go-to guys but you’ll need to bring on a real left-winger to balance him out. So who do we get in that other video panel? Conservative professional Fox News apologist Howard Kurtz. Seriously? Was Rush Limbaugh busy getting a body wax?
So Megyn isn’t too easy on the Trump guy. On the other hand, given her history with Trump one might wonder if she’s going a bit soft. Her entire line of questioning is getting the guy to admit Trump should have admitted Obama is a citizen and Christian. End of discussion and move all. Everything’s put to rest. Hillary won’t get off so easy. In any case, this is the best part from a journalism perspective then it’s all downhill from there into the usual GOP TV swamp of right-wing political spin.
Chris’ initial response that Democrats think Obama is the 2nd coming of Christ gets unscripted, genuine sympathetic giggles from Megyn who’s tipping her ‘moderate’ hand.
But what I found interesting watching this last night is when the giggles melt away and Megyn seems genuinely angry at Hillary Clinton. She turns a clip of Hillary doing what Trump should have done – denying the baloney Obama is a Muslim and taking his word for it – into a worse incident than Trump’s history of Birtherism she seems not particularly upset over. Recall she opened the segment framing this as an analysis of Trump “getting blasted by the media, angry Democrats, even the White House.”
Hillary adds “as far as I know” to the tail end of a repeated pounding on the issue by the liberal msm (huh?) and Megyn uses this to toss Howie a softball it’s the sleaziest thing of 2008 (seriously?). Is Donald’s gaff given his history then the worst thing of election 2016? Oh no, Howie’s just amazed Trump didn’t bother to do his usual post-gaff media clean-up and doesn’t appear too upset over any of this. In fact, Howie does what he does habitually on his faux media watchdog show: Bashes the msm (which we all know is liberal and deserving of endless derision).
Up next Republican candidate Marco Rubio (not in this clip). Huh? He’s a right-winger and Trump competitor. I missed that bit but can imagine what slop it is as Rubio tries to spin it into a free campaign stop. My tolerance for GOP TV bull$hit overflowed. I’m sure it was another lesson in fairness and balance by Fox News’ lonely moderate. ;^)