Post by michaelw on Feb 17, 2017 23:41:56 GMT -5
This is something I'm really curious to know others' thoughts about.
I'll start with some background, which I think all of us here probably already know about, but I figure might still be relevant for some context.
Last year, Trump sent out a tweet that showed Hillary Clinton along with a pile of money and a Star of David (bizarrely, he wouldn't even admit that it was a Star of David, even though that's clearly what it was).
Then, there was the Holocaust Remembrance Day statement, where Trump was criticized for omitting any references to Jews or anti-semitism.
But then, more recently, there were two separate instances where Trump was asked a straightforward question about anti-semitism.
Here's the first one:
www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/15/donald-trump-offered-up-a-massive-word-salad-when-asked-about-anti-semitism-today/?utm_term=.5f170a36b356
This was even more awkward given that this was a joint news conference between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Then, there was this one, from Thursday:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-jewish-reporter-lying-sit-down-anti-semitism-question-jake-turx-white-house-press-a7585151.html
The commentary from The Independent is a bit lackluster, but their video of the exchange was the best one I found.
For better commentary, I thought Peter Beinart had some good thoughts on this incident:
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/why-trump-cant-answer-questions-about-anti-semitism/517092/
An excerpt:
Put aside the spectacle of a president berating a reporter for not asking a friendly enough question. More bizarre is the fact that Turx’s question was actually quite friendly. He began by denying that anyone in his community considers Trump an anti-Semite, and then asked what the government would do about a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. Trump, however, disregarded latter half and accused Turx of calling him an anti-Semite, even though Turx had said exactly the opposite. On its face, Trump’s response makes no sense.
The best way to understand it is as the product of narcissism so epic that it crowds out moral concern. Turx asked about Jewish fears of anti-Semitism. But the only thing that interested Trump was the possibility that people might consider him anti-Semitic. So he turned a question about Jewish victimization into a parable of his own victimization by a Jewish reporter.
The best way to understand it is as the product of narcissism so epic that it crowds out moral concern. Turx asked about Jewish fears of anti-Semitism. But the only thing that interested Trump was the possibility that people might consider him anti-Semitic. So he turned a question about Jewish victimization into a parable of his own victimization by a Jewish reporter.
Jonathan Greenblatt also wrote about this incident:
www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/17/president-trump-thinks-asking-him-to-condemn-anti-semitism-is-insulting-why/?utm_term=.3a9c145d88b7
And Greenblatt also noted something else Trump did later on in the same press conference, that I think merits some real attention. He insisted, sans evidence, that cases of anti-semitism were essentially false flag operations, carried out by Trump's opponents in order to make him look bad.
For me at least, I see someone who is just completely in denial, but in a really strange and unique way. However uncomfortable it may be, Trump simply cannot publicly come to grips with the fact that some people who support him are hardcore anti-semites and racists. So instead of giving an honest answer when asked about, say, the support of David Duke, he simply lied about it and claimed he didn't know anything about Duke. And yet, at the same time, I think he realizes privately that people see this stuff (like the Duke endorsement) and see that it makes him look bad. So naturally, when someone asks him a simple, completely fair question about anti-semitism, Trump doesn't hear a question about anti-semitism. He just hears, "You're an anti-semite, aren't you?"
And that's the question Trump is really responding to.
As Trump would say, lamely:
It's very unfortunate.
Thoughts?
