Has anyone else besides me been discussing what Trump was after with this? My conclusion was that he must’ve not watched it with the audio on. I concluded that because I can’t imagine a scenario where he watches that with the audio and decides “this should be a tweet”.
I even asked for your conclusions, but you said you didn’t have any.
Do you think my conclusion is incorrect? If so, why?
If those are indeed the actions he took, do you concede that he is an idiot?
Well he has a history of tweeting and retweeting stuff that the vast majority of “normal” people don’t think should be shared so I’m not sure I would jump to the same conclusion. If he’s sharing videos without watching or listening then the only conclusion is he’s a fucking moron.
What did he get out of when the looting starts the shooting starts and the only good Democrat is a dead one? Maybe he didn’t read his own tweet or retweet? Maybe it was autocorrect.
And it’s become as predictable as it has become transparent. It’s the Mike Pence strategy to deflect - express some “concern” (with a furrowed brow) over the statement, say something like “I admit it wasn’t the most tactful way of saying it, but…” - make it sound as if the only problem was Trump dropped a medium-grade curse word in the middle of an otherwise normal and thoughtful and articulate statement on something important.
It’s laughable. And obvious. But they keep at it.
I was being sarcastic- any normal person would see that.
Why are you holding an anonymous screen name on the internet to a MUCH higher standard than you are holding the president of the united states? Hell, ill do something that potus should have done and we are still waiting for him to do…wait for it…
I’m sorry if i offended you that was not my intent.
Maybe it’s TDS. Trump defense syndrome. Where one feels compelled to defend and deflect the President no matter what he does?
If you ever wonder why others may perceive much of the anti-Trump behavior as deranged, look no further than your own sentence.
It seems as though anyone who fails to match your own emotion on Trump is “defending and deflecting”. From your earlier statements today, you seemed to indicate that whether or not the comments were sarcastic was irrelevant, and that even bringing that up is defending Trump.
This is where the perceived derangement comes into play. We agreed it was a bad thing to tweet, but I’m still “defending” Trump in your eyes because I’m not unquestioningly buying into whatever the worst possible conclusion about Trump can possibly be.
TDS. It’s a thing.
I believe ‘mental gymnastics’ is the preferred nomenclature for this, currently.
And to outside observers, it’s almost always quite a spectacle to behold.
The guy constantly shrieking for a third party doesn’t like the fact that someone doesn’t behave like a typical politician.
What does this even mean? The vast majority of businesses wouldn’t want their leader to retweet someone saying white power and those of us who think this is bad are wrong because at least Trump isn’t typical or something? Yes I would prefer politicians acted like adults. I would prefer they (like adults) think before they speak (or type). That doesn’t have anything to do with party lines, third parties, anything. In the middle of a global pandemic and significant racial tensions the President is spending his time doing this.
But I guess at least he isn’t a typical politician (or even adult)
Well clearly other people are saying the same thing. It’s a noted (and consistent) pattern with some of his fans. As TB said. Either way I thought my use of TDS was just as throwaway as someone using it for Trump Derangement Syndrome. Now I can tell you when I did it it was sarcasm. We don’t have to guess!
Of course it’s irrelevant. Not only irrelevant but also impossible to prove either way. And bringing that up (since it is irrelevant) seems at best a lame defense. I’m not sure why else the Trump supporters would bring it up? What conclusion am I to come to? “Yeah the President retweeted someone saying white power but hey don’t you think that guy was probably just joking?”
Exhibit A: behold the Mike Pencian dodge I mentioned above, stated here.
No, Trump isn’t guilty of not acting like a conventional politician - “goshdarnit, he is a little rough around the edges, I guess” - he’s guilty of acting like a bigot with a mental disorder.
It’s easy to imagine that Trump didn’t actually watch the entire video before he retweeted it since he appears to have an attention span somewhere between that of a fruit fly and a gnat. Let’s be fair, the offensive/sarcastic phrase was 8 entire seconds into a 2 minute video! Who can watch for that long?
Let’s give Trump the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn’t willfully retweet out a racist message. Unfortunately we’re still left with a President who is spending his time on Twitter watching and retweeting stupid shit while we’re in the middle of the biggest health crisis we’ve been in for 100 years.
Also, after Tim Scott called the retweet “indefensible” and Trump deleted it, there was a golden opportunity to denounce racist messaging. So of course the White House would take advantage of that opportunity right? Nope. In a statement, Judd Deere, the White House deputy press secretary, did not apologize for the tweet or condemn the racist term but said instead: “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”
This is where you and I disagree.
If this was Trump retweeting a video of a white supremacist event, with white supremacists saying “white power” on camera, I’d view that very, very differently than this video. I’d be full-on in favor of impeachment at that point, as I’m sure many others would be as well.
This was Trump retweeting a video of a golf cart parade in my mom’s neighborhood that she helped organize, with a clearly frustrated Trump supporter clearly responding to a heckler in a clearly sarcastic tone.
You may not see any distinction between those two scenarios, but I do.
My conclusion on this was simple and clear. He probably didn’t have the audio on, and tweeted his tweet without much thought, as he is prone to doing. The only other possible conclusion is that he knew exactly what he was tweeting, and decided to tweet someone shouting “white power” for whatever reasons Trump has for tweeting what he does.
That seems like a plausible statement. What if it is true, and Trump just failed to apply a basic level of scrutiny to what he tweets from the presidential twitter account? Let’s pretend I’m right, and he just blindly tweeted this video without listening to it first.
Would a lie have been more appropriate?
What sort of response do you think this warrants?
I think you may be right that he blindly or pretty much blindly retweeted the video. The White House statement would have been really easy to adjust to address the racist message. How about:
“President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one racist statement made on the video, and unequivocally condemns it. He does appreciate the tremendous enthusiasm shown by many of his other supporters there.” … I don’t know man, I don’t write press releases but it seems like it would have been incredibly simple to denounce the comment and show support for his potential voters there.
Which begs the question… why did he not denounce it? It was a calculated move to not denounce it. So what was the reason?
On this we agree. I won’t fight you on the not much thought part at all. In fact I think if you watch his speeches, read his tweets/retweets, and read the numerous things people who serve in his administration “not much thought” is pretty consistent.
Although since he doesn’t put thought into anything he could have done it on purpose as well. I mean we don’t have any way of knowing. Not much thought seems to be a running theme of Trump.
So we’re left with either Trump did this on purpose or Trump as the President with a massive audience doesn’t put any thought into how he conducts himself. I mean so now we’re to guess if Trump (with a huge history of statements/actions that could be considered racist) is either actually racist or perhaps just doesn’t put any thought into anything so he is perceived as racist.
What behavior should be denounced here?
To clarify:
Do we need a presidential denouncement of private citizens sarcastically saying “white power”? I don’t think we do. I think sarcastic “white power” remarks are fine, especially in response to a heckler calling you a racist.
Or should we denounce the presidential tweeting of videos of sarcastic white power remarks?
I think the latter is fine. Denounce away. Vote for the other guy if you want. But should we also expect the president to denounce his own tweeting of sarcastic white power remarks?
If so, what’s the sin he should confess?
That’s too much to ask, considering his rapidly diminishing mental faculties. Trump cannot even survive an interview on Hannity with pre-scripted softball questions unscathed. Apparently it’s Hannity’s fault for not having intervened and helped Trump answer a (now notorious) question.
Literally what dcb posted is what the release should have said.
Fucking yikes. Even for backwoods Maine, fucking yikes.
