As the world noted, Trump did not object to the question from the guy who asserted that Obama was a Muslim. At the time of the event on Thursday I thought Trump's non-objection was something only a clever guy like me would notice, and I attempted to make that point to the two hungry and willing media people I spoke with immediately after the event.
(There were reporters with cameras and microphones hoping to get someone to talk with them after the event. Most people pushed past them. I did not. I wanted to make the point that Trump failed to do what McCain had done. It turns out that I was not the only person to notice it. By the time I got back to the hotel it was all over the news.)
So in my writeup on the event I noted another fact: that Trump, who is very, very attuned to his audience, sort of like a good stand-up comedy person doing audience banter very well, was not given any real "heads up" by the rowdy audience that the question was a surprise or offensive or needed to be "handled".
It has taken Trump several days to get to that point, but apparently he just did: Here is a transcript from a Fox interview yesterday:
Trump got to this point by a long path:
First: He said he didn't hear the question
Then: He went silent for two days
Then: He said via tweet that he really said nothing and he had no obligation to defend Obama
Then: It was a free speech issue, and he let the guy talk, unlike McCain, who took the microphone
away from the "Obama is an Arab" person.
Now: The audience felt the question was okay.
My own observation was NOT that the audience was nodding and actively approving, although Trump was looking out into the audience and I was within it, looking only at the audience seated behind Trump. What I noticed was no particular reaction, not nods.
But Trump makes my point: Trump audiences are very comfortable asserting that Obama is maybe/likely/surely a Muslim and Trump audiences question the State of Hawaii and other evidence that Obama was born in the United States.
(There were reporters with cameras and microphones hoping to get someone to talk with them after the event. Most people pushed past them. I did not. I wanted to make the point that Trump failed to do what McCain had done. It turns out that I was not the only person to notice it. By the time I got back to the hotel it was all over the news.)
So in my writeup on the event I noted another fact: that Trump, who is very, very attuned to his audience, sort of like a good stand-up comedy person doing audience banter very well, was not given any real "heads up" by the rowdy audience that the question was a surprise or offensive or needed to be "handled".
It has taken Trump several days to get to that point, but apparently he just did: Here is a transcript from a Fox interview yesterday:
TRUMP: No, I don’t (know anything about him). He had a Trump, a beautiful shirt on which shows that he’s a fan. And you know, when he was asking that question, by the way, a lot of the people in the audience were nodding. They were not laughing at him or anything. They were nodding. But I don’t think he was a plant, you know, I mean certainly not from our standpoint. That would not be, that would not be the question – in fact, when that question was asked, I thought, oh, boy, that could only happen to me, alright? I knew that question was going to be a slightly controversial one. But no, I think he was a hard-working guy from the area and he had this on his mind.
Trump got to this point by a long path:
First: He said he didn't hear the question
Then: He went silent for two days
Then: He said via tweet that he really said nothing and he had no obligation to defend Obama
Then: It was a free speech issue, and he let the guy talk, unlike McCain, who took the microphone
away from the "Obama is an Arab" person.
Now: The audience felt the question was okay.
My own observation was NOT that the audience was nodding and actively approving, although Trump was looking out into the audience and I was within it, looking only at the audience seated behind Trump. What I noticed was no particular reaction, not nods.
But Trump makes my point: Trump audiences are very comfortable asserting that Obama is maybe/likely/surely a Muslim and Trump audiences question the State of Hawaii and other evidence that Obama was born in the United States.
Good job, Peter. It must have been you who got the news media to "get" the point that Trump was comfortable letting a audience member assert that Obama is a Muslim without correcting him as McCain had done.
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