Ten points to CNN for confronting the gigantic mess that is the Trump Campaign. After a disastrous press release published on Saturday regarding the Khan family, Trump aides have been scrambling to find the positive light in this story.
They still haven’t found one.
Earlier today, CNN’s Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter had Donald Trump’s campaign director, Jason Miller, on his show. It only took a few moments for the entire interview to unravel.
Brian Stelter began the interview by saying this:
“I think what many political pros, as I mentioned, are wondering why has Donald Trump need to respond to Khan, rather than either staying quiet, allowing Mr. Khan to speak without being challenged or to acknowledge more forthrightly the pain this family is going through?”
This is a justifiable question. After all, it was only two weeks ago that the Patricia Smith spoke to the Republican National Convention at their convention. Her son, Sean Smith, was one of the four people who lost their lives in the 2012 Benghazi attack. Smith still blames Hillary Clinton for her son’s death, a fact that Clinton has been careful of.
When I say Clinton was careful, I mean she never once questioned Smith’s patriotism or criticized Patricia for her remarks given at the RNC.
Apparently, Trump couldn’t keep his mouth shut about Khizr Khan, who gave a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention last week. Mr. Khan, who appeared at the convention with his wife Ghazala, spoke about his middle son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was just 27 when he was killed by a car bomb while he served in Iraq in 2004.
Now the entire Khan family is being hailed as heroes by the Democrats.
Trump was quick to defend himself. It might be because he has a thin skin and being called out by the father of a fallen soldier was too much for him. He could just be a crybaby because someone’s being mean to him.
Here are two tweets from the Republican presidential candidate addressing Khan and his remarks:
Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our "leaders" to eradicate it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2016
I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2016
Even more disturbing than his tweets?
His remark directed at the Khan family in a recent press release that landed Trump communications director Jason Miller in hot water this morning.
It reads, as per the press release on Trump’s site:
“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things.”
As you’ll see in the clip below, Stelter asks Miller several times this simple question:
“The First Amendment to the Constitution allows Mr. Khan the right to stand on stage and say whatever wants. Why would Mr. Trump say he doesn’t have that right?”
Miller, for his part, does everything he can to not answer this question. In fact, he does his best to say the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” as much as he can. He continues to talk, ad nauseam, about how Trump’s remarks weren’t about the Khan family. He instead tries to redirect this part of the interview to the fact that radical Islamic terrorism is the problem here. This is one of his answers:
“I mean, where was the media outrage following Cleveland when he had supporters and survivors of those who either have been hurt or killed by illegal aliens in this country? There’s no media outrage following that. But again, what we’re talking about here is radical Islamic terrorism and that’s what’s important. “
After so much stalling from Miller, Stelter finally asks him straight out:
“But Mr. Khan is making it about Mr. Trump, stating that he has a black soul, stating that he’s ignorant. And you keep bringing up radical Islamic terrorism instead. Are you trying to change the subject or are you trying to link him to terrorism?”
Miller never gets around to answering the question. He meanders a bit, then moves straight into talking about the Presidential debate issue, which is another controversy all its own.
So there are two lessons here. The first is that Trump has so screwed up his own campaign that his staff is having trouble keeping up with the all of the damage control they have to do. I mean, it seems like all the surrogates and aides are doing now is trying to clean up the mess Trump leaves in his wake.
The second lesson is simple. Don’t mess with Brian Stelter. He’s not here to help you put your talking points on the air. He doesn’t care what your boss told you to say. He just wants you to answer his questions. He wants you to say why your boss is criticizing the Khan family for a convention speech.
When you refuse to answer the question, well, then you end up like Jason Miller — looking like a complete a**hole on national television. Take a look for yourself here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypKKiy9owM4%20
Featured Image: Screenshot Of ThinkProgress Video via YouTube.
