Campaigning by lizard brain
by digby
Chris Wallace challenged Donald Trump this morning. It didn’t shake his confidence one little bit:
WALLACE: You were the target of sometimes violent protests in California this week, opposing your hard line immigration policy. Are you concerned that if you are the Republican nominee these demonstrations could disrupt your campaign?
TRUMP: No, we were at that particular moment we had 31,000 people in the stands, it was packed, they have never had a crowd like that, it’s the biggest crowd they’ve ever had.
We had 31,000 people. We didn’t have a riot. We didn’t have anybody even raise their hand. It was a love fest for an hour and a half. It was incredible.
I didn’t even see the riot. You know, these are wise guys that stomp on policemen’s cars. And it’s terrible thing that people are allowed to get away with this.
These were professional agitators. They were wearing masks. The cops tell me, anytime you see a guy with a mask, you know he’s a professional. And they were wearing masks.
These people have to be dealt with very strongly, because you can’t allow that to happen to a police car, you know, essentially.
That’s your “dovish” center-left Donald Trump for you. Move over Dennis Kucinich.
Seriously, if you aren’t hearing what Trump is saying about police authority you aren’t listening. We have not heard anything like this since George Wallace. He gets huge cheers from his followers for it.
And, by the way, the Pacific Amphitheater where he allegedly had a 31,000 person crowd holds less than 10,000 people. They only handed out 8,000 wristbands to get in. His lies about the size of his crowds are right up there with his lies about size of his hands.
This was good too:
WALLACE: Let’s talk about your standing with women, too. In that same poll that showed you overwhelmingly negative among all Hispanic voters 24 percent of women have a favorable view of you, 75 percent unfavorable.
And yet in your victory speech on Tuesday night, here is what you had to say about Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else going. And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Now, I’ve got to tell you, strategists in both parties say if you consciously went about it, if you specifically planned you couldn’t have said anything that would drive your numbers among women even lower.
TRUMP: Really? OK. Well, I’m my own strategist and I like that — what I said and it’s true. I only tell the truth and that’s why people voted for me.
WALLACE: Well, wait — wait a minute.
TRUMP: And don’t forget, in the Republican primaries which I just beat by Cruz by numbers — like 50 percent, I was up by so much, I had 62 percent in New York and I was 63 percent and 64 percent —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Mr. Trump, with all due respect, whether or not you like — let me just ask the question.
TRUMP: But, Chris, all of the polls coming out, I won with the women by landslides, I beat Cruz and I beat Kasich —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: I understand, but Hillary Clinton is a different —
TRUMP: I won with the women by landslides, you don’t mention that.
WALLACE: — is a different deal.
And regardless of whether you like her or not, or think that she should be president or not, to say — I mean, she was a senator, she was secretary of state for four years. To say if she were a man, she’d get 5 percent — isn’t that kind of dismissive?
TRUMP: Well, Bernie Sanders said a lot worse than that. He said that she almost shouldn’t be allowed to run, that she’s not qualified to run and she’s not capable.
I mean, Bernie Sanders, what he said was a lot worse than what I said and I’m going to use that. We’ll have that teed up. But Bernie Sanders said she shouldn’t be allowed to run, that she’s not capable.
And, you know, what he said is incredible. It’s a sound bite. It’s an — in fact, as soon as he said it, they broke in and they said, I can just imagine Donald Trump watching these statements Bernie Sanders has made — is making about Clinton.
So, look, she’s a strong person. She’s going to have to be able to take it. The fact is, the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s done a lousy job in so many ways and even women don’t like her. They don’t like her.
But it is the woman’s card and she plays it, and I’ll let you know in about six months whether or not she plays it well. But I don’t think she’ll play it well. I don’t think she’ll play it well at all. And it’s true, if she were not a woman, she wouldn’t even be in this race.
Wallace let all that go and moved on. I guess you can’t blame him. When someone spews that many lies and nonsensical comments in such a short time it would take the whole show to unravel it especially since Trump continuously interrupts and trainwrecks the conversation.
But out of all that ignorant dreck this does stand out:
Well, I’m my own strategist and I like that — what I said and it’s true. I only tell the truth and that’s why people voted for me.
It’s not true. He lies constantly about everything. But he is his own strategist, which is to say that he has no strategy. His campaign is run by his lizard brain and he’s connected it to millions of other people’s lizard brains. It’s worked well for him in the lizard brain party. It remains to be seen if his lizard brain connection reaches beyond the Republicans.
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