Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Donald Trump and the Crying Baby: The Real Story
It’s all over the news: the Republican candidate for the presidency, Donald J. Trump, hates babies. Even this morning’s edition of Ricochet’s Daily Shot newsletter trumpeted the disinformation campaign being waged against Trump:
Donald Trump has been having … a rough week. (Pro-tip: Candidates are supposed to kiss babies, not feud with them.)
If you’d like to hear from an eyewitness to this event, who reports a very different story about The Donald’s interaction with the baby and the baby’s mom, read the below from PJ Media. In addition to setting the record straight, the writer also paints a very different picture of candidate Trump. Adjectives used to describe the encounter include, “radiates confidence,” “soft spoken demeanor,” “didn’t forget the ‘little people.'” However, if you wish to remain in disinformation land, don’t read. I’m reminded of that important observation: it’s not who controls the sound but the echo.
Published in GeneralRead this Facebook post from Will Estrada, who attended the rally:
Today I went to the Donald Trump rally in Ashburn, VA. Since I know good people can disagree over whether or not to support Trump, I am just going to post some candid thoughts below. I report, you decide!
Since I am the chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, I was working with the campaign in advance of the rally. On Monday evening, a senior Trump staffer emailed me and asked me if I would be willing to give the invocation at the rally. I said I’d be happy to, but I also told him that as a born again Christian, I end my prayers with “I pray all of this in the name of Jesus.” Since I know that in this day and age mentionoing the name of Jesus can offend some people, I said I’d understand if they preferred that someone else give the invocation. His response to me was: “We know that’s how you pray, that’s why we asked you.”
After the welcome (by John Whitbeck), invocation (by yours truly), pledge (by Sheriff Michael Chapman), and National Anthem (by Briar Woods High School Teacher Nina Peyton), we waited back stage to get a photo with Donald Trump. And then – he was there, with a crowd of staff, Loudoun County Sheriff’s deputies, and Secret Service. I was immediately struck by his presence – he radiates confidence, but also I was struck by his soft spoken demeanor. He spoke softly and thoughtfully the entire time we were backstage.
The first person to get a photo with him was an older man. We had been chatting before-hand while all of us were waiting for Trump to arrive, and he introduced himself as Lieutenant Colonel Louis Dorfman and he had served in the 82nd Airborne. He shook hands with Donald Trump, and handed him his Purple Heart saying he wanted Trump to have it as thanks for standing up for wounded vets. Trump was surprised and said something like “I can’t take this!” We were all surprised and not expecting this. It was pretty cool to see the respect this veteran had for Trump.
Then it was my turn to shake hands with Trump and get my photo taken. I told Mr. Trump that I was the chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee and he immediately stopped and looked at me: “Will, how do I win Loudoun?” he asked me. We started talking and he called over one of his staffers. “George, these people here in Virginia know what we need to do to win Virginia.” And then – in a really cool turn of events – John Whitbeck, the GOP chairs of Prince William County and Arlington County, Trump’s campaign staffer, and me are all huddled in a corner, photos forgotten, strategizing on how Trump will win Virginia. Trump didn’t do a lot of talking. He listened to all of us, he made sure his staff had our emails, and he said that we would have everything we needed.
As we finished up the photos, Trump looked at all the Sheriff’s Deputies. “Let’s get them in the photo,” he said. And then he was taking group photos with all of the cops. They loved it. In fact, my favorite photo I took was all of the deputies with Trump (I’ll post it tomorrow). I was struck by how Trump didn’t forget the “little people.” Even though it was just a few of us and no media, he was relaxed and took the time to get photos with everyone.
The rally itself was super cool. Lots of energy, packed room (something like 2000 people had to be turned away because the auditorium was packed – and just on 24 hours notice!), everyone stood the entire time even though they all had seats. One thing I want to mention is the baby crying, because that has been national news. Contrary to news stories, it was a very funny thing, Trump was very supportive of the mom calling her and her baby “beautiful” and “wonderful”, and then when the baby kept crying he turned it into a joke. Everyone was laughing and it was actually very endearing and funny. Not at all anti mom or anti baby like the media has portrayed it to be.
Which brings me to the final point: I was there and saw and heard the entire event with the mom and baby. There was nothing to it. But then after I’m reading all the news coverage saying “Trump hates moms and babies!!!” I started to doubt myself. Did I really miss a huge story right in front of me? I started asking others who were there, including a husband and wife with young kids. And everyone in the room said the same thing: there was no story here. Trump was being funny and personable and going out of his way to make sure the mom wasn’t embarrased by making it a funny situation.
My conclusion is that the media is selling us a narrative. Be very skeptical of what the media is telling you, because I saw it with my own eyes and it was something very different.
This is all very well. The problem for Loudoun County Republicans is that there is almost zero probability that he will actually do what you recommended. He will continue to do what he has been doing for the last 50 years and that is – be Donald Trump. Which, of course, will not be helpful at all.
Thank you for the post @melissaosullivan. It is an important reminder of where we are in this election and what we should be about. When people howl about Mr. Trump’s outrages, there is usually more to the story. The crying baby incident is one such example and should be a lesson to all of us to not take the cheap shot when it is available. Just about every time I hear some MSM outrage, there is another side of the story that at least partially exonerates Mr. Trump.
That said, my opinion of him and the wreckage of the Republican Party is still very low. His thin-skinned temperament and naiveté in politics makes him less than useless when it comes to heading a major party. However, unfounded, snide clucking, pointing, and snickering will undo thoughtful and meaningful criticism. There is too much low hanging critical fruit to take cheap shots at the callow candidate.
The OP points out she’s responding to the daily shot. I noticed the same thing when I read it, but I know what to expect. Maybe she’s less familiar with @fredcole
I saw the video. It was just a joke. It’s clear everyone in the room enjoyed it. There is clearly no malice in it.
I don’t know why Trumps most histrionic critics always do this. They make a big deal out of nothing when there are serious critiques that could be made.
It’s just like the hang up on the “Muslim ban”. He was talking about immigration. The Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers respond like he’s proposing WWII-style internment camps.
This is what we’re dealing with the media, and it would be the same if the candidate were Rubio, Bush, Kasich, etc.
I am not sure the point of this comment. So this stopped being a conversation site where members can post on topics that interest them? or is it that The Daily Shot is somehow “holy” and should never be questioned?
As someone who’s not at all on board with Trump, I’m perfectly willing to concede that the media took this incident far out of proportion, which is par for the media’s course: Lewandowski “throwing a reporter to the ground”, throwing a reporter out of a press conference, etc.
But it’s folly to think that just because the media overblows Trump’s negatives, he must automatically have many more positives. I find that stripping away most of the media filter and looking at the primary sources (i.e. Trump’s actual utterances and behavior) still leads to a preponderance of negative traits and a dearth of positive traits. He’s still a substance-free figure who is incredibly obsessed with his superficial image and is incapable of providing any solid reassurance of his ability to actually carry out the job he’s applying for.
So I agree the media is completely misreporting this baby thing; but I still don’t see any reason to vote for Trump.
Wasn’t one of Trump’s main selling points the fact that he can manipulate the media to his own benefit?
Does that still stand, or was it an illusion? If he’s still in control of the media, why are his supporters complaining about the media’s treatment of him?
Indeed, I would think this specific example reflects exactly what Trump’s supporters admire about him: by making a colorful joke which endeared him to his live audience, Trump managed to dupe the “vocally-anarchocapitalist-libertarian-who-is-oddly-comfortable-among-the-center-right-establishment” author of the Daily Shot into going overboard.
Connecting with real Americans while sending the detached establishment into hysterics: isn’t that what Trump supporters admire about their guy? If so, why complain about it?
I don’t much love babies either, but I don’t want to kill them as Hillary does.
When I heard the audio as the story first broke, it was clear it was a harmless snarky joke made by Trump out of annoyance. That’s fine, even understandable, I’ve been in many public situations in which feckless people let their children run amok without care.
But it’s also clear Fred’s line is also a snarky joke made by someone who (similarly to myself) is annoyed at the seventy year old child who has been allowed to run amok by a feckless party and his enablers for the past year.
Seems both sides have adopted a “snark for me, but not for thee” policy.
That’s how I interpreted it even watching the clip I saw posted on the Internet.
It’s August in a presidential election year. :)
Excellent post. Thanks.
Trump could eat a baby on 5th Avenue and not lose a single vote.
Except for the baby’s, obviously. And hungry dingoes.
He wouldn’t lose a single vote, but he might lose some married votes. Don’t you have to be married to have a baby?
The Benghazi victims were just very late trimester.
#dingoeslivesmatter?
Are the neo-cons the same as the center right? Or a small sub-set therof?
I don’t think it’s even a question of lightening up anymore. I’m beginning to think… honestly… that there’s a large contingent of the so-called conservative media that is actively trying to help the mainstream media get Hillary Clinton elected, just so they can say “We told you so!”. I also think there are sectors of the Republican Party that are trying to crush Trump so badly… again, knowingly helping Hillary to get elected…. reasoning that it will put their groups in complete power in the Republican Party, so that in the future, you’ll get your Jeb or your Romney and you’ll like it. I put The likes of the Bushes and Meg Whitman in this group. If Trump loses, you can probably look forward to something like a superdelegate system coming to the GOP to ensure this.
Thanks for this post @melissaosullivan. I’m afraid , however, the deadenders at this site will never be convinced. Trump will destroy this country…as if there will be anything left after Hillary is done. At least I was able to stop banging my head against the wall for a few moments.
He tasks me.
Once the fad of dumping on Trump’s comments gets rolling there is no stopping it. We are a mob society and the head mob is our liberal media. This is really dangerous for him. Republicans should assume that all Trump stories are false until proven by eye witnesses to be true, then just ignore them. Trump and Republicans who want to defeat Hillary, must turn these stories around and make them about the media’s dishonesty. This is high priority because they’re on a roll and the never Trump Republicans are agitating the mob. Folks, we don’t want Hillary to be President. She is a serious threat to the Republic.
True, but I keep having the suspicion that this is by design.
In the interests of maintaining a friendlier atmosphere on Rico, please do not refer to other members as “deadenders”.
Rather ironic anyway given that according to current polls Trumpism is currently going down to a Mondale level defeat.
Lily’s question goes to the original title of the post: “Ricochet, you’re annoying”. Lily’s issue with the title was that it implicated all of Ricochet when the author was really just responding to The Daily. She was not attacking the author’s post itself, nor her right to post it, just the title.
It’s only August. Lots can happen. SMOD bides its time.
Maybe.
Yes, thank you. And there appear to be edits to the body of the post as well as the title. The author was agitated by comments made in the Daily Shot – she makes some good points. I can see being irritated at the author of the DS, but didn’t understand why she came here to tell us we are annoying because the DS irritated her.
Of course they did and they succeeded quite well. Of the gentlemen you mentioned, two most recently lost to a one-term nobody Senator and a demonstrably bad President. Romney never complained about a crying baby, he just strapped his dog to the roof of his car (ruf, ruf). Bush the W managed to lose the popular vote to a hectoring automaton. Being a gentleman was ignored in favor of his obvious cowardice as Dan Rather fabricated. Then he was Hitler (but with manners) Bush the First, I forget, maybe he was the exception. He only lost because he lied about taxes. I lived through the vitriol that accompanied Reagan, and he was, as we now see, quite the anomaly. And Dole? He never threatened them enough to bother.
A lie is a lie. And a lie by the press is even more despicable because they have a public trust. But because Trump isn’t polished and of a certain class, he is fair game. I see how this works…
The idea that this kind of blatant misrepresentation is acceptable, or deserved by any candidate, shows how low some in the nevertrump camp will sink.
I have seen little or no defense of Trumps actual flaws here or elsewhere. These claims have no basis whatsoever.
I do see defense of the blatant misrepresentations and intentionally hostile readings of anything and everything that can possibly be misinterpreted. This approach used to be a tactic used by the more despicable leftists, and now I watch Republicans employing it with glee. Not classy, oh ye of superior breeding.
These men and women of principle who lose nearly every Presidential election because of lies and misrepresentations of their gentlemen candidates by the media, are now cheering, or at least defending, their past and future nemesis because they don’t like the candidate.
Not principled. Not even smart.
Please, can someone put this on the main feed? It is worthy of a different perspective and thank you Melissa for bringing it – I would not have had the chance to see this on Facebook.