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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.
I for one am bemused by the baby story but furious with the money story. That it hasn’t (yet?) gotten much traction is disgraceful. But this massive betrayal by the Obama administration doesn’t make Trump qualified for the job. It does make me wonder why the heck is Trump making news with babies, Ryan, McCain, Kelly, the reporter and Cruz’s dad rather than beating the Iran drum like Keith Moon.
Perhaps in the grand hierarchy of things, while an Establishment Democrat would rank below an Establishment Republican, they rank above any Non-Establishment candidate of either party.
I also remember back in 2004, the people at the “Dean Scream” event didn’t think much of it, but it played much worse on television.
And he mentions the $400 million where in that tweet? It is a generic shot that could have been written at any point in the past 2 years.
Good point – sometimes these things take on a life of their own.
I do find it appalling that THIS is a story, whereas Hillary’s lies about her server and the troubling conflicts of interest with payments for speeches and donations to her ‘foundation’ are pfffttt.
He’s mentioned it in other tweets and talked about it at rallies. Again, no one is covering that, because the Fourth Estate is too busy trying to push the GOP is imploding headlines. They smell blood, and they’re going to help the Democrats in the most overt manner since Woodward and Bernstein.
Perhaps in the grand hierarchy of things, while an Establishment Democrat would rank below an Establishment Republican, they rank above any Non-Establishment candidate of either party.
Your “establishment” category is outdated — the RNC and most of the other party apparatus is marching arm-in-arm with Trump. He is the establishment now. Frankly, I think he always has been — anyone who has Hillary at his wedding and is buddies with John Boehner is an establishment insider, even if he hasn’t held office.
He’s mentioned it in other tweets and talked about it at rallies. Again, no one is covering that, because the Fourth Estate is too busy trying to push the GOP is imploding headlines. They smell blood, and they’re going to help the Democrats in the most overt manner since Woodward and Bernstein.
You’re right — the media, by and large, is left-leaning and they want to see Hillary elected. This is why they held off, for the most part, attacking Trump during the primaries — they wanted him to get the nomination. Anyone else would have beaten Hillary.
But please do keep coming over here too. And tell your husband that National Review just isn’t what it used to be.
I agree that’s what’s happening here, and we’ve seen it many times before.
The thing is, according to Trump’s supporters, it was supposed to be different this time around because Trump is a celebrity, he’s media savvy, he knows how to play the media like a fiddle. He doesn’t even need to raise money for advertising because of all the free airtime he gets!
Now that the media has (predictably) turned their fire on him, so far he’s looking just as lost and helpless as Romney and McCain before him.
It is his job to get his message out, not the media’s.
Yeah. Outdated. Right. Arm-in-arm is how they led folks to the guillotine, too.
http://nypost.com/2016/08/03/furious-gop-leaders-plot-to-get-trump-on-track/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-reaches-new-level-of-panic-over-trumps-candidacy/2016/08/03/de461880-5988-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/04/ryan-says-trump-has-had-pretty-strange-run-since-convention.html
http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/08/03/developing.-donald-trump-campaign-freefall.-gop-leaders-planning-trump-exit-video/
Profdlp, I didn’t say “all” of the party apparatus, I said “most”.
Yeah, I’ve been noticing that lately, too. Where can I go to minimize disinformation?
You’ve just been offered a pretty reliable first-hand account of what actually happened, what you would have experienced if you had been there, and had the chance to compare it to the media narrative-supporting version that is being reported.
These other things, all this that makes you so confidently refer to his “well-documented” history: are you sure you know what actually happened those times? Most of the Trump-is-reprehensible tales have now solidified into the culture, but do you not now, after hearing this account, accept at least the possibility that there might be more to those other stories too?
Seems like it’s at least worth a thought.
Fred Cole made some offhanded jokes in his newsletter, we must now re-litigate 35+ years of reprehensible public behavior by a confirmed weirdo!
I so like this comment. How many times have I heard that Trump said something rude or embarrassing or inconsistent?
My new policy is to take any criticism of Trump with a grain of salt unless it comes with specific facts and quotes (and on the baby story even that would not have been enough.) I’m sorry if this slows down conversation but I have seen too much intellectual dishonesty lately for “good faith” to be a reasonable assumption.
I have had the eye-opening experience of listening to TV news for the last week
Ahem.
Employers test their employees for drugs. Similarly, Ricochet needs some way to test its contributors for television news watching.
Oh but you see he is through his fighting. That is what counts, it doesn’t matter if he attacks both needless and useful points (thus giving the left ammunition). All that matters is that he fights.
One of trump’s most significant flaws is his failure to be tactically and strategically flexible. trump tactically only uses crude personal insults in most instances and always deploys these in any instance. He thus wastes his influence by attacking the weak (khans) when he should be attacking the strong (Clinton), he only has so much time to influence the public and he should be continually doing that rather than wasting his resources on everything that slightly ruffles his ego.
If I were to use an analogy trump and the media is a showman in 4-H with swine and his only training with his swine has been whipping the pig in the rear repeatedly to make it go forward. trump cares not for looking at the judge and smiling or maneuvering his pig between him and the judge at all times (he’d probably run it into the fence and be stuck there the entire time). All trump cares about is being out in public and trying to soak up attention. Haglary at least attempts to do those things and has had the pig trained to follow her for decades.
trump will be getting a white ribbon for being perhaps the worst showman in political history.
Oh. Now Fred Cole gets special treatment in the “offhand jokes” department?
I have myself unsubscribed from the Daily Shot because , well, if I want to hear the predictable snark based on deliberate misinterpretations, I can find that in abundance from left-wing Democrats in their free
mediapropaganda outlets.Now we paint with a very broad brush. There is no doubt the party wishes to survive and it has made the calculation that it must support Trump, at least outwardly. But it isn’t quite so simple or monotonic. The establishment never wanted Trump and would have stopped him but for their dilemma about Cruz, who was also unacceptable. Trumps voters are not ‘establishment’ and Trumps immigration promises are definitely not of the establishments wishes.
This establishment has been split into two. The Vichy establishment, the Chris Christies and Reince Prebius types, and the renegades, Romney the Bush Dynasty and the single-issue neo-cons.
The Vichy establishment is not especially loyal to Trump and his supporters as we have seen, and will see more of should Trump falter.
So this claim that Trump is now “establishment” is thin gesso.
This bears repeating.
Fawlty needs to be writing Trump’s tweets.
The Daily Shot this morning highlighted polling numbers that show Hilary ahead and Trump behind – all the areas typically vote heavily Democratic. Clintons are not lightweights, nor is Obama, in the spin to win arena – they are pros. There is so much misinformation, cover-ups and skewed reporting, it is scary. Do your own homework.
Politics has become pantomime. There’s even a new twist on “He’s behind you!”
And political debate is practically a policy-free zone.
Goodbye to “It’s the economy, Stupid.”
Hello to “It’s you, Stupid.”
–Hillary has a slight lead over Trump as the candidate who can change the country for the better, according to the new NBC poll.
Better start getting used to the idea of President Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s not even running ads in my state of Colorado because she thinks she has it won, and I hear she’s also pulling ads in Virginia for the same reason.
They wanted me to do it, but I couldn’t accept the nondisclosure agreement.