The Mouth of Donald Trump
Perhaps the best Republican promoter of another Clinton presidency is the mouth of Donald Trump.
He simply cannot control himself. He apparently tried, sort of, following the Democratic National Convention, when he told CNN that he wanted to “hit” some of the speakers so that “they’d never recover.” CNN’s Ashley Killough was quick to translate for Trump: “Trump often uses the term ‘hit’ to mean verbally attack, rather than physical contact.”
Trump even seemed to try to abide by the advice to refrain from attacking DNC speakers and instead focus on Clinton:
Trump said his friend, who he labeled a “very great governor,” urged him to stay focused on attacking Clinton, not other Democrats.“He said, ‘Don’t hit there. Don’t hit down. You have one person to beat. It’s Hillary Rodham Clinton,'” Trump recalled, adding that he initially objected to the advice. “I said, ‘But I really want to. I don’t like what they’re saying because a lot of it is lies. Not all of it but a lot of it is.’ I said, ‘I just really … it makes me feel good.’ “Ultimately, he said, he conceded and decided not to launch into verbal assaults against the Democrats.
But like a kid who cannot master his own verbiage, Trump botched an interview with George Stephanopolos in which he was asked questions about the speech given by Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an American Muslim soldier, Humayun Khan, who died while serving America in Iraq.
In a particular blunder, Trump focused on the fallen soldier’s mother for standing silently as her husband spoke.
It was yet another poorly-expressed moment for Trump, all the more so because of the popularity of Khan’s DNC speech (google searches about voter registration spiked as he was talking).
So, in inadequately-filtered words, Trump openly assumed that Ghazala Khan could not speak because her Muslim husband prevented her. As the UK Independent reports:
It was perhaps the most powerful speech in two whole weeks of political theatre. Speaking at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia on Thursday, Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim-American soldier, delivered a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump for ignoring the US Constitution and “consistently smearing the character of Muslims.” Now, the Republican presidential nominee has responded – by smearing the character of Muslims.
Noting that Mr Khan had given his address with his wife Ghazala standing silently at his side, Mr Trump implied that Ms Khan “wasn’t allowed” to speak because she was forbidden to do so by her faith. “If you look at his wife, she was standing there,” he said on Saturday, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. “She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”
As it turns out, Ghazala Khan had a lot to say– even though it is still painful for her to do so. On July 31, 2016– around the same time that Trump was offering a better-thought-out, do-over message concerning Humayun Khan’s Gold Star death– Ghazala Khan answered Trump’s ignorance about her silence in this Washington Post opinion piece, excerpted below:
Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice.
Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.
Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up for the ROTC at the University of Virginia. This was before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to. …
We asked if there was some way he could not go [to Iraq], because he had already done his service. He said it was his duty. …
The last time I spoke to my son was on Mother’s Day 2004. We had asked him to call us collect whenever he could. I begged him to be safe. I asked him to stay back, and not to go running around trying to become a hero, because I knew he would do something like that.
He said, “Mom, these are my soldiers, these are my people. I have to take care of them.” He was killed by a car bomber outside the gates of his base. He died trying to save his soldiers and innocent civilians.
That is my son. …
…Every day I feel the pain of his loss. It has been 12 years, but you know hearts of pain can never heal as long as we live. Just talking about it is hard for me all the time. Every day, whenever I pray, I have to pray for him, and I cry. The place that emptied will always be empty.
I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun. For all these years, I haven’t been able to clean the closet where his things are — I had to ask my daughter-in-law to do it. Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? …
Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family.
When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion.
Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.
Donald Trump needs to get a handle on his words– which might prove difficult if they are coming straight from his heart.
Donald Trump
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Just Released– Book Three:
School Choice: The End of Public Education?
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Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of both A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?.
deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog 
I hope that more Republicans will denounce Trump as unfit for office.
Donald Drump doesn’t have a heart.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had a student who was totally without empathy, who could shoot someone and then go out for a hamburger, who could refer to the deceased as “the dude that got shot” as one young man here did after killing someone in front of a high school because he was standing in a pace the shooter considered “his turf.” DT is an emotional black hole. He needs all the attention in the room all the time. He has to be the most whatever, even when he’s not even close. He is deeply damaged. His eyes remind me of student I once had like the one described above. I tread on eggshells whenever he decided to show up for class. DT’s self esteem requires constant positive feedback. He cannot handle even the slightest criticism. He is never wrong. Nothing is ever his fault. My little gangbanger sociopath stopped coming to class permanently on my birthday that year. I did not report him. He was the only student I taught in 35 years that I feared. I feel the same way about DT.
I very much appreciate all the research you do, and I also appreciate you explaining your opinion on the election, because I think if people treat politics as if it’s taboo and don’t talk about it because they don’t want discord, that’s a bad thing. It needs to be discussed.
Trump is obviously unfit to be President. His mouthing off about Russia and the hacking, however, don’t bother me any more than anything else he says, which is all terrible. It does appear he has business interests there, and of course that’s all that matters to him — his own business interests. I think it’s dumb we’re demonizing Russia now, though, when they helped us with the Iran accord and the Syrian chemical weapons, but I guess it must be because of B.R.I.C.S. and because the Ukraine coup didn’t work out quite the way we wanted (see Victoria Nuland). So, geopolitical stuff, like the TPP, where Obama must think that muting China’s influence is more important than all the bad stuff in it.
Anyway, I respect whatever choice you make and I’m actually glad if you vote for Clinton because even though I’m not convinced it would be the Apocalypse if Trump wins — if the Dems have any balls they’ll just obstruct everything the way the Republicans have been doing — I’d much prefer Clinton to win. The problem is, I don’t think I can vote for her, even though I’m from Ohio.
I think Benghazi is a manufactured scandal — what made that dicey was the adjacent CIA headquarters. I’m much more upset about the intervention in Libya to begin with, which according to emails she convinced Obama to do in spite of his reluctance. The private server is sketchy, but I could get past that. I might be able to believe that Bernie and other progressives could temper her neoliberal economic policies. What I can’t get past is her hawkish foreign policy of advocating covert or overt regime change in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Honduras, and Ukraine, leaving them with power vacuums to be filled by terrorists or right-wing governments. The worst thing about her warmongering foreign policy is that it’s the one thing that she doesn’t flip-flop on; it appears to be her nature.
I’ve waited for 45 years for a candidate like Bernie, and the collusion among the Clinton campaign, the DNC, and the media to sabotage him took away the chance for me to vote for him for President. This is the last straw for me. I’m so angry. Clinton’s self-serving ambition makes her unscrupulous. Her ads in Ohio were a blatant lie about Bernie’s position on the auto bailout, and I think they’re why he lost Ohio. She also lied about his policies on health care and guns. Not to mention all the election irregularities that are being contested in court, or the DNC/Clinton plant who looked at the data that mysteriously appeared so that the Clinton campaign could say Bernie was cheating to try to discredit him, or the way the media declared her the winner the day before the Cali primary, when she never did get enough pledged delegates to win without the supers. If I voted for her it would be saying that I’m okay with a lying warmonger and a party that thinks cheating is just politics as usual. I just can’t do it.
Thank you Rebecca…right on. I however, decided I must take deep breaths, and vote for Hillary (though I agree with your assessment) in order to defeat Trump, who I worry will divide the country and the world.
I totally respect your choice.
Sorry but very little of what we think matters. There is no choice today. Hillary is a Witch and Donald is a Dragon. We are living in Controlled Chaos. I do not vote the lesser of two evils. End if story! Steve Schran
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That’s my last democratic nonsense post from what has been a very informative blog. I am certain that the clintons and the trumps will be teaming up in no time in order to take advantage of more investment opportunities. But enjoy your sensation of making a difference with your “choice”.
You and Hillary have so much in common. She’s bilking the American public for her “Foundation” (think Eva Peron) and you’re bilking the American public with your anti-common core books. #SchneiderCash should be your new #. You’re a genius. Put HRC in office and that guarantees common core stays, and you can keep peddling your books while spewing your nonsense.
I have broken the $3,200 profit mark so far on two books.
You might not be pleased with my decision, but pursuing “Schneider cash” is comical.
(I’m sorry. I overestimated my profits. They are closer to $2,600. But feel free to use either of the two dollar amounts.)
But keep writing, PLEASE! 🙂
Actually, Colonials, Common Core is pretty much dead, and I thank Mercedes for whatever hand she may have had in that. The fight to keep privatizers from cashing in on taxpayer money that’s supposed to be destined toward the public good, instead of listening to actual practicing experts on learning about how to improve education, however, continues.
Common Core is pretty much dead? Which side of your brain are you using Rebecca? Sorry to hear about your weak book sales Mercedes…..at $80 hardcover and $40 paperback I can’t imagine how they didn’t fly off the shelves. Reminds me of the exorbitant speaking fees WJC gets. Perhaps you can work a deal out with Russia that will boost your sales…..why don’t you email HRC to ask her to set up a meeting?
Trump is a tool, but the Repubs lost their opportunity to parade the parents of the 4 Americans killed in Benghazi on Obama’s and Clinton’s watch, whereby they did nothing to save them. Big difference, at least to me. Trump is not responsible for the death of the son of Mr. and Mrs. Khan, yet this is the discussion America is having, that Trump is an ignorant insulting tool. The shame of it all.