Two thirds of the way through last night’s debate, Trump gave … that answer. The one that’s headline grabbing because, eh, when a man in the middle of an election says he’s not going to listen to the outcome of that election, that’s genuine news. But while we’re waiting for Rudy to swear in Trump on the golden throne of Trump Tower, it’s worth considering the other things Trump said Wednesday night.
Come with me now as we watch Donald Trump:
- Attack Ruth Bader Ginsberg
- Pretend to understand the Heller decision
- Get apoplectic over babies being delivered on their due date
- Deport bad hombres
- Proclaim President Obama the great defender of America’s borders
- Defend Russia
- Defend Russia some more
- Get really super defensive over Russia
- Declare that he never said that thing he said about nukes
- Say our allies are freeloaders
- Explain that he Is already running NATO
- “I didn’t even apologize to my wife”
- Tell you that nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump, bitch
- Explain that he’s never going to pay taxes until you “make me”
- Insert an ad for a really nice hotel
Plus Douglas MacArthur makes a guest appearance.
All in—this can of the incredible Mr. Trump’s debate answers!
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Question 1: Selecting Supreme Court justices
Donald Trump made it exactly zero questions without whining.
Something happened recently where Justice Ginsburg made some very, very inappropriate statements toward me ...
That was literally his first thought about the Supreme Court. His second thought was that Hillary Clinton owns a constitutional shrink ray.
We will have a second amendment which will be a very, very small replica of what it is right now.
He finally followed this up by saying he’s already selected 20 justices, all of whom are fine, conservatives fellows, who will 2nd Amendment all day long.
Question 2: How will you protect the second amendment?
Hillary Clinton spoke first and discussed the D.C. vs. Heller decision and her disagreement with that decision. Donald Trump picked up that threat and … obviously had not the first clue what the case was about.
Well the D.C. versus Heller decision was very strongly and she was extremely angry about it I watched and she was very very angry when upheld and Justice Scalia was so involved and it was a well-crafted decision. But Hillary was extremely upset, extremely angry, and people that believe in the Second Amendment and believe in it very strongly were very upset with what she had to say.
And Hillary said what? And Scalia wrote what? And people were angry over what? Ummm. Sorry, Donny. That book report isn’t fooling anyone. You not only didn’t read the book, you didn’t look at the cover.
Question 3: “You oppose any limits on on assault weapons, any limits on high-capacity magazines, you support a national right to carry law, why sir?”
I’m quoting the question here because—and this is pretty much true for the rest of the night—a debate archaeologist would be unable to surface the question by picking through Trump’s response, which does not mention a right to carry law, or high-capacity magazines, or assault weapons.
Instead, Trump bragged on his NRA endorsement, dissed Chicago, and said …
We are going to appoint justices, this is the best way to help the Second Amendment. We are going to appoint justices that will feel very strongly about the Second Amendment, that will not do damage to the Second Amendment.
Check question again, check answer … Uhhh.
Question 4: Do you want Roe v. Wade overturned?
Condensed version, after three back and forths in which Wallace tried to get Trump to answer the question, this was as close as he came.
That will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.
Which is really just a way of saying “I’m a coward, and don’t want to be caught saying more things I’d like to grab from women … but these guys will do it for me by proxy.”
Trump’s limp answer wasn’t helped because at this point Hillary Clinton gave a forceful, stirring, whole-hearted defense of a woman’s right to choose. Could you tell that Hillary Clinton both understands these issues and feels strongly about them? Yeah. Absolutely.
Question 5: Partial birth abortion
Hey, we’ve already reduced the constitution to how much you love the second amendment, so why not reduce a discussion over a woman’s right to choose down to a procedure that never happens? That’s how you know this is a debate hosted by a Fox ‘news’ guy.
Because based on what she's saying and based on where she's going and where she's been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb on the ninth month on the final day.
You can! And doctors do! It’s called … giving birth. Sometimes doctors just reach into a mother and pull a baby right out of her … whatever. Donald Trump hates to think about this, but it does happen.
Donald Trump returns to this to say …
Honestly, nobody it has business doing what I just said, doing that as late as one or two or three or four days prior to birth.
Maybe it’s the idea of C-sections that bothers Trump. Preserving America’s bikini line is very important to him.
Question 6: Deporting immigrants
Faced with the idea that he was going to need to deport millions of immigrants to keep his pledge, Donald Trump discovered an unlikely new religion—Barack Obama was the toughest guardian of the border ever. But first, he plans to get all the bad people out. The bad … what was it again?
But we have some bad hombres here that were going to get them out.
Yes, that. Trump doesn’t specify how he’s going to identify hombres. We have to assume they all have curling mustaches, wear Sergio Leone-style ponchos, and spend a lot of time scowling. Then we got to the Obama bit …
President Obama has moved millions of people out. Nobody knows about it, nobody talks about it, but under Obama, millions of people have been moved out of this country they’ve been deported she does want to say that but that's what happened. And that's what's happened big-league.
Nobody knows about it, nobody talks about it — especially Donald Trump, who has been telling people for the last year that Obama is allowing Mexicans to flood into the country. Once again, Donald Trump is protected by his absolute immunity to cognitive dissonance.
Question 7: Does Trump believe Russia is behind Wikileaks?
If Trump hadn’t gone on to declare the election a non-starter, this would be the moment people were talking about. Or … one of the moments. So pretend we’re still having an election and listen to the Republican candidate do everything he can to defend his pal, Putin.
He said nice things about me. If we got along well that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good. He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I'll tell you what, we’re in very serious trouble. Because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads, eighteen hundred by the way where they expanded and we didn't. Eighteen hundred nuclear warheads and she is playing chicken.
Translation of that last part? Russia scares me. Okay. And while this is 100% Pure Donald Ducking, here’s a tiny seed of Hillary.
Trump: Look, Putin, from everything I see has no respect for this person.
Clinton: Well, that’s because he'd rather have a puppet as president than the United States and it's pretty clear.
Hillary Clinton Does. Not. Play. Defense.
Trump was confronted again and again with the evidence that the Russians were behind the Wikileaks hack, and again and again refused to rat out his friend boss owner Vladimir.
She has no idea whether it's Russia China or anybody else. She has no idea. …
Question 8: Donald Trump’s willingness to let everyone have nukes
Look under your seats, folks. I get a nuke, and you get a nuke … everyone gets a nuke!
Confronted by Clinton with the idea that he had talked about allowing Japan and South Korea to get nuclear weapons, Trump interrupted not just with his automatic “wrong,” but with the statement ...
There's no quote. You're not going to find a quote from me.
Err … are you sure? Because that interview where you said that? It was with Chris Wallace?
"So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea."
Wallace clarified. "With nukes?" he asked.
"Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes," Trump said.
You’d think standing across the stage from Wallace might jog the Trumpian memory, but the great wall of self-delusion remained unbreached.
Question 9: What’s so good about your jobs plan?
Donald Trump’s response? Hey, I wasn’t done running down our allies and NATO!
But I’d like to start off where we left, because when I said Japan and Germany -- and I'm not just singling them out but South Korea -- these are very rich powerful countries. Saudi Arabia -- nothing but money, we protect Saudi Arabia. Why aren’t they paying?
Little known fact—to Trump—they do pay. Japan pays so much, that it’s actually cheaper to base US personnel in Japan than it is to keep them at home.
She immediately when she heard this I questioned it and I questioned NATO. Why aren’t the NATO questions? Why aren’t they paying?
I … don’t know what that means.
Clinton: Well, let me translate that if I can ...
Trump: You can't.
No one can, really.
Question 10: Why do even conservative economists say your tax plan sucks?
So I just left some high representatives in India. They’re growing at eight percent. China is growing at seven percent, and that for them in the catastrophically low number.
So … the plan is to take our economy down to the level of India so we can grow faster? That’s. Hmm.
Oh, and NAFTA bad. Bigly.
Question 11: Why didn’t you fix it, Hillary? Why?
This is actually a question from Trump. One that goes like this …
Trump: I asked a simple question. She's been doing this for thirty years. Why the hell didn't you do it over the last fifteen, twenty years?
Because Donald Trump not only thinks that president = dictator, he also believes that senator = dictator. If you’re a senator, anything you want to happen, happens, and if it doesn’t happen you didn’t want it. So there.
Nobody asked how ties are broken between the Senatator and the Presidentator. Probably a wishbone thing.
Somewhere around here was when Donald Trump also pulled out some black helicopter notes to say …
How do you miss six billion dollars? You ran the State Department. Six billion dollars was either stolen -- they don’t know. It’s gone. Six billion dollars. If you become president, this country is going to be in some mess. Believe me.
You know how you miss six billion dollars? When they’re imaginary. This never happened.
Question 12: Trump finally gets asked, sort of, about the women he’s assaulted.
Trump’s answer?
A) Hillary did it.
Those people, I don't know those people. I have a feeling how they came I believe it was her campaign that did it.
B) I apologize for nothing.
And I didn't even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn't do anything.
C) they’re all liars.
If it wasn't, they get there ten minutes of fame. But they were all totally - it was all fiction. It was lies and it was fiction.
Let’s get Secretary Clinton into this discussion for a moment…
Clinton: He held a number of big rallies where he said that he could not possibly have done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough for them to be assaulted.
Trump: I did not say that.
Really? Donald Trump apparently believes that the entire nation has an attention span of … squirrel!
Trump: Nobody has more respect for women that I do, nobody. Nobody has more.
Okay, next question. Now, let’s move along to…
And frankly, those stories have been largely debunked and I really want to just talk about something slightly different. She mentions this - which is all fiction -- all fictionalized -- probably or possibly started by her and her very sleazy campaign but I will tell you …
Next damned question, please.
Question 13: Which was not really a question but just Chris Wallace insisting that Donald Trump gets to talk over Hillary Clinton any time he wants because. Just because.
Question 14: Wasn’t some Trump Foundation money used to settle lawsuits?
No, we put up American flag and that's it. They put up the American flag. We fought for the right in Palm Beach to put up the American flag.
Which was one of the lawsuits settled using Trump Foundation money. Let’s talk about welching on a golf bet, Chris? Can we talk about welching on a golf bet and paying from a charitable foundation? Sad.
Question 15: Taking massive deductions and not paying any federal taxes
Trump continued to defend himself by insisting that everyone else was stupid, and
And you know she should've done? And Hillary what you should've done you should've changed the law when you were a United States Senator.
Yeah, Hillary. You know. Should have fixed it when you were dictator.
And at this point, Donald Trump can’t resist slipping in a hotel ad …
Trump: Wou should have changed a lot but you won't change the law because you take so much money I mean I sat in my apartment today on a very beautiful hotel down the street ….
Clinton: Made with Chinese steel.
Remember that, people who are currently on the 40th floor of Trump’s Vegas casino. Feel steady up there?
Question 16: And should have been the last — will you accept the outcome of the election?
If you say this about the results of the election you’re currently running in, you’re not really running in an election ...
I will look at it at the time. I'm not looking anything now I will look at it at the time. What I've seen, what I've seen it so bad. First of all the media is so dishonest and so corrupt and the pile on is so amazing that the New York Times actually wrote an article about it that they don't even care. It's so dishonest and they poison the minds of the voters but unfortunately for them I think the voters are seeing through it.
And if Chris Wallace is so unbelieving of your answer that he throws you every possible lifeline to get you an out, don’t go with …
What I'm saying now is I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense, okay?
Donald Trump: Secret plan for ISIS. Secret plan for United States. One of them involves bombs. We’ll keep you in suspense.
Question # I should stop there, but this was insane enough I wanted to put it in.
And they want to look tough. They want to look good. He violated the red line in the sand. And he made so many mistakes. That is why we have the great migration. But she wanted to look good for the election. But who is going to get Mosul really? We will take eventually. If you look at what's happening much more tougher it's going to be more deaths than we thought. But the leaders I wanted to get are all wrong is because they're smart. What do we need this for? So Mosul is going to be a wonderful thing and Iran should write us a letter of thank you, just like the other really stupid. The stupidest deal of all time. A deal that's going to give Iran absolutely nuclear weapons.
And here you go …
These people have all left they've all left. They’ve all left. The element of surprise. Douglas MacArthur George Patton, spinning in their graves when they see the stupidity of our country.