You know, at some point you run out of words to say. Donald Trump is currently convinced that the 2016 election was rigged against him—popular vote only, mind you. Donald Trump informed House and Senate leaders of this on Monday as the first mentioned topic of his meeting with them. Donald Trump was asked for evidence of this … and this happened.
Mr. Trump said he was told a story by “the very famous golfer, Bernhard Langer,” whom he described as a friend, according to three staff members who were in the room for the meeting. [...]
The three witnesses recall the story this way: Mr. Langer, a 59-year-old native of Bavaria, Germany — a winner of the Masters twice and of more than 100 events on major professional golf tours around the world — was standing in line at a polling place near his home in Florida on Election Day, the president explained, when an official informed Mr. Langer he would not be able to vote.
Because Mr. Gernhard Langer, 59-year-old native of Bavaria and supposedly a friend to Donald Trump (Langer’s daughter, for the record, denies that he is Trump’s “friend”) is not an American citizen. He is a German citizen. He could not vote because to allow a non-citizen to vote would be … voter fraud. Donald Trump did not bother to mention that part during any point in his story.
Ahead of and behind Mr. Langer were voters who did not look as if they should be allowed to vote, Mr. Trump said, according to the staff members — but they were nonetheless permitted to cast provisional ballots. The president threw out the names of Latin American countries that the voters might have come from.
Mr. Langer, whom he described as a supporter, left feeling frustrated, he said.
BECAUSE HE IS NOT AN AMERICAN CITIZEN AND COULD NOT VOTE. However, Donald Trump says, Mr. Langer was surrounded by people who “looked like” they might have been from “Latin American” countries who were allowed to vote. Even though they did not “look like” they should be allowed to.
The anecdote, the aides said, was greeted with silence, and Mr. Trump was prodded to change the subject by Reince Priebus [...]
BECAUSE DONALD TRUMP WAS MAD A NON-AMERICAN WAS NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE FOR HIM BUT ETHNIC PEOPLE WERE ALLOWED TO VOTE ANYWAY. OF COURSE the anecdote was met with silence and his fellow Republicans immediately changed the subject; Donald Trump’s anecdote is evidence of EXTRAORDINARY STUPIDITY and/or OVERT RACISM and/or A COMPLETE LACK OF AWARENESS THAT GERMAN CITIZENS CANNOT AUTOMATICALLY VOTE FOR HIM EVEN IF THEY ARE HIS GOLF BUDDIES.
Holy hell. There are no words. So this is the “anecdote” that led Donald Trump to proclaim his government will now be investigating millions and millions of imaginary cases of voter fraud—because his non-American golf buddy couldn’t vote, but people who “looked like” they should have been denied the right to vote were not.
What’s going to be the preferred explanation of this one? That the president is racist? Or that he’s staggeringly, almost incomprehensibly stupid?