It’s bad enough that Donald Trump Jr. thinks it’s “clever” to issue a stupid, racist, and heartless tweet comparing refugees to poisoned Skittles. But former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois is bragging that HE said it first.
According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, Walsh, now a right-wing radio talk show host, wants to make sure everyone knows he had first dibs on the Skittles attack. “As any Twitter addict knows, there's nothing more irritating than some johnny-come-lately appropriating your killer tweet and getting all the likes and re-tweets that were rightfully yours,” the Tribune said.
Of course, the Wrigley company, maker of Skittles, disagrees with the analogy. From the Trib story:
"Skittles are candy. Refugees are people," Wrigley spokeswoman Denise Young said in a statement of the obvious. "We don't feel it's an appropriate analogy. We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing."
Wrigley, alas, declined to respond to Walsh's claim to have got there first. But Walsh, whose Twitter account was suspended [temporarily] for tweeting apparent threats of violence against President Barack Obama and Black Lives Matters activists, told Chicago Inc. he "wished (Trump Jr.) hadn't posted my tweet word for word." …
He said he'd tell a refugee who was trying to bring their family to safety and found his Skittle analogy to be witless: "Tough."
It’s a hard choice, but in a head-to-head match-up over who is a bigger jerk, Walsh or Trump Jr., I think Walsh wins, even if Donnie Jr. is a plagiarist. Choosing between them is like choosing between malaria and the plague.
UPDATE: From the “you can’t make this stuff up” department, now it turns out that Donnie Jr. stole the Skittles photo from an ex-refugee.