Donald and Melania Trump spent Monday demonstrating their dazzling approach to personal responsibility. (It’s not for them.)
Melania lit up social media by doing an interview with Anderson Cooper in which she said she didn’t believe her husband had actually done the things he clearly described doing in the 2005 tape, and:
Ms. Trump, 46, called the exchange between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bush “boy talk,” and said Mr. Trump had been “egged on” by the host “to say dirty and bad stuff.”
That’s boy talk from a man who was 59 years old at the time. And, as #BillyBushmademedoit quickly became a trending hashtag, more than a few people pointed out that, if Trump can be egged on by Billy Bush to claim, supposedly falsely, that he sexually assaults women, he may not be the guy to be put in a position where he could be egged on by, say, Vladimir Putin.
For his part, speaking at a rally in Green Bay, Donald could not emphasize strongly enough just how much the allegations that he has forcibly kissed and groped a growing list of women are false. In his words, the allegations are “false stories that have no validity,” “a story with absolutely nothing that didn’t exist,” “events that never happened,” and “false stuff. It’s all false stuff.” If it’s not false, it’s … old. “They take things and statements and put it in from 30 years ago, from 20 years ago.” And, of course, these old and/or false stories are part of a plot against him: “the media is trying to rig the election.”
Never fear, though. According to Donald, “I think most people do believe me. That’s why we are having, and it’s in our favor, a backlash like nobody has ever seen before.” Except, in reality, the backlash is against Trump's attacks on the Clintons (speaking of taking things from 20 or 30 years ago … ), and a majority of voters see Trump’s treatment of women as a legitimate campaign issue.
This Trump’s story: he only said it because he was egged on by a dim-witted TV host, he didn’t do what he said he did, he didn’t do what 10 women said he did, and it’s all a plot against him. Nothing will ever be Donald Trump’s fault, in Donald Trump’s mind. But as scary as the prospect of him whipping up his supporters in outrage over a supposedly rigged election is, it’s not as scary as the prospect of him in the White House. So there’s that small comfort.
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