Tag: today show
Endorse This: Raising Your Hand For Trump

Endorse This: Raising Your Hand For Trump

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Come on, what could possibly be wrong with getting tens of thousands of people to raise their right hands to declare allegiance to an authoritarian political personality?

Donald Trump is now taking questions on the newest practice at his campaign events, where he asks the audience to all raise their hands and make a pledge to go out and vote for him on primary day. The problem: Lots of people think this whole display looks just like one of the Nuremberg Rallies. (To be somewhat fair, The Donald specifically puts up his own hand in the manner of a person making an oath in court — while all the people the audience are just raising their arms straight into the air.)

“I wonder how you feel about that comparison,” asked Savannah Guthrie, “and whether it would make you want to perhaps not do it anymore, if people do feel that way?”

Trump’s response was both a profession of his innocence — and less than comforting in its deadpan delivery.

“Well I think it’s ridiculous. I mean, we’re having such a great time. Yesterday I had 20,000 people in Mississippi, I had tremendous crowds in Michigan,” Trump said, with apparently no sense of awareness.

“And sometimes we’ll do it for fun — and they’ll start screaming at me, ‘Do the swear-in! Do the swear-in!’ I mean, they’re having such a great time. They’re massive crowds. I get by far the biggest crowds, and we’re having a good time. Honestly, until this phone call I didn’t know it was a problem.”

As the questions continued, The Donald further explained: “If it’s offensive or if there’s anything wrong with it, I wouldn’t do it. But when I say, ‘Raise your hand,’ everybody raises their hand. They’re screaming to me to do it, ‘We want to do it!’ and we’re all having a lot of fun.”

However, we wish to offer an alternative comparison for the sight of Trump having his vast crowds awkwardly recite back a pledge of support for him: The scene in that great American classic Blazing Saddles, when the corrupt political boss Hedley Lamarr had his vast army of dimwitted Wild West criminals (which, yes, included a few anachronistic Nazis) pledge allegiance to him — and to the evil for which he stands!

“Now repeat after me: ‘I…'”

“I—”

“‘Your name…'”

“Your name—”

“Schmucks.”

Video viaToday/NBC News.

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Endorse This: Mitt Romney Answers An Old Donald Trump Fan — Mitt Romney

Endorse This: Mitt Romney Answers An Old Donald Trump Fan — Mitt Romney

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Mitt Romney gave a televised interview Friday morning, to follow up on his fiery speech against Donald Trump. But this only begged an important question: If in fact The Donald is such a fraud and a demagogue in both business and politics, then why did Mitt Romney used to like him so much?

Matt Lauer asked: “The people who are angry at you this morning, Gov. Romney, are saying, ‘Wait a second, he willingly welcomed the endorsement of Donald Trump four years ago — even though he was already knee-deep in the Birther movement, and had made other incendiary comments.’ Why go 180 degrees on the guy now?”

“Well first of all, I was seeking his endorsement — now he’s seeking mine. That’s very different. A lot of people endorsed me, I wouldn’t endorse for president,” Romney answered. “And secondly, a lot has happened in the last year. And frankly, had I heard him say the things I’ve heard him say now, I wouldn’t have welcomed his endorsement.

“When he calls George W. Bush a liar; when he says that Putin is a strong and powerful leader, popular with his people; when he mocks a reporter because of their disability; when he attacks women based on their looks, or their menstrual cycle; you’ve basically got a guy who is out of the kind of realm that I’d want to have supporting me.

So let’s get this straight: Trump’s active stoking of racist conspiracy theories against President Obama still made him worthy of standing on a stage to endorse Mitt Romney — but calling George W. Bush a liar is among the points that now make him beyond the pale?

“Did you beg him for his endorsement four years ago?” Lauer also followed up — an allegation for which Trump has used some rather colorful language.

“I was welcoming his endorsement, I was happy to have it. I was looking for as many endorsers as I could possibly have,” Romney said. “But when it comes to who I would support for president, there are a lot of folks who endorsed me, I would not want to see as president.”

It’s a good point, really: A lot of folks who endorsed Mitt Romney really are people that you “would not want to see as president.”

Video viaToday/NBC News.

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Endorse This: Sarah Palin Further Embarrasses Herself On Caucus Day

Endorse This: Sarah Palin Further Embarrasses Herself On Caucus Day

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Sarah Palin appeared on TV this morning to promote Donald Trump, on the big day of the Iowa caucuses. But then she got asked about the most news-making quote she’s delivered while stumping for The Donald: That President Obama was to blame for her son’s arrest on domestic violence charges, because the troops get post-traumatic stress disorder after they have to “look at him and wonder” whether or not he supports them.

Palin’s answer: No, she didn’t say that at all — and shame on you for talking about it!

“You guys brought me here to talk about Iowa politics, and the caucus tonight — not to talk about my kids,” said Palin, who was actually the one that first talked about her kids while on the campaign trail. “And that was a promise. But as things go in the world of media, you guys don’t always keep your promises, evidently.”

Palin went on to say maintain that she didn’t make any such accusation against Obama, but simultaneously insisted that he doesn’t support the troops. Matt Lauer then asked her if she wanted to take back anything she said that was offensive.

“What did I say that is offensive?” she retorted. “I don’t regret any comment that I made, because I didn’t lay PTSD at the foot of the president.”

“I did say, though, and suggested very adamantly, that there is much more that our Commander-in-Chief can do to prove that he respects our troops and will let them do their job.”

As Palin went on to criticize the media for asking her about this, Lauer then had to clarify the situation against her latest accusation.

“I just want to make sure: There were no specific promises made about the content of the interview, only that this would be your first interview since you endorsed Donald Trump.”

“Well, I was told that this interview is about the caucus tonight in Iowa — and right on, who will it be to put America back on the right track and restore constitutional government that we are lacking today, and that we so need. And I said ‘right on,’ let me go talk about that, sure.”

Savannah Guthrie could only say: “And I think we talked about that quite a bit.”

Video viaToday/NBC News.

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Rumsfeld: George H.W. Bush’s Slam Of Me Isn’t ‘Complimentary Of His Son’

Rumsfeld: George H.W. Bush’s Slam Of Me Isn’t ‘Complimentary Of His Son’

Former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld has responded to the harsh criticisms levied against him by former President George H.W. Bush. Because if Rumsfeld was so bad, what does that say about the president he served, George W. Bush?

Rumsfeld appeared Monday morning on the Today show, where Matt Lauer read back the quotes that the elder Bush made about him in the recent authorized biography, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, by Jon Meacham. The key exchange comes at the 3:20 mark below:

“I think he served the President (George W. Bush) badly,” Bush 41 had told Meacham. “I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the President having his iron-ass view of everything. I’ve never been that close to him anyway. There’s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He’s more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that.”

“Were you surprised by those comments?” Matt Lauer asked.

Rumsfeld brushed off the criticism: “No, we were never close. He was kind of ‘to the manner born,’ and I wasn’t. He — as I say, we were never close, so I guess it didn’t surprise me.”

And then the former secretary of defense went even further — by pointing out the ramifications that the father Bush’s comments had for both of his sons.

“I was amazed that he said what he said, when he said it — because I didn’t think it was very complimentary of his son, George W. Bush. And I didn’t think it was very helpful to his other son, who was running for president. So I thought it was kind of a strange thing for him to be doing.”