I'm still trying to figure out just what Donald Trump has to do before our corporate media even pretends to be shocked or outraged by his behavior and just what he can get away with before enough people in the Republican base are repulsed enough not to keep telling pollsters they're going to vote for this fascist.
Apparently him obviously mocking a New York Times reporter who has a disability during a campaign event, and then doubling down on Twitter and pretending he never met the man was not quite enough for Fox's Howie Kurtz and guest host on this Friday's Happening Now, Heather Childers, to just straight up call Trump a liar as he deserves to be.
Trump "stepped over the line".... maybe. This might finally be a bridge too far.
Let's see how many weasel words from Kurtz and Childers we can spot during the interview above:
CHILDERS: So what do you think Howie? Was he mocking his disabilities?
KURTZ: Well, I sure hope not. Donald Trump has gained great ground here by making fun of reporters on Twitter, a bunch of idiots and losers and let's face it, not everybody like the media, but, this time I think he, it's evident that he stepped over a line because of this long statement from Donald Trump, saying he was not mocking Serge Kovaleski, who I know, great guy, terrific journalist, and it's very obvious that he has a physical disability.
He has limited use of his arms. On the other hand, Serge said he's met him many times, and it sure looked like Trump was doing that kind of impersonation.
CHILDERS: We have a couple of his, some of the tweets that he sent out. One of them he says “I do not know the reporter for the @nytimes or what he looks like. I was showing a person groveling to take back a statement made long ago!” and in a second statement, this one directed at the New York Times “The failing @nytimes should focus on fair and balanced reporting rather than constant hit jobs on me. Yesterday 3 boring articles, today2!”
KURTZ: Well, it seems to me that Trump is in a position now where he's on the defensive... really one of the few battles that he's had with the media and let's not lose sight of the substance here. I mean, look,
Donald Trump's a smart guy. I don't think he would deliberately and maybe it just slipped his mind, make fun of a reporter with disabilities knowing that the whole world would come down on him. But what's this about?
It's about the article that Kovaleski wrote when he was with the Washington Post back in 2001 saying that the authorities in New Jersey had detained some people who seemed to be celebrating the attacks. That doesn't quite match up with Trump saying the words thousands celebrating across New Jersey and that he saw it on TV. No one has been able to document that. But it has flipped the script, put Trump on the defensive and it comes at a time when he really is kind of at war with The New York Times, the Washington Post and many outlets in the media.
After Childers asked Kurtz if all of this was “nit picking” poor old Donald Trump, both of them agreed that it means he's going to be taking fire from all sides, and that it may not make a whiff of difference to most of his supporters.
They're still scared to death this maniac is going to end up being the Republican nominee, so they're handling him with kid gloves. Even when they know they should just straight up tell their audience he's a liar who wouldn't know the truth if it hit him in the face, they can't bring themselves to do it. Bravo Howie. You and your new network are well suited for each other.
