Salah Abdeslam, the “most wanted man in Europe” suspected in the Paris attacks, was captured Friday in an apartment in Brussels after the police found his fingerprints during a raid earlier this week.
Abdeslam evaded police for more than four months before authorities honed in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, where he was captured today. Though details are still scant, the raid reportedly ended in a shootout that wounded Abdeslam and one other person. Brussels’ deputy mayor tells the AP Abdeslam was shot in the leg.
Two other unnamed suspects were reportedly taken into custody during the raid.
Are you, like many Americans, feeling increasingly frustrated, impotent, and scared about the rise of Donald Trump? It’s true that there’s basically nothing you can do about it at this point, unless you’re a Republican primary voter, I guess. But one night nearly 30 years ago, there was one man who could do something about Donald. Let us take a moment to live vicariously through him.
The year was 1989. The band was the Rolling Stones. Tattoo You, their last great album, was eight years in the rearview mirror, but we will not hold that against them right now. The location: Atlantic City. The band is playing a blowout show to close its Steel Wheels tour, and it needs a promoter. Enter Donald Trump, owner of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.
According to Cohl, the band hated Trump, and he was brought on only under a series of strict conditions including that he not actually attend the concert or give one of the self-aggrandizing press conferences he’s so fond of giving. The night of the show, lo and behold, Donald Trump is giving a press conference in the very same room where the Stones are supposed to be doing a TV interview.
I’ll let Cohl take it from here:
I give him the [come here gesture]. “Come on, Donald, what are you doing? A) You promised us you wouldn’t even be here and, B) you promised you would never do this.” He says, “But they begged me to go up, Michael! They begged me to go up!” I say, “Stop it. Stop it. This could be crazy. Do what you said you would. Don’t make a liar of yourself.”
I go back to the dressing room. Five minutes later, he’s back up. They call me back over there. Holy shit. I call him out (again). Same thing happens. I say, “Donald. I don’t know if I can control this. Stop it.” I go back to the dressing room. And I leave my walkie-talkie on in the dressing room. Moronic, on my part.
They call me back, at which point Keith pulls out his knife and slams it on the table and says, “What the hell do I have you for? Do I have to go over there and fire him myself? One of us is leaving the building – either him, or us.” I said, “No. I’ll go do it. Don’t you worry.”
Cohl then gave Trump an ultimatum. You leave the building now, or we cancel the show. Trump went “berserk,” Cohl said, and then he left.
Bernie Sanders today walked right out of an on-camera interview over a question about his wife and Arizona’s most vocal racist, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The actual question isn’t contained in the 12 News report about Sanders’ abrupt dismissal, but it’s clear the reporter, Brahm Resnick, asked something about the surprise meeting Sanders’ wife Jane had earlier this week with Arpaio at Arpaio’s much-maligned Tent City.
“What Joe Arpaio is doing is an outrage,” Sanders said in response. “My wife went to look at the so-called tent city, which is something that should not exist,” he added, referencing a jail operated by the Maricopa County sheriff that is fashioned from military tents. The fact that he crashed her meeting is, to me, very, very wrong, not something he should have done. Thank you very much.”
Then he walked out.
Although Sanders camp now says he left because the interview went over its allotted four-minute time slot—a more presidential response, to be sure—but his rapid response director, Mike Casca, also tweeted that Sanders ended the interview “after a reporter goes after his wife.”
(Casca later tweeted he was mistaken.)
And if you’re thinking it sounds like something is missing in this story, it is: The reporter’s actual question. The station has so far declined to air it—a fairly important detail to leave out.
Mitt Romney, someone the Republican Party used to be friends with, has written a Facebook post about politics that is now cluttering their newsfeed. He would like everyone to vote for Ted Cruz, if they would like to see Cleveland descend into glorious, cleansing chaos.
This is not an endorsement, in that Romney never tells anyone else to vote for Ted Cruz, and never says that he thinks Ted Cruz should be president. Romney is instead endorsing “not-Trump,” but without committing to a candidate who isn’t Trump, much as he tried to do earlier this month, when he delivered an anti-Trump speech that had the effect of either not changing anything or else possibly increasing support for Trump.
“I will vote for Senator Cruz and I encourage others to do so as well, so that we can have an open convention and nominate a Republican,” Romney says, which is very encouraging news for political journalists hoping to cover a wildly unpredictable and potentially explosive brokered convention.
Unfortunately, if that’s the scenario Romney is hoping for, his own support for a maneuver that the grassroots would interpret (correctly) as the party establishment subverting the will of a majority (or even plurality) of its voters makes that scenario less likely to actually happen.
You can’t say that Mississippi State Representative Karl Oliver, a Republican from Winona, is a person making his state better. His voting record on guns and religion is simply poisonous. But what you can say is that, at the very least, he is honest.
Oliver recently received an email from a constituent named Becky Guidry, urging him not to support the state slashing taxes. In return, the constituent got back a response that was pretty shitty and rather unbecoming of a politician. Via the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, it reads in full:
Mrs. Guidry,
I normally don’t return emails that do not request a response, but I found yours so intriguing I simply felt led to respond.
I see you are not a native to the Great State of Mississippi nor do you and I have similar political views. The people of our Great State overwhelmingly share my same or similar views on Government responsibility. I appreciate you going to the trouble to share yours with me, but quite frankly, and with all due respect, I could care less. I would, however, recommend that there are a rather large number of like minded citizens in Illinois that would love to see you return.
With warmest personal regards,
Karl Oliver
If I held political office, it would be very hard for me to resist sending emails such as this one, which is why I won’t and shouldn’t be a politician, and neither, quite frankly and with all due respect, should Karl Oliver.
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While debate moderators introduce every other candidate by their political credentials (Governor, Senator, what have you), Donald Trump comes to us only as “businessman.” So considering it’s his one and only qualification for the candidacy, you’d think he’d be better at it.
Trump’s purported lack of business acumen has been a major sticking point recently, with Marco Rubio (may he rest in peace) even calling Trump out for his shoddy record: “I mean this is a guy that’s taken Trump airlines bankrupt, Trump vodka, nobody wanted it, Trump mortgage, was a disaster, Trump university was a fraud.” Rubio’s right—but he’s also barely scratched the surface.
Of course, everyone is familiar with Trump’s real estate failings (more generally known as Atlantic City), but it’s the business ventures where his recklessness really shines. The man licensed his name to hundreds of trademarks (like the game show below that lasted but a year) and incorporated countless businesses-to-be, but only a select few (dozen) were actually led by the hand of the Donald himself.
So to commemorate our country’s imminent President Trump-wrought downfall, we’ve compiled every major, non-real estate-related Trump business disaster out there (we think). Because while we aim for completeness, the man has failed—a lot. If you know of anything we missed, please do let us know down below. And Donald, good luck with that wall.
Trump Steaks
Launched: 2007
Service rendered: Steaks
Years in business: 1
What went wrong: Trump filed the trademark nearly ten years ago, noting that it would be used for “meat, namely, beef, veal, lamb, and pork.” The meat itself came from the Sysco-owned Buckhead Beef, and after first (and presumably, unsuccessfully) attempting to sell the Trump-branded meat on a custom steak-centric website...
...Trump decided to work out an exclusive deal with—where else but—The Sharper Image. A bizarre pairing, sure, but The Sharper Image had nothing to lose. From Think Progress:
[Sharper Image CEO Jerry] Levin described the licensing agreement as “unique,” noting that it lacked the kinds of things he had seen in traditional agreements, like minimums, which would have required the Sharper Image to pay the Trump Organization a set amount regardless of how many steaks they sold.
As you would expect of anything worthy of bearing the Trump name, the steaks didn’t come cheap. For instance, $1,000 would buy you 24 burgers, 16 steaks, and the dull pangs of regret.
For whatever reason, the wildly expensive steaks sold by a novelty electronics chain didn’t fly off the shelves. Or, as Levin put it, “The net of all that [media attention] was we literally sold almost no steaks,” Levin said. “If we sold $50,000 of steaks grand total, I’d be surprised.”
But how did they taste? According to one reviewer, “They are really greasy, have no flavor, over-priced and just gross!!”
GoTrump.com
Launched: 2006
Service rendered: Travel search engine
Years in business: 1
What went wrong: Remember Orbitz? Expedia? What about Travelocity? GoTrump.com provided exactly the same service but with significantly more Trump (i.e. pictures of his face, a delightful mustard-gold trim, and “Trump Picks,” which highlighted “specific hotels and vacation packages that are his personal favorites”).
As Trump explained in the website’s About section, “I only put my name on the best, and at GoTrump.com you will get the best information and the best online rate available.” Unfortunately for the Donald, “the best” doesn’t really mean much of anything when you’re boasting both private jets and cheap hotel deals.
When the site launched, a financial analyst told The Washington Post that it seemed like “a vanity site” that “won’t make much money.” He was right. The site shut down the following year.
Service rendered: Hourly flights between Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C.
Years in business: 4-ish
What went wrong: This was another case of Donald Trump attempting to turn a service that already exists into something a little more Trump-y. But this time, rather than build something entirely new, Trump purchased Eastern Air Lines Shuttle, which had been offering hourly flights on the East Coast since 1961 with moderate success. That all changed with Trump’s magic touch.
The airline had succeeded largely because of its no-frills service—you didn’t need a reservation ahead of time, there were no seat assignments, no check-ins, and no boarding passes. You’d show up and hop on a plane for relatively cheap. When Trump bought 17 of the company’s Boeing 727s for $365 million in 1988, “he added maple-wood veneer to the floors, chrome seat-belt latches and gold-colored bathroom fixtures.”
Apparently, customers who appreciated the service’s ease weren’t into the over-the-top makeover. Alienated customers combined with the high fuel prices of the late 80s translated to Trump Airlines never turning a profit. As Time explains, “The high debt forced Trump to default on his loans, and ownership of the company was turned over to creditors. The Trump Shuttle ceased to exist in 1992 when it was merged into a new corporation, Shuttle Inc. No word on whether the gold-plated faucets survived the merger.”
What went wrong: After labeling the drink as “The World’s Finest Super Premium Vodka” and proudly quintuple-distilling it in Holland from “select European wheat,” Trump was proudly telling anyone who’d listen that T&Ts (Trump and tonic) were about to become the number one drink in the country.
Trump was supposedly attempting to rival Grey Goose for a spot on the nation’s top shelves. No one else seemed to have gotten that message, though, and the drink went out of production in 2011 when no one ever wanted to drink it.
Service rendered: Residential and commercial real estate financing
Years in business: 1.5
What went wrong: Even someone as deluded as Donald Trump probaby should have been able to predict this one. While the bubble hadn’t burst quite yet, in 2006, market prices were already starting to fall. And a few months after that is when Trump Mortgage decided to make its debut, with Trump telling CNBC that it was “a great time to start a mortgage company. I’ve been hearing about this bubble for so many years from you and everybody else in your world, but I haven’t seen it. I will let you know when I see it.”
A year and a half later, after failing to hit any of its financial targets, Trump apparently decided he saw it, and Trump Mortgage shut down for good. Although if you ask him about it now, Trump calls the business a “tiny deal” that “he never ultimately moved forward with”—which is objectively untrue. Trump did move forward with the company, it’s just that no one wanted to follow.
What went wrong: In 1989, Donald Trump decided that if people love Monopoly, surely they’ll love what is essentially the same thing but Trump-themed. He convinced Milton Bradley to release the game, assuring them that this face could move 2 million units off shelves in a year.
His face, of course, could not, and the game went out of production after a year. But for the Trump purists among us, you can still buy a (lightly used version of) the game for an appropriate $69 on Amazon.
Trump Magazine
Launched: 2007
Service rendered: Entertainment for luxury-enthusiasts
Years in business: 2-ish
What went wrong: The magazine launched in late 2007—just after his mortgage company was forced to shut its doors. Most people might see a failing market and a just-failed business venture as a sign that maybe it’s not a great time to start a print publication dependent on a general interest in luxury goods. Donald Trump, however, is not most people.
While the magazine “saw early success, cashing in on the booming advertising market for yachts and other high-end commodities” (at least according to the closing press release), in actuality, it... did not. As it turns out, people suffering from a major recession aren’t too keen on “yachts” or “high-end commodities” or “anything that requires money.” Who knew.
Service rendered: For-profit, non-accredited fake business degrees
Years in business: 6
What went wrong: For a “school” that can’t actually give you any sort of recognized degree, $35,000 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on tuition. Especially when that school, according to the lawsuit four students filed against the business in 2010, consists of classes described as “extended infomercials,” sells “non-accredited products,” and takes “advantage of these troubled economic times to prey on consumer’s fears.”
Once the lawsuit hit, state education officials started hammering the school for operating under the name “university,” since it was never chartered as such and was operating as an “illegal educational institution.” So that same year, Trump changed the name to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. Already outed as a fraud, though, the business shut down a year later.
What went wrong: In 2004, Donald Trump decided that people were crazy about the water available in his hotels and casino’s, announcing that “it was so good that people wanted to buy cases of it.” Attempts to distribute widely failed, and the water is once again relegated to Trump’s own properties.
The New Jersey Generals
Owner: 1984-1985
Service rendered: Football
Years in business: 2
What went wrong: Since Trump couldn’t buy an NFL team of his own, he settled on the next best thing—the short-lived United States Football League established to challenge the NFL. Realizing he had a million other projects on his plate, though, Trump quickly sold the team only to buy them back again in the very same year.
Things only got worse from there, according to Business Insider, “The team folded one year later, in 1985, along with the entire USFL. People blamed Trump for the demise of not only the team, but the entire league. Allegedly, he was trying to pull the Generals into the NFL — and made poor investment decisions in the process.”
Talking about the ordeal now, Trump notes that he “did something I rarely do with the USFL. I went into something that was not good.” As rare as every single endeavor on this list.
Tour de Trump
Launched: 1989
Service rendered: Bike races
Years in business: 2
What went wrong: Keeping with the theme of taking an iconic, wildly successful established tradition and turning it into a fucking mess, Donald Trump decided that he’d bring the Tour de France to us, just—you know, Trump-ier. When asked why he didn’t go with something that made sense, like the Tour de America, for instance, Trump said, “We could, if we wanted to have a less successful race. If we wanted to down-scale it.”
The first year, which sent riders from Albany to Atlantic City, actually managed to bring in some bag names, but unfortunately for Donald Trump, he just didn’t have the money to keep his name attached. Two years after starting the circuit, he was forced to sell his race to the DuPont Corporation, which then changed the name and removed every last trace of Trump.
What went wrong: Located on the boardwalk in Jones Beach, Long Island, the gargantuan dining space totaled 80,000-square-feet with a 14,000-square-foot basement, all of which we’re sure looked great for the four months before Hurricane Sandy hit. According to Eater, the state had actually shot down Trump’s proposal four separate times since 2006. Once the hurricane took down Trump, though, he agreed to kill his plan—much to the delight of the surrounding community who never wanted it there in the first place.
The Trump Network
Launched: 2009
Service rendered: Vitamin pyramid scheme
Years in business: 2
What went wrong: Since the folding of Trump Magazine proved that people clearly didn’t have money to spare after the bubble burst, Trump decided to change strategies. With the Trump Network, Trump offered a get-rich-quick scheme centered around what else but nutritional supplements. The motto: Discover the Difference between Opportunity and Success.
The supplements came from Ideal Health, Inc, which Trump purchased in 2009. In addition to the supplements, though, Trump also offered the PrivaTest, which Trump’s site described as “a scientific window into your personal biochemistry.” A test that the Trump Network recommended be repeated every nine months for $100 a pop, which would be outrageous even if the test actually worked. But as Dr. Stephen Barrett, of health watchdog site Quackwatch, noted, “No single test can provide a rational basis for dietary supplement recommendations.”
What’s more, the company didn’t even deliver on its promised scam. A FOIA by Quackwatch in 2004 turned up the following complaint on Ideal Health filed in 2001:
The consumer states that she was working for this company trying to sell their dietary supplement products. The consumer states that she paid the company $5,412.50 for promotional leads, and marketing programs. The consumer states that the company never did the promotional leads, and took the consumers [sic] money and ran
And that’s what Donald Trump decided would be a great investment.
Trumped!
Launched: 2004
Service rendered: Talk radio
Years in business: 4
What went wrong: Trump’s radio “show” was really just a two-minute-long segment (sponsored by Office Depot) of Donald Trump talking about whatever came into his head. Donald Trump, however, called it “the biggest launch in radio history.”
Buzzfeed recently tried to secure audio of the Trump’s hours of archived programs but couldn’t nail anything down but the demo. So we may never know exactly what Trump decided to share with the masses (since absolutely no one ever tuned in), but judging by segment descriptions such as “No More Viagra for Rapists” and “Stay out of the tabloids and, for goodness sake, don’t say hello to those little boys” (referring to Michael Jackson), it sounds like his stump speeches are the next best thing.
Trump New Media
Almost launched: 1998
Service rendered: Video-on-demand and high-speed internet
Years in business: None
What went wrong: Eager to get in on the exciting world of the information superhighway, Donald Trump was apparently about to dip his toes into the ISP world back in the summer of 1998, announcing that the newly formed Trump New Media would “wire his 20,000 residential apartments with high speed $30 monthly access.”
And sure, Trump could have gone with something vaguely within his realm of expertise—but why break with tradition? A local announcement at the time wrote that “Trump admits he’s hardly the man to head a new media firm. ‘I’ll tell you what I know about it: Absolutely nothing.’” He partnered with Freelinq Communications to launch the firm, but after getting shut out by his more competent competition, the endeavor failed to ever take off.
The crash of a flydubai Boeing 737 jet in Russia was captured by grainy security video, according to reports.
The crash occurred at 3:50 a.m. on Saturday morning, when the passenger jet circled a southern Russian airport trying to land in bad weather. On the second attempt, the plane came down at the Rostov-on-Don airport, killing all 62 people— 55 passengers and seven crew members—aboard, according to CNN.
Flydubai said that the passengers included 44 Russians, eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbekistani. Officials say bad weather was likely the reason for the crash, and have opened an investigation that will take about two months.
This is all part of a journey, said the Pope on Twitter, inviting the slack-jawed and glaze-eyed masses to follow him, simply with a heart-shaped “fave.”
This footage of the Los Angeles Class fast attack nuclear submarine USS Hartford breaking through the ice in the Arctic Circle is unbelievably awesome. I’ve never seen aerial imagery of such an operation, but it looks like the earth is hatching a nuclear submarine.
The Hartford surfaced near the Navy’s newly-constructed ice camp dubbed “Camp Sargo.” The camp is named after the first U.S. Navy submarine to conduct a Bering Strait transit during the winter years some 56 years ago. The camp consists of a command center, cold-weather shelters and other basic infrastructure to support more than 70 personnel at a time.
All this is part of Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2016, a set of international drills that the Navy intends to use for scientific research, test and evaluation of operational capabilities tailored to the arctic region. A similar submarine, the USS Hampton, also surfaced nearby as part of the exercise. It will last five weeks.
The arctic is likely to become a major strategic flashpoint in the future. With large reductions in ice due to climate change new shipping channels will likely emerge in the region and there is thought to also be largely untapped energy deposits in the area.
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I’m a huge fan of Mpow’s Magneto Bluetooth Headphones, which combine the affordability of Mpow’s line with great looks and the magnetic snapping from Amazon’s earbuds.
We get so many deal submissions for FM transmitters that my eyes pretty much just glaze over at this point. However, this model from iClever has intuitive controls, a great form factor, a built-in SD card slot, a remote, an easy to read digital display, a microphone, and bluetooth.
This isn’t the first bluetooth speaker we’ve posted that’s waterproof, or has a flashlight, or is made for outdoor use, or doubles as an external battery pack, but this one will clip to your bike’s handlebars.
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The wrath of God is swift and just, and it has chosen the head of Donald Trump.
On Tuesday night, minutes after the Republican presidential frontrunner was declared winner of the primary in Illinois with 38.8 percent of the vote, a signal came from above that can only mean one thing: this is the end.
The Boston Globe noticed Chicago resident Michael Vithoulkas’ Instagram video, which appeared to show a lightning bolt hitting the Trump Tower in Chicago at 10:45, after his win at 10 p.m.
What’s not clear here, however, if this message was meant as a condemnation of a candidate who will live out eternal damnation in a fiery furnace, or if it was an endorsement for a candidate whose words have ignited a bunch of straw-headed people. Or perhaps, it was not even provoked by the elder Trump in the first place!
Donald Trump went ham on Twitter with a bazillion “Crazy Megyn” comments directed at Megyn Kelly this week. First of all, “Crazy Megyn” is a lazy af nickname. Call her “Manic Megyn” or “Meshugenah Megyn” or “Mad Megyn” or “Meanie Megyn.” Poetry is dead.
Trump’s anti-alliteration rampage started after Kelly interviewed Ted Cruz on her show, and also shared the fact that all of Trump’s hateful tweeting about various women is taking a toll in the polls.
Though it’s not unexpected that Trump would cry like a baby sitting in a diaper full of his own shit, this round of hateful invective seems to have crossed a line for folks who were before willing to ignore the bizarre feud between a presidential hopeful and a newscaster. Even Geraldo Rivera was like, chilllllllllll:
Then, late on Friday, Fox News shared this statement on Facebook:
Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land. Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America — we’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults. As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job.
Of course, the top comments are from all the Donald Trump supporters that Fox News has been arming with misinformed, racist, misogynist ideas for years. The moniker “Megyn Smelly” is liked over 7,000 times. Now that’s a nickname.
“ I care deeply for the principles the United Nations is designed to uphold. And that’s why I have decided to leave.” writes Anthony Banbury, who until very recently was a United Nations assistant secretary general for field support. Banbury explains the internal crises facing the intergovernmental organization in a searing New York Times op-ed this weekend, and why the “United Nations is failing.”
A crowd of protestors marched through the heart of midtown Manhattan on Saturday, chanting for a man who was not at home.
The protest, which began near Trump Tower in Columbus Circle at around noon, and was meant to end up at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lives. The event was a circus, rife with poop signs, shouts of “Dump Trump!” and even Trump supporters alleging the whole thing was funded by big-time Democratic funder George Soros.
The Daily Beast reporter Gideon Resnick tweeted that he’d spoken to one protestor who had been pepper-sprayed by police. Other footage from the march showed protestors being arrested by police and minor scuffles breaking out.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Arizona, another set of Trump protestors managed to block oncoming traffic near the site of Trump’s rally at Fountain Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Meanwhile, Trump has been going about his day, not a care in the world about the trail of scorched earth in his wake.
Georgia House Bill 757 is a new bit of “religious freedom” legislation currently in the late stages of the approval process that would prevent the government from penalizing organizations that deny “social, educational or charitable services that violate such faith-based organization’s sincerely held religious belief.” The bill also has language that handcuffs the state government’s ability to “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a law, rule, regulation, ordinance or resolution of general applicability.”
In practical terms, this bill would be a check on the civil rights of gay people in Georgia. It’s transparently not about guaranteeing religious liberties or anything nearly that noble. Here, look what this State Senator told the New York Times:
“When the Supreme Court changed the definition of marriage, dynamics changed,” said State Senator Greg Kirk, a Republican. “There was a need for a law, for this law, and it took Georgia to lead the way of the country to put this law together.”
757 breezed through Goergia’s legislature, and it now sits with Governor Nathan Deal. Deal has been public about his hesitancy to sign a bill this hateful, and he appears to be carefully weighing his options. The NFL has stepped into the fight, and they released the following statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
NFL policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard. Whether the laws and regulations of a state and local community are consistent with these policies would be one of many factors NFL owners may use to evaluate potential Super Bowl host sites.
Atlanta’s new stadium opens in 2017, and they’ve been very vocal about wanting the Super Bowl in 2019. The NFL, for their part, has flexed their muscles like this before. They leaned on Arizona before Super Bowl XLIX in response to a similar anti-gay law, and even moved Super Bowl XXVII from Arizona to Los Angeles in 1993 because Arizona refused to recognize MLK Day.
When will this man learn that there are cameras rolling around him all the time?
At a rally in Tuscon that, true to form for most Trump rallies these days, devolved into chaos and even violence, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski was seen talking with and eventually grabbing a protester, footage shows. The video was posted by a CBS News reporter Saturday night.
According to The New York Times, Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks would not say why Lewandowski was involved with the scuffle. She told CBS flat-out that Lewandowski didn’t touch the protestor:
“Corey Lewandowski was speaking with a protester at today’s rally in Tucson, Arizona when the individual he was speaking with was pulled from behind by the man to Lewandowski’s left. The video clearly shows the protester reacting to the man who pulled him, not to Mr. Lewandowski. Mr. Trump does not condone violence at his rallies, which are private events paid for by the campaign.”
Donald Trump, a man who has forcefully asserted that he does no accept responsibility, should not be expected to take responsibility for the violence his own campaign incites at his rallies regularly.
“They had signs up in that area that were horrendous ... I will give him credit, spirited—now he didn’t touch him ... I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted to take down those horrible, profanity-laced signs.”
The video pretty clearly shows Lewandowski grabbing the protestor, though the Trump video continues to deny it. Because at this point for the Trump campaign, the truth is but a soft, evanescent concept, one that is as difficult to pin down as his hair in the wind.
