What did Candidate Trump really say?

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024

Tapper gets it (remarkably) wrong: In our view, the Fox News Channel is conducting a fraud against the American public. As it does, the big news orgs in Blue America agree to avert their gaze.

We're speaking about a journalistic fraud. Under the American system, it's the kind of fraud which is hard to pursue in court. 

In that sense, it's a bit of a metaphorical fraud, but it's an act of fraud nonetheless. In the face of this behavior, big news orgs like the New York Times have agreed—they will neither report nor discuss what happens on that heavily watched "news channel."

That said, our stars over here in Blue America are also inclined to commit the (journalistic) sins that flesh is heir to. That's especially true at fraught times such as these—but we were stunned by the magnitude of Jake Tapper's errors on Sunday's State of the Union.

At issue is an extremely basic question: What did Candidate Trump actually say? On the occasion in question, he'd been asked a fairly simple question. Once again, here's what that question was:

BARTIROMO (10/13/24): One of the elements at the border has brought in Tren de Aragua, this Venezuelan gang—quite dangerous. You told us about this...

It was an Afghan refugee [who was] charged with plotting an Election Day massacre.

TRUMP: Nothing surprises me. 

BARTIROMO: What about that, though? Are you expecting chaos on Election Day?

TRUMP: No. Not from the side which votes for Trump.

BARTIROMO: But I'm just wondering if these outside agitators will start up on Election Day. Let's say you win. Let's remember, you've got 50,000 Chinese nationals in this country in the last couple of years. There are people on the terrorist watch list—350 in the last couple of years. Like you said—13,000 murderers and 15,000 rapists. 

What are you expecting? Joe Biden said he doesn’t think it’s going to be a peaceful Election Day.

Once again, that's the date-specific question Trump was asked. The question came from Maria Bartiromo on her Fox News program, Sunday Morning Futures. 

As you can see, Bartiromo was asking a very specific question. She was asking if the candidate thought that a certain unspecified type of of "chaos" might occur on Election Day.

At four separate points, Bartiromo specified that she was asking about the possibility of "chaos"—apparently, about the possibility of disruption or violence—on Election Day. 

She was asking about Election Day! Here's what Trump said in reply:

TRUMP (continuing directly): Well, he doesn’t have any idea what’s happening, in all fairness. He spends most of his day sleeping. 

I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country—by the way, totally destroying our country. The towns and villages, they’re being inundated. 

But I don’t think they're the problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're—and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary by the military, because they can’t let that happen.

Quite typically, he began with an insult aimed at President Biden, then continued from there. That said:

Like Bartiromo, he spoke about what he thought could possibly happen on Election Day.

He seemed to say that we have "some very bad people"—"some sick people, radical left lunatics"—who could conceivably create a problem, presumably of the type Bartiromo had mentioned, "in terms of Election Day." 

He called them "the enemy from within," "the people from within." He didn't say who he had in mind, and Bartiromo didn't ask.  He said he wasn't worried about Tren de Aragua. He said these sick people, these radical left lunatics, might produce some sort of chaos on that particular day.

"If necessary," he said these unspecified people could be "handled by the National Guard." (For the record, that's what eventually happened with respect to the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6.) 

"If really necessary," these people could even be handled by the military, he said. Please note:

This whole exchange, beginning to end, concerned some unspecified type of "chaos" which might occur on Election Day. Bartiromo mentioned "Election Day" four separate times—and then, Trump followed suit. 

Unless you were watching CNN's State of the Union! On that program, Tapper's producers had now "edited" this exchange down so far that this was all viewers were shown as he spoke with Speaker Mike Johnson:

TAPPER (10/20/24): In multiple interviews this week, Donald Trump repeatedly referred to prominent Democrats and others on the left in the United States, American citizens, as, quote, "the enemy from within," unquote.

And he suggested as president he would want to use the National Guard or military against them. Let me play some of that for our viewers:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're—and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary by the military, because they can’t let that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: One of the first things you did when you joined Congress was to create the Honor and Civility Caucus. Does wanting to use the military against political opponents, would that pass muster with the Civility Caucus?

Sad! Across the lone and level sands, that was all that remained!

Viewers weren't shown any part of the question Trump had been asked. In this newer, deeper "edit," viewers weren't even shown the part of Trump's answer where he himself said that he was talking about things which could possibly happen on Election Day. That specific reference was also wiped away!

That was a terrible edit. Making matters that much worse, Tapper led with a simple assertion:

According to Tapper, Trump had been referring to "prominent Democrats" when he "suggested" that he might "use the National Guard or military against them." 

We're sorry, but there is no such obvious "suggestion" in what the candidate said. Of course, much of that was wiped away when Tapper's producers edited out a basic fact—this whole exchange concerned the possibility of a type of "chaos" on Election Day, full stop.

In his initial response, Johnson seemed to be substantially clearer than Tapper was about what had actually been said. As you can see from the CNN transcript, he was met with stone-cold tribal certainty from Tapper—with stone-cold True Belief.

Much later in the interview with Bartiromo, Trump had also referred to several prominent Democrats as "the enemy from within." In our view, that's a disordered thing to do, but at that time, he said nothing—zero; nada; the null set; zilch—about using the National Guard or the military against them.

That reference came much later in the session with Bartiromo. The possible use of force wasn't mentioned at that time.

Question! Does Tapper think that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are likely to produce the kind of "chaos" on Election Day that this earlier exchange explicitly concerned? 

In his usual unkempt way, the candidate said that "some sick people, radical left lunatics" might generate that kind of chaos on that specific occasion. But the viewer's ability to evaluate what Tapper was saying was stolen away by that astonishing edit—an edit which wiped away all knowledge of what the Q-and-A was explicitly about.

As we noted last week, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is played out every day and every night on the Fox News Channel. 

Routinely, viewers are kept from hearing the statements which have Trump's critics deeply concerned. Similarly, viewers aren't shown the videotape of the violence which occurred on January 6. They're allowed to live in their own spotless realm, free from any complications which might darken their view of the world.

That's basically what Tapper's producers did with that very deep "edit." Meanwhile, please understand this:

All across Blue America's world, tribal minds will now insist that what Tapper said was perfectly right. Indeed, Colby Hall has explicitly done that over at Mediaite!

In fact, Tapper got it amazingly wrong when he spoke with Johnson. He also seemed to be completely sure that he had it amazingly right! We think of the gloomy but telling closing line of the final song of Paul Simon's Graceland album. 

In the current context, there's no way around this tribal warfare. Simply put, we humans are wired to  react to events in these ways.

That's why we must learn to live alone.

So went Simon's closing line. We think of that gloomy closing line in this new, somewhat different context.

The Fox News Channel is conducting a free-floating fraud against the public. Over here in Blue America, we simply aren't wired to defeat it. Simply put, we the Blues, much like the Reds, just aren't sufficiently sharp.

Fuller disclosure: On Morning Joe, they love that very deep edit with all it allows. Mika loves the edit, and Joe loves it too!

We humans are wired to function this way. We're wired to spin and to fight.