Trump threatens legal action against Cruz, third-party run
Donald Trump pressers are always full of surprises
In a press conference Monday, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump again threatened legal action against Ted Cruz and hinted at a third-party run.
Eligibility
Trump’s threats to legally challenge Cruz’s eligibility for office are, “not defending a constitutional principle, just emotionally lashing out,” as Professor Jacobson has puts it.
Monday, Trump suggested Republicans ought to be thankful he’s willing to take on Cruz’s eligibility. Why? Because Democrats will do so if Cruz is the Republican nominee. Trump also referenced two pending cases on the matter, both filed by other parties.
But is Trump pursuing the Cruz/birthright issue because Cruz keeps running attack ads or because he’s doing everyone a favor? Trump himself doesn’t seem to know. And what about Marco Rubio? Will Trump go birther on Rubio once if he becomes a competitive contender?
The perpetual birther, Trump caused a stink around the 2012 election when he repeatedly demanded to see President Obama’s birth certificate.
For Professor Jacobson’s full breakdown on the eligibility issue, see here.
Pledge, what pledge?
Trump said the Republican Party was “in default” of an agreement and then whined on about being treated unfairly.
The Hill reports:
“When somebody’s in default, that means the other side can do what they have to do,” he said. “The RNC is in default.”
Trump signed a pledge last year to run as a Republican and not as an independent. He first raised the posibility of a third-party run in an exclusive interview with The Hill last summer.“I signed a pledge but it’s a double-edge pledge, and as far as I’m concerned they’re in default of the pledge,” he said at a campaign event outside of Charleston, S.C., The Guardian reported.
During a later press conference, Trump said he was disappointed with the RNC because it stacks the room at debates “with special interests and donors.”
“The RNC gave all the tickets to special interests that represented Cruz and Rubio. They had all the tickets,” he said. “They walked on the stage and the place went crazy.”
He said he doesn’t have donors or special interests.
“I think the RNC did a very poor job,” he said. “We’ve warned them…and they don’t listen.”
The RNC has “total control” over Trump’s competitors, he added.
“The bottom line is the RNC is controlled by the establishment and the RNC is controlled by the special interests and the donors and that’s too bad,” he said.
Threats aplenty and approximately zero action. At least we know what a (God help us) Trump presidency would look like.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/02/15/more-trump-ill-sue-cruz-over-his-eligibility-if-he-doesnt-take-down-his-false-ads-asap-and-i-want-the-rnc-to-intervene/
Tell you what, Pussy-boi, don’t wait until Saturday…
PULL your name OFF the ballot for the SC primary.
DO IT NOW. No more talk. Time to show us some orbs, Collectivist gurli-man!
What are you? Twelve? Could you please just try to act like a grown-up? If you would like an example, please read MrMichael’s post below.
Seriously. You’re embarrassing yourself.
K-itch, is that you?
Trump is exactly where he wants to be. He has a rabid base built that will vote for him even if he shoots someone. If he wins the nomination he loses the general to the Democrats and if he loses the nomination he runs third party, splits the Republican vote and the Democrats win. If Trump wants a Clinton presidency he is well placed to deliver. As long as she wins the nomination and isn’t in court/prison over her e-mail.
I would think Trump would put his legendary deal making skills to work on the RNC, and have them on their knees begging him to be their nominee.
Why is he holding back?
Good Lord, I thought Donald Trump was an adult. Truth told, I could never support him, but I could certainly admire how he shook the Republican Party Establishment out of their complacent beds…
But really. Second parties are not in, or out of compliance with a PLEDGE. A contract, yes… a pledge, no. A pledge is either sworn under penalty of God’s Wrath or by the value of your own word.
Donald sets his own prices.
Naw. It’s just another bankruptcy.
Walk away, Der Donald. Walk away. Pull your name NOW, before the primary. Man up.
Trump made the pledge with the good faith understanding that the RNC would play fair with him.
Do I think this is enough for Trump not to run third party? No.
In fact I think that stacking the audience against Trump is one of the main reasons the people who think he won do so. It probably also got him votes.
While I don’t think that it was enough to justify a third party run, I do think it was enough for him to fire a warning shot across the RNC/GOPe bow saying that they had better play fair.
Trump: I’m doing Ted Cruz a favor!
I’ve felt that too. With due respects to the professor, the Democrats will certainly file that lawsuit and 6/8 S.Ct judges are not originalists. Cruz will get stuck litigating when he needs to be on the trail and the court case nightly news will crowd out his message.
SCOTUS would never accept the case, they would never get into a political quagmire, especially without a deciding number of jusctices.
DoDo Trump had my sympathy initially, bringing to the fore a number of issues requiring making a statement of intent.
His actions and demented behavior indicates a serious mental problem.
We have enough crazy politicians, without the need to add another as POTUS.
Nothing the courts do is fast. They could dismiss the case immediately and still eat up the nightly news for weeks or months
SCOTUS would never accept the case,
It doesn’t matter if SCOTUS accepts the case. It matters whether a Federal District Court takes the case. Once that happens the only choice SCOTUS has is to take it or let a lower court ruling stand.
Not that I think Trump will do it.
That’s the problem everyone has with Trump. They “Think” they know what he will do but don’t have a single clue. You won’t ask the right questions of your boy and you attack anyone who does. He has no judicial record to look at except the bankruptcy courts! Do we really want this shoot from the lip child with his finger on the nuclear button?
Do you ever do any of your own thinking, or do you just repeat the Trump line day-in and day-out? You’ve never posted anything that Trump or his paid pimps didn’t already say 100 times.
Trump is beating up on the RNC (or, if you prefer, the GOPe). I don’t see any problem with that; both richly deserve a bit of manhandling.
In pursuit of that strategy, Trump is following tactics which are both very obvious and very rational.
Much like the DNC with its superdelegates, the RNC has a fund of dirty tricks (though not superdelegates, at least). Trump has the votes and, to some degree, the press and America’s electoral laws. Those are the cards each player has, and Trump is playing his hand relatively well. Most of the game is bluff, as any card player could tell you. The press by its nature always falls for bluffs. The punditry, less excusably, too often does also.
Dick Cheney reacts to Donald Trump’s comments: “He sounds like a liberal Democrat to me, Bret.”
Yeeeeeeeup. That’s because he IS a lying, slimy, Collectivist thug.
Always was. Still is. Will be tomorrow.
TRUMP: Because two terms of President Stompyfoot just wasn’t enough.
I’m not fond of the Shrub brand, because we don’t need a local aristocracy, BUT DoDo Trump s a nutball. If we don’t coalesce around a stable, firm conservative, what’s the point ?
‘mommy, they don’t play fair and don’t like my hair, boohoo’.
Is that who you support ?
Really ?
Last week, after talking with a close friend—who is a Trump supporter—I was starting to think I could vote for Trump if he were the nominee. No more. If he wins the primary I’m going to vote for the Libertarian out of protest. His churlish and immature behavior have finally made this a Cruz or nothing campaign for me.
You must have watched a very different press conference than I did.
One doesn’t need to watch the press conference to know that Trump is a vindictive, narcissistic bully with no settled principles aside from his self-worship, and no deep understanding of foreign or domestic issues.
His accusation against Bush was utterly vile, and it runs counter to what Trump himself published about the great threat from Iraq in 2000. So he’s a hypocrite and a liar, as well as a conceited, obnoxious boor.
I stand corrected. Ignorance is better.
maybe a little Alzheimer thrown in ;>)
We all watched the same press conference.
Difference was, you were the one smoking the super global luxury premier Liberace-edition Trump branded meth while you were watching it.
Sigh, another day, another barrage of silly, juvenile name-calling tantrums against Trump and his supporters. How exactly do these ridiculous outbursts help Ted Cruz?
Every 10,000 “Trump is a Pussy-boi” = 1% more votes for Cruz?
Every 10,000 “Trump is like Obama” = 1% more votes for Cruz?
Every 10,000 “Trump is a Collectivist gurli-man” = 1% for Cruz?
I will vote for Cruz over Trump because Cruz has a well established, in-depth track record of principled conservative thought and action. He is not perfect (i.e. Obamatrade, H1b) but is intelligent and ready to fight tooth and nail for the country and Constitution..
I give sincere thanks that I was not dependent on Legal Insurrection, its handful of shill posters or its rabid and immature commenters to arrive at this conclusion. It’s too bad the place has turned into a romper room for the terminally self-absorbed.
I agree and for the same reason.
There was an agreement that when replying at Belmont Club,
4 and done, that is a reasonable system, which I may have reached.
TTFN
It’s a shame that you’re being forced to read and comment on a blog which is so obviously beneath you.
He is not perfect (i.e. Obamatrade, H1b) but is intelligent and ready to fight tooth
That and hiring Jeff Roe is why I will not be voting. Oh and that he never did anything but stood in the way and got bypassed but other then a minute bother didn’t affect things much.
Trump is running for the Republican nomination.
He’s behaving like a rabid, vindictive bully.
If you don’t think he’s going to be called out on that, you’re delusional.
How’s this temper tantrum strategy working out in the real world?
Oh, I think it’s hurting Der Donald badly.
I also think it’s time to take it away from him.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/3396/spoiled-rich-blowhard-brat-threatens-lawsuit-third-ben-shapiro#pq=v7XDGP
Trump keeps threatening legal action against Cruz, because Trump is an extremely litigious person and he likes to threaten people with lawsuits. He also likes to make a flurry in the news. But it also may well be that his lawyers have told him that it’s unlikely he has standing to sue.
True. Trump loves to sue. Especially his critics, and most especially when his critics are victims of his several frauds.
This got him in a little hot water in California last year. A woman was suing Trump for defrauding her via his now-defunct Trump University. She accused him as well as the other principals of bilking her out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Or, rather, Trump Enterprises, LLC as Trump is very well protected personally. But I’ll continue to refer to Trump as he’s the one controlling and directing its actions.
So Trump turned around and and sued the plaintiff for defamation. And ran afoul of California’s anti-SLAPP laws. Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation; many states have these laws because many people will maliciously sue others to intimidate or bankrupt them to deprive them of their First Amendment rights.
The judge found that was exactly what Trump had done. Consequently he had to pay nearly $800K in legal expenses on her behalf.
He’s still slandering that particular victim of his.
This seems to be a common practice of his.
But I very much doubt he’ll sue Cruz as it’s nearly certain the case would get laughed out of court. The threat to sue Cruz serves Trump’s interests much better as that keeps the silly nonsense alive as a potentially legitimate concern in the minds of certain people.
The only reason I’m not entirely certain Trump won’t sue is because he’s obviously not above calling the judge who throws it out of court a political hack, a loser, etc., and he could still keep the issue alive.
Trump should become the poster boy for loser pays legal reforms. As you noted, he knows he can’t win any defamation action because of the impossibly high standards of proof for public figures. But he also knows he has a lot deeper pockets than most of his critics. So he threatens, bullies and blusters his way through life.
Trump’s media strategy reminds me a lot of that of Oprah Winfrey. Everyone who ever does any work for Oprah has to sign nondisclosure contracts, plus she constantly threatens to sue over any news coverage that isn’t flattering. The word on the street in Chicago was she could be a beastly witch to work with, but it was never for attribution.
Egomaniacal control freaks gotta control.
Post-debate poll. Trump is still way in the lead in SC.
How does Trump’s standing in the polls counter any of the substantive points made in this post?
“Shut Up — He Won!” didn’t work to silence our criticisms of Obama, and simply throwing favorable polling figures out there is not going to get your man a free pass either.
Obama was mostly feted and praised and protected by the media before he was elected and for years afterward. It’s not close to the same thing.
Really? Trump has been getting several times the media coverage of other Republican candidates and much of it doesn’t cover his lies and his inconsistencies. Indeed, some if revels in his name calling and profane behavior because he is a celebrity.
Your argument is wrong for the following reason. obama got loving praise form the msm along with no vetting and most of the coverage. Trump is getting most of the msm coverage even though it is not loving and he is not being vetted either. In other words both got most of the coverage and with the American voter publicity seems to be the trick no matter what kind of publicity it is. If the liberal msm really wanted to stop Trump don’t you think they could by vetting him and his anti conservative positions over the years? Have you Trumpets asked yourselves why? I think it is because they know that in the general election he hasn’t a prayer of defeating hillary or whomever the Dems throw up .
Great another Ross Perot…just what the country needs
Since Iowa, we’ve learned the following about Donald Ducks…
1. He’ll sell out to crony capitalists. He did it in Iowa with BIG ETHANOL, AND he lied about why he did it: “…to Make America Great Again”. Bullshit! If we needed ethanol as a motor fuel, the market would be driving its use. Instead, we have another Solyndra-type boondoggle…with T-rump’s blessing.
2. T-rump thinks the same as Bernie Sanders about trade.
3. T-rump thinks the same as Bernie Sanders about market economics. That is, he’s a Collectivist who thinks a COMMAND economy is superior to a market economy. He sounded like an OccupyWallStreeter WRT oil, defense, pharma, and insurance.
4. He STILL thinks Planned Abortionhood is swell. Did he ever really NOT think that? Or was that just one of his lies?
5. He STILL thinks Federal control of YOUR health-care is swell. He proposes a fascist economics hodge-podge of “private sector deals” (when he’s the federal government forcing the “deals”), backed-stopped by federal funding for everyone who’s left uncovered. No “bodies in the street”!
6. His vaunted “papers” (about which he’s remarkably ignorant) he admits were mostly “for the press”. His followers don’t need them, he claims.
7. He’s a full-on Code Pink believer WRT 9/11 and the Iraq war, surpassing a lot of people on Kos.
8. He lies constantly and without the least compunction.
9. He’s a vulgarian, character assassin, and passive-aggressive back-stabber who thinks he’s clever.
10. He embraces Kelo takings, and has happily lied about them being like pipeline ROW.
11. He thinks he can blackmail the entire American political process against any party opponent he wants to via the use of threats.
If you support him after all this, you are, like him, a Collectivist. Up to you, of course. Just make peace with the reality. Make peace with the fact you support a fraud, liar, and tyrannical narcissist for the highest position of power in the world.
But DO encourage him to stop with the threats. Get on or get off. But STFU and DO IT.
“Threats aplenty and approximately zero action.” Why, that’s the Art of the Deal! That’s Trumphalism!
Trumph hears himself speaking his ‘positive’ power mantras over and over and then believes things magically happen – they materialize out of regurgitated positivism. But what is regurgitated is a whole lot of insecurities and projections into the face of Cruz courage.
I do find it strange that a man of Trump’s sense of self is already finding it necessary to set up others to take the fall if he either a) doesn’t get the nomination or b) gets it and loses.
A more cynical person than I might wonder if he has been chumming all the time looking for an excuse to disrupt the election more than he already has done. Imagine the effect of him going 3rd party – perhaps his true base will follow him but IMO those that would have reluctantly voted for him if he’d been the Republican nominee would not. Net result a W in the Dem column. Maybe that is what the GOP deserves but not the nation.
Trump supporters like to say that he’s changed his mind on a whole lot of issues. I wish someone would make him state when and why all those epiphanies occurred. Why did the Trump who said that as President he would place no controls on partial birth abortion become pro life. When did the Trump who hires illegal alien steel workers to build he high rises decide America needed tougher border controls?
Most people who do an about face on any issue can tell you exactly what caused the scales to fall from their eyes. Roger L. Simon wrote that when he and his wife read the indictment in Gosnell they decided that if being pro choice meant supporting that house of horrors, they weren’t pro choice anymore. David Horowitz marked his transition from the far left to the right with the story of how a friend was murdered by the Black Panthers simply for doing her job trying to account for federal grant money.
So when and why did Trump stop being a big state, leftist oligarch? Tell us the story Donald.
February 16, 2016
QUESTION ASKED: Is Donald Trump a Leftist in Disguise?
LOLZ – disguise!
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/226827/#respond
Go to the link for the excellent graphic.
Heh…!!!
http://www.weeklystandard.com/after-911-trump-took-money-marked-for-small-businesses/article/2001099
Huh…
New York City values, I guess…
I am getting too many notifications on this thread – help can someone show me how to cancel this option.
it’s driving up the wall.
On other sites, when I’ve opted for notifications, it was ONLY to my postings.
Thanks for any help.
I’ve read all the posts above and as far as the Cruzbot posts, which is the vast majority of posts above, a more disconnected from reality and failure to grasp what is happening around them one could not find. Combine that with all their built in prejudices because they support other candidates and somehow think if they can make up the silliest things about Trump it will somehow help their candidate and you get the cacophony of cluelessness and childish posts above.
Here to help all the cruzbots is an article from the daily post.
http://nypost.com/2016/02/15/donald-trump-has-invented-a-new-way-to-win/
There’s this, too: Every new president since the ’70s (at least) has been the guy who invented a fresh way to win.
I closed a column last February with this:
“A winning Republican has to connect with regular Americans in ways that call out the liberal establishment. The New York Times and the networks always called Reagan an extremist. He kept right on talking past their noise.
“His ability to do that was what they really hated about him. America needs a Republican they’ll hate every bit as much.”
I was thinking of a regular Republican who could establish real working-class appeal. Trump has instead started with the working-class appeal, and built outward from there.
Which sure sounds like a new way to win.
Geeepers…
The Collectivist Bierhall Bullyboi Britt quoting himself.
Impressive…
But he DOES love everything he posts. You can tell by the fact he “votes” for it as soon as he posts it, queering the apparent approval of it.
Unless lying is a new way to win, I don’t think that Trump has invented anything.
My posts are all below. Can I still be a Cruzbot?
Most people, when quoting someone else’s work, put it in quotation marks.
Unless your name is Mark Cunningham, you should probably make it clear that those are his words, not yours.
The president of the United States is the commander in chief of our forces and has the ultimate responsibility when it comes to the conduct of American officials gathering intelligence about potential actions harmful to this country. I have made it clear in my campaign that I would support and endorse the use of enhanced interrogation techniques if the use of these methods would enhance the protection and safety of the nation. Though the effectiveness of many of these methods may be in dispute, nothing should be taken off the table when American lives are at stake. The enemy is cutting off the heads of Christians and drowning them in cages, and yet we are too politically correct to respond in kind.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/02/15/donald-trump-torture-enhanced-interrogation-techniques-editorials-debates/80418458/
“The enemy is cutting off the heads of Christians and drowning them in cages, and yet we are too politically correct to respond in kind.”
Huh.
I frankly doubt the effectiveness of T-rump’s suggestion that we cut off the heads of Christians and/or drown them in cages.
What a moron.
I’m glad that Trump has chosen this position. I am, however, uneasy about whether he has chosen it because he believes it, or because he knows that it will appeal to a demographic that he needs to shore up.
This campaign season has proved to me over and over that honor and fidelity to the truth are very elastic concepts in Donald Trump’s mind, to the extent that he contemplates them. I believe that Trump’s promises, no matter how convincingly they are made, are inoperative at birth. He believes that his results will sell you whether his methods align with your principles or not. There is truth in that, a certain adaptive quality in human nature, but there is no empirical evidence that Trump will be able to deliver results that conservatives will applaud, or even that he’ll care to.
For example, do I believe that Trump will legalize most illegal aliens through amnesty (the forgiving of their being here illegally) as he says he will? Yes of course. He’ll be applauded by all the wrong people when he does. Do I think he will deport those people before making that happen? Don’t be silly. That will be expensive and he would have to invest massive amounts of political capital to realize that goal, and in the end it would have zero material effect on the outcome. When the investment greatly exceeds the expected return, you don’t do it, unless it’s a matter of principle. Trump’s principles are “what works and what doesn’t.”
Lest anyone who hasn’t watched Trump in the debates and doesn’t listen to his full speeches on the stump be confused.
Trump is saying above what he said in the debates. That he would bring back water boarding and other enhanced non-torture interrogations in the limited cases where they might be useful in saving USA lives.
He is of course not advocating beheadings etc. He is saying if they are doing medieval things like beheading and real torture we shouldn’t be so PC as to ban waterboarding and other non-torture methods of interrogation.
After listening to Trump attempt to struggle through questions concerning national security/foreign affairs issues I have to doubt he actually wrote that piece himself.
Yes, the President is the CinC and is ultimately responsible for protecting the country. And Trump has also embarrassed himself so many times over the span of months on national security and defense issues that he’s disqualified himself from consideration.
I’ll use as my starting point point his interview with Hugh Hewitt last September 3rd in which Trump performed so badly, Trump accused Hewitt of asking gotcha questions. Then after the interview called called Hewitt a loser. I’ve listened to that interview on Hugh Hewitt’s website.
You know what one of those gotcha questions was about? The difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Trump didn’t know.
Hugh Hewitt is perhaps the gentlest of interviewers. When it became clear that Trump just didn’t know rather then let Trump continue to try to bumble around and bluff his way through until he stumbled across an answer, Hugh would change the subject back to something Trump was comfortable with. But finally Hewitt went back and politely disagreed with Trump about the gotcha question thing. Here’s that part of the transcript:
“HH: all right, last question, I want to go back to the beginning, because I really do disagree with you on the gotcha question thing, Donald Trump. At the debate, I may bring up Nasrallah being with Hezbollah, and al-Julani being with al-Nusra, and al-Masri being with Hamas. Do you think if I ask people to talk about those three things, and the differences, that that’s a gotcha question?
DT: Yes, I do. I totally do. I think it’s ridiculous.
HH: That’s interesting. I just disagree with that. I kind of figured that…
DT: All right, I think it’s ridiculous. I’ll have, I’m a delegator. I find great people. I find absolutely great people, and I’ll find them in our armed services, and I find absolutely great people. And now on the bigger picture, like the fact that our Kurds are being treated so poorly, and would really is the one group that really would be out there fighting for us, I think, and fighting for themselves, maybe more importantly to them, I understand that. But when you start throwing around names of people and where they live and give me their address, I think it’s ridiculous, and I think it’s totally worthless.
HH: Well, I wouldn’t do that. That’s crazy. I agree.
DT: Well, and by the way, the names you just mentioned, they probably won’t even be there in six months or a year.
HH: I don’t know. Nasrallah’s got such staying power.
DT: Well, let’s see what happens.
HH: And so I think the difference…
DT: And you know what? In that case, first day in office, or before then, right at the day after the election, I’ll know more about it than you will ever know. That I can tell you.
HH: Oh, I hope so. Last question, so the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas does not matter to you yet, but it will?
DT: It will when it’s appropriate. I will know more about it than you know, and believe me, it won’t take me long.
HH: All right, that, I believe.
DT: But right now, right now, I think it’s just something that, and you know what, if you ask these candidates, nobody’s going to be able to give you an answer. I mean, there may be one that studied it because they’re expecting a fresh question from you. But believe me, it won’t matter. I will know far more than you know within 24 hours after I get the job. ”
Trump is just flat wrong. EVERY candidate could answer these questions. If you can’t answer these questions, you shouldn’t even be interested in the job.
This has to be why Trump was caught so off guard at the 5th debate when Hugh Hewitt (again) asked him about which leg of the nuclear triad needed to be upgraded most urgently. It was obvious he didn’t know what the nuclear triad is. If you recall Trump was just wracking his brain trying to think what he could say about nuclear weapons. That was as far as his knowledge took him. He knew it had something to do with nuclear weapons. So he’d say stuff like, we have to stop proliferation, the big danger is some madman, nuclear changes the whole ballgame, the power, the destructiveness, you need someone who is total responsibility, blah, blah blah. Hoping something he’d toss out would be on point so Hewitt would say “good answer” (Hewitt does that during their interviews; he helps Trump out which is probably why Trump keeps coming back). But instead Hewitt tried to slightly reword the question so maybe Trump would catch on, but he has to warn Trump that because of time he’ll have to move on to Rubio in a second. Trump just didn’t have a clue what Hewitt was asking about so he throws around a few more non sequiturs until Hewitt has to move around on to Rubio.
And Rubio explains, for the folks at home naturally, who may never have heard the term, what it is in a way a six year old could understand.
I’m sorry Trump fans, but this is pathetic. These are the kinds of answers I’d expect Trump’s beauty pageant contestants to give if they were asked these questions. At worst. And I’d hardly be surprised if many of them could tell the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas, or give at least two out of three of legs of the nuclear triad.
If Trump could have only managed to remember on of the three legs of the nuclear triad he could have at least given a coherent answer. It probably would have been the wrong one out of three, but it would have been coherent.
Then after Trump’s code pink meltdown last Saturday night (yes, admit it, he came unglued) Trump came out with this at the press conference that is the topic of this thread:
“Well, that, the war with Iraq which started this whole thing, the whole thing starts with the war in Iraq. You know, Saddam Hussein was a terrible guy but one thing about him, he killed terrorists. Now Iraq is Harvard for terrorism. You want to become a terrorist, you go to Iraq. Saddam Hussein understood and he killed terrorists. Bad guy. But if the president and other people, and frankly, Obama was no better because the way he got us out was a disaster. Look what’s happened since then. A disaster. Shouldn’t have been there, shouldn’t have got out the way we got out. But if the president went to the beach, we would have been better off, believe me.”
This was another reason, he said, he came out prior to the invasion of Iraq and opposed it, he claims.
I’ve been ragging on Trump unmercifully over at the live GOP debate open thread. So I won’t repeat everything; I’ll just point out that Saddam Hussein was such an enthusiastic state supporter of terrorism that was one of the ceasefire conditions following Desert Storm in 1991; it demanded that he stop supporting terrorism. He didn’t; he doubled down on his support for terrorism. Ramzi Youssef who masterminded the 1993 WTC bombing entered the US on an Iraqi passport supplied by the Hussein Regime. So great was Hussein’s continued support for terrorism that was right up there with WMDs, equal in importance, as a justification for GWB to take action in the AUMF that Congress passed prior to the invasion. We captured Abu Abbas in Baghdad, murderer of Leon Klinghoffer. And we learned so much about Saddam’s terror ties that in 2003 the families of two victims of the 9/11 WTC attacks met the standard of evidence established in a US federal court in Manhattan that Saddam Hussein had in fact provided various forms of material support to the hijackers.
And Donald Trump thinks Saddam Hussein may have been a bad guy, but at least he killed terrorists. That’s just, moronic.
But I know what happened, because Trump consistently does this kind of thing. He confused Saddam Hussein with Muammar Ghaddafi.
Muammar Ghaddafi really did kill terrorists. In fact, he actually cooperated with the US in fighting terrorism, and even voluntarily gave up his WMD program. AFTER we ousted Hussein and after Hussein was executed.
It’s really mind boggling. Two different dictators in two different countries ON TWO DIFFERENT CONTINENTS deposed nearly a decade apart. And Trump can’t tell one from the other.
I’d expect a halfway informed man on the street wouldn’t know this. But a reasonably well informed one would know a lot more than Trump.
Trump constantly brags about how great he’s going to be on the military stuff, how he’ll know more than Hugh Hewitt in 24 hours, and he can’t learn a damned thing in six months. And I just picked three datapoints. I could go back further.
It’s like the guy has been living in a cave for 30 years. It’s amazing how he knows almost nothing about the world, and less than nothing about the most important issues of the time. Exactly the kind of things a President must know about. It’s bad enough he doesn’t know the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. I bet he also doesn’t know the difference between Sunni and Shia.
What makes you think a guy like this can be the CinC? Somebody who made it into his late 60s and never heard of the nuclear triad. Had he ever heard of the Cold War? He lived through it. I’m sure Trump would think that’s a gotcha question. I’m sure he thinks it’s a history question. No, it’s not. It’s baaack. Along with Putin. Who is now a great guy who doesn’t kill people because Putin said nice things about Trump.
The only thing that’s YUUUGE about Trump, as far as I can see, is the gap between the checks his mouth writes and how little his mind can actually cash.
If he can’t learn anything about foreign policy, national security, and defense in six months, what makes anyone think he’s going to be as great as he says he’s going to be on anything?
I think Trump is a man that has a lifetime of experience making threats to which the majority of subjects will respond as he wishes them to respond. He doesn’t elevate his game when dealing with competing candidates for president because it’s the only game he knows. Much like proverbial person in possession of only a hammer treating every problem like a nail, Trump treats every disagreement and confrontation as a business dispute, in which the only variables at stake are monetary.
There’s a contingent of Trump supporters out there who interpret every bad decision and rude or anti-conservative statement that comes out of his mouth to be some kind of Vulcan three-dimensional-chess move that mere mortals who have not written books about deals cannot comprehend with their puny brains. They live in a world of 9/11 Truther-level disassociation with common sense and ample evidence to the contrary.
The more likely truth is that Trump knows that being aggressive will ensure that you win more than you lose, and people believing you have an enormous stack of cash, whether true or not, makes winning even more likely.
I’m not sure if Cruz should dare him to do it in a high-profile way, or simply ignore the threats as unserious bluster from a blustery person. My inner conservative prefers the latter. My combative side longs for the former.
This. #NailedIt
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/16/weekly-standards-bill-kristol-makes-the-case-for-donald-trump/
John Nolte is really starting to get it !!! Cruzbots should read the entire article.
Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol Makes the Case for Donald Trump
We need a nominee who is going to win, and that means nominating someone who will do whatever it takes to win.
Never allow yourselves to forget that in 2012, Team Obama accused Mitt Romney of murder and of not paying his taxes for 10 years. Both bald-faced, outrageous lies. And the DC Media not only let them get away with it, the media delighted in the attacks.
This is the world in which we now live, this is today’s political landscape, these are the battle rules, and for the sake of our country we must nominate someone who understands this. Through his ruthless attacks against both Republicans and Democrats, Trump has already proven he gets it.
Trump fights like a leftist.
Trump fights like Obama.
Jeb Bush attacks Trump with tens of millions of negative ads, Trump goes right after Jeb’s family.
Ted Cruz attacks Trump with millions in negative ads, Trump goes right after Cruz’s integrity, faith, and eligibility.
But here’s the kicker… Something our useless, cowardly Establishment has already promised they will never do…
Hillary Clinton attacks Trump as sexist, Trump rips her throat out by bringing up Bill and Hillary’s female victims. The result is not only that Trump stands as the one person in 25 years to effectively fight past the Clintons’ Media Palace Guards and leave a mark, Hillary actually shut her lying mouth.
Here’s another blast from the past…
In 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
36%
was willing to gut Mitt Romney, but he wouldn’t touch Barack Obama’s disqualifying past.
In 2012, Mitt Romney was willing to gut Rick Perry, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t prosecute Benghazi.
Time and again and again our Establishment nominees have proven themselves perfectly capable of attacking their own, only to then fold like a cheap suit in the general election. The DC Media creates rules specifically designed to ensure Republicans lose, and our loser Republicans always play by them.
Not Trump.
The Establishment won’t fight, you say?
Well, no shit.
You’re just figuring that out now?
Probably, from somewhere deep within his patriotic sub-conscious, for the sake of America, Bill Kristol finally decided it was time to make the case against the Establishment.
Regardless, by exposing the truth about this hopelessly feckless group of serial-losers, that is exactly what he did.
“Trump fights like a leftist.”
Absolutely…!!!
Just EXACTLY like a LEFTIST. Because he IS a LEFTIST.
He’ll lie, cheat, steal, defraud, threaten, bully…whatever it takes.
Because he has as his only core Collectivism. He’s a statist puke. POWER is his god and his goal.
He has to be crushed. No less than any other Collectivist.
Cruz promised to vote for Trump if he is nominee so maybe your boy Cruz thinks Trump is good republican and thinks YOU ARE WRONG.
Trump fights like a leftist meaning HE FIGHTS as opposed to the establishment republicans who just bend over take it up the rear and say thank you may I please have another.
“But here’s the kicker… Something our useless, cowardly Establishment has already promised they will never do…
Hillary Clinton attacks Trump as sexist, Trump rips her throat out by bringing up Bill and Hillary’s female victims. The result is not only that Trump stands as the one person in 25 years to effectively fight past the Clintons’ Media Palace Guards and leave a mark, Hillary actually shut her lying mouth.”
Nothing says it better than that and its one of the BIG reasons Trump is kicking butt.
What you say Cruz says is probably a lie.
But in any event what Cruz says in TRUTH has no particular bearing on me.
Der Donald, like you, butt boi, is a lying Collectivist thug. That ilk has to be crushed.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/02/16/trump-schedules-msnbc-town-hall-opposite-cruz-and-rubios-cnn-town-hall/
Trump Schedules Competing MSNBC Town Hall Opposite Cruz, Rubio CNN Town Hall
Another example of Trump’s brilliance and aggressive fighting style !!
Gotta love a guy who knows how to fight to win !!
Trump 2016
If we wanted to be immersed in the Trumpbart blog, we would be over at the Trumpbart blog.
So now you are bitching I provided the link. In the last 7 days you bitched I didn’t provide the link. Before that you bitched I did provide the link. You just bitch either way that is clear.
I’m beginning to think maybe you are just like bitching.
But, Gaghdad…
you don’t “think”.
I’m pointing out that a ridiculous number of “your” comments here, whether attributed or not, are just cut & pastes from Trumpbart. And if we wanted to be reading walls of Trumpbart commentary, we’d be over at the Trumpbart blog doing that first-hand.
And please don’t lob swear words at me. It’s crude and childish.
Well Amy dear we aren’t married to each other and we aren’t having sex with each other so I don’t have to put up with your crazy bitching. .
Here is a clue. If you stop bitching at me I won’t have to ask you to stop.
It is only the Trumphophiles who Brittch and they Brittch endlessly.
They will Brittch if you don’t kiss their pontiff Trumph’s ring and genuflect to his flaming code pink encyclicals.
Oh my. The writings on the wall for the overgrown spoiled brat Trumph:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/17/conservative-icon-thomas-sowell-endorses-ted-cruz-says-trump-is-an-overgrown-spoiled-brat/
Brats, Britts and Brittching…
#SuckTrump on bsNBC.
Yay!
Guys – please continue conversation on one of the other LI threads, so I don’t keep getting bombarded with email notifications –
I screwed up as a newbee commenter and clicked the keep me notified.
keep arguing – but on a different post, PLEASE
You want everyone else to stop commenting on this post because you can’t figure out how to manage notifications? Really?
What part of
is beyond your ken?
Aaah, I see the problem.
Impeach Obama delegated the task to his barbie.
Ted Cruz hands out list of Trump’s donations to Dems; Says ‘file the lawsuit’
http://twitchy.com/2016/02/17/116000-dscc-ted-cruz-hands-out-list-of-trumps-donations-to-dems-says-file-the-lawsuit/
W00T!
BOOM!! CRUZ THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET TO TRUMP AND HIS ‘FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT’ THREAT!! [FULL PRESS CONFERENCE]
http://therightscoop.com/boom-cruz-throws-down-the-gauntlet-to-trump-and-his-frivolous-lawsuit-threat/
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/02/17/cruz-to-trump-go-ahead-and-sue-me-for-defamation-over-my-ad-ill-depose-you-myself/
OH, SHEEEEEET…!!!
THAT I’d pay to watch…!!!
Ruh-row…
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/surprise-trump-falls-behind-cruz-national-nbc-wsj-poll-n520296
Not one of the things Gaghdad Bob posted or predicted.
Huh… Wonder why…???