LGBTQ news and entertainment
Donald Trump, currently falling in the polls for the GOP nomination (currently 3rd now in Iowa), refuses to acknowledge he has no proof to backup his claim that on 9/11 he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheering at the World Trade Center being attacked.
At least Chuck Todd tries here to get a real answer from Trump: “You’re running for President of the United States! Your words matter! Truthfulness matters! Fact-based stuff matters!”
The latest Reuters poll reveals GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump has dropped 12 points in less than a week, his largest single poll-to-poll drop since he took the primary lead in July.
Trump drew 31% of Republicans, but fell from 43% support registered on Nov. 22.
This follows Trump’s calls for added surveillance of mosques and a possible registry/database of U.S. Muslims – all of which caused comparisons to Nazi Germany’s registration of Jews.
Other results of the poll:
• Ben Carson 15%
• Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio 8%
• Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 7%
Donald Trump has stepped in it yet again.
While defending his claim (thoroughly debunked by major media outlets) that “thousands and thousands” cheered at the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11 over in New Jersey, Trump mocked a reporter – Serge Kovaleski – who now works for the New York Times.
The real estate mogul flailed his arms stiffly as he imitated Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times reporter who suffers from arthrogryposis, which limits joint movement.
Mr Kovaleski had provoked The Donald’s ire by disputing his claim to have witnessed “thousands” of Arab-Americans in New Jersey cheering as the World Trade Centre crumbled on 11 September 2001 – a long-discredited conspiracy theory, for which Mr Trump failed to present a scrap of evidence. “The sad part about it is, it didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record,” Mr Kovaleski told The Washington Post.
As a reporter at the New York Daily News in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Kovaleski covered Trump’s business dealings, and met the the real estate magnate on several occasions.
Trump had been citing Kovaleski’s Washington Post article written in the aftermath of 9/11: “Law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river.”
Trump’s original statement said that Trump himself witnessed seeing “thousands and thousands” cheering.
When asked about the article, Kovaleski said he doesn’t remember seeing actual people celebrating the attacks. “We did a lot of shoe leather reporting in and around Jersey City and talked to a lot of residents and officials for the broader story. Much of that has, indeed, faded from memory … I do not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating. That was not the case, as best as I can remember.”
After much backlash for his comment, Trump issued this statement:
You can see Trump’s mocking Kovaleski below:
New Day For America PAC (supporting Republican John Kasich) has issued this ad letting Donald Trump’s words speak for himself.
I do appreciate the one word question: “Presidential?”
File under #InfightingIsFun.
Hardly presidential here.
The crowd in Columbus, Ohio, was practically asleep until he insulted two hecklers. The insult – “You can get ’em the hell out” – got him his biggest response.
Red, White, and You PAC, a Nashville-based group, has released a country song called “Vote for Trump,” which seems to provide Donald Trump with the “official” anthem he really deserves.
“Our hope in branding ourselves as a political action committee is to make our song appear to be a legitimate anthem in support of Trump,” Tom Maxwell, the song’s co-creator, said in an email.
“Red, White, and You PAC and our song “Vote For Trump” are satirical and were created with the purpose of drawing attention to the absurdity of Donald Trump’s candidacy,” Maxwell continued.
“We haven’t raised any money and absolutely do not support Donald Trump for President of the United States.”
Take a listen below:
Donald Trump posted a video today that implies that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “laughed” as the attacks on American diplomats were under attack in Benghazi.
From Talking Points Memo:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump posted a video to Instagram Monday that mocked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s laugh, superimposing video of her chuckling over newspaper headlines about her emails and fiery images from the Benghazi attacks.
At one point, Trump’s video showed Clinton laughing during her recent 11-hour testimony before the House Benghazi committee over footage of the burning diplomatic compound. Trump captioned the video with, “Hillary, there is nothing to laugh about.”
Trump captioned the video “Hillary, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Via @washingtonpost 9/18/01. I want an apology! Many people have tweeted that I am right! https://t.co/CpsMxs54qv pic.twitter.com/wrDEhXJlvR
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2015
Originally, Trump said there were “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating 9/11 over in New Jersey the day of the attack.
The image he tweets out says “law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people..?”
When does “a number of people” equal “thousands and thousands?”
Both Politifact and The Washington Post’s Fact Checker analyzed Trump’s claim. Politifact rated it “pants on fire” and The Washington Post gave it “four Pinocchios.”
Although, I know we shouldn’t get too nit-picky over details like the truth. As David Badash at New Civil Rights Movement notes, 74% of Trump’s comments reviewed by Politifact are found to be false.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday, Donald Trump made the ridiculous claim that he saw “thousands” cheer in New Jersey on 9/11: “I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down, and I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down,” he said.
Trump doubled down on that assertion today on ABC This Week:
On Sunday, in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump reiterated his claim. “There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations, he said. “There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
“I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down,” Trump said Sunday. “That tells you something.”
“It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time.”
Actually, it wasn’t: according to both the Associated Press and the New York Times, there are no accounts of such demonstrations taking place in contemporary news reports.
Watch below:
A fight broke out between a Black Lives Matter protester and other Trump rally attendees: https://t.co/ZA31BJ8bT2 pic.twitter.com/mO2RuhmnPS— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 21, 2015