He wrote a Politico piece that claims that's' now what he did and that he would never play gotcha.
"I try not to play Jeopardy with candidates, instead providing initial context and more context when asked. When I asked Governor Christie for his response to China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea this week, I didn’t frame it “Do you know which countries are building artificial islands and where and for what purpose?” That’s a “gotcha” question. Instead I asked Christie about how he’d respond after I told him we were talking about the PRC’s specific push. Not a “gotcha question.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/i-didnt-ask-trump-gotcha-questions-213124#ixzz3kxsU7bHC
"Donald Trump stumbled when asked about the heads of major terrorist organizations on Thursday and then lashed out at what he called a "gotcha question."
"Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, blasted conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview and said it is "ridiculous" to be questioned about who leads Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Nusra and ISIS."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/03/politics/donald-trump-gotcha-question-terrorist-leaders-hugh-hewitt/
I mean in all honestly who knows this? Hewitt then said that he thinks we need a Commander in Chief who knows this without a scorecard. Really? You have to know the name of every head of state and every terrorist organization or you can't do the job?
I mean I try to keep up with current events and politics but it's not like I could have named who runs these four terrorist fronts.
Look, I'm not going to vote for Trump no matter what-unless the choice was between him and Jeb Bush-but that's a dumb reason not to vote for him. And then Josh Marshall points out that when you look at the question while Carly Fiorina is praised for acing the question, her answer leads something to be desired as well.
"I take a backseat to no one in thinking Donald Trump is an ignoramus and a buffoon. But theTimes, having repeatedly stumbled in its coverage of the Iran deal and politicized foreign policy, should do better than to take Hugh Hewitt's word for it in judging foreign policy reality. I mean, really? Trump stumbled when he apparently thought Hewitt was referring to the Kurds when he asked him about the Iranian Quds Force and its commander Qasem Soleimani. In isolation, the two words can be easy to mishear. But in context, this tells us what we know, which is that Trump knows virtually nothing about anything happening in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Fiorina gets the Times seal of approval because she's been tutored in the kind of Movement Conservative bromides Hewitt is tasked to enforce."
"Let's look at what Fiorina said when Hewitt asked her if she knew the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah. She said: "Hamas is focused in Palestinian territories. Hezbollah focuses in Beirut and other places, but the truth is, both of them are proxies of Iran. Both of them threaten Israel.”
Hewitt gleamed: “That’s exactly right." And Times gave the thumbs up as well.
"Well, that's actually not exactly right. And it's the kind of detail that is helpful to know if your policies are aimed at making you more than a blundering fool."
"If you've been paying attention, Iran had been a longtime patron of Hamas, despite being on either side of the Shia-Sunni divide. But that alliance fell apart when Hamas sided with the Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Al-Assad. Mutual opposition to Israel was the basis of the ties. But differences over the Syrian Civil War, where the preservation of the Syrian Alewite regime and by extension Iran's hand into Lebanon, were too much to overcome. This is why the leader of Hamas' political arm, Khaled Mashal, was compelled to relocate from Damascus to Qatar in 2012. And since then Hamas has had to rely more for financial support from Gulf Arabs who see the 21st century Middle East, not without some reason, riven by the Sunni-Shia divide."
"There have some reports and signs that the Iranians have tried to reinvigorate this shuttered alliance in the aftermath of the last Gaza War. But little appears to have come of these efforts - if the reports were even true - because of the central important of protecting the Syrian regime and the impossibility of bridging the polarization of Gulf State Sunni money and Iran."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/let-us-not-rely-on-hewitt-fatwas
In 2000 Gore aced a quiz like this while W flunked and it didn't help Gore too much.
I would agree that certain gaffes like this can be deadly like when Rick Perry couldn't even name the three government agencies he planned to shutdown or Sarah Palin's talk of seeing Russia from her window.
But knowing the exact name of the leader of Hamas or Hezbollah as a dealbreaker-I don't buy it.
"I try not to play Jeopardy with candidates, instead providing initial context and more context when asked. When I asked Governor Christie for his response to China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea this week, I didn’t frame it “Do you know which countries are building artificial islands and where and for what purpose?” That’s a “gotcha” question. Instead I asked Christie about how he’d respond after I told him we were talking about the PRC’s specific push. Not a “gotcha question.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/i-didnt-ask-trump-gotcha-questions-213124#ixzz3kxsU7bHC
But if you look at the interview, that's basically what he did.
"Donald Trump stumbled when asked about the heads of major terrorist organizations on Thursday and then lashed out at what he called a "gotcha question."
"Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, blasted conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview and said it is "ridiculous" to be questioned about who leads Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Nusra and ISIS."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/03/politics/donald-trump-gotcha-question-terrorist-leaders-hugh-hewitt/
I mean in all honestly who knows this? Hewitt then said that he thinks we need a Commander in Chief who knows this without a scorecard. Really? You have to know the name of every head of state and every terrorist organization or you can't do the job?
I mean I try to keep up with current events and politics but it's not like I could have named who runs these four terrorist fronts.
Look, I'm not going to vote for Trump no matter what-unless the choice was between him and Jeb Bush-but that's a dumb reason not to vote for him. And then Josh Marshall points out that when you look at the question while Carly Fiorina is praised for acing the question, her answer leads something to be desired as well.
"I take a backseat to no one in thinking Donald Trump is an ignoramus and a buffoon. But theTimes, having repeatedly stumbled in its coverage of the Iran deal and politicized foreign policy, should do better than to take Hugh Hewitt's word for it in judging foreign policy reality. I mean, really? Trump stumbled when he apparently thought Hewitt was referring to the Kurds when he asked him about the Iranian Quds Force and its commander Qasem Soleimani. In isolation, the two words can be easy to mishear. But in context, this tells us what we know, which is that Trump knows virtually nothing about anything happening in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Fiorina gets the Times seal of approval because she's been tutored in the kind of Movement Conservative bromides Hewitt is tasked to enforce."
"Let's look at what Fiorina said when Hewitt asked her if she knew the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah. She said: "Hamas is focused in Palestinian territories. Hezbollah focuses in Beirut and other places, but the truth is, both of them are proxies of Iran. Both of them threaten Israel.”
Hewitt gleamed: “That’s exactly right." And Times gave the thumbs up as well.
"Well, that's actually not exactly right. And it's the kind of detail that is helpful to know if your policies are aimed at making you more than a blundering fool."
"If you've been paying attention, Iran had been a longtime patron of Hamas, despite being on either side of the Shia-Sunni divide. But that alliance fell apart when Hamas sided with the Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Al-Assad. Mutual opposition to Israel was the basis of the ties. But differences over the Syrian Civil War, where the preservation of the Syrian Alewite regime and by extension Iran's hand into Lebanon, were too much to overcome. This is why the leader of Hamas' political arm, Khaled Mashal, was compelled to relocate from Damascus to Qatar in 2012. And since then Hamas has had to rely more for financial support from Gulf Arabs who see the 21st century Middle East, not without some reason, riven by the Sunni-Shia divide."
"There have some reports and signs that the Iranians have tried to reinvigorate this shuttered alliance in the aftermath of the last Gaza War. But little appears to have come of these efforts - if the reports were even true - because of the central important of protecting the Syrian regime and the impossibility of bridging the polarization of Gulf State Sunni money and Iran."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/let-us-not-rely-on-hewitt-fatwas
In 2000 Gore aced a quiz like this while W flunked and it didn't help Gore too much.
I would agree that certain gaffes like this can be deadly like when Rick Perry couldn't even name the three government agencies he planned to shutdown or Sarah Palin's talk of seeing Russia from her window.
But knowing the exact name of the leader of Hamas or Hezbollah as a dealbreaker-I don't buy it.
P.S. And this is a good sign Tea Party Nation isn't buying it either-Laura Ingraham is denouncing Hewitt.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/laura-ingraham-hugh-hewitt-donald-trump
"P.S. And this is a good sign Tea Party Nation isn't buying it either-Laura Ingraham is denouncing Hewitt."
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of strife I like.