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Thursday, June 23, 2016

Trump's 'Great Memory' Under Fire in Trump U Deposition

He's boasted in the past to having a great memory but it seems less than great in the Trump U deposition.

"During sworn testimony in the Trump University lawsuit, Donald Trump repeatedly said he couldn't recall specific claims, documents or events related to the case, prompting a lawyer for the plaintiffs to ask if the real estate mogul considered himself to have “one of the best memories in the world.”

"In response, Trump said he thinks he has a “good” or a “great” memory, but doesn’t recall claiming it’s one of the world’s best, according to hours of previously unreleased testimony in which Trump was questioned by the plaintiffs' lawyer Jason Forge."

“So you don't remember saying that you have one of the best memories in the world?” Forge asked.

“I remember you telling me, but I don't know that I said it,” Trump replied.

"Three weeks earlier, during a conversation about 9/11 with NBC News reporter Katy Tur, Trump had said he had “the world’s best memory,” Tur reported.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-university-memory-224712#ixzz4CRFx6fPL

Sounds like the opposite-like he suffers from short term memory loss.

"The transcript of the testimony was filed in court Wednesday night, as lawyers and media organizations continue their battle over how much of the lawsuit should be available to the public."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-university-memory-224712#ixzz4CRGkHafO

Considering that this guy is so close to the nuclear codes, it certainly is in the public interest to get as much information as possible, especially considering he won't release his own tax returns.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/6/21/1540889/-Trump-FEC-report-is-why-taxes-must-be-released-he-may-be-bankrupt-again

Trump is good at one thing, that's for sure: blaming the victim and calling the kettle black.

"The documents provide the fullest picture yet of Trump’s lengthy depositions: Heated, drawn-out sessions tackling Trump’s business practices, the time he called the plaintiff’s lawyers “scam artists” and the questions about Trump's memory. For his part, Trump repeatedly defended Trump University, saying it was an opportunity to pass on his business expertise to people who need it but said he had little to do with day-to-day operations."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-university-memory-224712#ixzz4CRHPMMWC

Right. He had little to do with the day-to-day operations. Trouble is, people forked over all that cash under the false pretense that he would have something significant to do with day to day operations.

There is a real fight apace to make as much as this information public as possible-and the public interest is certainly in this direction.

"A coalition of news organizations is meanwhile pushing for Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the case, to order the release of videos of the depositions on the grounds that the Trump University lawsuit is a key issue in the presidential campaign and is illuminating about Trump himself. Two of them took place while Trump was on the campaign trail: One deposition was in December 2015 in New York, and another happened in January 2016, hours before holding a rally in Las Vegas."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-university-memory-224712#ixzz4CRHy2OFm

In other news, it seems Trump's unpredictability doesn't give him the asymmetric advantage it was cracked up to be. To the contrary, as a general campaign tactic, it's more a bug than a feature.

"The defining quality of Donald Trump’s bill of particulars against Hillary Clinton, laid out in a bullet-pointed speech Wednesday morning, is that much of it was fabricated or embellished. “A lot of what [Trump] just said is flatly not true,” noted NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell shortly after his comments concluded."

"To the extent that Trump’s comments were false, it was by design. As he does seemingly every time he gets into political trouble for running his mouth, Trump delivered his speech from a teleprompter, which means the inaccuracies were written into the prepared text instead of ad-libbed."

"But it’s worth setting aside the factual problems with Trump’s speech briefly to consider whether the attacks themselves, in their basic structure and interplay, should frighten Clinton and the Democrats or not."

"I contend they should not. As delivered, Trump’s remarks call into question whether he has the capacity to sustain a thematic line of criticism against Clinton beyond the “Crooked Hillary” sobriquet he perfected on Twitter. Though scripted, Trump’s remarks were scattershot and defensive. In that regard, and in the rather inelegant and desperate way they were deployed to change the current narrative of the race, they resemble the disorganized, information-dump-like attacks his primary campaign rivals aimed at him, just as their campaigns were about to falter. Everything all at once, but too little, too late."

https://newrepublic.com/article/134562/donald-trump-chaotic-attack-hillary-clinton-effectively

Indeed. That's the classic 'Everything but the kitchen sink' strategy that also failed for Rubio against Trump himself back in that late February debate.

"That’s a strange tack to take against someone like Hillary Clinton, who is already well defined in the public eye. Rather than identify her agreed-upon weaknesses and use them to paint a clear, confined case against her, Trump vomited up every negative Fox News soundbite and right-wing talking point he’s internalized about her in recent years, hoping the regurgitated mess would speak for itself."

"The final, chunky product might have served to remind avowed Clinton-haters what they dislike about her. But for anyone who wasn’t already sure what to think about her, the bile Trump generated provided little guidance."

Indeed. In a general election campaign, less isn't always more. What you need is an overall narrative as Obama had in 2012 and Hillary is developing against Trump.

Trump surely knows how to charm them over in the Trump U deposition.

"The lawyers addressed sprawling questions about Trump’s business practices and his involvement with Trump University, the real estate seminars that plantiffs in the California class-action lawsuit claim charged up to $35,000 but didn’t teach them useful business practices. At one point in 2012, Trump threatened to counter with a lawsuit against the plaintiffs and the lawyer questioning him. He also asked if one of the lawyers could please “not lick [her] finger” before handing him documents to look at."

“Would that be OK? It's disgusting,” Trump said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-university-memory-224712#ixzz4CRKGGorI

Now that's a negotiator.

UPDATE: An informal count shows Trump saying he doesn't remember 59 times in deposition.

https://twitter.com/cwgile/status/746087296269705216

World's greatest memory.

2 comments:

  1. I read it on RedState (I left you a link in you latest post)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike, you've got to see this HBO Sports video on Trump's golf course in Scotland:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-gb2Fnhz5o

    ReplyDelete