Trump: Attacking the Khans Was not a Mistake

In a CNBC interview this morning, he was asked if what he said about them was a mistake: his answer was that depends what the definition of a mistake is. So, in other words, it wasn't a mistake.

He's standing by trashing Gold Star parents.

https://twitter.com/alivitali/status/763713037329104896

Of course, it's a vain question in a sense. Trump doesn't make mistakes, he's just always being taken out of context. The media is being unfair to him.

Again, that's the game when you're President. What you say will be parsed. This is the problem with saying things just because they're 'politically incorrect.'

You say the wrong thing and markets can crash and wars can start the world over, or terrorist attacks can happen. It's not a job you want to be talking off the cuff all the time on.

In other news, Keith Olbermann reminisces:

"Hey @seanhannity remember when you would tell me in the hall at ABC Radio you were amazed anybody believed you since it was just theater?"

https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/763583807018635264

"With the rise of Trump, it's amazing that this is happening in conjunction with the fall of Fox News. With Roger Ailes being hoisted on his own shameful petard, and the rise of Trump, you wonder what the future of Fox News is."

Lately, Hannity is having a tough time of it:

"Question of the Day: Are Republicans who refuse to endorse Trump sabotaging him and helping to elect Clinton? Weigh in."

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/763570751769153540

Now you have everyone from Bret Stephens to CNN calling Hannity out for not being a journalist. This was always true but it didn't use to be pointed out.

Meanwhile, everything points to the fact that Trump may not debate-a good chance he doesn't debate in all three debates-and is making lots of excuses already:

"One of the 10 or 15,000 Donald Trump subdramas heading into the fall is the question of whether the Republican presidential nominee will participate in all three scheduled debates. It’s usually taken for granted that major-party candidates will agree to the Commission on Presidential Debates’ schedule, but there’s no law requiring it, and Trump has never seen a political norm he hasn’t considered razing and building something gaudy over. And over the past couple of weeks, he’s laid the groundwork for not participating in the debates by suggesting that they are, in some nebulous way, a trap he can’t agree to until he’s carefully combed through the conditions."

"Don’t be fooled. He’s going to do them. Well, at least he’ll do one of them, and see how much he likes it. What he first needs is some face-saving adjustment to the schedule, the debate rules, the debate hall, or whatever. It doesn’t matter what it is, and it doesn’t even have to be an alteration that’s tactically advantageous. The whole point of his debate moaning is just to act as another dominance play to demonstrate his ability to wield leverage in negotiating a deal."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/08/why_donald_trump_is_moaning_that_the_debates_will_be_rigged.html

Either Jim Newell has been reading Josh Marshall-who invented a meme called dominance politics-or they share a brain.

The Hillary team is pretty good, though, as even Scott Adams now has to admit.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/148740944816/trump-prediction-update

"The Clinton campaign has been attempting to goad Trump into making a definitive commitment to the debates as-is. In a statement on Monday saying Clinton would accept the commission’s invitation, campaign chair John Podesta noted how it’s “concerning that the Trump campaign is already engaged in shenanigans around these debates. It is not clear if he is trying to avoid debates, or merely toying with the press to create more drama.” Podesta added that “the only issue now is whether Donald Trump is going to show up to the debate at the date, times, places and formats set by the commission last year through a bipartisan process.”

"Trump told Time on Tuesday that he would “absolutely do three debates” and that he “wants to debate very badly.” But first, he said, “I have to see the conditions.” It’s an amateur move from the supposed greatest negotiator in history to first say, on the record, “I will absolutely do three debates,” before saying that he needs to see the conditions before agreeing to anything. If he were to skip now—and he will go back and forth about what he’s thinking publicly several times before this is over—he would look like he’s broken a commitment. Not that anyone, even his supporters, expects his word to carry much weight."