Donald Trump finally did a non-Fox News interview. It didn’t go very well.

[Wingnut]

When it comes to media relations, Donald Trump has never been Mr. Congeniality — but he has been Mr. Accessibility. Throughout the primary season, he was omnipresent on cable news and granted interviews to journalists one might have expected him to avoid, such as former Bill Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.

But lately the Republican presidential nominee has "mostly retreated to the relatively cozy confines of Fox News," as the Huffington Post's Michael Calderone put it this week.

Trump finally ventured out again Thursday night, appearing on CNN for the first time in more than two months. It didn't go very well. It went so not well, in fact, that you have to wonder whether his campaign will decide it's best to dodge the likes of Anderson Cooper and Chuck Todd — or, for that matter, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier — and stick to softball sessions with Sean Hannity and the "Fox & Friends" crew.

It didn't take long for Trump to get himself in a bind while speaking with Cooper. After wavering on his deportation plan in a sit-down with Hannity earlier in the week, the real estate mogul shifted again on CNN. Besides the policy changes, there was another key difference: While Hannity, an ardent Trump supporter, went along with his favored candidate, Cooper confronted him.

COOPER: You said on "Hannity," you used the word "softening." Even last night on "Hannity" you talked about ...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I don't think it's a softening. I think it's …

COOPER: But 11 million people are no longer going to be deported.

TRUMP: I've had people say it's a hardening, actually.

COOPER: But 11 million who have not committed a crime …

TRUMP: No, no. We're then going to see.

COOPER: There's going to be a path to legalization, is that right?

TRUMP: You know it's a process. You can't take 11 at one time and just say, boom, you're gone. We have to find where these people are. Most people don't even know where they are. Nobody even knows if it's 11. It could be 30 and it could be 5. Nobody knows what the number is.

COOPER: But if somebody hasn't committed a crime, will they be deported?

TRUMP: I'll tell you what we know. Let me explain. Let me tell you what — we know the bad ones. We know where they are, who they are. We know the drug cartel people. We know the gangs and the heads of the gangs and the gang members. Those people are gone. And that's a huge number.

COOPER: But isn't that …

TRUMP: No, it's not.

COOPER: But that's Jeb Bush's policy.

Later, a frustrated Trump lashed out at Cooper and CNN, which he has taken to calling the "Clinton News Network."

MORE:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/26/donald-trump-finally-did-a-non-fox-news-interview-it-didnt-go-very-well/

[bilo]

We've been stuck at that 11 million number for a long time. I bet it's more like 30 million+. Once all these people are "legalized" and begin voting the Rats will be the majority party again in no short order.

[r9etb]

Well.... the transcript provided really isn't all that bad.  At least, it doesn't read too badly -- Trump is basically saying that you can't deport 11 million people all at once (or whatever the number actually is).

And Anderson Cooper reads like he's trying extra hard for a gotcha, when a more reasonable approach would have been to press for specifics.

[Luis Gonzalez]

We've been stuck at that 11 million number for a long time. I bet it's more like 30 million+. Once all these people are "legalized" and begin voting the Rats will be the majority party again in no short order.

[HonestJohn]

I heard the number was 800 million.

 

[r9etb]

What is true is that Latino voters will become more important each and every election cycle and the GOP is alienating this group as never before.
The sad part, is that the  Latino's are ready to listen to conservative views and already believe in many core conservative viewpoints and could become
allies in large numbers. But noooooo trump and his ilk go for the insults and innuendos and racial divisions as their major message.

You're right about this. 

The conservative message is obvious and simple: "We value you because you work hard, take care of your family, and behave yourself.  As a political organization we want to make it easier for you to do those things."

What self-respecting adult wouldn't want to support a party that said that, and followed through?

[GrouchoTex]

I bet there's 11 million just in North Texas.

...and that's just out in front of the Home Depot.

[HonestJohn]

What is true is that Latino voters will become more important each and every election cycle and the GOP is alienating this group as never before.
The sad part, is that the  Latino's are ready to listen to conservative views and already believe in many core conservative viewpoints and could become
allies in large numbers. But noooooo trump and his ilk go for the insults and innuendos and racial divisions as their major message.

Yep.  Every single ethnic group in America has been, at one point or the other, insulted and disparaged by the modern GOP electorate. (post Civil Rights era - ie: from the mid-1960s to present)


 

[HonestJohn]

You're right about this. 

The conservative message is obvious and simple: "We value you because you work hard, take care of your family, and behave yourself.  As a political organization we want to make it easier for you to do those things."

What self-respecting adult wouldn't want to support a party that said that, and followed through?

No self-respecting adult would walk away from that... except if that message comes with a "Your kind ain't welcome here!" and a punch to the face.

And that's the modern GOP now.

[sinkspur]

Well.... the transcript provided really isn't all that bad.  At least, it doesn't read too badly -- Trump is basically saying that you can't deport 11 million people all at once (or whatever the number actually is).

And Anderson Cooper reads like he's trying extra hard for a gotcha, when a more reasonable approach would have been to press for specifics.

It doesn't read badly if you're into Trump-stream-of-consciousness talk.  It's clear he's just making stuff up on the fly.  Cooper is a tough interviewer, and he managed to get Trump to shift again, saying "well, maybe the answer will be yes" to importing 11 million.

Trump is such an ignorant man.  He has no business anywhere near the levers of American power.

[r9etb]

No self-respecting adult would walk away from that... except if that message comes with a "Your kind ain't welcome here!" and a punch to the face.

And that's the modern GOP now.

And that's too bad.  Many years ago my dad was teaching ESL classes to orchard workers, whose immigration status was often questionable.  (They were taking them through a community college, and presumably paying some sort of tuition.)  There was one guy, Javier, who worked hard, and my dad went out of his way for him a couple of times.  A few years ago my sister ran into Javier, who still reveres my dad.  He settled down and did very well, and his eight(!) children are all successful businesspeople in the area.

I suspect Javier was not a legal immigrant; but when I look at how hard he worked, and how well his family has turned out ... I just can't help but welcome that kind of person.

[r9etb]

It doesn't read badly if you're into Trump-stream-of-consciousness talk.  It's clear he's just making stuff up on the fly.  Cooper is a tough interviewer, and he managed to get Trump to shift again, saying "well, maybe the answer will be yes" to importing 11 million.

Trump is such an ignorant man.  He has no business anywhere near the levers of American power.

Trump was twisting, but you can nevertheless see a nugget of sense in what he's saying there.  My point was really only that, based on that exchange, the interview wasn't nearly as catastrophic for Trump as the reporter would have us believe.

Which in no way demonstrates Trump's fitness for the presidency.

[Suppressed]

I suspect Javier was not a legal immigrant; but when I look at how hard he worked, and how well his family has turned out ... I just can't help but welcome that kind of person.

Yeah, there are a bunch of Americans I'd like to trade for some hard-working illegals!