Why Do Republicans Fall for the White Supremacy Trap?
The media used the same playbook for Trump and Rep. Steve King: misquotation and false accusations.
by Jack Cashill
October 6, 2020, 12:03 AM
No one watching the presidential debate Tuesday night understood the trap “moderator†Chris Wallace set for President Trump better than Iowa Rep. Steve King. As a result of that trap, King is now serving his final days as a congressman.
The mechanics of the trap were painfully obvious. As his opening gambit, Wallace asked Trump a question fully irrelevant to the state of the nation: “Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups?â€
“Sure,†replied Trump. The questioning should have ended there, but when Wallace persisted, Trump made the appropriate rejoinder, “Sure, I’m prepared to do it, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace.â€
Instead of exploring the incessant left-wing violence that has crippled any number of cities, Wallace and Biden tag-teamed Trump into an ambiguous declaration about the Proud Boys, a curiously interracial, right-wing group 90 percent of the audience had previously not heard of, including possibly the president.
Trump said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the Left.†As Christopher Caldwell observes in his book The Age of Entitlement, all it takes to be a racial pariah today is “some imperfectly calibrated phrase,†and perfect calibration has never been Trump’s strong suit.
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https://spectator.org/steve-king-white-supremacy/
