It has always been a struggle to determine what Donald Trump is proposing, as he changes his positions so often that it difficult to square what he says one day with what he said the day or months before. A classic illustration of how quickly Trump changes positions on issues came when in the course of a day, a woman who has an abortion should suffer a penalty translated to that same person being a "victim."
The initial attempt for a surrogate to offer a way to interpret Trump probably came when spokeswoman Hope Hicks said that what Trump says should not be taken literally, but figuratively. Very recently, a surrogate was trying to explain why Trump has not held a news conference since July 2016, when Trump had blasted Hillary Clinton for not holding press conferences. The surrogate started out by arguing that Donald Trump was a very precise person, who gathers his facts together before giving them out to the public. The interviewer then said that the Trump campaign had previously advised the public to take Trump seriously, not literally The surrogate replied that it was figuratively, not literally, but his own advice was to take him "symbolically."
Kellyanne Conway, the new special adviser to Donald Trump, has had to twist herself into a pretzel many times while trying to explain away what Trump was saying since she joined his campaign team. I believe it was during the six-day period beginning with August 20, when Trump was debating with himself about whether he was softening or hardening his position on immigration, that Kellyanne finally had enough of trying to explain Trump's position, and simply advised everyone to "stay tuned."
An excerpted video of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interview of Kellyanne provides an insight into Kellyanne's spin technique in defending the indefensible regarding Donald Trump:
Maddow started the segment by playing a big lie in Donald Trump's post-election stump speech:
"How about when a major anchor who hosted a debate started crying when she realized we won," Donald Trump said lyingly. "No, tell me this isn't true."
Rachel Marrow corrected the record.
"We know from the number of times he's told that story that he is talking about Martha Raddatz," Maddow said to Conway. "Martha Raddatz did not, in fact, cry on election night. She did not say, 'No tell me this isn't true.' There were no tears streaming down her face. What I am bothered by is the way he is singling her out. Not just with wrong information but singling her out. Is this how even a reporter like Martha Raddatz is going to be treated by this president?"
"No. And I would have updates, but they are privately held," Conway said. "We've been discussing this with ABC News. I've talked to the president of ABC News directly, and I have talked to the president-elect. And look, we all have enormous respect for Martha Raddatz as a journalist. ... I would like to broaden the conversation if I may in terms of..."
Rachel did not allow her to spin away.
"But wait. Are we going to get an apology from the president-elect on that?" Maddow forcefully asked. "He is telling a story about her that is not true and telling it to great effect and having people jeer her. Will he correct this?"
"So apologies like this are not made publicly necessarily," Kellyanne responded.
"But the accusation was made publicly," said Maddow.
"So the accusation was made by a number of people," Kellyanne said. "I am just telling you I've got an update to what you presented there. That's all I will say. And it will make you happy."
"Just to stay specific to Martha Raddatz here," Maddow said. "He did say something about her publicly that isn't true and until he corrects it publicly, the people who heard him say it will continue to believe a untrue thing about a woman who doesn't deserve it. I will just make that case to you."
What has spoken to me most forcefully about the smallness of Kellyanne Conway's character is her characterization as "magnanimous," Donald Trump's post-election announcement that he will not seek a special prosecutor for Hillary Clinton. Trump spent an entire campaign trying to criminalize Clinton. There is that indelible image of him leaving his podium in one of the debates, looming over Clinton, and telling her that one of the first things he would do if elected president would be to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her criminal behavior. And what criminal behavior is Trump alluding to?
Benghazi was an obsessive Republican vendetta against Clinton, in which multiple investigations found no evidence of criminal behavior. Giving well-paid speeches to Wall Street was likely a mistake in judgment but was not in any way criminal behavior. Her use of a private email server while secretary of state was extensively investigated by the FBI and no laws were found to be broken. Although quid pro quos were alleged in the operation of the Clinton Foundation, no smoking guns were found to have been fired. When a quid pro quo seemed to have been found by CBS News in an exchange of emails between an FBI agent and a member of Clinton's staff, anchor Scott Pelley had to appear the next night, and, like a whipped puppy, disavow the previous night's contention. If, however, statutes of limitations had not protected Donald Trump from sexual assault charges and business practices that may have exceeded lawful bounds, then we may have had a story with legs.
ADDENDUMS:
*The Pentagon has buried a study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste, fearing slashing of its budget. The Pentagon is spending about a quarter of its budget on overhead and core business operations, such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management.
*Donald Trump wants to cancel a contract with Boeing to build a new Air Force One, saying it will cost over $4 billion. Boeing has a $170 million contract to design a replacement. If the contract with Boeing is canceled, the most logical manufacturer to build a new Air Force One is Airbus of France.
*In the presidential campaign, Donald Trump stated of intelligence agents: "I won't use them, because they've made such bad decisions."
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