RNC Spokesman Can’t Point To Anything That Was Incorrect About Hillary’s Reno Speech
In the Rise of Trump, two of the most pathetic figures to grace the political landscape have been RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and spokesman Sean Spicer. It seems like every single day for the past year, they’ve had to spin the constantly flowing river of derp coming from the Trump camp as a net positive for the Republican Party.
A day after Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton factually connected the GOP candidate to the Alt-Right, and Donald Trump doubled down on his claims that Clinton is a bigot, Spicer appeared on MSNBC to put that horseshit on a potter’s wheel and try to create something of value. And, predictably, he failed.
Facing off with Stephanie Ruhle, Spicer was confronted right away with Hillary’s Reno speech and the case she made that one could accurately note that Trump is a racist. His immediate instinct was to pivot to other stuff while also calling Clinton desperate.
From Media Matters’ transcript:
“Well, honestly, I think it’s somewhat desperate because, look, the Trump campaign is wrapping up probably the most successful second week that it’s had this cycle, and Clinton is having the second worst campaign, started off — last week when they started having to defend the Iran hostage swap ransom money and then these allegations of the emails coming out, and more and more quid pro quo, pay for play with the Clinton Foundation, and so she is pivoting. And she’s now going to start attacking Donald Trump and making up things. Look at what — I mean, literally is she? [She] put an ad yesterday trying to link white supremacists and racism, and this is sort of a new low – go ahead.”
Mmm-hmm. OK, then. But, even if it is desperate, was there anything incorrect in what Clinton stated during her address, or in the campaign ad?
“Well, I think the video that they put out yesterday was unbelievably over the top. I mean, I haven’t seen anything like that in 30 years of politics, and the idea that people don’t think that that’s unacceptable– she went out, cherry-picked some supporters, some people that have attended rallies or are supporting Donald Trump. I mean, I could equally have walked through Philadelphia during the DNC and found a bunch of people that have way outlandish, far left-wing, crazy ideas, and done the same thing and made them answer for it, which I think we should probably do as well. I think the idea that they have gone to that level of desperation shows that they know that the polls are closing, and they know that their stale, status quo message isn’t resonating with the American people.”
Well, Stephanie had already lost her patience by then, realizing that he was going to make this about the ‘politics’ of it all, and not about whether there was anything factually wrong about anything Clinton or her camp has laid out about Trump. Once he started flipping the conversation about the Clinton Foundation, Ruhle flat-out told him “not to pivot” and to address the fact that Trump called Clinton a bigot.
Once again, while saying he wasn’t pivoting, Spicer pivoted.
“No, I guess I’m not pivoting. What I’m saying is that Hillary Clinton says a lot of things about Donald Trump. She puts out a video associating him with outlandish things like the white supremacists and the KKK and tries to take that link, and then everyone says, well, look what Donald Trump says. At some point someone’s got to look at what Hillary Clinton not only said, but what she’s done and her record. She is pivoting because she recognizes this foundation is her Achilles heel.”
At this point, the interview completely broke down. Ruhle was sick of Spicer’s shit and went after him with a vengeance. She pointed out that it was pretty funny to say Hillary has said “outlandish things” when Trump and his team are spreading conspiracy theories about her health. She also noted that Hillary isn’t getting off easy with the Clinton Foundation, considering the AP just did a (misleading) cover story about it.
At one point, Spicer got equally testy with Ruhle, after she badgered him about naming any policies that Trump would enact that would help the lives of minorities. (At the end of the segment, Ruhle would apologize to Spicer for interrupting him.) At the end of the segment, Ruhle then asked him why Republicans in Washington that aren’t part of the Trump campaign haven’t come to their nominee’s defense in light of Clinton’s speech. Spicer’s answer was just golden:
“I don’t know. It’s August. I think Congress is in recess.”
Oy vey.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Media Matters:
