We can’t let the weekend pass without discussing Trump’s utterly bizarre Saturday rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania — the hometown of the late golfer Arnold Palmer. I bring up Palmer because Trump talked about him in a way that is unhinged and gross for a presidential candidate.
The following was actually said by Trump: “Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women, and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refused to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”
The Washington Post’s Marianne LeVine and Isaac Arnsdorf reported, “At about 10 minutes, the digression about Palmer lasted roughly as long as Vice President Kamala Harris’s entire speech at a get-out-the-vote event earlier Saturday in Detroit. Trump’s speech was filled with asides, abrupt changes of subject and profane and personal attacks.”
The New York Times headline of the speech read, “At a Pennsylvania Rally, Trump Descends to New Levels of Vulgarity.” The Times’ Michael Gold wrote that Trump “spewed crude and vulgar remarks.”
Those R-rated remarks also included insults of Kamala Harris, including calling her a “s*** vice president.”
Gold added, “The performance, 17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression of the Republican nominee as increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined. It comes as some of Mr. Trump’s allies and aides worry that Mr. Trump’s temperament and crass style are alienating undecided voters. It was unclear if the outbursts and insults were an expression of his frustration as the campaign grinds on or of his reflexive desire to entertain his crowds.”
The Latrobe rally is just the latest example of Trump’s spiral into obscene, tasteless and crude remarks in speeches.
Earlier this month, The New York Times’ Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman wrote, “He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought — some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical. He voices outlandish claims that seem to be made up out of whole cloth. He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own ‘beautiful’ body. He relishes ‘a great day in Louisiana’ after spending the day in Georgia. He expresses fear that North Korea is ‘trying to kill me’ when he presumably means Iran. As late as last month, Mr. Trump was still speaking as if he were running against President Biden, five weeks after his withdrawal from the race.”
Baker and Freedman added, “With Mr. Biden out, Mr. Trump, at 78, is now the oldest major party nominee for president in history and would be the oldest president ever if he wins and finishes another term at 82. A review of Mr. Trump’s rallies, interviews, statements and social media posts finds signs of change since he first took the political stage in 2015. He has always been discursive and has often been untethered to truth, but with the passage of time his speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past.”
According to computer analysis, The Times wrote, “Mr. Trump’s rally speeches now last an average of 82 minutes, compared with 45 minutes in 2016. Proportionately, he uses 13 percent more all-or-nothing terms like ‘always’ and ‘never’ than he did eight years ago, which some experts consider a sign of advancing age. Similarly, he uses 32 percent more negative words than positive words now, compared with 21 percent in 2016, which can be another indicator of cognitive change. And he uses swearwords 69 percent more often than he did when he first ran, a trend that could reflect what experts call disinhibition.”
Meanwhile, Anne Applebaum’s latest piece for The Atlantic is “Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.”
Applebaum wrote about the language Trump has used, saying, “Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling — knowingly and cynically — that we are not.”
‘60 Minutes’ response
Recently, “60 Minutes” invited both Harris and Trump to be interviewed on their show. Harris accepted the invite, while Trump did not.
After Harris’ interview aired, Trump accused CBS News of deceitfully editing an answer Harris gave about Israel. Trump has made a bunch of threats about CBS and how it should lose its license and how he’s going to sue them and so forth.
The Associated Press’ David Bauder reported at the time, “Portions of the Harris interview ran Monday on the newsmagazine and on the Sunday morning political show ‘Face the Nation.’ On two occasions, it depicted Harris giving different answers to questions posed by correspondent Bill Whitaker on the Biden administration’s efforts to stop the war in the Mideast. For CBS News, it was considered part of the typical editing and cross-promotion process that takes place for a big interview. Yet to those unfamiliar with journalism and television production, the effect can be jarring.”
Bauder added, “The network would not respond to Trump’s criticisms on the record but privately insisted nothing was done with the intention of benefiting Harris. The network has pointed out that the same process was in place when Trump was interviewed for the show several times earlier.”
But on Sunday, after Trump continued his attacks on his “MediaBuzz” appearance, “60 Minutes” put out a statement that said:
Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.
60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.
Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated.
Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open. If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes.
After the statement, the Trump campaign continued with more attacks, saying in part, “Their statement is not a denial, it is an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of.”
