Posted on 04/22/2016 1:10:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Since the debate over what he said yesterday is still raging, it’s only fair that you get to hear his latest comment about it. Skip to 8:35 of the clip below from last night’s interview on Trump TV.
His response to Hannity’s question about North Carolina is a dodge but it’s a dodge with a conservative pedigree. If you’re a Republican who’s been put on the spot about a hot-button social issue, you can’t go wrong saying, “Leave it to the states.” Even righties who disagree with you on the merits will tip their caps at your nod to federalism. In fact, this is Cruz’s go-to answer whenever he’s asked about gay marriage or marijuana. He’s against legalizing either, he’ll tell you, which pleases social conservatives, but he’s also not looking to use federal power to impose his personal preference, which pleases everyone else. Trump’s answer is trying to create the same dynamic — with a twist. Instead of reassuring non-Republicans that he’ll defer to their local preference, as Cruz does when he gives the federalism answer, Trump’s reassuring his own party. He’s telling the same evangelicals who helped him crush Cruz across the south that he’ll pose no obstacle to them on this issue as president, which is an … interesting position for a soon-to-be party nominee to find himself in with respect to his own base.
There’s one other key difference: Cruz opts for a federalist answer on gay marriage and marijuana because each of those issues has been pushed by social conservatives at the federal level. Marijuana is regulated by the federal government, of course, and SSM opponents have spent years calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment. Cruz, in choosing federalism, is answering a bona fide question of whether the states or the feds should govern on those topics. There’s no similar state/federal dispute over North Carolina’s law. No one’s calling for a Federal Transgender Bathroom Amendment. Trump seizes on federalism, in other words, not because there’s a legitimate question of which government should address this subject but because he understands that federalism is a crowd-pleasing way to dodge when you don’t know what to say. It’s another small example of him not knowing how to speak conservative fluently.
I wouldn’t call it a flip-flop, though, as some Trump critics have on social media. This is a flip-flop:
Trump went from fiscal hawk to dove in 3 weeks. Obama would agree with much of this: https://t.co/SXKiPa4lRo pic.twitter.com/s0RMW3VT2Z
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) April 22, 2016
That’s from an interview with Fortune Magazine, which pressed him on why he could possibly believe he might pay off America’s $19 trillion debt in 10 years. “I didn’t say 10 years,” Trump replied. Er, three weeks ago he said he could pay it off in eight years, and that he’d do it mainly by renegotiating America’s trade deals, which wouldn’t remotely approach $2-3 trillion per year in surpluses. How you reconcile that with what he said to Fortune, I have no idea. Maybe that’s what Paul Manafort meant by Trump playing a “part” earlier and shifting to a more sober approach now. The old Trump would lie, lie, lie right to your face about his superheroic powers of debt-slashing. The new, serious Trump will be more realistic, “realistic” in this case meaning somehow spending more on the military and on infrastructure and not laying a finger on entitlement spending (as Trump has promised before) and yet somehow still reducing the debt in the process. Old Trump, in other words, was more like Superman whereas new Trump is more like Batman — wildly implausible, if not quite outright impossible.
Here’s the Hannity interview, followed by Cruz trying to capitalize on Manafort’s comments to the RNC.
I called it yesterday!! He would backtrack on that statement!!
So is he a liar and waffler now like everyone else he called that?
No offense, but uh....he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this....
“he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this”
A Pop Tart?
Saves a lot of time and trouble if you say the correct thing the first time.
With Trump its always a matter of waiting for the other flip-flop to drop.
I don’t understand why he didn’t get this right in the first place. Was it because he was in NYC? This is common sense. And it shouldn’t just be left up to the states. It should be an American ideal (as pathetic as it is!) that bathrooms are for the sex of the person at birth. I just don’t get this crap.
“he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this”
Leggo my Eggo?
This is what conman and snake oil salesman offers. Trumpkins will help in the projected Hillary landslide and put this nation permanently into the toilet.
I’m sick of all thios homosexual, cross dressing crap.
All of this could have been stopped when they wanted civil unions and our side saying no, but even on here some were for them, ten for marriage telling us it was one of our business and now look where we are.
Perverts and sicko’s wanting to use girls locker rooms at a pool before they got for a swim.
This is not just about bathrooms, but about men wanting to use female changing rooms, locker rooms, bathrooms etc
“he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this”
BARNEY! STOP EATING MY PEBBLES!!! ?????
Yep. You got it. :)
Waaahhhhh, Cruz cultists can’t stand that their planned hit is a big nothingburger.
And Cruz himself is in the middle of a titanic meltdown.
And I’m just grinning like the Joker.
That IS the correct answer
I do the same thing all the time... if I am asked a question, I give an answer which may or may not be my final answer, pending a review of the facts.
I do not know everything in my head, and I’ll answer as best as I can when I am asked, but until I act it is open to change.
Captain Crunch -— and he will.
the problem saying it is a state issue is that it will need up in the Federal courts where they overrule, look at marriage as a perfect example.
Should have said both cruz and Trump if you are born with a penis then you are male end of.
Let the states decide what the Left considers a “civil rights” matter?
Yeah right.
“he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this”
Honeycomb Hideout?
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