Posted on 05/04/2016 12:43:43 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
He stood by yesterday’s comments not just in his interview with Stephanopoulos, as you’ll see below, but in the Today show interview that Ed blogged earlier. (Skip to 2:50 of the first clip here.) I don’t know if there’s anything more to say than what Kevin Williamson said to Republican voters last night about the race to come: “Remember, you asked for this.”
I’ll say something. First, Cruz did deny Trump’s insinuation about his dad and Oswald. He called it “nuts.” Second, Trump probably cares less about alienating Cruz and his fan base than about preserving the Enquirer’s reputation as a trash tabloid that nonetheless publishes newsworthy stories from time to time and therefore deserves the benefit of the doubt even on seemingly outlandish claims. No doubt he’s going to use the paper as a pipeline for hit pieces on Hillary. (Team Hillary, if they’re smart, will woo a rival checkout-counter tabloid and use that as a conduit for hit pieces on Trump in order to reach the same audience.)
He could have done that here, though, by praising the Enquirer but also saying that perhaps everyone had been too credulous about the old photo with Oswald and that he’d only mentioned it because he was wounded by what Rafael Cruz had said about him. He complimented Cruz last night in his victory speech as a smart, tough competitor; it’s weird and goofy to go on antagonizing him this morning as the presumptive nominee, knowing that Cruz is one of the few people in the party whose support might make some embittered conservatives reconsider their opposition to him. But we needn’t grasp for strategic explanations. Trump probably refused to apologize because he’s (a) too much of a narcissist to admit wrong, even when he stands to gain by doing so, and (b) a conspiracy theorist by disposition. He might actually believe the Enquirer story. Why would he walk it back?
And in fairness to him, his instinct that he won’t pay any political price for pushing stuff like this may well be right. I already confessed my grievous error this morning in ever believing righties were too smart and principled to buy what Trump is selling. The Lyle Lanley of the GOP knew better. Now he’s doubling down, betting that there’s a deep, hungry market for the Trump monorail among the general electorate too. You’d be a fool to bet against him at this point. Three clips for you then, one of his chat with Stephanopoulos, another from his chat with Hannity yesterday in which he insisted that the Enquirer wouldn’t have published the Oswald photo if they had reason to think they might be sued (which went unchallenged by Hannity, of course), and a third of Jake Tapper deluding himself into believing that Americans would prefer facts when they could have sensational lies instead.
Hot Air what a site!
Hot Air what a site!
I do not understand this crap. Do you people really want to make enemies of other Republicans just so you can feel that you were right in your support of a different person. A lot of you are becoming who you say you are fighting against. Stop it, just please stop it.
Yes, of course. I’m sure you have really solid factual reasons why you believe Cruz’s father was an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald. Of course you do.
Lighten up Francis.
We could not independently verify these experts’ validation, as neither Goldstone nor Lieberman got back to us.
When we reached out to Kairos, a Miami-based facial recognition software company, Chief Technology Officer Cole Calistra was skeptical about claims of a positive identification. Calistra told PolitiFact that the photos are too grainy "to perform a proper match one way or the other."
James Wayman, the former director of U.S. National Biometric Test Center in the Clinton administration, said proper analysis requires two full-frontal facial images.
"Without such images, no professional face examiner will be willing to render an opinion," he said.
That being said, we had freelance programmer Lucien Gendrot test it out using Kairos’ face recognition API. The software could not verify a match between photos of the unidentified man next to Oswald and young Rafael Cruz, even at a low threshold of a 25 percent match.
In short, as Snopes wrote in an April 2016 analysis of a similar claim, the low-resolution photos are essentially "of dark-haired young men with similar haircuts." That’s speculation, not evidence."
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/may/03/donald-trump/donald-trumps-ridiculous-claim-linking-ted-cruzs-f/
The picture in question:
“He complimented Cruz last night in his victory speech as a smart, tough competitor; it’s weird and goofy to go on antagonizing him this morning as the presumptive nominee, knowing that Cruz is one of the few people in the party whose support might make some embittered conservatives reconsider their opposition to him.”
You’d think Trump would understand this, but, apparently not.
ROTFLMAO
Exactly.
Exactly, so why did Trump say it again this morning?
And what leads you to that belief? Was Cruz's father in New Orleans in August of 1963?
This may be interesting ....
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20160502_2
“Welsh’s last email to this editor, dated April 11, 2016:
“Great catch on his [Cruz’s] ties to Oswald in New Orleans. I always thought the odds were pretty good of the old man having ties to the CIA, if not Cruz’ mother as well, since he was immediately able to get a great education at the University of Texas right after he arrived here and then went to work in the oil industry as a computer programmer. It never made sense to me how he and Eleanor wound up in Calgary and then later returned to the U.S. and he suddenly becomes a Christian minister, although he’s never actually had a church he could call his own. Who has been paying Rafael all of these years to advocate his Dominionist views and now tell evangelical voters that his son was anointed by God as foretold in the Bible. You can’t make this stuff up. You know the media is just waiting until if and when Cruz gets the nomination before it unloads on him. Was Eleanor’s first husband an intelligence officer as well?
Gary R. Welsh, Attorney At Law, P.C.
320 N. Meridian, Suite #615
Indianapolis, IN 46204”
“That said, it does not mean that old man Cruz had any association with the death of JFK.”
Trump never said that he did.
(not saying you did either)
Just pictures that he is alleged to be in.
Did he deny them?
Has any Cruz denied anything?
No, FioRINO’s panties were brought in to hide behind.
He defended saying it.
Raphael Cruz was actively campaigning against Trump. IMHO, this makes him fair game.
The National Enquirer printed a story that has been making the rounds on the Internet. Donald Trump publicly asked about the article.
This morning Trump was asked again and he responded. What was he suppose to say?
The bigger picture is the press still believes this is a story that will drive a wedge between the Trump and Cruz camps. The are hoping for an emotional response. Just recognize it for what it is and move on.
LOL. Whatever.
The point of this thread is what ?
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