Hillary Clinton lies constantly, and when she was not actually "lying" in the campaign but, rather, misrepresenting the truth, which constitutes the rest of the time her lips are moving, she was still not being accurate. This may land her in prison, if the new, incoming Attorney General continues the FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation as a Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organization.
It was one of the latter cases -- actually, it happened quite often, including on the national debate stage -- that really bothered me throughout the campaign. That it is being repeated still, by commentators on the news channel circuit, even after the election, bothers me still.
I'm referring to the line Hillary and her lackeys, sycophants and toadies have repeated over and over, which was always a close relative of this: "Donald Trump referred to Mexicans as rapists, murderers and thieves."
The disingenuous nature of that line boggles the mind, and it should have boggled the mind of the press, had they not been completely in the tank for the Hillary campaign. I mean, note the difference, meaning the accurate version of the statement. That would be "Donald Trump referred to Mexican rapists, murderers and thieves as 'rapists, murderers and thieves'."
Get the difference? In the context of what Trump actually said when he actually said it, he was referring to certain of the people who were coming over the border or, what he actually meant, people who were being sent over the border, presumably because some element in Mexico, possibly their government, wanted them out of Mexico and the USA was the closest option.
Now, Trump may or may not have been right about whether criminals in Mexico were being pushed across the border. Certainly he had to have talked to Border Patrol agents to give him that impression, and their rank and file ended up endorsing him, so there had to be at least some truth in it.
The important thing is that Hillary Clinton incorrectly and intentionally misstated Trump's comments to give them a meaning they simply didn't have. Trump was certainly inelegant in his own phrasing, but he certainly didn't say that Mexicans were rapists, murderers and thieves -- he was saying that the people coming over the border had a lot of rapists, murderers and thieves among them, and that some element in Mexico was sending them.
He certainly clarified, shortly after making his statement, that there were perfectly decent people among the people coming over the border. That, of course, didn't blunt the truth of his statement, since even the otherwise moral people crossing the border illegally were criminal, by the nature of entering the USA illegally.
I don't believe I even once heard anyone, not even Trump himself, call her and her lackeys and toadies out for misquoting him. Certainly the press didn't, and certainly the moderators of the debates didn't see fit to challenge her when she made that statement in the debates.
It seems pretty clear that Trump's promise to build a wall on our southern border, no matter who pays for it, is going to be one of the first acts of his presidency. And I expect it to be completed, in whatever form, on time and under budget as a sign of what level of performance Trump will expect and tolerate.
And unfortunately, I expect Trump to continue to be called the guy who referred to Mexicans as rapists, murders and thieves. It will be the left and the press's way to keep forward the accusation of bigotry that is supposed to invalidate the works he does as president, and the press, being the left, will say nothing.
Even when the importation of drugs through Mexico declines sharply.
And the press will lie about that, too, with Hillary pulling the strings.
Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
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A lot of the people who were robbed or murdered were the people coming over the border, and the perpetrators were the coyotes bringing them over. Building the wall will reduce even the number of Mexican victims.
ReplyDeleteAs this column is still being read fairly often, I need to add a point. In the Trump speech where he referred to "rapists, murderers, etc.", the word right before "rapists" is important. I thought he said something like "They're not sending their best people. [They send] "THEIR rapists, murderers ..."
ReplyDeleteGet the issue? If you hear the word "their" as "they're", he's saying what he is accused of saying, i.e., that "they are rapists ...", when what he might have said was "[Mexico is sending] THEIR rapists, murderers ..." Get the difference? You cannot see that spelling and infer that Trump said that all Mexicans are rapists and murderers.
Anyone ever see a written transcript of that speech?