Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:17 pm
Political commentator Tara Setmayer appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Monday and laid down the law to Donald Trump, talking about what his attacks on the Khan family reveal about his character. What ensued was a brutal slap-down of the great pretender and cowardly schoolyard bully, Donald Trump.
Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:
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ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): If this was a thought-out statement by Donald Trump and he did, to Cory’s point, have several days to think this out, he would have initially said “of course their son is a hero who sacrificed and anything I have done does not compare to that sacrifice, just as anything that I have done or anybody around here has done†—
TARA SETMAYER:: But that’s not what he did. And it’s the initial reaction by Donald Trump that is so troubling. His initial reaction was to lash out in a very petulant, vindictive way and to come out — He didn’t just say, oh, their son is a hero and move forward. He said — he actually had the audacity to compare their sacrifice and their son’s sacrifice to what he’s done as a business man. That is beyond the pale. Donald Trump is a silver-spooned draft dodger who bragged about bedding women while real men of courage were giving their lives serving this country in Vietnam. And he bragged about this and thought this was just wonderful and said that he was a brave soldier, talking about his sexual exploits. And then he goes out there and this is what he actually wants people to believe, that his sacrifice is somehow comparable? This kind of behavior and reaction by Donald Trump is the temperamentally unfit aspect of his character that is so troublesome and should be.
ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): John, as a Trump supporter I want you to be able to respond. Do you have any trouble with what Donald Trump said?
JOHN JAY LAVALLE: He was attacked and his patriotism was questioned.
SETMAYER: Get over it. He needs to get over it. He’s running for the President of the United States.
Tara Setmayer nailed it. Trump, who has sacrificed nothing the rest of us haven’t sacrificed in trying to make our way through life, and who has proved he is more than willing to sacrifice employees, business partners, and contractors to make himself rich, dodged every opportunity during the Vietnam War to make the sort of sacrifices the Khan’s son made.
It is true that in 1997 Trump said in a recently resurfaced interview with Howard Stern that,
“I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there. It’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam-era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.â€
Yes. Sex takes real courage. What a man. Maybe it’s overcoming those small hands. So sad.
While 15.4 million men used deferments or were otherwise exempted from service during the Vietnam War, Trump received five of them all by himself: four for school, one for bad feet, as The New York Times pointed out last night.
It is revealing of his character that Trump says he is healthy enough to be president, but not to serve his country fighting the wars he wants to send others to fight.
To paraphrase the minstrel in Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
“When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.
“Yes, brave Sir Donald turned about, and valiantly, he chickened out.”
Five times.
Lavalle whined that Trump’s patriotism had been questioned, but Trump has been lashing out since he entered the campaign, questioning the patriotism of his opponents. Most of them have not responded like a child on a playground, as Trump has. As Setmayer said, it is Trump’s initial reaction that is so troubling.
Setmayer tweeted last night, “If we don’t defend the Constitution then we don’t have a country,” and Trump’s attacks, and those of his supporters – like Sean Hannity – on the Khan family are an attack on the Constitution. They’re being attacked solely because they’re Muslim.
You don’t get do-overs in life, and Trump has repeatedly thrown away every opportunity to prove he is man deserving of respect from anyone but the guy looking in his mirror. He is, like most bullies, a detestable coward, who just also happens to be a misogynist, racist, bigot. It’s quite a package.
It’s just not the package we want or need.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
