Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:52 pm
Donald Trump was exposed as a total fraud at MSNBC’s town hall by host Chris Matthews’ refusal to let Trump change the subject and avoid answering questions.
Trump’s proposal of punishment for women who have abortions grabbed early headlines, but there was a pattern throughout the whole town hall where Matthews did what few in the media have been able to accomplish. Chris Matthews would not let Donald Trump change the subject and avoid giving answers to questions.
Video of Trump on Muslim ban:
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For example, here was the exchange between Trump and Matthews on the Republican frontrunner’s proposed Muslim ban.
Transcript via MSNBC:
MATTHEWS: But there’s 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. And they’re all getting the message from Donald Trump, who’s leading the fight for the Republican nomination for president, saying, “Stay out of my country.”
How does that encourage them to fight ISIS?
TRUMP: Chris (inaudible).
MATTHEWS: How does that encourage them to fight the bad guys?
TRUMP: OK, let me explain (inaudible).
They have a problem too. They have a big problem.
MATTHEWS: But if we say “Go away…”
TRUMP: I have been told by more (inaudible) who are saying, “What are you doing is a great thing, not a bad thing.”
The two people in San Bernardino…
MATTHEWS: Are any Muslims telling you that?
TRUMP: I have actually — believe it or not, I have a lot of friends that are Muslim and they call me.
MATTHEWS: Right.
TRUMP: In most cases, they’re very rich Muslims, OK?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: But do they get in the country?
TRUMP: But they do call me.
They’ll come in.
MATTHEWS: How do you let them in?
TRUMP: They’ll come in. And you’ll have exceptions.
MATTHEWS: But you…
TRUMP: Wait, wait, wait.
Look, Chris, Chris, with the San Bernardino situation…
MATTHEWS: Right.
TRUMP: … many people saw that apartment with bombs all over the apartment…
MATTHEWS: Yeah, I agree with that.
TRUMP: … bombs on table.
MATTHEWS: You see something, say something.
TRUMP: Not one person…
MATTHEWS: I know.
TRUMP: … with all the people that said — they said it’s racial profiling. That’s why they didn’t call.
You know why they said that? Because some lawyer said, “You know, you saw this, you better come up with a good excuse.” They said it’s racial profiling.
A lot of people saw what was going on in that apartment. Not one Muslim, OK?
MATTHEWS: I’m with you on this. Of course I’m with you.
But that’s not the question.
TRUMP: OK. Why didn’t they report ’em?
MATTHEWS: Look, look, you’re saying ban…
TRUMP: In other words, why — but Chris, why don’t they report ’em?
MATTHEWS: OK. You say ban them from entering the country. They get the message. Everyone in the world — over 1.6 — in Indonesia, Pakistan, everywhere. In Albania. Anywhere there’s Muslims, you know, they know you don’t want them. So they get the message.
They’re a little more ill-disposed to fight ISIS, a little bit more after that once they say, “The Americans don’t even like us,” don’t you think?
TRUMP: I don’t know, maybe they’ll be more disposed to fight ISIS. Maybe they’ll say, “We want to come back into America, we’ve got to solve this problem.”
MATTHEWS: OK.
TRUMP: I’m serious about that. Maybe they’ll be…
Trump’s Muslim ban really isn’t a Muslim ban, because they are exceptions.
On question after question, Chris Matthews pressed Donald Trump for answers, and exposed the candidate’s inconsistencies. By pushing Trump, Matthews revealed that the man who is the leader in the race for the Republican nomination has no core beliefs. Trump has no policies, because he is trying to fool voters into electing him president.
It seems that the plan is for Trump to continue playing the reality television character that he is famous for. When Donald Trump gets treated like a serious candidate for the presidency, he falls apart. If more members of the media would question Trump in this manner, he would be quickly exposed as a know-nothing.
Matthews dug deeper on Trump’s Muslim ban and the result was a policy that is literally maybe Muslims won’t go fight for ISIS if we ban them from the US.
There was also this exchange on Trump’s plan to take the oil in the Middle East:
TRUMP: From the earliest date, “I don’t want to go into Iraq. Don’t go into Iraq.”
Now, I was a real estate guy, I was a business guy, so nobody really cared that much. But there were articles long time ago. I said, “You’re going to destabilize the Middle East.” That happened.
Now, when we got out of Iraq, we got out the wrong way. We set a date, which was terrible. We should have left some soldiers back. And I always said, “Take the oil,” because you know who has the oil right now?
MATTHEWS: You need ground troops to do that.
TRUMP: First of all, Iran is getting the oil.
MATTHEWS: You need ground troops to take the oil.
TRUMP: I said, “Take the oil.”
MATTHEWS: Ground troops…
As Chris Matthews revealed, there may never be a potential nominee who is more unfit to be president than Donald J. Trump.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
