There are enough facepalm moments in the latest Donald Trump interview with Fox News to give you a headache. In the interview with Harris Faulkner, Trump said he’s done more for the black community than any other president. But then he tossed in, “…he did good but although it’s always questionable, you know in other words the end result.” Meaning what exactly? Is he questioning freeing the slaves?
Then while talking about the recent demonstrations, Trump referred to all protests as riots and said some people “were just following the crowd” and didn’t even know why they were there. He told Faulkner, who is black, “you know that better than anybody would know it.”
Then came this question about Trump’s use of the phrase, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Faulkner had to tell the president the actual origins of the phrase.
FAULKNER: When the looting starts, the shooting starts. Why those words?
TRUMP: So that’s an expression I’ve heard over the years and it—
FAULKNER: Do you know where it comes from?
TRUMP: I think Philadelphia, the mayor of Philadelphia—
FAULKNER: No. It comes from 1967. pic.twitter.com/bOLWvYvYV3
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) June 11, 2020
Then came this doozy.
“It means two things, very different things,” Trump told Faulkner. “One is, if there’s looting, there’s probably going to be shooting, and that’s not as a threat, that’s really just a fact, because that’s what happens. And the other is, if there’s looting, there’s going to be shooting. They’re very different meanings.”
Trump also called chokeholds “innocent.” Here’s the exchange:
DT: “I think the concept of chokehold sounds so innocent, so perfect. And then you realize, if it’s a one-on-one. But if it’s two-on-one, that’s a little bit a different story. Depending on the toughness and strength — you know, we’re talking about toughness and strength. There’s a physical thing here too”
HF: If it’s a one-on-one for the [officer’s] life …
DT: And that does happen, that does happen. You have to be careful.
“the concept of CHOKEHOLDS sounds so innocent, so perfect”. Says this right after several Black men were choked to death. Unbelievable pic.twitter.com/EafKOXTz1e
— DanielNewmaη 404-737-1636 (@DanielNewman) June 12, 2020
Trump also denied that planning his first big campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic started, on Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an intentional racist dog whistle, but instead he views it as a “celebration.”
“Don’t think about it as an inconvenience, think about it as a celebration,” he said of the June 19 rally. “It wasn’t done for that reason, but it’s an interesting date.”