The air has finally gone out of the buffoon. At last night’s debate, Hillary Clinton landed a series of stinging punches when Trump lied, producing a grunted “Wrong,” from him. But Clinton wasn’t wrong. The jabs stung, and that Barbaric Yawp was Trump expelling air like an antelope felled on the South African grasslands.
Clinton invited the audience to follow in real-time fact-checking at home, anticipating Trump’s dishonesty. It has been a mainstay of his campaign. He was trapped. Either he had to renounce a year’s worth of lies or go with what got him this far.
“Yawp!” he grunted, when confronted by 1973 consent decrees against his company for discriminatory housing practices.
“Yawp!” he brayed, about his 2002 remark to Howard Stern in support of the Iraq invasion.
“Yawp!” he bellowed when confronted by the refusal to give up his birther claim for five years after Obama authorized the release of definitive proof of his American birth.
“Yawp!” he howled when Clinton confronted Trump with his spurious claim that climate change is a hoax hatched by the Chinese.
Toward the end of the evening, Trump dodged a question about Clinton not looking Presidential. The lioness moved in on her prey.
“And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest. He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman “Miss Piggy.” Then he called her “Miss Housekeeping,” because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name… “
“Where did you find this? Where did you find this?”
“Her name is Alicia Machado…”
“Where did you find this?”
“And she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet… (“Where did you find this?”)… she’s going to vote this November!”
“Yawp! Yawp! Yawp! Yawp!”
Clinton landed a Haymaker, and Trump went down like a bag of rocks.
Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe from Venezuela, is now 36 years-old, living in L.A. and carries the scars of Trump’s sadistic treatment of the teenager. She gave an interview to the New York Times this spring. The Times kept it quiet, although the Clinton camp obviously found out.
Clinton gave Trump a September Surprise, pulling out this disgusting story that captures his misogynistic side perfectly. Trump had nothing new to say. He may not have an October Surprise to spring because the GOP has chased down every nasty tidbit about Hillary and disgorged it already.
Maybe the media has not been so passive after all. They may have gathered information and held it back to be used in September and October. By this time, Trump has shot his wad, and he has nothing left.
And that one, my friends, is called the Rope-a-Dope.
Evan Sarzin is the author of Hard Bop Piano and Bud Powell published by Gerard & Sarzin Music Publishing. He writes and publishes Revolted Colonies (http://revoltedcolonies.com).