Republican Presidential nomination front-runner Donald Trump is at “war” again — this time with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt’s sin: asking Trump a tough question that made Trump stumble, a la Sarah Palin being questioned by Katie Couric. Trump’s reaction: mock and disdain Hewitt — to the amused laughs of the “Morning Joe” panel.
This, folks, is how Trump is being enabled. It’s great entertainment when he can call Hewitt a “third rate radio announcer” without being challenged on his inability to accept the fact he bungled a question that even some non-fans of Trump called difficult. The Hill reports:
Donald Trump is blasting Hugh Hewitt after stumbling over foreign policy questions in an interview with the conservative radio host.
“[He is] a third-rate radio announcer,” Trump told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday morning.
Trump clashed with the radio host on Thursday evening’s “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” Hewitt began asking him what he called “commander-in-chief questions” about international affairs. The exchange became heated when Trump mistook a question about Iran’s Quds Force as a query about the Kurds.
On Friday, Trump said that the broadcaster’s show is beneath him despite his multiple appearances with Hewitt since launching his 2016 campaign in June. Trump said Hewitt was trying to embarrass him by asking about obscure topics.
“Every question was, ‘Do you know this one or know that one?’ ” Trump said.
“I do think the Kurds are not being utilized properly or being used properly,” he added.
Hewitt is also slated to co-moderate the second GOP debate on CNN on Sept. 16.
Reports emerged on Friday that Trump’s campaign staff are furious over Hewitt’s questioning of their candidate and is considering blacklisting him from future interviews.
“@HughHewitt producer says Trump’s team spitting fire over ‘gotcha’ FP Qs,” Townhall.com Political Editor Guy Benson tweeted. “Threatening to never do show again.”
Trump is turning out NOT to be Velcro man but TEFLON MAN. None of the normal rules and “givens” that have applied to how candidates behavior and the way the broadcast media suspends normal practices (who else is allowed to PHONE IN an interview on a major newcast?). Since he’s a ratings bonanza, no one wants to lose access.
Judge for yourself the latest brouhaha:
The Hewitt segment:
The Morning Joe segment:
The Morning Joe crew thinks its all sooooooooo funny. It really isn’t just enabling: they are helping set the template in the future for candidates who decide to attack journalists or others who ask them tough questions that they are not prepared to answer. Hey, this is GREAT TV…we gotta have you back!!! The dumbing down and incivility of our politics continues and it isn’t just happening. It has accomplices.
P.S. I’m not a fan of Mr. Hewitt’s but he does tough interviews.
P.S.S. Trump will have to get more questions from the “third rate announcer” in the upcoming CNN debate. Trump will be better prepared next time with a zinger and answer. But he better be prepared for tough questions. It’s also hard for Trump’s supporters to brand Hewitt as part of the “liberal” media, unless they brand him a RINO (just watch it happen soon…)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.