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You are here: Home / Politics / Trump refuses to answer when asked if he would ‘revoke access to mifepristone’ in ‘unhinged press conference;’ O’Donnell criticizes ‘tame’ press corps

Trump refuses to answer when asked if he would ‘revoke access to mifepristone’ in ‘unhinged press conference;’ O’Donnell criticizes ‘tame’ press corps

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Lawrence O'Donnell Last Word screenshot

Mifepristone is a drug used in about two-thirds of abortions. When a reporter asked Donald Trump Thursday if he would ban (“revoke access”) mifepristone, a “yes/no” question, nonsense followed. Where are the editorials lambasting this man’s cognitive state?

HAAKE: Would you direct your FDA [Food and Drug Administration], for example, to revoke access to mifepristone?

TRUMP: Sure, you could, you could do things that will be, would, would supplement. Absolutely. And those things are pretty open and humane. But you have to be able to have a vote, and all I want to do is give everybody a vote. And the votes are taking place right now as we speak. Yeah, but it’s a very.

HAAKE: Is that [banning mifepristone] something you would consider?

TRUMP: There are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that but you also have to give a vote and the people are gonna have to decide.

Trump’s answer reflects tangentiality, “shifting from topic to topic, with few connections,” which STAT News highlighted earlier this week.

[Tangentiality] is one of several disjointed and occasionally incoherent verbal habits that seem to have increased in Trump’s speech in recent years, according to interviews with experts in memory, psychology, and linguistics.

However, it was not the only low point in what Vanity Fair labeled an “unhinged press conference.” Nor was it the only behavior that needs highlighting.

In an extraordinarily pointed commentary, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took the political reporters in that room to the proverbial woodshed in ‘Stupidest’ candidate Trump did not answer reporters’ questions (it’s 24 minutes and worth your time). He characterized the press corps behavior as “tame and reserved and polite.”

It would be hard to find a sentence in what Donald Trump said today that did not include at least one lie…

The words Donald Trump spoke to those reporters in response to that clear, simple and important yes-and-no question [about mifepristone] was an insult to everyone in that room and they took the insult…

Anyone who then tells you that Kamala Harris has to answer questions from reporters because Donald Trump already answered questions from them is lying to themselves and to you …

The first time Kamala Harris does do a press conference as a presidential candidate, the reporters that were assembled today should all agree among themselves to apply the same rules that they decided to use today. No shouting, no followup questions, and no interrupting each other, and no interrupting the candidate. No screaming.

It’s clear that David Roberts is right ond O’Donnell’s hopes are too high. Evidence: Harris asking a gaggle of reporters on Thursday “what you got?”

Addendum

From David Pell:

[Trump] added a new lie to the lineup. He claimed that he was in a helicopter that almost went down with Willie Brown who was being critical of Kamala Harris at the time. A few details were off. The helicopter didn’t go almost go down. There was zero discussion of Kamala Harris. And it wasn’t Willie Brown, it was Jerry Brown. Imagine the headlines if Biden had confused those two, but with Trump, the media just sits and listens. It turns out that there’s a difference between a press conference and a monologue with reporters in the audience (emphasis added).

Watch O’Donnell in full. And read Trump Spews Lies, Disparages Harris’s Intelligence, Insults Jews, and Rambles About “Insane Asylums” in Unhinged Press Conference.

 
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