On the campaign trail on Friday night, Donald Trump told voters in Pennsylvania that President Obama “screamed at” a protester earlier in the day. And to hear the Republican candidate tell it, the presidential outburst was quite a sight.
“You saw it today on television, right? [Obama] was talking to the protester, screaming at him, really screaming at him. By the way, if I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester, they would say, ‘He became unhinged!’”You have to go back and look and study and see what happened…. And [the president] spent so much time screaming at this protester, and frankly it was a disgrace.”
Well, that sounds pretty awful. Maybe the pressure of the campaign season is taking its toll on the president? Maybe Obama lost his cool at an inopportune moment?Or maybe Donald Trump was caught once again flagrantly lying about an incident that never actually occurred.There was a protester at an Obama event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Friday. But while Trump insisted that the president “really screamed at him,” the truth is pretty much the exact opposite.There’s video of what transpired, but if you can’t watch clips online, there’s also a transcript:
“Now, listen up! I’m serious, listen up. You’ve got an older gentleman who is supporting his candidate. He’s not doing nothing — you don’t have to worry about him. This is what I mean about folks not being focused.”First of all, we — hold up! Hold up! First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech. So, second of all, it looks like maybe he might have served in our military, and we’ve got to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly, and we’ve got to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don’t boo — vote! Don’t boo — vote! Come on.”Now, I want you to pay attention. Because if we don’t — if we lose focus, we could have problems. This is part of what’s happened here during this election season. We just get stirred up for all kinds of reasons that are unnecessary. Just relax.”
Trump claims to have seen this on television. In the Republican’s reality, Obama became unhinged, screamed at the protester, and the whole spectacle was a “disgrace.” And yet, the truth was the exact opposite: the president urged his audience to respect the protester and his right to free speech.Obama did not, by the way, encourage his supporters to commit acts of violence or promise to pay their legal bills. Trump has already cornered the market on that style of campaigning.The incident was a timely reminder, not only of Trump’s brazen dishonesty, but also the laziness he relies on when communicating with his own followers. Trump didn’t need to tell this lie — the brief disruption at Obama’s event wasn’t especially important — but the GOP nominee felt the need to comment anyway, deceiving voters just for the sake of doing so.If there’s a defense for this kind of mindless mendacity, I can’t think of it.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."