To say this has been a rough past week for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would be like saying papercuts don't feel good. From his awful first debate performance to the leak of his lewd comments at the expense of women to Republicans renouncing their support of him to his plummeting poll numbers to his loss in last night's debate, Donald Trump's had one of the worst 1-2 week stretches in campaign history. During this horrendous stretch, Trump received some blowback for comments he made with regard to soldiers whom have suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many news outlets reported the Republican nominee as saying this on the matter:
"There will be plenty of quibbling in the hours ahead, but Donald Trump clearly just created a new batch of problems for himself with his comments [on 3 October 2016], in which he suggested that veterans dealing with mental health problems aren't 'strong' and 'can't handle it'."
As my readers should know by now, I can't stand Donald Trump. I want him to suffer the worst election loss in U.S. history. I've never wanted an individual to lose more than I want him to fall on November 8th. Having said that, though, I also don't want exaggerations and half-truths to be the reason for his defeat on election day. One of my biggest political pet peeves in recent years has been when Republican politicians have taken Democratic politicians out of context to rile their base. The two best examples are President Obama's "You didn't build that" quote when running for reelection and Secretary Clinton's "What difference, at this point, does it make?" statement during a Benghazi hearing. When Republicans condensed the well thought-out statements to a series of 4 to 13 words, they completely missed the point of the messages the President and Secretary of State were trying to present, and misled the public in the process. Well, for as much as I despise Donald Trump, I want to be consistent and don't think his words should be taken out of context either, which I feel they were in this case. Yes, for perhaps the first time in my life, I'm defending Donald Trump. Here was his full quote:
"Yes I would. Look we need that so badly and when you ... when you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it. But a lot of people can’t handle it. And they see horror stories. They see events that you couldn’t see in a movie, nobody would believe it.
Now we need a mental health help and medical. And it’s one of the things that I think is least addressed and is one of the things that — like your question — one of the things that I hear the most about when I go around and talk to the veterans. So we’re going to have a very, very robust, level of performance having to do with mental health. We are losing so many great people that can be taken care of if they have proper care.
You know when you hear the 22 suicides a day it’s a big part of your question. But when you hear the 22 suicides a day that should never be. That should never be. So we’re going to be addressing that very strongly and the whole mental health issue is going to be a very important issue when I take over and the V.A. is going to be fixed in so many ways but that’s going to be one of the ways we’re going to help.
And that’s in many respects going to be the number one thing we have to do. Because I think it’s really been left behind. OK? Thank you very much."
Having read this full quote several times now, I can understand why some might interpret it in a negative manner and be offended because of it. Donald Trump is not an eloquent speaker. As a matter of fact, I think I may have just committed a crime by including the words eloquent and Trump in the same sentence (yes, I'm now a two-time offender). Not only is the man not politically correct, he's not grammatically correct, is often times vague, and tends to come across as nonsensical. The man is a like a human Rorschach, where, no matter what he says, it can be interpreted differently depending on the listener. Having said all that, however, I think what Donald Trump was trying to say was, not that soldiers who suffer from PTSD are weak, but that we need to take better care of such soldiers when they return home, and I happen to agree with him there. Look, Donald Trump has not been kind to our men and women in uniform during this campaign. He's insulted POWs, gone after Gold Star families, proposed violations of the Geneva Convention, provided terrorists with material for recruitment, etc., and I'll never defend him on such horrific commentary. I will defend him in this case, however, as I feel he was taken out of context, and even though I want him to face the biggest landslide loss in election history come November 8th, I'm not going to lie about him to try and make that happen. Facts already run contrary to most everything the man says. Let's not stoop to his level. As First Lady Michelle Obama said, "When they go low, we go high."
http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-didnt-say-vets-with-ptsd-are-weak/
"There will be plenty of quibbling in the hours ahead, but Donald Trump clearly just created a new batch of problems for himself with his comments [on 3 October 2016], in which he suggested that veterans dealing with mental health problems aren't 'strong' and 'can't handle it'."
As my readers should know by now, I can't stand Donald Trump. I want him to suffer the worst election loss in U.S. history. I've never wanted an individual to lose more than I want him to fall on November 8th. Having said that, though, I also don't want exaggerations and half-truths to be the reason for his defeat on election day. One of my biggest political pet peeves in recent years has been when Republican politicians have taken Democratic politicians out of context to rile their base. The two best examples are President Obama's "You didn't build that" quote when running for reelection and Secretary Clinton's "What difference, at this point, does it make?" statement during a Benghazi hearing. When Republicans condensed the well thought-out statements to a series of 4 to 13 words, they completely missed the point of the messages the President and Secretary of State were trying to present, and misled the public in the process. Well, for as much as I despise Donald Trump, I want to be consistent and don't think his words should be taken out of context either, which I feel they were in this case. Yes, for perhaps the first time in my life, I'm defending Donald Trump. Here was his full quote:
"Yes I would. Look we need that so badly and when you ... when you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it. But a lot of people can’t handle it. And they see horror stories. They see events that you couldn’t see in a movie, nobody would believe it.
Now we need a mental health help and medical. And it’s one of the things that I think is least addressed and is one of the things that — like your question — one of the things that I hear the most about when I go around and talk to the veterans. So we’re going to have a very, very robust, level of performance having to do with mental health. We are losing so many great people that can be taken care of if they have proper care.
You know when you hear the 22 suicides a day it’s a big part of your question. But when you hear the 22 suicides a day that should never be. That should never be. So we’re going to be addressing that very strongly and the whole mental health issue is going to be a very important issue when I take over and the V.A. is going to be fixed in so many ways but that’s going to be one of the ways we’re going to help.
And that’s in many respects going to be the number one thing we have to do. Because I think it’s really been left behind. OK? Thank you very much."
Having read this full quote several times now, I can understand why some might interpret it in a negative manner and be offended because of it. Donald Trump is not an eloquent speaker. As a matter of fact, I think I may have just committed a crime by including the words eloquent and Trump in the same sentence (yes, I'm now a two-time offender). Not only is the man not politically correct, he's not grammatically correct, is often times vague, and tends to come across as nonsensical. The man is a like a human Rorschach, where, no matter what he says, it can be interpreted differently depending on the listener. Having said all that, however, I think what Donald Trump was trying to say was, not that soldiers who suffer from PTSD are weak, but that we need to take better care of such soldiers when they return home, and I happen to agree with him there. Look, Donald Trump has not been kind to our men and women in uniform during this campaign. He's insulted POWs, gone after Gold Star families, proposed violations of the Geneva Convention, provided terrorists with material for recruitment, etc., and I'll never defend him on such horrific commentary. I will defend him in this case, however, as I feel he was taken out of context, and even though I want him to face the biggest landslide loss in election history come November 8th, I'm not going to lie about him to try and make that happen. Facts already run contrary to most everything the man says. Let's not stoop to his level. As First Lady Michelle Obama said, "When they go low, we go high."
http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-didnt-say-vets-with-ptsd-are-weak/
Comments
Post a Comment