Trump Truth! Was Trump’s Obama/Muslim Questioner A Plant?

Donald Trump failed to correct a man at a Sept. 17 event in New Hampshire who said President Barack Obama was a Muslim and not an American. Some people have since speculated that the man, who identified himself only ... Donald Trump failed to correct a man at a Sept. 17 event in New Hampshire who said President Barack Obama was a Muslim and not an American. Some people have since speculated that the man, who identified himself only as a resident of "White Plains," was a plant. MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

In the days since Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was roundly criticized for failing to correct a supporter at a town-hall event who said President Barack Obama was a Muslim and not an American, attention has shifted to the man’s identity and, more precisely, whether he was actually a plant.

“We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims,” the supporter, wearing a Trump T-shirt, said at a Thursday town hall in Rochester, New Hampshire. “We know our current president is one.”

“Right,” Trump said.

“You know he’s not even an American. Birth certificate, man,” the supporter continued.

“We need this question?” Trump said, laughing. “This is the first question.”

Presidential rivals like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were quick to condemn Trump for letting the misinformation slide.

But almost as quickly, prominent media figures floated the possibility that the man was some kind of plant:

By Monday, CNN’s Jake Tapper got in on the game:

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt also suggested Monday night on Fox News’ “Hannity” that the man was a “plant,” calling the incident a “fake controversy designed to embarrass Donald Trump.”

Over at Breitbart, Patrick Howley speculated that the man was the very same person pictured in a 2013 meme from the website aattp.org, which stands for Americans Against The Tea Party. What it would indicate if the Trump supporter were indeed the same man pictured in the meme wasn’t clear from Howley’s “exclusive.”

The Trump supporter’s anonymity fueled the speculation. A follow-up story identified one town hall attendee who was captured on camera reacting animatedly to the Obama-Muslim remark, but no outlet nabbed a follow-up with or was able to identify the man whose soundbite made headlines in the first place.

It’s clear from video of the event that the man said he was from “White Plains,” but there is no White Plains, New Hampshire. He also appeared to state his name before he said he was from “White Plains,” but the audio is garbled:

The tabloid television show “Inside Edition” went as far as to bring in an audio expert, Kent Gibson, to try to determine the Trump supporter’s name. Gibson told the show that the microphone simply didn’t pick it up.

The “Inside Edition” segment also noted that there used to be a gag on radio host Don Imus’ program featuring a character called “Bill from White Plains,” voiced by sportscaster Mike Breen.

But the incident may have comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s fingerprints on it moreso than Imus’, as Fox News host Greg Gutfeld suggested in his tweet above.

The host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” had correspondent Jake Byrd go undercover as a Trump supporter at a Trump rally in Dallas just two days before the New Hampshire town hall. Byrd nabbed a seat right behind Trump in the American Airlines Arena, where cameras caught his “DTF”-branded cowboy hat squarely beside the real estate mogul’s navy-suited shoulder.

Earlier this month, Kimmel also had a little fun with a Public Policy Polling survey that found a majority of Republicans said Obama is a Muslim. The comedian sent a staffer out onto Hollywood Boulevard to ask random pedestrians whether they thought the President was a Muslim; the results were unpredictable and amusing.

So did Kimmel have a hand in the incident at Trump’s New Hampshire town hall as well? ABC didn’t respond to a request for comment from TPM.

Of course, there remains the possibility that the man from White Plains was just a run-of-the-mill Trump fan who migrated from the real estate mogul’s home state of New York to New Hampshire for the event. Considering that same PPP poll Kimmel used for his “Pedestrian Question” segment showed that a full two-thirds of Trump supporters believe the President is a secret Muslim, the most obvious scenario is also the most likely.

TPM illustration by Christine Frapech.

Latest DC

Notable Replies

  1. Regardless of whether he was a plant, take heart people: there are millions of authentic Americans out there who believe exactly what he said.

  2. Avatar for gr gr says:

    Yes, that’s the sad truth.

  3. Avatar for trnc trnc says:

    They’re all plants, I tells ya.

  4. And regardless of whether he was a plant, Trump’s answer was his own.

  5. As if Trump needs any help to embarrass himself. Hilarious.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

117 more replies

Participants

Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for countdown Avatar for ajm Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for dwward Avatar for afblac Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for deckbose Avatar for radicalcentrist Avatar for clemmers Avatar for chammy Avatar for grubber Avatar for theod Avatar for jimtoday Avatar for inlabsitrust Avatar for mrcomments Avatar for carlosfiance Avatar for justthefacts Avatar for sufi66 Avatar for dickweed Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for vladomatic Avatar for sjlilly44 Avatar for mpower1952

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: