President Donald Trump didn’t crack a single smile when he called on China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden last week, but his Republican colleagues on Sunday insisted he was just messing around.
“Do you think it’s appropriate for President Trump to ask China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?” ABC News’ “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
“George, you really think he was serious about thinking that China’s going to investigate the Biden family?” Jordan, a staunch Trump supporter, replied.
“He said it right there in public,” Stephanopoulos pointed out.
Echoing Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) response to Trump’s comment, Jordan claimed Trump was merely “getting the press all spun up about this.”
The Ohio Republican, who serves as the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, also kept pointing to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports as proof Trump is the “toughest president on China” while dodging Stephanopoulos’ question.
“Why can’t you answer yes or no, do you think it’s appropriate?” the ABC News host asked.
“Because I don’t think that’s what he did,” Jordan said. “I don’t think that’s what he did.”
“But it was right there on camera!” Stephanopoulos said exasperatedly.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) had a similar response that morning on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“Well I doubt if the China comment was serious to tell you the truth,” Blunt told Margaret Brennan.
“You don’t take the President at his word?” Brennan asked.
“No the President loves to go out on the- on the White House driveway–I haven’t talked to him about this,” the GOP senator said. “I don’t know what the President was thinking. But I do know he loves to bait the press and he does that almost every day to see what you’ll talk about.”
Watch Jordan and Blunt’s interviews below:
Rep. Jim Jordan claims Trump wasn't being serious about asking China and Ukraine to investigate Biden pic.twitter.com/FFrwKGPi8V
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 6, 2019
Rep. Jordan when asked about Trump calling for Ukraine and China to dig up dirt on Biden: "I don't think that's what he did" pic.twitter.com/XzmHZg2Fvk
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 6, 2019
Sen. @RoyBlunt echoes fellow GOP colleagues in saying he doubts President Trump's call for China to investigate Biden “was serious” https://t.co/9E9nMc4uic pic.twitter.com/RUhwzatxGI
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 6, 2019
See, the problem is Trump as private citizen can freely say, “just kidding” after threatening someone; a bully and a prick, sure, but he can.
Trump the POTUS (even as Fake POTUS) is not free to do so and can not. Full stop.
Once this fails — because Trump isn’t joking — the Trump sycophants will then say: “come on! We all know Trump lies a lot. Why do we believe him now?”
WTF else will they do? They’re still doing everything they possibly can to mitigate this thing.
The farce is happening because there is no real arbiter of the truth. The press has allowed for truthiness for too long.
The follow up question should had been - in 2016, folks said that then candidate Trump was kidding when he said that Russia should go after Hillary Clinton’s e-mail while the Russians were doing that exact thing. Given that history, is there any way not to take the President 100% seriously when he says something like this?
Then why lock down the notes of the conversation with China from earlier this year?
And why did China respond as though Trump was serious?
If these hors#%t defenses weren’t born of bottomless bad faith (i.e. to be forgotten the moment a Democrat takes office again), it’d be really fun to hold the GOP to these new rules.
“Clinton lying about the beejer? He was KIDDING. He played you like a fiddle, got you all riled up. But I for one won’t be played.”
“Obama saying you can keep your plan? C’mon. Take him seriously, but don’t take him LITERALLY.”