Spox Invokes Benghazi To Deflect From Trump Saying He’d Profit From Brexit

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Donald Trump faced heavy criticism for noting that the United Kingdom’s momentous vote to leave the European Union would translate to more business for his new Scottish golf course. But in an interview Monday, his spokeswoman resorted to a classic conservative strategy to deflect attention: invoke Benghazi.

Asked on CNN’s “Legal View” to answer for Trump’s comments, spokeswoman Katrina Pierson denied that the presumptive GOP nominee’s response was “a tough thing to navigate.”

“Perhaps Mr. Trump could have gone out and blamed Brexit on a video that never existed and maybe the media would have been okay with that,” Pierson said. “He answered like a businessman.”

“When the attack on the consulate of Benghazi occurred, Hillary Clinton went out and lied to the American public and blamed it on the video,” she added. “That is something that was very serious.”

Pierson was referring to a YouTube video mocking Islam that sparked protests around the Middle East in the days before the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton has denied claiming that the attack was spontaneously sparked by the video, but some family members of those killed say that was what she told them in private.

CNN host Ashleigh Banfield cut in to ask Pierson what the video had to do with Trump celebrating how a weak pound could mean more tourists visiting his Turnberry golf course.

“Mr. Trump answered question as a businessman,” Pierson deflected. “He talked about Scotland as a whole. It is true. Scotland will see some business.”

Banfield said that as a presidential candidate, “you have to represent the people of America, not just your business.”

Pierson countered that Trump was in Scotland on the day of the Brexit vote to “support his family” and that it just happened to occur on the day that U.K. voters decided they were “tired of globalism.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. For enough money Pierson would do bodily tricks with ping-pong balls.

  2. Solid GOLD ping pong balls. Remember this is Trump after all.

  3. Avatar for sjk sjk says:

    “He answered like a businessman.”…She’s right. And that is why we dont need a Dump in the White House

  4. “Perhaps Mr. Trump could have gone out and blamed Brexit on a video that never existed and maybe the media would have been okay with that,” Pierson said. “He answered like a businessman.”

    Non Sequitur, much?

    “Mr. Trump answered question as a businessman,” Pierson deflected. “He talked about Scotland as a whole. It is true. Scotland will see some business.”

    Yes. It’s true. Donald Trump will give Scotland the business.

  5. Bitch is going to be all Nuremberg after the election…

    I vas just following orders …das vas the script dey gave me …

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

89 more replies

Participants

Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for fgs Avatar for epirali Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for clunkertruck Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for haggises Avatar for wwss Avatar for randyabraham Avatar for inversion Avatar for sherlock1 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for kahner Avatar for brendanm Avatar for serendipitoussomnambulist Avatar for dnl Avatar for pshah Avatar for beattycat Avatar for edhedh Avatar for tiowally Avatar for jdmagic Avatar for hahagoodman Avatar for centralasiaexpat

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