'Crazy uncle peddling nonsense': Analyst says this Trump town hall answer was his 'worst'
Former President Donald Trump gave his worst response yet to questions about his racist conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants eat pet cats and dogs, a political analyst argued Thursday.
"The Rachel Maddow Show" producer Steven Benen was infuriated the Republican presidential nominee at a Univision town hall in Miami, a city with a significant Haitian-American population, said he'd just repeated "what was reported."
"Trump’s newest answer is also his worst," Benen retorted. "Like someone’s crazy uncle, [Trump's] peddling nonsense without regard for accuracy, decency, or consequences."
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Benen backed this claim first by delving into what he hated about Trump's initial comment, that "They’re eating the pets of the people that live there."
”There were no caveats," Benen wrote. "The former president simply asserted that racist lies were factual. For him to pretend more than a month later that he wasn’t responsible for peddling this garbage is ridiculous."
It's worth noting the Wall Street Journal reported that a Springfield, Ohio, official contacted Sen. J.D. Vance on Sept. 9 to inform him there was no evidence to back the claim he'd posted on X — but Trump's running mate did not take down the post or backtrack the claim.
Trump made the statement that outraged Benen at his presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 10.
Benen argued Trump's response represented an unfair double standard — "If the Democratic vice president found a fringe website that made outlandish claims about Trump, could Harris bring those lies to the public and say, 'I just repeat what was reported'?" —and revealed a disturbing pattern.
The columnist recalled a conspiracy theory Trump spread about a man who rushed the stage during an Ohio campaign event in 2016 and who Trump falsely claimed had ties to ISIS.
When called on spreading the false rumor, Trump replied, “What do I know about it? All I know is what’s on the internet.”
Four years later, Trump did it again as president during an NBC News town hall, Benen reported.
"In the runup to the event, Trump promoted a series of bizarre ideas about Osama bin Laden and SEAL Team 6, which in turn sparked some aggressive pushback," Benen reported.
“That was an opinion of somebody,” the then-president said.
“You’re the president," replied NBC News' Savannah Guthrie. "You’re not someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.”
A grim Benen argued Thursday that Trump's recent comment proved Guthrie was wrong.
"Adults with critical thinking skills tend not to say things such as, 'All I know is what’s on the internet,'" Benen wrote. "The GOP nominee for the nation’s highest office, however, is still lacking in this area."