Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager Just Called Someone ELSE Out for “Name-Calling”
Photo courtesy of Getty Politics News Donald Trump“I mean, the name-calling has reached a fever pitch,” complained Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, earlier today on Fox News Radio.
Stop.
Pause your entire day.
Take a deep breath.
Gaze out the window.
Come back.
Read that sentence again.
“I mean, the name-calling has reached a fever pitch,” complained Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, earlier today on Fox News Radio.
I mean…
I just…
Wait…
What?
This is like that time that Hitler accused Churchill and Roosevelt of being “too genocide-y,” except that never happened, because that would have been stupid.
Look, you can say what you want about Trump’s name-calling. You can say it’s bad for the country, damages the political discourse, and indulges the worst impulses of the angry new right. Or you could say positive things about it, if you were wrong. But you can’t say that he doesn’t do it. This man is the name-calling king. It’s his chief and only weapon, and when you start a name-calling fight, you can’t be upset if the other person uses your same tactic. Especially when they don’t use it to anywhere near the same degree. Like, nobody has yet topped Trump saying Obama is the “founder of ISIS.” That’s the ne plus ultra of political name-calling. It would hold the championship belt forever.
Conway, though? She was upset because former Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe “called Trump a “psychopath.
“And I have to say, look, politics is not a tea party,” she said. “It’s rough and tumble. We all get that, Brian. But to go out there and do guilt by association and to accuse people of having malice in their heart towards other people with no evidence, and then to do exactly what the American Psychological Association has asked people not to do, which is to, which is to certify somebody as mentally unfit or a psychopath. It’s just beyond the pale, and nobody calls them on it.”
Again, only one objection: Trump’s political fucking brand is name-calling. The “psychopath” stuff is so tame by comparison that it shouldn’t even merit a mention. Conway went on to complain about the media (of course), and to say that it was totally cool how Trump called Clinton a “bigot.” That’s all standard. But kvetching about other candidates using insulting language, which is a Pandora’s Box that Trump gleefully opened when this hell ride began, is somehow the most surprising thing to come out of the Donald’s camp this week. I didn’t think anything associated with that man could surprise me anymore, but congratulations, Kellyanne Conway—you pulled off a miracle.