News you need to knowOn Monday, April 3, President Trump tweeted, “Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!”
Why this is not normalOne: Hillary Clinton did not receive the answers to the debate. The questions of the debate were leaked to her – and it was for a debate with Bernie Sanders, not Trump.
Two: Trump has been in office over 70 days. The debate he tweeted about is ancient news. Why is he pettifogging the public about an opponent no longer on the playing field?
Three: Pettifogging is placing undue emphasis on petty details.
Trump brings up inessential topics in press conferences, interviews, and on his Twitter stream rather than focusing on national issues. He has trifling tweets about Clinton. He used his national prayer breakfast speech to mock Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Celebrity Apprentice” ratings. He’s repeatedly called the New York Times (and other media outlets that disagree with him) failing or fake. He’s bullied Nordstrom over how “unfairly” they treated his daughter’s fashion line, and more than two months into his presidency, Trump still brings up how many electoral votes he received, as if trying to negate the 2.7 million more popular votes that Clinton received.
It’s a way to incorporate chaos into the media stream. If we focus on how petty Trump is, we don’t have time to notice more important issues, like how with every day that passes, it seems like there is another connection discovered between Trump’s administration and Russia.
Patty TempletonDGO Staff Writer
