'What he said was appalling!' Clash on CNN as Trump ally applauds ex-president's interview
A clash erupted on CNN between a pair of former White House communications directors for Joe Biden and Donald Trump over the ex-president's appearance before a group of Black journalists.
Trump took the stage Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention & Career Fair, where he struck an immediately hostile tone with reporters and lobbed racist insults at Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield wondered what the GOP nominee hoped to accomplish.
"Yes, it is a battle to define her, and we see what Trump is trying to do," Bedingfield said. "I think where she's being really smart is in making this argument about the voters, that's something Trump has always struggled to do. For Trump, everything is always about Trump, and even in the way he was attacking her yesterday, that attacking her along the lines of ethnicity and race, what does that say to somebody in a Midwest state who is trying to make a determination about who they want to be president? What is, what does that – how does that help their lives? What's the case I should vote for him because, what, he uses really hateful language to attack his opponent?"
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Michael D. Dubke, who was Trump's spokesman for about three months in early 2017, applauded the ex-president for taking questions in a hostile environment, arguing that his willingness to take on the challenge mattered more than the answers he gave.
"Well, you should admire the fact that he went in front of a what turned out to be a hostile crowd, but he actually put himself out there to take questions from journalists," Dubke said. "We haven't seen that from the vice president yet, we haven't seen her put herself in anything but a favorable situation, a set stump speech, a friendly group, and so when they're ready to roll her out, I think that's when we're going to see some of this debate come. Now, the argument could be, with 94 days, just keep her in that safe zone, and then we don't have to find out."
"But that that is one thing, I think, if you look at, regardless of what the president said in front of the group, the fact that he opened himself up and does take questions from journalists, I think is a big difference between these two right now," he added.
Bedingfield strongly disagreed, saying that Trump's words actually do matter.
"I don't think you can say 'regardless of what he said,'" Bedingfield said. "I mean, yes, it matters and, yes, candidate should take questions from journalists, but it matters what they say when they answer those questions and what he said yesterday was appalling."
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