rollingstone | His signature moment in a campaign full of them was his exchange in the first debate with Fox's Kelly. She asked
him how anyone with a history of calling women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs,
and disgusting animals" could win a general election against a female
candidate like Hillary Clinton.
"I've been challenged by so many people," Trump answered. "I frankly
don't have time for political correctness. And to be honest with you,
the country doesn't have time either….We don't win anymore. We lose to
China. We lose to Mexico….We lose to everybody."
On the surface, Kelly was just doing her job as a journalist,
throwing Trump's most outrageous comments back at him and demanding an
explanation.
But on another level, she was trying to bring Trump to heel. The
extraction of the humiliating public apology is one of the media's most
powerful weapons. Someone becomes famous, we dig up dirt on the person,
we rub it in his or her nose, and then we demand that the person get
down on bended knee and beg forgiveness.
The Clintons' 1992 joint interview on 60 Minutes was a classic example, as was Anthony Weiner's prostration before Andrew Breitbart and Chris Christie's 107-minute marathon apologia
after Bridgegate. The subtext is always the same: If you want power in
this country, you must accept the primacy of the press. It's like paying
the cover at the door of the world's most exclusive club.
Trump wouldn't pay the tab. Not only was he not wrong for saying
those things, he explained, but holding in thoughts like that is bad for
America. That's why we don't win anymore, why we lose to China and to
Mexico (how are we losing to Mexico again?). He was saying that hiding
forbidden thoughts about women or immigrants or whoever isn't just
annoying, but bad for America.
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