Final Jeopardy clue: ON 9/11 THIS MAN WAS PRESIDENT
by Tom Sullivan
I'm sorry, 'He kept us safe' is incorrect and was not in the form of a question. The correct response: Who is George W. Bush?
It is the Final Jeopardy clue that stumps Republicans every time. Even brother Jeb! has trouble with it.
Surprisingly, Donald Trump does not:
The controversy began Friday morning when Trump implied that the former president could share some blame for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, as he was in office at the time.
"When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time," Trump said on Bloomberg TV.
Bloomberg anchor Stephanie Ruhle interjected, "Hold on, you can't blame George Bush for that," before Trump stood by his comments.
"He was president, OK? ... Blame him, or don't blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign," Trump said.
In what by now sounds like a Pavlovian response, brother Jeb! responded:
How pathetic for @realdonaldtrump to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 16, 2015"Prominent Republicans" are of course outraged by Trump's statement, plus some not-so prominent conservatives:
This is absolutely the most ridiculous thing Donald Trump has ever said. I mean, I just can’t get over how imbecilic it is, and it’s not the conspiracy theory that we’ve been hearing for years. It’s Trump, in an attempt to build himself up, blaming George W. Bush for the twin towers falling simply because he was president at the time ...
The gall of a Republican taking a government official to task for a deadly attack simply because it occurred on her/his watch!
Still, Judd Legum did a quickie, tongue-in-cheek investigation for Think Progress and determined, "Taking into account all the evidence, it seems more likely than not that George W. Bush was president on September 11, 2001."
As Digby pointed out yesterday, the evidence supporting "He kept us safe" is a mite thin, what with over a dozen attacks on embassies and consulates during Bush's tenure. And the anthrax attacks that killed five people and infected 17 others. And the domestic terrorism that has killed dozens in the decade since 9/11.
"We recognize that, over the past few years, more people have died in this country in attacks by domestic extremists than in attacks associated with international terrorist groups," Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said in a speech last week.
All of which are buried like a stinker in the litter box by "He kept us safe."
But perhaps the most stunning "response" to Trump was the question that led to Trump's remark in the first place. Bloomberg's Stephanie Rhule said, "Help us understand who Donald Trump is as a man. I need to know that you will make us feel safe and you will make us feel proud."
You have a party filled with politicians who instill fear in voters as a means of staying in power, in fear of a T-party that now bites that hand that once fed it, and an audience in chronic fear of the threats the party relies on to remain in power.
Talk about co-dependency.