If it acts like a Duck, sounds like a Duck, and walks like a Duck, then maybe it is a DUCK!
Donald Trump came under fire Friday morning for his handling of a question at a town hall about when the U.S. can "get rid" of Muslims, for failing to take issue with that premise and an assertion that President Barack Obama is Muslim.
Trump,
who has shaken off several high-profile controversies that would have
ended other presidential campaigns, faced an immediate backlash from
advocacy groups, and members of his own party distanced themselves from
the GOP front-runner. The incident recalls Trump's 2011 quest to
challenge Obama on where he was born, which ended with Obama releasing
his long-form birth certificate. It also follows a debate performance
Wednesday that garnered mixed reviews for the billionaire businessman.
"We
have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims," an unidentified
man who spoke at a question-and-answer town hall event in Rochester, New
Hampshire asked the mogul at a rally Thursday night. "You know our
current president is one. You know he's not even an American."
A seemingly bewildered Trump interrupted the man, chuckling, "We need this question. This is the first question."
"Anyway,
we have training camps growing where they want to kill us," the man,
wearing a "Trump" T-shirt, continued. "That's my question: When can we
get rid of them?"
"We're going to be
looking at a lot of different things," Trump replied. "You know, a lot
of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things
are happening. We're going to be looking at that and many other
things."
The real estate mogul did not correct the questioner about his claims about Obama before moving on to another audience member.
White
House Press Secretary Josh Earnest condemned the remarks Friday, but
added "Is anybody really surprised that this happened at a Donald Trump
rally?"
The audience members comments
and Trump's response were quickly denounced by Democrats. Hillary
Clinton, the party's front-runner for president, personally tweeted late
Thursday that Trump's remarks were "just plain wrong," and followed up
on it Friday morning at a press conference.
"I
was appalled," Clinton said bluntly to a question from CNN's Suzanne
Malveaux. "Not only was it out of bounds, it was untrue. He should have
from the beginning corrected that kind of rhetoric, that level of
hatefulness."
Fellow Democratic hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley condemned the remarks.
Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, called the incident a sign of "a lack of moral courage."
"I
don't know if Trump is using dog-whistle politics to win support in the
polls, or if he genuinely believes the racist things he says. Either
way, he showed a complete lack of moral courage in that clip, and he has
shown once again that he completely unqualified to be President of the
United States."
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz flatly called Trump a racist in a statement.
"GOP
front-runner Donald Trump's racism knows no bounds. This is certainly
horrendous, but unfortunately unsurprising given what we have seen
already. The vile rhetoric coming from the GOP candidates is appalling,"
Schultz said. "(Republicans) should be ashamed, and all Republican
presidential candidates must denounce Trump's comments immediately or
will be tacitly agreeing with him."
After the event, several reporters asked Trump why he didn't challenge the questioner's assertions. Trump did not answer.
But
Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, later told CNN that the
candidate did not hear the question about Obama being a Muslim.
"All
he heard was a question about training camps, which he said we have to
look into," Lewandowski said. "The media want to make this an issue
about Obama, but it's about him waging a war on Christianity."
Trump announced Friday that he would cancel his trip to South Carolina, citing "a significant business transaction."
New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that he would not "lecture"
Trump on how to respond to comments like that, but said that leaders are
responsible for correcting voters on certain issues.
"I'll
tell you what I would do and I wouldn't have permitted that if someone
brought that up at a town hall meeting of mine. I would have said, 'No,
listen. Before we answer let's clear some things up for the rest of the
audience.' And I think you have an obligation as a leader to do that,"
Christie said on NBC's "TODAY" Friday.
Falsehoods persist about Obama's background
Obama,
who has spoken openly about his Christian faith, was born to an
American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii. But Trump has been one of
the leading skeptics of Obama's birthplace, saying he did not know where
Obama was born as recently as July.
A recent CNN/ORC poll found 29% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans.
Trump
is not the first Republican candidate to raise eyebrows over comments
involving Obama and his ethnic and religious background. In February,
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker became embroiled in a brief controversy when he told The Washington Post that he didn't know if Obama was a Christian.
"I've
never asked him that," Walker said. A spokeswoman later clarified that
he did believe Obama was Christian, but disagreed with the media's
obsession with "gotcha" questions.
And in 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain was booed after he famously told an audience member at a campaign event that Obama was a "good family man."
"He's
a decent family man ... (a) citizen that I just happen to have
disagreements with on fundamental issues," McCain said then. "That's
what this campaign is all about."