On Tuesday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” Knowles talks about how President Trump doubles down and trolls the press with his remarks on Ukraine and China. Video and partial transcript below:
But then President Trump himself, a unique character in American politics, decides he’s not going to stay quiet; he’s not going to defend himself; he’s going to double down. And so here is President Trump’s response on colluding with foreign governments over the question of the Bidens’ corruption.
TRUMP: Well, I would think that if they were honest about it they would start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens, because how does a company that’s newly formed, and all these companies, if you look at — by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened to China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine. So I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens.
TRUMP: Because nobody has any doubt that they weren’t crooked that was a crooked deal a hundred percent. He had no knowledge of energy, didn’t know the first thing about it. All of a sudden he’s getting fifty thousand dollars a month plus a lot of other things. Nobody has any doubt. And they got rid of a prosecutor — who was a very tough prosecutor — they got rid of him. Now they’re trying to make it the opposite way, but they got it. So if I were the president, I would certainly recommend that of Ukraine.
Absolutely the perfect response to this. I guess it gets back to our point: sometimes the wrong decision is better than indecision. I don’t think this is the wrong decision. I think it’s perfectly defensible to tell Ukraine to look into corruption and their own interference in the 2016 election, and I think it’s perfectly right for President Trump to double down on that. Because what’s he going to do? He could apologize and explain himself to the press — that’s not going to get him anywhere, and there’s no reason for him to do it. He doesn’t owe those people one word of explanation.
So, what he does is he goes out there, and he makes a joke. And even Marco Rubio, who is obviously no particular fan of the president, Marco Rubio was asked about this response from Trump and he just explains to the press — not President Trump’s remarks — he explains to the press how stupid the press is.
REPORTER: You think it’s okay for President Trump to ask China to launch an investigation of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden?
RUBIO: I don’t know if that’s a real request or him just needling the press knowing that you guys are going to get outraged by it. He’s pretty good at getting everybody fired up, and he’s been doing that for a while and the media responded. Right on right on right on task.
REPORTER: You’re one of the loudest critics of China and its human rights abuses. I mean is it okay to ask him to say that?
REPORTER: I don’t think it’s a real request, I think he did it to get you guys. I think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it. I said, I mean, he plays it like a violin and everyone falls right into it. That’s not a real request.
Of course. I mean, this is now Senator Marco Rubio not acting like a senator — he’s acting like he’s a panelist on Special Report. He’s acting like a political analyst and he’s saying, You idiots!
If President Trump were going to use the weight of the federal government to leverage all of that and get a foreign power and an adversarial power like China to investigate his political opponents, if he were really doing that, he’d probably pick up the phone. If you were really doing that, maybe you wouldn’t pick up the phone, he’d get some back channel-spy to go in and ask and they would basically do it like Obama did it, like Obama and Hillary and the Democrats did it. But that’s not what Trump is doing. He’s forcing the press, and manipulating the press, to expose their own hypocrisy.
Listen to full episodes of “The Michael Knowles Show” on iTunes.