Speaking on CNN with Dan Senor, the chief spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and senior foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney during the 2012 election campaign, Donald Trump senior advisor Barry Bennett unwittingly confirmed what many have claimed before: the words Donald Trump uses simply don’t matter to him or the people in the Trump campaign.
The matter arose when discussing Trump’s original suggestion of banning Muslims from entering the United States, which he has only recently tried to backtrack from.
Not only did Bennett have the gall to say that the idea that words matter is “ridiculous,” he accused Senor of thinking what was in Trump’s head was “something evil.”
The exchange concluded with Senor offering a statement that many others have suspected is true: Trump doesn’t believe in anything.
The exchange is below:
Bennett: All proposals are suggestions. Congress enacts the laws.
Senor: Are you saying that when he proposed the ban on Muslims it wasn’t actually a real policy prescription?
Bennett: I’m saying there’s no difference between a proposal and a suggestion to Congress
Senor: So is building the wall with Mexico, is that a suggestion
Bennett: That’s his intention.
Senor: So is that a suggestion?
Bennett: Can he build it without Congress?
Senor: Is that –
Bennett: Can he build it without Congress’ approval? No. So he has to persuade Congress to do it.
Senor: So we can now caveat every policy prescription as “It’s just a suggestion.”
Bennett: Dan, you’ve been around Washington long enough that it takes Congress to go along. All he can do is to try to persuade Congress to go along with it. You know that as well as I do.
Senor: I know, but typically words matter. When political leaders –
Bennett: Oh, please. This “words matter” stuff. I mean, this is ridiculous. I mean, you are looking desperately for a reason not to vote for him. I don’t care, don’t vote for him.
Senor: My favorite line honestly of this campaign may have been just been articulated by you. This “words matter stuff is ridiculous.” “Don’t take him at his word. Don’t take him at his word.”
Bennett: Oh my gosh! He’s not a conservative, all this stuff, it’s ridiculous. He got more votes in the Republican primary than anybody in the history of politics.
Senor: Do you think he’s a conservative?
Bennett: But he’s not going to have your vote?
Senor: Do you think he’s a conservative?
Bennett: I do think he’s a conservative. I think there are all different kinds of conservatives. I think a lot of conservatives that you think are good conservatives, I don’t think are good conservatives because they don’t believe in the social causes that I believe in.
Senor: Does Donald Trump?
Bennett: I think he does, yes.
Senor: You think he does.
Bennett: I don’t have any more – you can see into his heart and head?
Senor: I’m asking you. You advised him.
Bennett: I told you I believe in him. But you don’t, because you believe you can see into his head something that’s pure evil.
Senor: No, no, no. I don’t see anything. I don’t see anything. I just see a guy who constantly –
(crosstalk)
Senor: I have no insight into this man in terms of what’s inside his head, obviously. All I can see is him bouncing around on just about every issue, which tells me, which tells me he doesn’t believe in anything.
Video below: