Donald Trump Shatters World Record For Walking Back His Own Comments

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On Friday, Donald Trump offered up this comment on the Orlando shooting: “It’s too bad that some of the young people that were killed over the weekend didn’t have guns attached to their hip….Had people been able to fire back it would have been a much different outcome.”

Presumably Trump figured that this was the “strong” pro-gun position, only to discover that even the NRA thinks it’s not a great idea to mix firearms and alcohol. So today he Trumpsplained that he was “obviously” referring only to “additional guards or employees.”

This is, obviously, a lie, as even the lightest perusal of his original remarks proves. Nonetheless, the term of art for this is that he “walked back” his comment. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Trump has practically made a career of walking back his endless buffoonery. The screen cap below of a Google News search for “Trump walks back” displays it in all its glory.

I totally ripped off this idea from Andrew Sprung, but it really requires its full length to do it justice. As Andrew says, “Perhaps some of these proposals didn’t evince quite the level of deliberation we could wish for?”

What really gets me is why Trump’s supporters continue to believe a word he says. He’s gonna build a wall? Sure. He’ll never walk that back. Honest.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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