Does anyone think that person who made the racist comment was a plant by another Republican?

[Tony_FLADEM]

I'm not a Donald Trump fan but I'm starting to suspect that person who made the racist comment about Obama being a Muslim was put up to it by another GOP candidate running for President.

Usually when people speak in public there is a certain level of anxiety and hesitation. This guy seemed very rehearsed and at ease.

It's possible they did this to bring down Trump's poll numbers.

What do you think?

[pinboy3niner]

1. No

There are plenty of bigots like that out there. Nobody has to "plant" them.

[jberryhill]

16. You know what's funny

This "the guy was a plant" thing popped up quite a bit today despite NO reason for thinking he was.

For shits and giggles, I took a look at FOX to see how they are covering it, and, sure enough... FOX is peddling this nonsense.

[panader0]

24. Agreed

But plant or not, what really matters is Trump's response, and he blew it.

[virtualobserver]

2. I do think that, he didn't seem real to me

I think that it will backfire and will benefit Trump.

[jberryhill]

3. Okay, so...

Someone "planted" him there on the entirely slim proposition that he'd get called on in the first place?

There are a lot of people - and they support Trump - who believe that tripe, and there are plenty of people who are perfectly capable of standing up and asking a question.

[olddots]

4. he may not be a plant

but he sure is a fucking vegitable .

[shenmue]

5. Win

[madinmaryland]

13. Who knew that vegatables could be racist!

[pinboy3niner]

18. To be fair, some do play favarites

[madinmaryland]

19. Green beans, Lima Beans, or Pinto Beans????

[tavernier]

25. Really? Vegitable? Vegatable?

Anyone have Spill Chuck?

[pinboy3niner]

27. No chuck allowed--this is a veretable vegitable subthread!

Please proceed to cast asparagus.

[tavernier]

31. Well then, lettuce proceed

and we will see what will turnip.

[Person 2713]

33. Hey call any vegetable and the chances are the vegetable will respond

[artislife]

38. !!! nt

[leftofcool]

52. DUZY award!

[JI7]

6. these days it's hard to tell a difference

[malaise]

8. It doesn't matter

Trump's failure to condemn the lies about the President is why so many people are talking about this

[Nevernose]

9. I think the opposite: more likely Trump campaign planted him

He's trying to win Republican primary voters. While the conservative talking heads are praying for a Trump "gaffe," if anything statements like today are MORE likely to get him votes.

We really need to stop thinking traditionally and throw conventional wisdom out the window. Trump's popularity is the end result of decades of anti-intellectualism and pandering to the worst parts of human nature. He is the perfect Republican; he is the pinnacle of the pandered-to demographic.

[pinboy3niner]

20. "He is profiting from and encouraging some very dark forces within the Republican base."

--Fareed Zakaria, CNN

[etherealtruth]

10. No, sadly the lunatics that support that sleaze love and embrace racist thought ...

... and abject stupidity.

[Pisces]

11. That is a Rovian dirty trick. Look to Bush and friends for that stunt.

[jberryhill]

35. In what imaginable way is it a "dirty trick" to repeat Trump's OWN statements?

That is like saying it is a "dirty trick" to have someone say that Hillary is female.

[Pisces]

53. Putting a plant in the audience to embarrass or stump you is a trick. If this were of this guys own

volition, which it could be, then yes it would be what Trump deserves. Trump never talked about education camps etc.
I think the other candidates are sick of the Trump show and they want to bring him down as fast as possible. Using these
tactics does not seem beyond Buch and co. He is the one most affected by Trump because he looks so weak next to him, and scared. Trump manhandles him in every debate.

I think Trump is a train wreck, but he continues to help the Democrats with his wild immigration talk and other nonsense. He
inflames all minority groups against the Repubs. More power to him. They can't win with old white men alone.

[jberryhill]

12. The shitheads on FOX think so

And some on DU sound just like the shitheads on FOX on this topic.

[pinboy3niner]

14. Indeed

[AlinPA]

15. No, he is just a typical republican with a typical republican statement asking a typical

republican question.

[L. Coyote]

28. Exactly. We don't need to find an excuse for this level of stupid.

[davidn3600]

17. If so, nothing seems to stick to Trump. So it's poor strategy.

You can't attack Trump like you can a typical politician. His campaign by definition is politically incorrect. He runs on the platform of opposing political correctness.

Therefore failing to correct a guy who says "Obama is a Muslim" won't change the mind of any of his supporters.

That's the odd thing about the Trump phenomenon. Normally a story like this would hurt most candidates. But it may actually help Trump.

[MohRokTah]

21. 54% of all Trump supporters believe this shit.

No need to plant a bigot, more than half the audience were bigots.

[Skittles]

22. Donald should have anticipated that nutcase question, and prepared for a response

he is as stupid as Jeb

[840high]

23. Yes - very possible. Too convenient.

[kelliekat44]

26. Could be. And they knew Trump was too dumb to be able to give a good response. nt

[customerserviceguy]

29. No

Dog shit attracts flies. I don't see a lot of difference in this case.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

30. I'm pretty convinced he was a phony.

What his deal was, who he might be working with, I don't know. But his delivery of that tripe was too over the top, intentionally over the top.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

32. PUBLICITY is coin of

the realm for Trump. Only Trump himself could ensure that the actor would be called upon, for the very first question, no less. The actor, like at least one other guy I saw in the audience, was wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with 'Trump' in big letters.

Trump is a showman, and IMO he got just what he wanted today: free publicity. In addition, how many stories about Fiorina did you see today?

Also, the actor pushed the button for 'birthers' (28 percent of Rs), and for 'Muslimers' (43 percent of Rs).

All in all, a pretty profitable day for a showman who keeps track of the monetary value of all his free publicity.

IMO it's pretty clear it was Trump himself who pulled off the Town Hall publicity stunt. What are we all talking about in this very thread?

[cheapdate]

34. No. He was confident and comfortable in his ignorance.

There are thousands and thousands exactly like him. I run into people like him on a daily basis. Townhall meetings are an excellent place to find them. In Tennessee, we elect people like him to serve in the General Assembly.

[jberryhill]

36. Seriously

There are people thinking that being able to stand up and ask a question requires some kind of special magic talent.

These dopes are on AM radio call in shows all damned day long.

[cheapdate]

37. I can drop into any one of several of the offices in our suite

and be treated to this kind of lunacy anytime -- and I work with college educated professional engineers.

Some of my wife's family members regularly make statements at least as bigoted as that asshole's.

But the best of all was the morning coffee and biscuits meetings in the construction trailer in Calvert City, Kentucky. Every morning for six months. Awesome stuff.

[jberryhill]

50. Vast stretches of PA, NJ and lower DE...

Same stuff.

Obama bought all the ammo for his secret muslin army.

[NobodyHere]

39. Trump himself seemed to believe this in 2011

So why shouldn't one of his followers still have one of his beliefs?

[Liberal In Texas]

40. Not at all. There are enough of these brainwashed idiots running around that one popping up isn't

beyond the realm of possibility.

Stop reading conspiracy into the obvious.

[herding cats]

41. What would it matter?

It's possible, but considering Trumps history it's not the only possibility. It could well have been a true believer/follower. Couldn't it have been?

What I don't get is how it matters. After what has come out of his mouth historically, how is this a thing to his followers?

He is who he is, and what he supports what he does. He's a birther and he's a bigot and racist. His base expects such from him. It's what they love the most about him. Make no mistakes on this. This is how low we've fallen as a nation. Some 40 something percent of their racist have come out of the closet to admit this is what they want.

Yeah, such doesn't sell on a national level. So what? It's still who he's been for years and what he's been branding himself as being for this run for president. It's him, he owns it. Even if he's reluctant to do so now that there's some small semblance of backlash for him being him. This is still who he is and what he has publicly stood behind.

This is the face of the 40+% of the Republican voters out there. We need to keep that in the front of our minds at all times. This is the reality of the people we're up against.

[moondust]

42. Thought so at first.

Suspected some GOP or Dem opponent figured he couldn't/wouldn't run from his record of birtherism and bringing it up could do him some damage.

However, there was no way of knowing in advance whom he would call on during a town hall. I suppose it's possible somebody planted more than one operative and told them to wave their arms and yell the loudest and TheRump would naturally call on one of them.

[hatrack]

43. Not buying it - go to any small-town bar anywhere in America . . .

And you'll find ignorant drunk assholes who can speak with smooth assurance about just what they know regarding:

Obama's birth certificate

The Trilateral Commission

Chemtrails

ZOG

The Illuminati

Teh Gayz

Teh Muslins

Teh Messicans

And they can say whatever warglebargle Trump mouths with the same absolute blazing conviction that They Are Right, and the same freedom from facts the New GOP Hearthrob uses in his . . . "statements".

[SummerSnow]

44. No plant needed for those who embrace Trump

[brooklynite]

46. Does anyone think that unsubstantiated conspiracy theories belong in CREATIVE SPECULATION?

[tammywammy]

48. +1 n/t

[jberryhill]

49. Nicely put

[Iggo]

47. No, I think that was a standard ignorant republican racist.

Just like the rest of them.

[liberal N proud]

51. His supporters are just that stoopid

[AgingAmerican]

54. No everything he said was 'normal' to them

nt

[ZX86]

55. This mystery is easily solved.

Just find the guy, interview him, and check out his background. He was on TV after all. Republicans are notoriously sloppy dirty tricksters. If he's a plant he'll be like James O'Keefe's room mate or a Rand Paul staffer or some such nonsense.