Donald Trump has a hard time sharing the spotlight. Even as Hillary Clinton is dominating the news for missing emails, bad decisions and terrible strategy, Donald Trump is taking press conferences and giving speeches that are mostly about, well, Donald Trump.
But while Trump is just being himself, his reluctance to address his opponent’s foibles when they’re at their most publicly visible creates an interesting political conundrum. While he might push Hillary off the airwaves and buy himself precious television time, he keeps the American public from seeing Clinton’s worst moments.
But this phenomenon didn’t just start with events surrounding Clinton’s homebrew email server. Here are five times Donald Trump has (intentionally or unintentionally) given Hillary Clinton much-needed cover.
The Trump-Copter Lands in Iowa!
Just as Hillary Clinton was finishing up a pork chop at the Iowa State Fair, the media focused on her having been generally unable to ingratiate herself to Iowa voters, Donald Trump landed his signature helicopter in a field just outside the Fair and started giving fair-going children free hats and helicopter rides. Hillary Clinton was quickly overshadowed, allowing her to slink back across state lines unnoticed by the angry hordes of Iowa progressives.
Trump Tweets During Clinton’s Disastrous Debate
Hillary Clinton had a hard time gaining traction on her opponents in early debates, but if you remember anything besides Trump’s Dem Debate live-Tweets, you’re doing better than most Clinton critics.
As Hillary struggled to best Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, two men who shouldn’t have even been in competition with her, Donald Trump drew the attention to himself with Tweets about commercial-free news channels and Lincoln Chafee.
Cutting to the Empty Podium
Donald Trump didn’t even need to be speaking to keep the spotlight off Hillary Clinton. Although she was struggling to explain how classified information never passed through her Chappaqua email operation, in interviews and “town hall” campaign appearances, major news networks, knowing Trump’s speeches were full of bombastic statements, would frequently cut to empty Trump podiums — sometimes for entire blocks of time, and sometimes during Clinton speeches.
Saddam Was the Best!
Tuesday, Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in North Carolina with President Barack Obama, partly in celebration of the DOJ’s decision not to charge her for mishandling classified — and even Top Secret — information.
But as the FBI detailed new information on just how risky Clinton’s behavior really was — and the moment became perfectly ripe to tear into Clinton’s total recklessness with national security — Donald Trump announced that his approach to terrorism was largely modeled on despotic Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s. Instead of responding to allegations she shared thousands of classified emails, Clinton was able to rebuke Trump for praising a madman.
The Star of David Debacle
Over the weekend, Trump Tweeted an picture of Hillary Clinton with a Star of David superimposed over a pile of cash. The image immediately drew claims of anti-Semitism, and an investigation into the picture’s origin didn’t do much to help matters.
But even as media moved on to Clinton’s troubles, Trump tried his best to revive the controversy, Tweeting about the image, speaking about the image, even as Republicans clamored for his “tough talk” on “Crooked Hillary” avoiding justice. You could even say that Trump actually refused to “Let it Go.”
Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the 'Star of David' also?
Dishonest media! #Frozen pic.twitter.com/4LJBpSm8xa— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2016
Meanwhile, Hillary has been able to maintain absolute radio silence. Except in responding to Trump’s Frozen fallacy, of course.
Some in the GOP have started to speculate that Trump’s desire to command attention is getting in the way of running a successful campaign — and some are worried he may even be doing it deliberately. All we know is, we can’t wait to see what he comes up with to drown out Clinton’s convention speech.
