…during the day, and I was there for a tiny little short period of time and it was much
more for an inspection. There was no problem during the day. The problem I saw Leland got
whacked pretty good but that was during the night. And this problem-- these problems are
during the night, not during the day. And I go down-- I’ve gone down two or three
times all for inspection and you go there, someday you may need it. But you go there
and I went down, I looked at it, it was during the day, it was not a problem and I read about
it, like a big thing. There was never a problem, we’ve never had a problem, nobody ever came
close to giving us a problem. The Secret Service does an unbelievable job of maintaining control
in the White House and beyond the Secret Service we have a lot of other great people out there
including the DC police. And then, of course, on top of that after I saw the one evening,
which was a little rough and was certainly rough on Leland, more so than anybody else,
we brought in the-- we brought in the troops.
So Mr. President, I remember 9/11 that President Bush wanted to land back at Washington, they
wouldn’t let him, they said it was too dangerous. Finally got him back there. sometimes the
Secret Service even tells the president, I can’t do this. So you’re telling me, Mr.
President, they didn’t say to you, you have to go downstairs, my responsibility is your
welfare? They didn’t limit you at all in the House?
Nope, they didn’t tell me that at all, but they said it would be a good time to go down,
take a look and maybe some time you’re going to need it. And I’ve been down, let’s
see, that would be number two 2 1/2 sort of because I’ve done different things. But
2 1/2. But I looked, I was down for a very, very short period of time. Very, very short
period of time. I can’t tell you who went with me but a whole group of people went with
me. As an inspecting factor, I was back up, and Brian, it was during the day, it wasn’t
during the night, I think they reported during the night. During the night maybe someday
it’d make sense. During the day you have tremendous numbers of people, we didn’t
even have protesters, if they did it was a small crowd. There’s so much fake news going
around Brian you have no idea. Maybe you do actually have an idea.
This is Trump during a radio interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, claiming that
he totally, definitely wasn’t rushed into the White House bunker for safety, he merely
went in to inspect it. Just your run-of-the-mill building inspection done by the president
of the United States. My guess is that he checked the plumbing next.
And of course, to really drive home the story, Trump claims he’s only even BEEN to the
bunker 2 and a half times. Just a very real and legitimate explanation about how he has
been somewhere 2 times and then he also was there half of one time. If nothing else, we
can be sure that this entire explanation is 100% true and completely checks out.
This whole prolonged saga was born out of the fact that official record shows that over
the weekend, as protests grew outside of the White House, secret service agents rushed
Trump to the underground bunker. And for a guy whose presidency is predicated on seeming
tough, the news drew some predictable criticism. Especially when contrasted against the fact
that while he was hiding away, his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, was out speaking with
protestors on the streets—
But sure, Donald Trump is the real populist here. Got it.
What this is, is proof of Trump’s insecurity. That at a time when more than 100,000 Americans
have died from coronavirus, when protests have sparked up across the entire country,
with millions of Americans out of work, with real people hurting every day, to a degree
never seen before in our history, the only thing he can get on the radio and talk about
is that he never went to a bunker. That he’s way too tough for that. The fake news lied.
Because clearly, that’s what the president should be talking about. The United States
could literally be sinking into the Atlantic Ocean and Trump would still find a way to
make about him and his own ego. Also, consider the fact that, if Trump is
clearly irked about this, why bring it up? Why give this story oxygen? He is so cripplingly
insecure that rather than just allow it go away, he HAS to get the final word. Even if
that final word is pretending that the most powerful man on the face of the earth is now
doing routine building inspections. And while we can laugh at that, there’s a dangerous
side to this too, because if he has such poor judgment about something so simple as not
relitigating an embarrassing story by giving the least believable excuse on the face of
the earth, then what’s happening in meetings with foreign leaders? What’s happening with
decision-making in military interventions? The guy can’t figure out how to not humiliate
himself with a simple story about a bunker and we’re supposed to believe that he’s
brilliantly negotiating denuclearization? The simple fact is that Donald Trump isn’t
capable of focusing on anything other than himself. He isn’t capable of empathy. He
isn’t capable of compassion. He views everything only through the lens of how he himself can
be helped. Which is why even in a protest against police brutality, against racism,
rather than make an effort to heal our wounds and unify all sides, his ego only allows him
to dig in his heels, deploy police forces to quote “DOMINATE” the protestors, tweets
out racially loaded phrases, baselessly blame Antifa, and then lie about something that
the whole world knows is true. It is always and only about him. And with his poll numbers
sinking by the day, it seems even his base if finally coming to realize that.