Donald Trump's Thuggery
WASHINGTON -- It's always a good day in middle school when the seventh-graders make it out of the cafeteria without a lunchtime food fight. So we should, I suppose, pause to appreciate the restraint and substance of the latest GOP presidential debate.
The candidates, most notably mashed-potato-flinger-in-chief Donald Trump, managed to make it through the evening without resort to belittling invective ("little Marco," "lying Ted") or juvenile puffery ("He referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee.")
Sigh of relief, and credit to CNN moderator Jake Tapper and his colleagues for substantive questions that did not prod the candidates to taunt one another.
"So far I cannot believe how civil it's been up here," Trump observed at one point in the evening, as if he has not been the chief engine of 2016 campaign incivility.
But it's also important to note: This is grading on the most generous curve. The lowest point of the evening -- as disappointing as it was predictable -- came when Tapper asked Trump about violent attacks on protesters at his rallies.
Just the day before the debate, at an event in North Carolina, a Trump supporter identified as John McGraw punched a demonstrator in the face.
"We don't know who he is, but we know he's not acting like an American,"ÃÂ said McGraw, who has since been charged with assault, in footage posted by Inside Edition. "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."
Kill him. Stop and think about that scary mindset. Because Trump doesn't. The moment was played nonstop on cable news, but he didn't take the time to look at what had happened at one of his own events, much less accept any responsibility for it.
"Do you believe that you've done anything to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged?" Tapper asked.
Trump responded with the weakest of condemnations. He spent more time empathizing with the understandable anger of his supporters than criticizing their unacceptable conduct.
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Copyright 2016 Washington Post Writers Group
