Reporter Asks Trump a Very Important Question — His Thoughts on the Gorilla Shooting

June 1st, 2016 8:18 PM

There was a big elephant in the room yesterday – presumptive Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump – who held a press conference on the money he raised for various military organizations.

The press, who took a massive beating from Trump, asked questions on everything from the amount of money raised to where the money went, even on potential running mates, but one Yahoo reporter decided to ask this elephant in the room about…the gorilla controversy.   

Yes, correspondent Hunter Walker asked Trump his thoughts regarding the Cincinnati Zoo's decision to shoot and kill a rare gorilla after a 4-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. Trump responded it was a “very tough call.”  

He continued about how it was “amazing” at certain points with “the way he held that child...almost like a mother holding a baby” before the gorilla dragged the boy. When that happened, Trump opined that he didn’t foresee any other option than what the zookeepers did:

I don't think they had a choice. I mean, probably they didn't have a choice. You have a child, a young child who is at stake, and, you know, it's too bad there wasn't another way. I thought it was so beautiful to watch that, you know, powerful, almost 500-pound gorilla, the way he dealt with that little boy, but it just takes one second. It's one second. It's not like it takes place over, well, he's going to do it in 30 seconds from now. It just takes one little flick of his finger, and I will tell you they probably had no choice.

Tell the Truth 2016

It didn’t take long for all hades to break loose on Twitter and excoriate Walker.  Conservative writer Douglas Powers wrote on MichelleMalkin.com about CNN picking up the question on Twitter:

Walker later responded to those on Twitter who ridiculed his off-the-wall question.

“Now that I've destroyed America and also journalism with my gorilla question, I'm going to grab a smoothie and head back to my office,” Walker tweeted, adding sarcastically, “[t]he folks acting like coverage of Trump, from me or others, is summed up by the gorilla question are very intelligent.”

For more screenshots of tweets reacting to this, go here.

(h/t: Politico)