During Thursday's edition of MSNBC Live, host Stephanie Ruhle clashed with two Donald Trump supporters, going so far as to tell Michael Caputo “I'm not going to allow that!” when the former Trump staffer claimed that the Democratic presidential campaign is sending out talking points “so the media is covering what Hillary Clinton wants.”
Ruhle fired back that “these are Donald Trump's words, day in and day out at event after event that we're talking about. They have nothing to do with Hillary Clinton.”
The exchange began when Ruhle told Caputo: “Well, Michael, Donald Trump isn't delivering [his] message every day, relentlessly. Does [Campaign Manager] Paul Manafort have control of Donald Trump? Can he actually lead him here?”
“Well, I'll tell you,” the guest responded. Donald Trump was in Florida for “two different rallies yesterday” when he was delivering that message: the distilled, most important message of the campaign.”
That message was actually a question: “Are you ready for change, or do you want eight more years of the same?”
“The fact of the matter is it doesn't fit in with the Hillary Clinton campaign narrative,” Caputo asserted. “The talking points going out to the media are very different from what the Trump campaign is putting out there, and so, the media is covering what Hillary Clinton wants.”
“Hold on for a second!” Ruhle interrupted. “You know what? Michael, I'm not going to allow that, not here, not right now because you're saying the media is only covering what Hillary Clinton wants!”
“These are Donald Trump's words, day in and day out at event after event that we're talking about. They have nothing to do with Hillary Clinton,” she continued.
“Donald Trump went after the Khans,” she charged regarding the verbal tug-of-war between Khizr and Ghazala Khan over the death of their son -- Humayun, an Army captain who was killed during the Iraq War in 2004 -- and the current Republican presidential candidate's campaign.
However, Caputo interrupted her by stating: “No, he didn't.”
That comment surprised Ruhle, who asked incredulously: “He didn't?”
“I tell you what,” the Trump supporter stated: “Look at what he said, and he was not attacking the Khans. The problem with what he was doing was addressing the Khans, he was confronting the Khans, and you're not supposed to confront Gold Star parents," immediate relatives of U.S. Armed Forces members who have died in service to this country.
“He did not attack them, and the 'attack' word is in every set of Hillary Clinton talking points that goes to you and every other reporter across the country, and so therefore, he attacked them,” Caputo continued.
“I'm going to let you know I don't get any talking points from anyone,” Ruhle snarled, “but Donald Trump questioned if Mrs. Khan was allowed to speak. That's not an attack?”
Caputo replied:
No. In fact, I think it was a fumble. … I think he asked the question, [then] he tried to answer it.
In fact, the answer to the question should have been: “Mr. and Mrs. Khan have made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation, and I support them in saying whatever they need to say, regardless of what it is."
“That's the answer for a Gold Star parent,” he asserted, “but Donald Trump is not a professional politician. He didn't know that. Perhaps he should have known that.”
As NewsBusters previously reported, the feud began when Muslim-American Khizr Khan hammered Trump during the Democratic National Convention and even accused the GOP candidate of never having read the United States Constitution. While her husband slammed Trump, his wife, Ghazala, stood silently beside him.
A week earlier, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, grieving mother Pat Smith blasted Hillary Clinton for the debacle of the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, when her son and American diplomat Sean Smith was a victim of that massacre.
On CNN Newsroom the following day, host Carol Costello repeatedly attempted to get Charles Woods, father of the late U.S. Navy S.E.A.L. Tyrone Woods, to ask Trump to apologize for his comments to the Khans, but instead of taking the bait, he turned the tables and called on Hillary Clinton to apologize instead.
Desperate to keep the story alive, liberal Daily Beast contributor and recurring CNN guest Dean Obeidallah appeared on Tuesday's edition of New Day and “went ballistic” after a fellow guest and Donald Trump supporter recalled that Khizr Khan has a history of ties to the Clintons.
It's not certain how much longer the networks can keep the “Wrath of Khan” storyline going, but here's hoping it drops out of warp speed very soon.
