Watch A CNN Donald Trump Supporter Struggle To Defend His 3AM Twitter Meltdown
Jeffrey Lord: "Well, What Does Presidential Mean?
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the September 30 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:
ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): Jeffrey, so from 3:00 A.M. To 5:30 A.M. early this morning Donald Trump, your candidate, is on this Twitter rant, number of tweets, talking about Alicia Machado. References a sex tape that there is no definitive evidence that exists. Is that presidential? Is that the behavior of somebody who should be a president fifty days or seventy days from now? However long it is?
JEFFREY LORD: Anderson, let me answer it this way --
COOPER: Just yes or no. Is it presidential?
LORD: Well, what does presidential mean? I mean I know --
COOPER: Well, worthy of the office of president. That is what it means. Worthy of somebody who would occupy the White House.
LORD: Anderson, I want the same test applied to him that was applied to every other president. And lots of those presidents were thought of in the day as not being quote unquote presidential. Andrew Jackson, right off the top of my head. Ronald Reagan, he was an actor. That was a dumb thing to be doing is nominating an actor. On and on the list goes. You don't put a peanut farmer in the oval office. I mean Anderson --
COOPER: I mean I get it, listen I'm a student of history too. I love history and it is important to see things in context but you didn't answer the question. Is this presidential behavior? Would you want the president of the United States to be up at 4:00 A.M. Encouraging people to go look for a sex tape?
LORD: Yeah, if it's worth looking for Anderson. Look Anderson, seriously. Seriously --
[...]
LORD: Let me answer. What I'm trying to communicate to you is that there are a lot of Americans out there who think that all of this presidential stuff and all of these kind of conventions that we have are horse hockey. That they are held by arrogant people, conventional people who have disdain for the average guy. And he is reaching out to them through Twitter. And yes, what we consider and I what I would certainly consider to be unconventional methods. I'm suggesting to you that there is a different view out there for people on the receiving end. And I think that, you know, all yearlong and before that we've written Donald Trump off for A B and C reason.
[...]
ANA NAVARRO: This does not take rocket science. And let my rescue my friend Jeffrey. He has grown on me. Like poisonous mushrooms but he has grown on me. Look Jeff, at some point -- you are a sane man, I mean you do have a pathological, clinical need to mention Ronald Reagan in every sentence, but you are a good, decent human being. It is time that surrogates for Trump stop the insanity and let this man know that it is unjustifiable. It is inexplicable. It is illogical. It is irrational. It is immature. It is un-presidential. It is unseemly. It is disgusting and it is gross for somebody who is five weeks away from an election day. For President of the United States, leader of the free world, to be tweeting at 4:00 A.M. in the morning in the about a sex tape. For the love of God Jeffrey you know better than this. Stop justifying the unjustifiable. Tell this man, “Donald, I support you, and I beg you to stop acting like a teenage boy who can't restrain himself.”
LORD: All I'm trying to convey to you is that there is another view of this out there. Another view. And we have to be thinking of this. And I mean I'll tell you one that Speaker [Newt] Gingrich mentioned the other day. The collusion between the Clinton campaign and various media outlets in getting this story out there. They were prepped ahead of time. They were cued she was going to mention Alicia Machado's name and they set the whole thing up. That media manipulation is a big deal to a lot of people out there.
Previously:
Trump Supporter On Fox Defends Trump's Treatment Of Alicia Machado As “A Luxury Exercise Program”