It’s indisputable that Donald Trump isn’t a policy wonk. It’s indisputable because Mr. Trump, in talking about the VA scandal, talked about the condition of the VA hospitals, calling them a dump, before criticizing John McCain for not doing enough for veterans. It’s silly that Mr. Trump would talk about facilities in this context. Veterans that died while waiting for treatment didn’t die because the facilities were terrible. They died because of bureaucratic corruption.
While that’s proof that Trump isn’t a problem solver, that’s minor compared to another scandal that’s brewing. The scandal is one of Mr. Trump’s own making. Mr. Trump’s thin skin has led him to deny press credentials to the Des Moines Register because their editorial board wrote an editorial calling for Trump to get out of the race after his disgusting comments about Sen. McCain. The Trump campaign isn’t trying to hide the fact. They’re speaking out about it:
In a subsequent conversation with the Register’s chief political reporter, Jennifer Jacobs, Lewandowski reiterated that news staffers were being denied access because of the editorial. “We’re not issuing credentials to anyone from The Des Moines Register based on the editorial that they wrote earlier in the week,” he said.
That’s frightening. Think about this possibility. Would a Trump administration strip reporters of their credentials if their news organization wrote something critical of President Trump? At this point, there’s no reason to think that won’t happen. There’s no reason to think it won’t happen because his initial instinct is to send the message that Mr. Trump will silence news organizations if they criticize him.
There’s a reason why that can’t be tolerated. Presidents and presidential candidates shouldn’t make decisions that limit media access to public events. That’s what tyrants do. Campaigns are job interviews. Why would people pick a candidate who doesn’t respect our Constitution or our Bill of Rights?
Lewandowski said he expected the campaign would consider allowing the Register to attend events at some point in the future.
That’s a disrespectful statement. It’s one thing to criticize the press. It’s another to punish them because the candidate is thin-skinned. If a politician can’t handle criticism, then they shouldn’t be a presidential candidate. If politicians can’t handle criticism, they aren’t prepared to handle the pressures of the job of president of the United States.
There isn’t a presidential candidate that doesn’t have an ego. That’s inevitable. What isn’t acceptable is a politician that doesn’t respect the Constitution or the people who’ve hired him or her.
