Some people think Donald Trump might have hurt his standing with Republican voters during the debate Saturday night, just because he said George W. Bush is responsible for 9/11, George W. Bush lied us into a war with Iraq, and other typical Republican opinions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Trump’s debate performance will only send him to new heights, and here’s why.
If you want to know how the majority of mainstream Republicans feel about an issue, just ask Medea Benjamin. Rebecca Savransky at The Hill reports:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is being praised by Code Pink, a group working to end U.S. wars and militarism that has protested the Iraq War.
Trump garnered support from the organization during the GOP debate Saturday night when he called the Iraq War a mistake and accused the George W. Bush administration of lying before the invasion…
Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin said in an email to the Huffington Post that she “loved” the debate.
“It felt surreal to hear Donald Trump, the leading Republican contender for President, saying what we at CODEPINK have been shouting to the winds for 14 years now: that Bush and his cronies lied about WMDs, that the Iraq war was catastrophic, and that Bush never ‘kept us safe’ because 9/11 happened on his watch.”
I’m not sure “surreal” is the proper word. What’s surreal about Donald Trump espousing liberal opinions while denying he’s a liberal? That’s nothing new. He was even louder about it than usual on Saturday night, sure, but that hardly makes it “surreal.”
Nonetheless, I’m glad Medea is standing behind Trump on this. It’s about time a presidential candidate had the courage to stand up to the evil George Bush!
Now that George Bush is campaigning for Jeb(!), is he fair game for questions about World Trade Center, Iraq War and eco collapse? Careful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2016
Medea Benjamin’s endorsement has done something that the entire 50-minute Trump parody video at Funny or Die couldn’t do: It made me laugh.