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Trump labels Republican presidential challengers 'the Three Stooges'


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Trump labels Republican presidential challengers 'the Three Stooges'

By Steve Holland

 

2019-09-09T234954Z_1_LYNXNPEF8821D_RTROPTP_4_USA-TRUMP.JPG

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House before departing to Fayetteville, North Carolina in Washington, U.S. September 9, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump dismissed three Republican challengers to his 2020 re-election as "the Three Stooges" on Monday and expressed doubt about ever agreeing to meet them on a debate stage.

 

"They're a joke. They're a laughingstock," Trump told reporters when asked whether he would agree to debate them during the 2020 nominating contest.

Three Republicans - former U.S. Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and former U.S.

Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois - are mounting long-shot campaigns to deny Trump the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

 

They face a formidable re-election effort mounted by Trump, who has consolidated his grip on the party’s national and state machinery. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Aug. 19 and 20 showed 87% of Republicans approved of his performance in office.

 

When asked whether he would agree to debate three Republican challengers to his 2020 re-election, President Donald Trump told reporters ‘they’re a joke. They’re a laughingstock.’ Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

"They're a joke. They're a laughingstock," Trump told reporters outside of the White House, when asked whether he would agree to debate three Republican challengers during the 2020 nominating contest.

In a tweet on Monday, Trump dismissed the three challengers as "the Three Stooges" and expressed doubt about ever agreeing to meet them on a debate stage.

Three Republicans - former U.S. Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and former U.S. Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois - are mounting long-shot campaigns to deny Trump the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

Trump also denied having anything to do with the cancellation of Republican primary contests in four states, meaning he will face no opposition there. Canceling their primaries were Nevada and South Carolina, which are critical early voting states, as well as Kansas and Arizona.

"The four states that canceled it don't want to waste their money. If there was a race, they would certainly want to do that," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

 

Sanford, who announced his candidacy on Sunday, said he did not believe Trump's popularity would last. "I sincerely believe Trump is misguided on a whole host of issues. He’s out of sync with voters in South Carolina. I think he has lost touch with the very voters that sent him to office," he told MSNBC on Monday.

 

Walsh has called Trump a bully and a coward who is unfit for office. Weld says another Trump term would be bad for America.

 

Before he left the White House for a rally in North Carolina, Trump also said he planned at some point to put out an "extremely complete" statement on his finances. Trump has refused for years to release his tax returns despite a long history of presidential candidates detailing their finances.

 

He said the financial statement would make clear he did not need whatever revenue was produced when U.S. military personnel stayed at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland while on refuelling stops.

 

"I'm going to give out my financial condition, and you'll be extremely shocked that the numbers are many, many times what you think. I don't need to have somebody take a room overnight at a hotel," he said.

 

In a tweet earlier, Trump recalled Sanford's disappearance in 2009 when, while governor of South Carolina, he met his Argentine mistress under the cover story of having gone hiking on the Appalachian Trail, only to be found out later.

 

"The Three Stooges, all badly failed candidates, will give it a go!" the president said, leaning on his penchant for bestowing derisive nicknames on his opponents. The Three Stooges were a vaudeville and slapstick comedy team whose antics regularly appeared on television.

 

Trump also denied having anything to do with the cancellation of Republican nominating primaries in four states, meaning he will face no opposition there. Cancelling their primaries were Nevada and South Carolina, which are critical early voting states, as well as Kansas and Arizona.

 

"The four states that cancelled it don't want to waste their money. If there was a race, they would certainly want to do that," Trump said.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-10
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Just now, mtls2005 said:

So sez Emile Sitka, aka the fourth Stooge.

 

Why close the primaries to stooges?

 

His rage tweets on Mark Sanford showed he usual class, for a guy who schtupped a porn star while wife #3 was at home caring for young Barron.

 

He is literally melting down before our eyes. Actually quite sad to watch. At least Nixon was sneaky smart. This guy? Bag of rocks dumb.

In this case I think he is right. He owns the party and had nothing to gain from a debate.

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10 minutes ago, TooPoopedToPop said:

Yes he will, because his opponents make The Three Stooges look good and not so funny anymore.

He will have one opponent in the general election. We don't know who that will be yet. Of course there is always the chance of a spoiler third party candidate that will help one side or the other. 

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58 minutes ago, bendejo said:

Maybe the bad showing for Liz has something to do with NH vs neighboring Mass.

Yang at 54% ?  Everybody wants a piece of that free money!

 

 

There's nothing free in this life and probably not the next either. That siad that's one of about 100 policies that mesh together pretty nicely.

 

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4 hours ago, bendejo said:

I am from the same village as DT, and close to his age.  When I was in high school this kind of name calling was called "ranking out."  It is somewhere between a sport and a form of entertainment.  The fun comes when one pushes the other into going too far and the fists start flying: I don't think DT sees it that way (from a spectator perspective), so it wouldn't be too hard to provoke him.  E.g. when he starts in on Liz Warren's genetics she could keep coming back with stuff and he would respond with even worse defamations to the point where no one with any native American heritage could not be offended.  

During the 2015 debates I figured out how to get him: laugh!  There was a certain debate (the one at the Reagan library, I think) where he started off by tossing insults at every candidate that derided him recently, and the crowd loved it, and even some of the other candidates laughed.  If they kept laughing at everything he said, even into the "serious" part of the debate, he wouldn't have been able to handle it.  I find it strange that no one figured that out.  Maybe something to do professional politicians lacking imagination.

 

 

When Comedy Central roasted him, no subject was off limits except how rich he was.  I think the general wisdom was a couple of Billion, he wanted them to say he was worth 10 billion, after a lot of back and forth they settled on 7 Billion, which of course is a lie, or he wouldn't have settled for it.  Attack his wealth and his abilitiy to make a deal.  He doesn't care if you call his daughter a whore or that he's a crook, just make sure you inflate his wealth.

 

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4 minutes ago, bendejo said:

translation: some piece of paper with questionable stuff on it that means and proves nothing

 

 

Probably not even that: just promise something but do nothing and it will go away again for some time.

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