For the New York Times’ editorial board, Wednesday evening’s more than three-hours-long GOP primary debate was a whole lot of “crazy talk.”
As the cream of the Republican Party’s crop, the entire ordeal was “frightening,” the newspaper explained.
“Peel back the boasting and insults, the lies and exaggerations common to any presidential campaign. What remains is a collection of assertions so untrue, so bizarre, that they form a vision as surreal as the Ronald Reagan jet looming behind the candidates’ lecterns,” the editorial read.
“It felt at times as if the speakers were no longer living in a fact-based world where actions have consequences, programs take money and money has to come from somewhere. Where basic laws — like physics and the Constitution — constrain wishes. Where Congress and the public, allies and enemies, markets and militaries don’t just do what you want them to, just because you say they will,” the newspaper, which has in the past hailed President Obama’s tendencies towards executive action, added.
The Times was particularly disturbed with the candidates’ support for tighter immigration controls, saying that it’s ludicrous to suggest the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants or that we should build a wall or two on the Southern border.
The paper was equally upset that GOP candidates, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, talked about getting tough on geopolitical foes, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and bulking up the United States Armed Forces.
“We get the message, and it’s scary,” the editorial board, which has in the past called for Vice President Dick Cheney to be arrested and tried as a war criminal, added.
The editorial board went on to snicker at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saying during the debate that his brother, former President George W. Bush, “kept us safe.”
“Wait, what? Did he mean George W. Bush, who was warned about the threat that Al Qaeda would attack? Who then invaded a non sequitur country, Iraq, over a nonexistent threat?” the newspaper asked.
Freeing CNN of content responsibility, the article then went on to criticize the 11 GOP candidates for failing to address “child poverty, police and gun violence, racial segregation, educational gaps, competition in a global economy and crumbling infrastructure.”
It continued, complaining that Republicans are seriously discussing a plan to shut down the government in an effort to strip Planned Parenthood of federal dollars.
Hotelier Donald Trump, who maintains his lead in the Examiner’s Power Rankings, said at one point during the debate, “We were discussing disease, we were discussing all sorts of things tonight, many of which will just be words. It will just pass on.”
“I don’t want to say politicians, all talk, no action. But a lot of what we talked about is words and it will be forgotten very quickly,” he added.
For the Times, this represents the smartest thing that Trump, a seasoned blusterer of all things, has said all primary year, “and an outcome America should dearly hope for.”
(h/t Mediaite)
