Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean apologized Friday for insinuating Donald Trump is a cocaine user, but lashed out at the press for calling out his use of “innuendo” while letting Trump get away with it for months.
“I apologize for using innuendo. I don’t think it’s a good thing to do. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do,” said Dean on MSNBC Friday. “This entire campaign has been debased by innuendo. Where was the mainstream media calling out innuendo 15 months ago when Donald Trump started running for president of the United States? That’s what I want to know. Do your job.”
Dean suggested Trump’s sniffling during Monday’s debate might have been caused by drug usage, and repeated that suggestion on Twitter.
“Donald Trump has used innuendo from the day he got into this campaign, and you media have not called him on it. You’re calling him on it now. It’s little late after he knocked off very capable Republican people who could have given us a real race,” said Dean, who described Trump as “completely incompetent.”
When Dean was asked why he would call out Donald Trump while simultaneously drawing parallels about what he himself described as their penchant for sharing innuendo, he said, “I did that on purpose so I could say just exactly what I said.”
“I would like the media of this country to apologize… we have used a double standard on Donald Trump and created Donald Trump,” said Dean.
“I think the media’s job, above all — and yes, you have to make money and have ratings — the media’s job above all is to protect American democracy by telling the truth,” he said. “And for eight months of Donald Trump’s campaign, you gave him free air time, let him call in, let him say anything he wanted.”
