Much of the media’s frenzy over President Trump joking at a Michigan campaign rally that the late Detroit Rep. John Dingell might be in heaven or hell has ignored that he said the same thing about himself in Battle Creek.
It came long after he riffed on Dingell and how the lawmaker’s wife, Rep. Debbie Dingell, sought special treatment for her husband after he died.
Trump said that he gave him the “A-plus” treatment.
“She calls me up: ‘It’s the nicest thing that’s ever happened, thank you so much,’” Trump quoted Debbie Dingell telling him. He said she added, “John would be so thrilled. He’s looking down, he’d be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir.”
Then he said to cheers and groans, “I said: ‘That’s OK, don’t worry about it.’ Maybe he’s looking up, I don’t know. But let’s assume he’s looking down.”
[Read more: ‘Made my healing much harder’: Debbie Dingell condemns Trump for joking her husband may be in hell]
Media outlets focused on the groans and portrayed his comments as a savage attack.
Then later, he said the same thing about himself, at around 1:53:20 in the video.
While pledging to fight critics of the national motto “In God We Trust,” Trump said he’d continue to battle from heaven or hell:
“I don’t care where I am. If I’m up there, if I’m down here, I don’t know, but we’ll be fighting. We’ll never take these words off, ‘In God We Trust.’”
