2. I don’t understand how so many automatically leap from the premise (actually, the fact) that Trump said something offensive to the conclusion that he should therefore have been disinvited from the Red State forum. Look, it’s Erick’s party and he is well within his rights to invite or disinvite anyone he chooses. If I were he, I hope that I’d bear in mind the indulgence I’d received for my own similar offenses, but that’s for him to decide. My point is that it was poor judgment, in principle and under the circumstances, to withdraw the invitation.
It happens that Megyn is a friend of mine. I don’t know if she’s had any reaction today, but I am betting she would never disinvite Trump from a Fox appearance over an offensive remark made about her or a colleague; she’d have him come in, confront him, let him try to explain himself, and let the audience be the judge. That’s what I think Red State should have done.
It’s a candidates’ forum (at least in part), Trump is still a candidate (at least for now), a number of people probably attended the event because he was advertised as a speaker, and it would have been worthwhile to put him to a choice of apologizing or trying to justify himself. It would have told us a lot about him but maybe even more about people who, for whatever reason, see him as a credible conservative candidate at this critical juncture in our history.
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