Via Chris Deaton of The Weekly Standard, I watched a new Priorities USA ad giving Trump the Dr. Strangelove treatment. It distorts Trump’s words at least twice.
Like a previous ad from the Democratic SuperPAC, it strings together a November 2015 quote from Trump saying, ”I love war, in a certain way,” with a April 2016 quote saying “including with nukes, yes, including with nukes.” The impression is that he’s saying he loves nukes. As both Politifact and Factcheck.org pointed out, though, the second portion of that quote came in the context of a Trump comment about how Japan should defend itself from North Korea. The idea that Japan should have nuclear capability is certainly controversial, but the ad twists his words rather than hits him on what he actually said.
The new ad also takes a comment Trump made during a December 2015 debate out of context. The ad both uses audio of Trump and runs this text: ”Nuclear, just the power, the devastation is important to me.” The impression the ad leaves is that Trump cherishes nuclear bombs because they’re so devastating. Trump was actually commenting on how dangerous nuclear weapons would be in the hands of “some maniac.”
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