If you give Donald Trump a platform, you should know exactly what to expect.

[TwilightZone]

When you get exactly what you expected, you should not be surprised.

When the lying blowhard everyone knows is sexist and racist acts like a sexist, racist, lying blowhard, it should really not be a surprise.

And, yet, people are still shocked, shocked, I tell ya!, when he does exactly what he's done literally hundreds or thousands of times before. They're shocked every, single time he does exactly what he's done all those other times.

The moral of the story, I guess, is don't give him a platform unless you want to give him another chance to do what he always does. And don't be surprised when he does exactly that.

And, please...stop claiming that the circumstances would drastically change if people would just stand up to him and call him out on his lies. They wouldn't. And please stop blaming them when they -- just like everyone else over the past dozen years -- are unable to control his behavior and he runs roughshod. When people have tried to call him out on his lies before, he just keeps lying.

If it was so easy to control him, everyone would do it.

[ibegurpard]

1. Exactly

He's playing to his audience. They love this. Why anyone thinks giving him a platform and then people hearing what he says is going to turn them against him should've been debunked years ago.
He is the ultimate troll and disruptor and his supporters are ENTERTAINED by that. They love it. Oh sure they'll try to rationalize it but that's the core of his appeal. He's sticking a thumb in the eye of the "establishment" and all the scolds who ever made them feel lesser or told them what they should say or do. It's toddler grievance and you can't fact check it or turn people away from it. That's what they've latched onto and they're going to ride or die.
The racists hear what they want to hear. The anti-government people hear what they want to hear. The misogynists and homphobes hear what they want to hear. The trolling is the connective tissue. You stop that by not platforming him.

[BornADemocrat]

2. He says the same exact things over and over again

We've heard it all before, he just speaks and moves his hands in and out like a robot, and everybody acts like it's some new sort of circus act. Nothing has changed.

[liberalmediaaddict]

3. Agreed

I think the only thing truly shocking at this point is that the Republican party nominated this racist criminal for a third time to be POTUS.

And not a single Republican lawmaker will criticize anything Trump said today.

[Blue Owl]

4. They've given that small man the world's largest balcony for the past 10 years

Sick. Of. It.

[EYESORE 9001]

5. I never expected anything less from him

I try to find a bright spot in this debacle, and the best I see is that the the journalists will issue scathing reviews that I hope reach the eyes of many Black voters. If their corporate editors pull a hatchet job on their reporting, then I hope they bring that to everyone’s attention.

[Probatim]

6. Maybe they invited him to let him roast himself.

[TwilightZone]

8. If that was the plan, it worked.

If the plan was to have a substantive discussion, that might have been a tad optimistic.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. Statement on Donald Trump Showing Exactly Who He Is At NABJ

Link to tweet

[TwilightZone]

10. Along the same lines.

They said it better than I.

He'll try to pull the same stuff at the debate. I know that debates are expected, but I'm not sure there's any value to this particular one. Many expect Harris to wipe the floor with him, but she has to get the opportunity to do so first. Even with a muted mic, he'll try to dominate the conversation.

[W_HAMILTON]

9. Oh, you!