Elizabeth Warren: Today I was asked if the President is a white supremacist.

[BeyondGeography]

Link to tweet

[Liberty Belle]

1. Truth, plain spoken. This is why Warren can win,

and is a better candidate in my view than Harris who as an attorney is trained to phrase things more cautiously.

[Princetonian]

4. Why couldn't Harris just say, "Yes"?How much training does it take to tell the truth live on camera?

Carefully crafted press releases by advisors and video-assisted Twitterisms that give the impression of spontaneity are no substitute for unscripted honest answers by a candidate.

[StarfishSaver]

8. Maybe for the same reason that Biden has refused to say it either

It really would save time if people researched their own candidates' words and actions before attacking other candidates for the same thing their own candidate has said/done or not said/done.

Joe Biden stops short of calling Trump a white supremacist: 'You just want me to say the words so I sound like everybody else'

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who was quick to connect Donald Trump's racist rhetoric to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, stopped short of calling the President a white supremacist outright at the Iowa State Fair on Thursday.

"Why are you so hooked on that? You just want me to say the words so I sound like everybody else," Biden told a reporter. "I'm not everybody else -- I'm Joe Biden. I've always been who I am. I'm staying the way I am. He is encouraging white supremacists -- you can determine what that means."

He continued: "It's like everybody wants everybody to call someone a liar. When you say, 'I don't call people liars, I say they don't tell the truth,' you want to hear me say liar so you can put it out and say, 'Biden called someone a liar.' That's not who I am. You've got the wrong guy."

Earlier in the day, when asked the same question about Trump and white supremacy, Biden replied, "I believe everything the President has said and done encourages white supremacy. And I'm not sure there is much of a distinction ... Whether he is or is not a white supremacist, he encourages, everything he does speaks to them. He's afraid to take them on."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump-white-supremacist/

[bigtree]

12. reporters (and others) are baiting these candidates

...I'm glad to see smart folks refusing to take it.

Liz Warren is correct, though.

[StarfishSaver]

16. Warren is correct and that was the right answer for her

Different candidates have to answer questions like these (which you rightly say are intended to bait the candidates, not actually elicit any real information) in the ways that best suit them.

Biden coming out and calling Trump a white supremacist would not be taken the same way as Warren saying it. And Harris calling him that could likely provoke an entirely different reaction - one that would prove to be a distraction because people respond to black people saying certain things very differently than a white person saying the same thing. Both Biden and Harris were smart not to take the bait and turn the issue into all about them and not let it remain all about Trump.

[TomSlick]

2. I'm tired of media types asking this silly question.

You might as well ask if a bear poops in the forest.

[Princetonian]

3. Warren is a woman after my own heart.

The contrast between Warren's and Harris' answer to this question in front of a live camera is unbelievable.

[DemocracyMouse]

6. Warren is the new Democrat. Doesn't mess around.

[StarfishSaver]

9. What do you think of Biden's refusal to answer the same question?

[LanternWaste]

11. You appear to confuse a refusal to answer ...

with an accurate and comprehensive answer addressing both context and nuance that even an irrational person could distill into "yes."




Ahhhh... were the world so simplistic so as to make your premise true.

[StarfishSaver]

14. I haven't confused anything at all

I see exactly what's happening.

And I know if the roles were reversed, certain people would be hailing Biden's "pithy" response, praising him for batting the ball back at Trump, and accusing Harris of dancing around the question leaving people to have to "distill" what she was saying into a yes, instead of just saying "yes."

[bigtree]

15. .

Link to tweet

[bigtree]

13. Kamala's sounded a lot like Biden's answer

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

maybe better...

Link to tweet

[50 Shades Of Blue]

5. K & R

[bronxiteforever]

7. Kick and recommend.

Plain speaking. President Truman would be proud of her!

[StarfishSaver]

10. Biden refused to say Trump's a white supremacist