The only conceivable explanation for tonight’s grotesquerie is that Lauer is going toe to toe with Wallace for the position of White House spokesman in a Trump administration.
Patrick Healy@The New York Times (9/7/16): “Mr. Trump came off as more relaxed but also far lighter on policy explanations, and he faced no questions about his past insults of veterans and their families or his own Vietnam-era draft deferments. One of the most surprising moments of the night came when Mr. Trump chose to answer a question about the confidential national security briefings that he has recently begun to receive — a topic that presidents and presidential candidates rarely discuss with any openness. Mr. Trump, asked if he learned anything alarming, said, ‘There was one thing that shocked me’ and suggested that it involved a decision by President Obama and Mrs. Clinton that amounted to ‘a total disaster.’ He then went further, asserting that Mr. Obama ‘did not follow what our experts’ said to do, and even claimed that the government officials who provided the briefing were ‘not happy’ with Mr. Obama. Explaining the basis of that assessment, Mr. Trump said, ‘I was pretty good with the body language.’ It was a classic Trump moment — a dark insinuation without evidence — and his campaign declined to provide details after the debate.”
