As Trump surrogates continue to drop and disappear left and right, the few that still remain stand eerily strong as Trump surrogates continue to spout anything to promote their leader amidst a crumbling campaign fraught with all the divisive fear rhetoric and scandals we’ve seen over the past year. One in particular is Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, in his most recent interview with Megyn Kelly on a Fox News segment has once again raised eyebrows and concern with the deflection of Trump’s sexual assault allegations and his own personal (ad hominem) attack of Megyn Kelly on live TV. Analyzing this conversation rhetorically, one might find an interesting analogy argument deflecting Trump’s comments comparing them to Clinton’s lack of coverage in media, ad hominem attacks on Megyn Kelly and way this can all be viewed in light of gaffes/image-mistakes looking forward.
Gingrich attempts to deflect Megyn Kelly’s question about Trump’s sexual assault accusers by attacking her character (ad hominem), telling her on live TV she is “fascinated with sex, and you don’t care about public policy“. He tries to blame how sex sells in America for why Clinton’s scandals don’t get air time and why Trump gets so much more flak on and by the news. Rather than just attacking the liberal media, the attack becomes personal on Megyn Kelly and she wants nothing to do with it. It pushes the narrative once again momentarily away from the sex abuse accusers but on to Gingrich’s attack (which is terrible in its own right). This is just another example of an analogy saying Hillary is full of scandal (like Trump) but doesn’t get the media attention and that’s the dissociation tactic many Trump surrogates/supporters use to pull apart the bad things about the Trump campaign and try to stick them on Hilary, the media and really anything else.
Going further, prospect.org’s Stan Adele talks about how this wasn’t a gaffe but a part of the larger brand that has become Trump, misogyny. This points out an interesting detail in the way Trump surrogates talk about Trump. Many scapegoats that are produced from Trump surrogates include 50 Shades of Grey, Beyoncé, the liberal media, etc… . This seems to fit in the larger narrative that has continued and will continue to feed Trump supporters doubling down on their support. They blame the media for making Trump comments “gaffes”, Gingrich is just the newest edition to the ongoing frame that Trump supporters/surrogates frame and argue that the media is biased and that the system is rigged. It fits so well! To blame that you’ve been gaffed fits a world view as sabotage to move away from the reality of racism, sexism, xenophobia and fear based rhetoric and feel like a victim of a system that wants to oppress you.
Moving forward, we will continue to see deflections of Trump comments and accusations as gaffes by the liberal media to sabotage the election and be seen as enemies to America by those Trump supporters that buy into the twisted fear based world Trump and his surrogates have created. It’ll be interesting to see how more intense the Trump surrogates/Trump himself will attack those who seem to be in their way, all the while shaking faith (for many) in the foundations of our democratic system one day at a time as we creep towards November 8th.
I really enjoyed your blog post (especially the clear connections made to class material). I think Newt Gingrich’s undying support for Trump is fairly ridiculous. He has an answer for every single thing that comes up against Trump, but it is never a good answer. Gingrich’s claim that Megyn Kelly is “obsessed with sex” is absurd. When discourse was floating around about Bill Clinton’s infidelity in the White House, Gingrich was not complaining that anyone was “sex-obsessed.” I find it disgusting that so many prominent Republicans are able to simply dismiss allegations that Trump has sexually assaulted people. Trump has no policy experience by which we can judge him, all we have to judge him on is his character and morals; neither of these things seem to be going in his favor.