A Surrogates role in a campaign is to help the Candidate be in multiple places at once, and spread the campaign’s reach across the country. If done correctly, they can maximize a candidate’s time. In this campaign, a surrogate seems to spend most of their time explaining what Trump had meant to say. Gaffes are a little nugget of goodness that the media and general public rightfully love. They are usually an unforced error that comes when you least expect them. Trump has set a high bar for his surrogates to live up to in the Gaffe department. However, his campaign surrogates did find a few moments to shine over the last year. Let’s take a look at a few of the gaffes that most surrogates would’ve prevented, but Trump’s crew swam in.
The Good: Ben Carson on The View
In March as a guest on The View, Host Joy Behar referenced an attack ad that Trump used in the Primary race comparing Carson to a child molester. Joy said Carson would have to call Trump a Liar unless he was ready to call himself a child molester. She followed it up by asking “Do you want a liar for the presidency?”
Instead of defending Trump, Carson replied, “Tell me a politician who doesn’t tell lies.” Which is arguably a true statement, but not the right time.
The Bad: Eric Trump defending his Father not releasing his Tax Return
Last month in an interview on CNBC Trump’s son, Eric, was defending his father’s decision to not release his tax returns by saying,”You would have a bunch of people who know nothing about taxes trying to look through and trying to come up with assumptions on something they know nothing about. It would be foolish to do.” As with most gaffes, this is probably a true statement. However, implying that most people aren’t smart enough to interpret Trump’s tax return turned out to be foolish.
The Awesome: Eric Trump’s Basket of Deplorables Tweet
Eric went to twitter to respond to Hillary Clinton calling half of Trump Supporters a Basket of Deplorables at a recent fundraiser. He tweeted out a photo of a totally packed arena, with the caption: “Look at the #BasketOfDeplorables in Pensacola Florida last night! What a horrible statement. #CrookedHillary”. Good job Eric! His father is often heard on the Stump accusing the “Bias Media” of never showing the size of the audience. Eric basked in the glory of a solid response Hillary’s comment. That is until Mark Cuban, an outspoken Hillary Surrogate and Owner of the arena in the picture chimed in and tweeted back,“I’m pretty sure that’s our arena in Dallas Eric. #Wrong Basket”.
This is pretty funny and sad at the same time because of how ironic these situations are. While both sides of the campaign have major blunders from the candidates to their surrogates, it’s hard to find surrogates anywhere who are stuck between a “child molester”-rock and a “Trump is a liar”-hard place. Or how do you mess up the fact that your father’s rally was held in Dallas, not Florida if you post the picture?? In the spirit of trying to be as objective as possible, it’s hard not to laugh at these gaffes and scratch your head wondering what goof up is coming tomorrow. It really speaks to the low place our political discourse has fallen to in general. This shows the extent any politician/surrogates will go to score cheap political points. Many times forcing reality and our actual issues out of the equation.