Another day, another smear by the media against Donald Trump.
Sunday in Muscatine, Iowa the leading Republican presidential candidate was speaking at a campaign rally when two male protesters in the upper level of the auditorium unfurled a banner reading, “Stop Hate.”
One of the men was wearing a bright red turban that from a distance looked like it could be a Trump campaign ‘Make America Great Again’ hat. (The red turban the man is wearing is indicative of a follower of the Sikh religion.)
Image via Twitter.
Trump pointed at someone on the front rows and asked the crowd if the protester was wearing “one of those hats”, but the media spun it to imply Trump was being a bigot by making fun of the man for being ‘one of those non-Christian foreigners’.
ABC News published an article that was tweeted by their political director Rick Klein that had the headline, “Trump Mocks Protester Wearing a Turban”.
Trump to Protester Wearing a Turban: 'He Wasn't Wearing One of Those Hats, Was He?' – ABC News – https://t.co/n8QPhrdRi9 via @ABC
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) January 24, 2016
(Note: ABC replaced the original article in Klein’s tweet with an edited version that removed the accusation of ‘mocking’.)
The ABC article was picked up by affiliates around the country including, Boston’s WCVB-TV and Chicago’s WLS-TV.
“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump mocked a protester wearing a turban today during a rare Sunday appearance.
The man stood up and revealed a sign reading “Stop Hate” at Trump’s event in Muscatine.
“He wasn’t wearing one of those hats was he?” Trump said, referring to the man wearing a turban, as the protester was being removed.
ABC later edited the story and headline without notice, removing the false accusation that Trump mocked the man for wearing a turban but the damage was already done.
Donald #Trump mocks protester wearing a turban at rally: https://t.co/cn1tR8E6KC pic.twitter.com/n4ETn3crao
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) January 24, 2016
As of this writing, ABC News Radio is running the original ‘Mocks’ headline above the edited article.
As video shown by ABC News plainly explains, Trump was pointing at someone near the front of the stage when he asked if the protester was wearing “one of those hats”, a clear reference to the red Trump campaign hats, as Trump then said of the protester “he never will”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Henz1QzWMgA
Trump said:
“Uh, he wasn’t wearing one of those hats was he? Was he wearing one of those…And he never will; and he never will and he never will. And that’s okay but you know we gotta do something folks because it’s not working.”
Even without lying about Trump mocking the man for wearing a turban, in other headlines to articles the media left the impression the man was thrown out of the rally and heckled by Trump for wearing a turban.
CBS News headline: Man in Turban Kicked Out of Donald Trump Rally.
CNN headline, Trump calls out protester in turban after church visit
Gawker headline: Donald Trump Heckles Protester Wearing Turban: ‘He Wasn’t Wearing One of Those Hats, Was He?”
Earlier this month the media tried to make a similar smear of bigotry when an activist Muslim woman protester wearing a hijab and a mock Jewish yellow Star of David badge was thrown out of a Trump rally.
A week after that protest another Muslim woman in a hijab attended a rally and did not protest. She reported in The Guardian that nothing happened to her and she was able to engage Trump supporters in civil conversation.