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Donald Trump Doubles Down On Insults, Folds On Truth: Inside The Tax Returns, Iraq, And The DOJ Investigation

By Christine Beswick
Published on: 08:15 PST, Sep 27, 2016

It was Socrates who said that when the debate is over, slander is the tool of the loser. And it seems that as last night’s presidential debate wound to a close, Donald Trump knew that he didn’t have the upper hand.

He closed his final statement, saying to Hillary Clinton, “I was going to say something really nasty about your family, but I’ve changed my mind.”

In true Donald Trump style, he double downed on insults but folded on the truth. It’s a pattern he’s had for decades we’ve learned.

In essence, he attacked Secretary Clinton and her family last night by saying that he wasn’t going to attack her and her family. That was his final thought in the debates last night on his quest to become the President of the United States.

Then, he continued the insults as we reported last night, telling Sean Hannity immediately after the debate, almost with pride, that he almost insulted Hillary Clinton and her marriage on national television.

“I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family and I said to myself ‘I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. It’s inappropriate. It’s not nice.'”

That has never stopped Trump before — just ask the Kahn family, Rosie O’ Donnell, former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, and many others.

As Socrates says, if one is confident in their win, the insults aren’t necessary. But this is exactly what Donald Trump has been doing since the debates ended last night.

He’s not only proudly bragged about almost insulting the marriage of Secretary Clinton on national television, he’s upheld his insults to Rosie O’Donnell last night and also to former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

As Trump doubles down on the insults, the New York Times refers to this strategy as, “defying conventions of civility and political common sense.” Donald Trump has also bragged about winning the debate, saying thank you after #TrumpWon began to trend on Twitter as we reported this morning.

But, as we reported, what Trump seemed willfully oblivious to, was the fact that #TrumpWon trended on Twitter as the world over laughed at the people that thought….#TrumpWon. A look at Google analysis and actual trends on Twitter during last night’s debate shows, Hillary Clinton crushed it and dominated the chatter and Google searches on Twitter during last night’s debate in every single state of America.

Another very strange moment of the night occurred when Donald Trump flip-flopped on his Iraq war position again. He said he opposed it right from the beginning, and he even brought up Sean Hannity’s name again as his proof.

He said to just call Sean Hannity. He said that we’ve had big fights over this, and I absolutely opposed it.

But he didn’t. As Buzzfeed reported in 2002, Donald Trump told Howard Stern, “I wish the first time it was done correctly,” when asked if he favored or opposed the Iraq War.

Sean Hannity will probably back up Trump’s claim that they had big fights over the Iraq War. But to use Sean Hannity as the credibility factor might not be the best idea for Donald Trump, especially pertaining to military efforts.

We previously reported on Donald Trump’s tax returns, from a man that has seen them himself, and the name Sean Hannity comes up in this report after the Washington Post exposed a falsehood of Sean Hannity’s. There was a time when Sean Hannity — who is supposed to be an unbiased reporter, not a biased Trump supporter — was applauding Donald Trump’s charity work.

Hannity told a tall tale on his website about how Donald Trump rescued 200 stranded Marines from Iraq using his own plane. This just isn’t true.

http://www.instagram.com/p/BHoGuz-jjuT/?tagged=trumpairlines

Here’s what actually happened: A plane with the Trump name on it was used to rescue those men. Donald Trump did once own Trump Airlines, but by the time those men needed rescuing, Trump Airlines had been seized from Donald Trump by the bank and someone else owned the airlines.

The plane that was used in the rescue doesn’t even look like Donald Trump’s plane today, which, by the way, Trump refers to as #AirForceOne. Not only did Trump not rescue stranded Marines, there’s no way he could have even known about it at the time.

http://www.instagram.com/p/_XV45xCJqC/

Why Donald Trump would shine a light on Sean Hannity on the national stage, when he is so easily discredited, remains to be seen.

Sean Hannity has never once gone public to correct his story. He also still has that false story posted on his website, as if it is the truth.

Donald Trump was on Hannity’s show right after the debate last night, bragging about winning the debates. They seem to be the only two in the world who think this is the case. The numbers just aren’t there.

The Washington Post reported today that even Republicans are saying Donald Trump lost, with Republican Rudy Giuliani suggesting that maybe Donald should sit out the next two debates. The Washington Post also revealed that key swing states Ohio and Florida polled in favor of Hillary Clinton at 66 percent immediately after last night’s debates.

Donald Trump doesn’t have the numbers, but he will always have the insults. It’s a strategy that made him slide by a double-digit lead right after the Khan incident this Summer. The numbers aren’t completely in yet, but the first ones rolling out are suggesting a repeat of another Hillary rising.

But at the end of the day, the insults don’t matter. Hillary Clinton is strong enough to let them roll off her back. Meanwhile, Trump supporters are staunch enough to not care that he doesn’t care about whether he’s a nice person or not. So where does Donald Trump stand on the truth?

The Iraq war opposition has been established. There was also the issue of the tax returns last night, which popped up very early in the debate. Donald Trump has taken the almost unprecedented position of refusing to release his tax returns. Now we know why.

The debates started with Hillary Clinton slamming Donald Trump for not releasing tax returns. She came right out slamming Donald Trump for not paying taxes that fund schools, military, health care, and everything else.

He said that “makes me smart.” She said that it must be something really horrible that he’s hiding.

After trying to slide in the “I’m being audited” excuse and saying he would release them when the audit was over he changed his tune, he said, “My lawyers told me not to do it.”

This is the first we are hearing this, that Donald Trump has been advised by legal professionals not to submit his tax returns for the American people.

That’s a statement that Americans should mark as a red flag. Why would a lawyer advise such a thing?

Hillary Clinton had an answer for that: “Because you’re hiding something really big.”

Hillary Clinton actually stated multiple times that she believes the only reason he’s not releasing them is because he’s hiding something really big. Never once did Donald Trump deny that claim.

He did, however, deny many claims last night. He did not deny that he’s hiding “something really horrible” on his tax returns. Instead, he began campaigning for Bernie Sanders and deflecting the topic to emails.

And then there was the whole “racist lie” moment in debates last night, where Donald Trump’s Department of Justice racial discrimination suits came into play. Donald tried to go on the attack and accused Hillary of launching the birtherism movement.

She immediately responded, calling that a racist lie, and slipping in a zing of her own: the racial discrimination lawsuits against him and his father by the Department of Justice.

Donald can double down on the insults all he wants, but he can’t make that one go away. Politico reports in their “Wrong-O-Meter” fact-checking that Donald Trump tried to brush that claim off, calling the suits “unexceptional.” This is incorrect.

Politico says that the lawsuit against the Trumps was “one of the biggest lawsuits ever brought by the Justice Department for housing discrimination against black people,” and it was. The Washington Post reported details on the Department of Justice’s massive racial discrimination suit against Donald Trump earlier this year.

It all started with two Brooklyn women in 1972 — one black, one white — asking a representative of the Trump Organization if they could rent an apartment at a Brooklyn complex. The black woman was told nothing was available. The white woman was shown two different apartments and told to pick one.

Both of them were investigators for what would later become one of the biggest racial discrimination lawsuits in housing discrimination. In that investigation and lawsuit, it was revealed that Trump staff would mark applications of the would-be renters with secret codes. If it was marked with “No. 9” or “C,” it meant colored.

The staff was instructed to steer away minorities from mostly-white buildings to those with a greater diversity, reports the Washington Post. By 1973, a civil rights case had been filed by the Department of Justice citing violations of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, legislation that came after the passing of Martin Luther King Jr.

Donald Trump and his father counter-sued the Department of Justice in a $100 million lawsuit alleging defamation. That suit was dismissed.

The two women investigators were actually testers for New York’s Urban League at the time. They tested not just Trump properties, but many others. Donald Trump said last night that multiple companies were also sued. He is correct.

But he also said that it was no big deal and “just one of those things.” It was a big deal. The testers of the Urban League discovered that this pattern of “white” buildings of Trump’s existed, as did one of “black” buildings.

Black tenants were “discouraged.” After multiple properties over multiple companies were tested, the findings were sent to the Department of Justice, and one of America’s biggest racial discrimination suits for housing was launched.

A couple working for Trump said in sworn testimony that they were advised to only rent to “Jews and executives” and to “discourage rentals to blacks,” reports the Washington Post. For them, the code “No. 9” was entered on black applications, but it is unclear what the significance of that code is for Mr. Trump.

One woman who testified was Phyllis Spiro. She was a white woman and went undercover as well. When she tried to rent, she was told that the superintendent “followed a racially discriminatory rental policy at the direction of his superiors.”

In an almost ironic twist of fate, while this was happening to Donald Trump, vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine was fighting for civil rights, reports the Nation. His specialty: Housing discrimination cases. His biggest win was a $25 million dollar lawsuit against Nationwide Insurance for refusing homeowners insurance to African Americans.

The Washington Post says that Spiro is 86 now, and she “remembers the case vividly.” After her investigation on October 15, 1973, 27-year-old Donald Trump received a call from the Department of Justice, a call noted as a “courtesy” in court documents. Then, the United States of America v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management Inc. lawsuit hit the headlines.

In his book The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump says “the idea of settling drove me crazy.” Another developer in Brooklyn had already settled, but Donald Trump wanted to fight.

He said, “I’d rather fight than fold, because as soon as you fold once, you get the reputation of being a folder.”

Two months after being served came the $100 million dollar countersuit. It was promptly dismissed. The Trumps tried every tactic that they could to win the case, including personal attacks against the lawyers and the government itself.

After fighting for two years, the Trumps ultimately gave in and settled, with a catch from the Department of Justice. Upon settlement, the Trumps were required to take out advertising that would tell potential renters that they were “open to people of all races.”

Court documents show Trump rebutted this, saying in testimony, “This advertising, while it’s, you know – I imagine it’s necessary from the Government’s standpoint, is a very expensive thing for us. It is really onerous. Each sentence we put in is going to cost us a lot of money over the period we are supposed to do it.”

It wasn’t until 1975 that the terms were finally agreed on, and Trump signed an agreement saying he was prohibited from discriminating when it came to housing. He also lost his battle in the advertising clause and had to put out the ads anyway, in addition to having to “thoroughly acquaint themselves personally on a detailed basis” with Fair Housing legislation.

The Department of Justice said it was one of the most far-reaching settlements they ever had. Donald Trump said that it was “in no way an admission.”

The headlines read, “Minorities win housing suit.”

Of course, Donald Trump called it a personal win, reports the Washington Post, just like he did with the debates last night. It seems that old habits die hard.

Watch vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine compare his and Hillary’s records with racial discrimination with Donald Trump’s.

The Justice Department’s deal with Donald Trump had a clause where he did not acknowledge wrong doing. It did not remove him from wrongdoing — it just said, that it did not acknowledge wrongdoing.

In The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump says, “In the end, the government couldn’t prove its case, and we ended up making a minor settlement without admitting any guilt.”

It’s true that he did not admit guilt, but it was no minor settlement, with the Justice Department calling it one of their most far-reaching. Donald Trump did not admit guilt then, called it “just one of those things” last night, and has not conceded a debate loss.

Instead, he has doubled down on the insults while folding on the truth in many cases, as we now know, he has done for decades. Is that who you want as president?

[Featured Image by David Goldman/AP Images]

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