I have to confess that during the primaries when I wasn't taking Trump as a serious candidate, I didn't pay enough attention to know exactly who struck first on the low blows and dirty tactics.
I know McCain got prison shanked by GWB in the 2000 primaries with Karl Rove's black baby campaign, and I know at least at some point a pro-Cruz / anti-Trump superPAC was running ads with nude pictures of Melania, and Cruz's denial that he had anything to do with it was the source of the Lyin' Ted -> Lion Ted nickname. But I don't really know the detailed genesis. Its clear enough that Trump always punches back and never takes the high road, but while he generally isn't the one to initiate it, I think he's misstepped and been the aggressor a few times.

Now, does the zodiac killer / jfk assassination nonsense measure up to Ted Cruz weaponizing Melania's nude modelling?

The bold made me lol. It's just funny how Trump supporters accepting a small piece of reality is supposed to be a major concession.

Does truth matter when it comes to politicians attacking each other(or families)? Melania did model nude... Ted Cruz's father wasn't involved in the JFK assassination. And Trump's brand has been being a serial philanderer/playboy. Why would anyone sane equate complete lies with verifiable truths? This sort of thinking is how a politician like Trump is possible.

well what was he doing with lee harvey oswald shortly before, the death!?! before the shooting. it’s horrible!

Pretty sure the nonsense about JFK came several back and forths later. When Ted Cruz went after Trump's wife, Trump went after Ted Cruz's wife. It was as proportional as it was dirty. You don't remember?:
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/712850174838771712
Mind the non-obvious subtext about her mental health issues that Trump was cruelly bringing up.

Its really something how you just excused a completely intolerable and uncivilized degrading use of a politician's wife's nude photos to campaign as dirty as it gets by saying 'Melania did model nude'
But any time Trump gets his hands dirty, heavens to murgatroyd its cheeto man bad. Could you try to be consistent with the whole faux outrage towards the bareknuckled boxing? I don't think there's any mature and responsible person in America who is going to say that running a smear campaign based on nude pics of your opponent's wife is justifiable and good mannered in 2020. It doesn't matter if she was a nude model once upon a time, that's not something a civilized political debate should be slinging.

This reply is a good summation of how you go about arguing here in PaRD.

1. You ignore my argument about truth vs fiction... you just accept that there's no greater value in truth. Understandable from a Trump supporter, but I'm not sure how you can not be a hypocrite after he's gone.

2. You make assumptions not based in fact or evidence. "Ted Cruz went after Trump's wife". How? If you want to know why I believe Trump went after Ted Cruz's father and wife, I can just pull up his Twitter feed and interview/debate clips. Direct evidence of him saying it. Can you provide similar evidence? Or is it like all the other conspiracies, where you have to weave intricate bullshit? A Super PAC supporting Ted putting out an ad isn't even remotely the same thing.

3. Yes, truthful material is more legitimate than fictional material. It's not good form to attack your opponent's family members, but this particular attack isn't that much out of bounds. I'm much more turned off by completely made up nonsense than I am factual information about a candidate's adult family member who gets naked for a living. If Joe Biden's son did porn, I think we'd hear about it, and I wouldn't clutch my pearls because of it. Stop pretending you actually care. As far as I know no previous major presidential candidate's wife has had naked pictures circulate, so it's not like focusing on that is some ludicrous smear. The norms of American public life and politics don't get set by the deranged orange man.

This post was edited by IceMage on Apr 8 2020 12:12am

Oh and George W. Bush and Karl Rove never went after McCain's black daughter, that was just whispers by completely independent actors who had nothing to do with Karl Rove. Anyone claiming otherwise is just peddling elaborate conspiracy bullshit
And Colbert SuperPAC never once coordinated with Stephen Colbert

for real? You're really going to hide Ted Cruz behind plausible deniability? I'm amazed, I didn't think there was a living soul on this planet that actually likes Ted Cruz



No, I am quite absolutely sure that it is extremely out of bounds by all conventions of civility, and if used against anyone who wasn't named Trump, it would spark the kind of backlash that ends careers in the age of cancel culture. I did not sit in a cave on mars with my fingers in my ears all those years feminists decried slut shaming and sexual bullying and talked about empowering women. When hollywood actresses who have posed nude or been in nude scenes go out on a political crusade- actually joining the political theater rather than being family members- nobody is allowed to go plaster their nude pics as a legitimized political smear. Not in 2020. Maybe in 1920.

Its weird how despite your ostensible obsession with character and decorum in politics, you're all too happy to excuse one of the most disgusting and dirty moments of the last campaign. You've spent the past 3 years clutching pearls every time Trump farts in an elevator, but when anyone anti-Trump does something flagrantly wrong and inexcusable, its time for rationalizations and dismissals.

Another case of Trump saying mean things. No brain mouth filter, and no need for proof, he just talks shit like a fucking natural. His campaign and the RNC did nothing to backup the claim, and even attempted damage control.

Same with his claims that McCain wasn't a war hero, because getting captured doesn't make one a hero. True, false, doesn't matter. He just talks shit. He does it every day in speeches and on Twitter, and he has since the 80's.

No campaign has been centered around it though. That's just Trump saying mean things, which is par for the course. The day Trump starts becoming a nice, friendly person who's completely socially acceptable will be the day I suspect Trump is terminally ill and about to die.



Frankly, it came across as nothing more than a mean spirited joke to me, and I'm not gonna lie, I laughed.

And if you look at some of what the Cruz campaign did regarding Kassich, fuck him anyhow, he deserved the mean words.

Trump is burning down 5G towers and has completely made the air crystal clear clean by stopping the satanic Illuminati from polluting our environment and obstructing the views of the flat earth. He is the Godly true president here to save us from the Archons who eat adrenochrome like "fried fish" Madonna and Ellen and Tom Hanks.

WWGOWGA!

And did you bring enough for everyone? Hmmm?

Hey what are you doing out here, you are gonna miss the bull hallowing out your boyfriend.