April 28, 2011: Woodward: Trump ‘Aspiring to Be the New Joe McCarthy’

Washington Post managing editor Bob Woodward says that billionaire television host and real estate mogul Donald Trump “is aspiring to be the new Joe McCarthy.” Woodward, appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe talk show hosted by former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough, is comparing Trump, who has for months attacked President Obama’s supposed lack of US citizenship (see February 10, 2011, March 17, 2011, March 23, 2011, March 23, 2011, March 28, 2011, March 28-29, 2011, March 30, 2011, April 1, 2011, April 1, 2011, April 1-8, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 7-10, 2011, April 7, 2011, April 10, 2011, April 21, 2011, April 21, 2011, April 22, 2011, April 24-25, 2011, April 26, 2011, April 26, 2011, April 26, 2011, April 27, 2011, April 27, 2011, April 27, 2011, and April 27, 2011), with former Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who used false allegations of Communist sympathies to ruin the careers and reputations of dozens of lawmakers and other public figures. Woodward calls the “birther” controversy “manufactured,” and says “the news media has got to get a handle on itself on this.” As for Trump, Woodward says: “Let’s call things what they are. Donald Trump, I think, was or maybe still is aspiring to be the new Joe McCarthy. No evidence, but you make an assertion and you look at these things Trump said… people interviewing him at that moment should have said, ‘What’s your evidence?’ Trump has no evidence, and when you have no evidence you have nothing and the discussion of the subject should end.” [Mediaite, 4/28/2011]