Shut Down

   Kudos to MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough for shutting down GOP candidate Donald Trump for talking too much. "Donald, you gotta stop talking and let us ask questions," Scarborough said this morning as the candidate rambled on. After a warning, Scarborough then shut Trump down and went to a commercial break. The telephone interview continued after the break, with Scarborough and fellow anchors pressing Trump for specifics on how he would implement his radical proposal for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims coming into the United States." As usual, no specifics came.
   At another point, Trump pointed to actions taken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "in '25, '26, and '27" about other groups in America, specifically Japanese Americans.. Trump specified the years several times, so it was not a slip of the tongue.
   Problem: FDR was not President at that time. He did not become President until after the election of 1932. Further, the controversial internment of Japanese Americans did not take place until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and America's entry into World War II.
   Increasingly, news interviewers are pressing the candidate for specifics and details on many of his allegations, a process that is long overdue.
   This morning, for example, Trump spoke at length on the many countries that are supporting ISIS terrorists. But when Scarborough asked Trump to identify those countries, the candidate declined, saying, "they're all over the place, you know who they are." And he stressed that he would not identify them because he had business relations in those countries.
   Our resident cynic notes that Trump won't or can't do it because either he doesn't know or because they don't exist.
   Other good news: House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican, joined other political leaders of both parties as he publicly condemned Trump's remarks as being opposed to American values.