When President Trump upset Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, the reasons why were numerous. Hillary was a corrupt politician who used her position in the higher echelons of power to benefit her friends and allies. Trump was an outsider who spoke truth to power and exposed the seasons pols of Washington as nothing more than a band of craven opportunists.
Many Republicans were reluctant to support Trump in his candidacy at first. Many conservative activists didn’t see him as a stalwart defender of their values. But when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suddenly passed away in February 2016, that changed the calculation. With the Supreme Court at stake, and the legacy of one of the most brilliant, conservative justices in the republic’s history in danger, many conservatives got behind Trump, if only reluctantly.
Scalia’s death was a defining moment in the Trump campaign. It very well could have been the edge that helped Trump overcome’s Hillary’s autumn onslaught in the run-up to the election.
But here’s a question: What did the late Justice think of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate? Scalia, like him or hate him, was regarded as a great mind, and an unimpeachable authority on the conservative philosophy and law. So how would he regard a populist billionaire like Trump? Well, now we know. In a new account from author Bryan Garner, a personal friend of Scalia, we learn how the Justice really felt about Donald Trump.
From the Wall Street Journal:
“Justice Scalia thought it was most refreshing to have a candidate who was pretty much unfiltered and utterly frank,” said the late jurist’s literary collaborator, Bryan Garner, a legal dictionary editor who spent two weeks in 2016 traveling with Justice Scalia through several Asian countries.
The justice thought well of Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor whose campaign for the Republican nomination stalled, said Mr. Garner, whose memoir of a decadelong friendship, “Nino and Me,” comes out Tuesday. “But he was fascinated by the fact that Trump was so outspoken in an unfiltered way, and therefore we were seeing something a little more genuine than a candidate whose every utterance is airbrushed,” Mr. Garner said in an interview.
Justice Antonin Scalia found Trump's outspokenness during 2016 campaign to be refreshing https://t.co/4ARE8eCFAV pic.twitter.com/XLpjrJf9Z0
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 16, 2018
There’s no doubt about that. Trump’s candid rhetoric definitely set him apart from other candidates. And it was also a contributing factor to his astounding win over Hillary Clinton.
What do you think of this? Did Scalia really think Trump was a fresh voice? Tell us your thoughts below!
