WASHINGTON — In case you missed it — former President Donald Trump talked about the size of the penis of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer at a rally Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the town where Palmer was born.
The presidential race is close in the key seven swing states. Trump’s increasingly vulgar comments aimed at Vice President Kamala Harris at that same rally — “We can’t stand you, you’re a s— vice president — hardly registered, compared with the shock of Trump talking about Palmer’s penis.
Horrific. Beyond words. Alarming.
Said Trump, during his ramble, “Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women. And I love women. But this is a guy that was all man.
“This man was strong and tough, but I refuse to say it, but when he took the showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”
In another dimension, a comment by a presidential candidate about a guy’s junk would make it impossible to win support from swing voters. Now? I just don’t know.
My guess is it won’t matter that much with people who want to back Trump. They are not influenced by the details of what Trump says, whether true or not.
Let me digress for a few paragraphs before getting to Sunday, when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., bobbed and ducked when CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed the speaker on Trump talking about Palmer’s penis at the Pennsylvania campaign rally.
Last Tuesday, Trump was in Chicago for a speech before the Economic Club of Chicago. Near the very start, Trump said something that most people in the audience at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park knew could not be true.
“Even today, as I was driving over, I see these empty, old, beautiful like steel mills and factories that are empty and falling down. Some have been converted to senior citizens homes,” Trump said.
The moderator, not from Chicago, let Trump’s lie fly by.
Folks from Chicago know: There are no steel mills or factories in downtown Chicago between Trump Tower, where Trump stayed Monday night, and the Fairmont. There is less than a mile between 401 N. Wabash Ave. and 200 N. Columbus Drive.
A top Illinois Republican I talked to, now all MAGA, laughed at me when I asked him why he was not concerned about Trump making up something that so many people in the room Tuesday knew was not true. He tried to put it on me — for being too literal. Instead of responding, this Illinois GOP leader kept pivoting to his criticisms of Harris.
You could see how Johnson used that same pivot technique with Tapper on Sunday. It’s like they all got the same playbook.
Tapper: “Mr. Speaker, you’re crossing all over the country. You’re working hard to get Republicans over the line in this election. You’re talking about substantive issues. Is this really the closing message you want voters to hear from Donald Trump, stories about Arnold Palmer’s penis?”
Johnson: “Well, listen, I think that the headline that I read about the rally in Pennsylvania yesterday was the big question, and it’s the one that Kamala Harris has not been able or willing to answer, and that is, are you better off now than you were under the Trump administration four years ago?”
The speaker went on to lament that the discussion was not more on policy. But blame that on Trump. He’s the one talking about Palmer’s junk.
As Tapper told Johnson, “If President Biden had gone on stage and spoke about the size of a pro-golfer’s penis, I think you would be on this show right now saying you were shocked and appalled, and you would suggest it was evidence of his cognitive decline.”
Tapper kept pressing Johnson about “why is he talking about Arnold Palmer’s penis in front of Pennsylvania voters?”
Johnson seemed to beg him to not use the word “penis” again. “No, I will address it. … Let me answer it. OK, don’t say it again. We don’t have to say it.”
We don’t need to be talking about Palmer’s penis. Mr. Speaker, tell that to Trump.