JOHN CURLEY

Why Curley is not drinking the Trump Jr. Kool-Aid

Jul 20, 2016, 2:09 PM | Updated: 4:15 pm

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson still isn’t sure about Donald Trump, but thinks his son, Donald Jr.’s speech Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention was “extraordinary.”

“That was the blockbuster to me and that’s the thing that I’m still torn with Trump,” Dori said. “He doesn’t offer any specifics, don’t know what his plan is – but I relate to him as a dad and I see his kids and I think most parents — yeah they’ve been children of privilege who are obsessed with Instagram and tattoos…”

“Dori, Dori,” interrupted KIRO Radio’s John Curley. “Don’t get sucked in. You’re smarter than this. Don’t fall for it. He stood up there and read a teleprompter. Who cares? That doesn’t make him a president, that doesn’t make him a politician.”

While pundits from media outlets on both sides of the aisle came away with Jr.’s speech, Curley is not drinking the Kool-Aid. He says he doesn’t buy Trump parading his oldest son and a daughter from a second marriage, Tiffany Trump, to stage to call him a model father.

“The number of times that people who make more than a half-million dollars spend with their families is limited – below 20 percent of their time,” Curley said. “They are either traveling, at work – they are somewhere else. Not at home encouraging the person to be the best person they can possibly be. Especially when you’re the daughter of Marla Maples.”

Related: Libertarian candidate says ‘crony capitalism is alive and well’

With so many potentially mockable moments at the RNC, Tom Tangney wondered why Curley was being so hard on the kids.

“All you have to do is stand there and read the teleprompter,” Curley said. “Now people are like, Donald Trump Jr., are you thinking about a career in politics?’ Well, maybe I am.’ Why, because you can stand up and read? Come on – is that all it takes?”

Tom Tangney: More commentators said he seems to have a better grasp of the issues than his dad does.

John Curley: That’s because somebody else wrote it. It’s rolling on a teleprompter with three words on each line. Anybody but me can do that.

With that, “Tom and Curley” launched into a dissection of Jr.’s speech:

“We didn’t learn from MBAs, we learned from people who had doctorates in common sense.” -Jr.

JC: This is the attempt to humanize Donald Trump by putting his son up there who doesn’t relate to anybody. You’re trying to get the average guy – some guy from Philly looking up there like, ‘Yeah I can relate to that. My uncle Frank had a tie the same color as that guy’s tie.’

TT: In every Philly guy’s heart, he thinks he looks like Donald Trump Jr., with the tan and slicked back hair and money suits.

JC: People hate rich people. But people REALLY hate rich people’s kids… The old man makes his money peeling tomatoes. He invented some things and now has the big house. Then the kid drives the car; everybody hates the kid. The old man made it, but the kids are spending it.

TT: The irony is Donald Trump Sr. is the kid.

“Guys like Vinnie Stellio, who taught us how to drive heavy equipment, operate tractors and chainsaws, who worked his way through the ranks to become a trusted adviser of my father.” -Jr.

JC: Yeah, I see a lot of chainsaws at construction sites, all the time.

TT: Well he had to chop down the forest to clear Manhattan to build a skyline.

“It’s why we’re the only children of billionaires as comfortable in a D10 Caterpillar as we are in our own cars.” -Jr.

JC: What kind of cars? What kind of cars you driving? Hey, can somebody text Vinnie.

John Curley on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
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