Excerpt
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson join Judy Woodruff to review the year in political news and to look ahead to 2016.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): 2015, ask both of you.
Michael, I will start with you. What were the moments that are going to make a difference, do you think, as we look to this campaign going forward?
MICHAEL GERSON, Washington Post: Well, the event is the obvious one, which is, Donald Trump has found a new way to run a presidential campaign.
I have been part of three of them. You put out policy papers. You give speeches. You get endorsements. You raise money. He has tweeted his way to dominance in this new media environment. It is a new way to conduct a campaign, the reality television version. I think that it’s many times vulgar and shallow, but it has an audience, and that’s clearly true.
And the moment, though, that I think is the most important is the leading Republican candidate referring to the Japanese internment, this historical example, in December as a positive example in the context of the War on Terror.
MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated columnist: Yes.
MICHAEL GERSON: It is the — for me, personally, that was a really terrible moment in modern Republican history. And, you know, I think it’s going to have consequences going forward.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What about for you, Mark, moments in 2015?
MARK SHIELDS: I would say the Trump phenomenon.
First of all, I have to say that Bernie Sanders — the idea that Bernie Sanders could emerge to the point where he is, with 2.5 million contributors, with, you know, actually having changed the terms of the debate for the Democratic nomination, the dialogue, I think, is a real surprise.
But, to me, the Trump — the Trump model, where the unscripted sort of off-the-cuff, no teleprompter, speaking, and making. Judy, what could at best be called reckless statements, at worst be called divisive, but have to be called untruths, whether it’s, 'I saw thousands of people in Jersey City on the day of September 11 dancing' in the streets at the prospect or the reality of the…
JUDY WOODRUFF: Nine-eleven.
MARK SHIELDS: … World Trade Center falling.
But each of them is reckless in its own way.
When he said that 81 percent of whites who are murdered in this country are murdered by black Americans, when, in fact, it’s the opposite, I mean, the reality is that 80 — 16 percent of whites are killed by black Americans and 82 percent of whites are killed by whites.
But — and then, when called on this, he pays no price. That’s — I guess that’s — if it’s our fault, if it’s the voters who are just fed up, I don’t know.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Is that something, though, that endures into this next year? Do you see that phenomenon of being able to say what he wants to say and having it stand lasting and having an effect?
MICHAEL GERSON: I think it’s raising a very fundamental issue in American politics, which is, what is the meaning of authenticity?
Is it this kind of, you know, offhand comment that Donald Trump engages in, or is it crafted rhetoric? Is it careful policy? Is it seriousness? And right now, we have a model, a presidential model of authenticity that means thoughtlessness. And I think that that’s going to have to be retaken in the Republican Party.
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