Donald Trump’s Labor Day weekend is anything but lazy. Sure, he’s taking a breather from rallies (which will recommence on Tuesday), but the Republican nominee’s still in the news, and his Twitter account’s always running full steam ahead. At present, Trump seems bothered by the FBI’s released files about Hillary Clinton’s private email server. One of the standout moments involved Clinton claiming to not realize how the “C” marking in her emails meant anything special. And Trump simply can’t believe this, but he messed up while calling out “Lyin'” Clinton (is she Ted Cruz now?) for not knowing what the “C” meant. Trump believes it means “classified.”
Lyin' Hillary Clinton told the FBI that she did not know the "C" markings on documents stood for CLASSIFIED. How can this be happening?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2016
In doing so, Trump shot himself in the foot, twice. Firstly, the “C” on Clinton’s emails actually meant “confidential.” This could feel like nitpicking, but the distinction is real, and Trump was calling Clinton out for the same bit of knowledge that he also flubbed. The Federation of American Scientists readily defines the government’s use of “confidential” (under section AR 380-5 4-202 of the linked document) and one would hope that both major-party nominees would know what it means. Clinton’s already been mocked by many, so John Noonan (a former national security adviser for Jeb Bush’s campaign) stepped up on Twitter to correct Trump.
https://twitter.com/noonanjo/status/772590879072813056
He was joined by others, who showed no mercy for the Republican nominee.
https://twitter.com/JosephGruber/status/772626051256217600
Mr. Trump, I know you're new to this so let me help you here. "C" stands for CONFIDENTIAL, not classified. https://t.co/8CIN72JRL8
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 5, 2016
C = CONFIDENTIAL, you halfwit.#EmailGate is a great issue for Don, who just totally blew it.#WINNINGhttps://t.co/3XAL2VoVYw
— John Schindler (@20committee) September 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/forbesmm/status/772611025694695424
Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tried to mop up the mess by pointing out that Clinton — as a former First Lady, senator, and secretary of state — should have known better, which is true. But so should Trump.
A former U.S. senator, former first lady & certainly the sitting Sec of State should know what the "c" in classified material means.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 5, 2016
Secondly, Trump completely forgot about how the “C” word meant something completely different to him in the 1970s. As Tim Kaine reminded voters, Trump and his father refused to allow black tenants in their apartment buildings. But the Internet doesn’t soon forget, and Late Show writer Daniel Kibblesmith reminded everyone of a recent New York Times feature that made explicit mention of how Trump’s biased rental procedures once used “C” to denote “colored”:
A former Trump superintendent named Thomas Miranda testified that multiple Trump Management employees had instructed him to attach a separate piece of paper with a big letter “C” on it — for “colored” — to any application filed by a black apartment-seeker.
Damn, that’s awkward. Happy Labor Day, folks!
