{"id":50789,"date":"2016-09-30T19:01:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T23:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=50789"},"modified":"2016-09-30T19:09:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T23:09:39","slug":"donald-trump-attacks-biased-lester-holt-and-accuses-google-of-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=50789","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump attacks ‘biased’ Lester Holt and accuses Google of conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4526\"<\/a>
\nBen Jacobs in Washington
\nThe Guardian<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has gone on the offensive after his underwhelming debate performance by criticizing debate moderator Lester Holt as biased and accusing Google of a conspiracy to rig search results in favor of Hillary Clinton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also had surrogates attack his Democrat rival for her husband\u2019s infidelities while suggesting she wants to \u201cstrip [the United States] of its status as a sovereign nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Republican nominee launched the latest salvo of attacks in an interview with Fox News\u2019s Bill O\u2019Reilly<\/a> where he claimed Holt \u201cwas much, much tougher on me than he was on Hillary\u201d. Trump said that while initially \u201cI said good things right after the show\u201d he had changed his mind about Holt\u2019s performance \u201cafter seeing the way he badgered and even the questions I got\u201d.<\/p>\n

In particular, Trump expressed his discontent over the fact that Holt asked him \u201cthe birther question\u201d in Monday\u2019s debate. Trump had long falsely claimed that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, an accusation widely considered to be a racist dogwhistle. Although Trump only recently acknowledged<\/a> that Obama was born in the United States in an event at a Washington hotel, he falsely blamed Hillary Clinton for the conspiracy theory\u2019s origin. He since said that he only acknowledged Obama\u2019s actual birthplace in order to \u201cget on with the campaign\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump also introduced a new conspiracy theory to the campaign on Wednesday night when he accused Google of somehow colluding with Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign. \u201cGoogle search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,\u201d the Republican told a cheering crowd of supporters in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Neither Google nor the Trump campaign responded to requests for comment on this accusation, which seems to stem from a report in Sputnik News, a Russian state propaganda outlet. The reference to Google did not appear to be ad libbed as it was in Trump\u2019s prepared remarks.<\/p>\n

Also, at the rally, Trump unveiled a new accusation towards Clinton, whom he has repeatedly attacked as \u201ca globalist\u201d, by saying she was a \u201cvessel for special interests … who want to strip [the United States] of its status as a sovereign nation\u201d. Although the former secretary of state has long favored immigration reform as well as number of free trade agreements, there is no evidence that she has ever supported stripping the United States of its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

However, Clinton is facing scrutiny over her complicated marital history. After Trump publicly congratulated himself for not bringing up former president Bill Clinton\u2019s past infidelities in Monday\u2019s debate, his campaign has cited them in talking points in an attempt to rebut past crude statements about a beauty queen<\/a>.<\/p>\n