Thread: Wisconsin Radio Host’s Combative Interview Surprises Donald Trump

Wisconsin Radio Host’s Combative Interview Surprises Donald Trump

March 28, 2016 2:16 pm ET By Ashley Parker

Charlie Sykes, a popular radio host in Milwaukee, welcomed Donald J. Trump to his state in a phone interview on his program on Monday, explaining that “here in Wisconsin we value things like civility, decency and actual conservative principles.”

And then, for Mr. Trump, the 17-minute interview went downhill from there.

Mr. Sykes, an outspoken conservative and opponent of Mr. Trump, began by pressing the Manhattan businessman to apologize to Heidi Cruz, the wife of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, for resending a Twitter post juxtaposing an unflattering picture of Mrs. Cruz with a shot of his wife, Melania Trump, a former model.

The spat began after an anti-Trump “super PAC” produced an ad geared at Utah voters featuring an image of Mrs. Trump, then Melania Knauss, posing nude from a January 2000 GQ magazine pictorial.

On Mr. Sykes’s program, Mr. Trump defended the photo of his wife — calling it “an artsy picture” — but blamed Mr. Cruz for starting the feud, even though the super PAC that produced the Texas ad is not connected to the Texas senator.

“I expect that from a 12-year-old bully on the playground, not somebody who wants the office held by Abraham Lincoln,” Mr. Sykes said.

Later, when Mr. Trump again complained, incorrectly, that Mr. Cruz “started it,” the radio host interjected: “Remember, we’re not on a playground. We’re running for president of the United States.”

Mr. Trump said he was unaware the Twitter photo of Mrs. Cruz that he resent was unflattering. “I didn’t even know it was necessarily a very bad picture of her versus Melania,” he said.

Later, pressed on the gender gap he faces with female voters, as well as disparaging comments he has made about women — including Megyn Kelly of Fox News and Carly Fiorina, his former Republican rival — Mr. Trump defended himself.

“Women are just going to have to see what I’ve done,” he said. “I’ve hired tremendous numbers of women. Women are in the highest executive positions.”

He added he’s “not a fan of Megyn Kelly” and he’d be making the exact same criticisms if she were a man.

“I don’t think there should be a double standard if somebody’s a woman,” Mr. Trump said. “People have said, you know, in terms of breaking the glass ceiling, that I was a leader in it.”

Mr. Trump, who at moments seemed caught off guard by the combative tone of the interview, had gone on the program without realizing that Mr. Sykes is a Cruz supporter who has repeatedly criticized the billionaire and said he could never support him.

“Mr. Trump, before you called into my show, did you know that I’m a hashtag ‘NeverTrump’ guy?” Mr. Sykes asked near the end of the back-and-forth, referring to the #NeverTrump movement of Republicans who are trying to stop Mr. Trump from winning the party’s nomination.

“No, I didn’t know that,” Mr. Trump said. “But I assume you’re also an intelligent guy. I know you’re an intelligent guy, and you understand what’s going on. Our country is getting ripped off left and right by every country we do business with, even in NATO.”

Mr. Sykes concluded his interview by worrying he had not indoctrinated Mr. Trump into the Wisconsin way of life.

“Obviously I failed in my effort to introduce you to Wisconsin and our tradition of civility and decency by getting an apology from you for Heidi Cruz,” he said.

But, Mr. Sykes added, he had some “free advice” for Mr. Trump, eight days before his state’s primary on April 5: “If you stand up there and you say, ‘Folks let me just say this: I’m running for president, Ted Cruz is running for president, let’s leave our wives out of it. Both of us have married intelligent, beautiful women and from now on we are not going to be talking about one another’s wives,’ people in Wisconsin will love that, Mr. Trump,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/firs...-donald-trump/

(click on the link to find the link to the actual interview)

I listened to the entirety of this interview and there was nothing that "went downhill from there" involved, Ashley Parker. Charlie Sykes was hostile, rude, antagonistic and totally focused on the old news that wasn't news about the "wives". Charlie who claims he champions "conservative values" wasn't interested in jobs, securing the border (he says this is Wisconsin when Trump was talking about immigration as if somehow Wisconsin is isolated from the costs and consequences of illegal immigration -- I guess they don't pay their federal income taxes that pay for illegal immigration and have figured out someway to be exempt from their share of the $20 trillion national debt that the poverty caused by illegal immigration that we don't have enough taxes to pay accrues to the debt) or fixing our trade deals.

I guess that's why Cruz is his man.

But, Trump was polite, held his ground, talked and talked about the issues he wants to fix, refused to apologize because Cruz started it on the wives, and it ended on a nice note. Oh another thing that's important too is the statement that Trump made in a debate about Wisconsin being in debt and cutting education funding. Charlie tried to imply that this was wrong and Trump should apologize to Governor Walker. Trump refused, he said he got his information from Time Magazine and if it was wrong then Time should apologize to Governor Walker and Trump would apologize for having read their magazine.

I thought Trump did great considering he didn't know until almost the end of the interview that Sykes is not only a Cruz supporter, he's a NEVER TRUMP.

Any state who thinks they're somehow insulated from the consequences of illegal immigration and free trade treason is not a state operating in the real world. Every state has lost jobs because of free trade treason, and every state population has lost jobs to illegal aliens along with incurring the cost of sustaining them and the Americans who jobs they stole and whose wages they depressed.

Apparently Charlie Sykes isn't concerned about it though, he's more interested in "civility and decency". Well, there's nothing civil or decent or conservative about illegal immigration and free trade treason. They cost lives, they ruin lives, and they've bankrupted our nation. There's nothing right about that, civil, decent, conservative or otherwise.

You missed a huge opportunity Charlie Sykes to inform your listeners, but then information apparently isn't what you sell, you sell manipulation of your listeners to your strange point of view through propaganda.

So Ashley Parker, what in the hell is wrong with you? How could you listen to that tape and conclude "it went downhill from there"? It was actually a great interview thanks to Trump who forged ahead with his message, made it clear he treats men and women the same, informed about Cruz campaign buying rights to the copyright to the photo to run the ad, and wow, just a whole lot of good stuff.

Are you another biased journalist selling propaganda for the New York Times? Geez, no wonder they're going broke!

You know, the next Trump enterprise should be a full scale real live newspaper. TRUMP DAILY NEWS. Can you imagine how many subscribers he would have? Oh my God, tens of tens of millions. Probably the whole damn country and half the world.

Wow, the MSM especially MSNBC and CNN plus all the pundits they call in from the NYT and WaPo all just loved the select snippets from the Charlie Sykes interview with Trump. They loved Charlie's attempt to attack Trump on fixing our trade deals. They LOVED it. Of course, they didn't play the whole answer, cut it off and said sorry we don't have time to play the whole thing, but they LOVED Charlie attempting to make fun of Trump because he wants to end our trade deal disasters. This was the epitome of the LEFT WING GLOBALIST MSM.

Now, tell me, why would Charlie Sykes, a so-called Republican "conservative" try to demean a Republican front-runner who wants to fix our bad trade deals? Why?

Also, as mentioned in my first post, Charlie was completely dismissive of the immigration problem, pooh-poohed that as if illegal immigration into the United States has nothing to do with Wisconsin, when Trump is explaining about it, Charlie cuts him off and says "this is Wisconsin." Oh the media LOVED that today too.

Why would a so-called Republican "conservative" be dismissive of the massive problem of illegal immigration? Why would a Republican "conservative" want to "take-on" a Republican candidate for wanting to solve our immigration problem and fix our trade deals?

So one can only assume now that Charlie Sykes is not really a Republican, Charlie Sykes may be some strange version of "conservatism", but Republicans as the descendants of the original Republicans would know were social liberals and fiscal conservatives. Fiscal conservatism is not massive immigration, original Republicans wanted to stop imported labor and slavery, it's why the party was formed. Original Republicans were also strong protectionists because of the trade costs if you didn't protect your trade.

Now we have a talk radio guy working against the very foundations of the Republican Party, dismissing immigration problems because he's "in Wisconsin", trying to demean attempts to protect our trade because he's worried about higher prices instead of the much more valuable job creation from protecting our trade?

The only conclusion from this interview is that Charlie Sykes is a screw-ball who likes our status quo of illegal immigration and free trade treason. That would then explain why he's a Cruz supporter and part of the NEVER TRUMP campaign.

MSNBC said that Charlie Sykes has been part of the NEVER TRUMP movement for almost a year. Apparently this has been a well-planned movement to protect the Establishment, Illegal Immigration and Free Trade Treason, and Charlie Sykes wants everyone to take the destruction of our country with "civility and decency" under the banner of "conservative principles".

Like I said folks, we're deep into our Period of Ironies and Opposites.

These Wolves in Sheep Clothing are everywhere even "in Wisconsin".

Wow, look what I found:

Charlie Sykes, Adulterer, Coward, Vindictive Republican shill
Offensive. Cowardly. Immoral.

That describes talk radio show host Charlie Sykes. He's a pig -- an adulterous scumbag who preaches morality with the help of the radio station he works for, 620WTMJ. He shuts down people who disagree with him and promotes candidates and ideas that he agrees with. He is brutal, vicious and uses his show to spread vitriolic rants that are little more than ads for the Republican party and their candidates.

To understand why Sykes grates on me you have to understand my personality. Honor, integrity and fidelity are key to who I am. There is no greater promise that a man can make to a woman than that promise to love, honor and cherish her for the rest of her days -- till death do you part. I understand that differences can occur and marriages can crumble, but there really isn't an excuse for violating the marital oath through infidelity.

Sexuality and physical drives are something that we as humans all deal with. But what separates us from the animals is our ability to hold our drives in check. Sykes doesn't understand that.

Sykes chose to put his sexual drives above the needs of his past wives and his children. His relationship with his second wife, Diane Sykes (now a federal Judge), fell apart after Charlie decided that he wanted to spend more time with his soon-to-be third wife, opera singer Janet Riordan (alias Liz Woodhouse) who at the time Sykes simply called a "family friend". Sadly, not only did Charlie leave his wife Diane for another woman, but he left their two sons, leaving the obvious question -- what kind of man cheats on his wife knowing full well that his actions will result in his children growing up without their father in the house?

Then there's the whole issue of Riordan. They used to have a name for women like that. Come to think of it, they still do.

It boggles the mind how so many people still listen to Sykes. His shows slogan is "standing up for what's right". Irony is not lost on this man. Decency, and apparently marital fidelity, is.

But the radio talkers moral short comings don't end there. A few years ago I called the thin skinned Sykes on the carpet for helping to destroy Northridge by fanning the flames of racial fears. The fact is that he did and when he denies it he is lying. Now it may be true that the words of racial hatred didn't come directly from his lips, but Sykes carefully screens his callers to assure that they agree with him and he rarely lets someone who disagrees with him on the air.

In 2004 I called in to the studio during his show to refute some of the outright lies he was spreading about me. His call screener asked me, "are you ready to come on the air and apologize for being a liar"? Since I hadn't lied I responded that I was calling to set the record straight. He said he was going to check with Charlie who said on the air "go peddle it somewhere else". Like a hit and run drunk driver, Charlie Sykes isn't willing to deal with the consequences and despite his claim that he's "standing up for what's right", Sykes ducks and hides when callers want to challenge his distortions.

That's cowardice. That's Charlie Sykes.

http://www.mcguigan.org/charlie_sykes.htm

Gee Charlie, that doesn't sound very much like "civility and decency" by "conservative principles" or otherwise. So, lets put a pencil to what we have here. You don't give a hoot about illegal immigration (this is Wisconsin), you want free trade treason so you save a few bucks on prices while costing millions and millions of Americans their livelihoods, and you're more interested in a another man's tweet about another man's wife than the policies of their candidacies when it sounds to me like you've got your hands full worrying about civility and decency with your own wives.

Does that just about sum you up, Charlie?

Wisconsin, why do you give Charlie Sykes the time of day when what he's pushing is bankruptcy our country??!!

Holy Smokes.

Charlie is creepy - Trump staffers should weed out this type of interviewer and pass. His slanted rant is abusive and non-productive.

Many media people have been abusive and disrespectful, especially in the early stages of Trump's campaign. Many have realized they look like idiots, unprofessionally adding their personal narrow views.