Trump’s ‘apology’ sounds like a non-apology
Donald Trump is still figuring out the art of the non-apology apology.
After more than a year of refusing to budge as he moved from one firestorm to the next, the Republican nominee surprised everyone Thursday night by declaring that he lives with some regret.
But while he expressed remorse for the first time since getting into the presidential race 14 months ago, he steered clear of the S-word: sorry.
Parsing the speech, which was read from a teleprompter, veteran campaign strategists and historians noted that Trump sounded much more like a conventional politician than he has all year. In their view, hes following a path of rhetorical evasion that has been well trod by candidates in both parties.
Linguists and relationship experts, meanwhile, said Trumps comments were ineffective and that his words cannot accurately be described as an apology. In fact, the GOP nominee did not specify exactly who or what he was talking about. The targets over the course of his campaign are plentiful, including the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Megyn Kelly, New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, Mexicans and Muslims.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-expresses-some-regret-for-campaign-behavior/2016/08/19/9fba8498-6644-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1