Rich Zeoli Column: Trump's Reagan Moment Will Live On
By Rich Zeoli
"New York is a great place. It's got great people. It's got loving people, wonderful people. When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York. … You had two 110-story buildings come crashing down. I saw them come down. Thousands of people killed. And the cleanup started the next day. And it was the most horrific cleanup, probably, in the history of doing this construction. I was down there, and I've never seen anything like it. And the people of New York fought and fought. And we saw more death and even the smell of death. Nobody understood it. And it was with us for months, the smell, the air. We rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched, and everybody in the world loved New York, and loved New Yorkers. … I have to tell you, it was a very insulting statement that Ted made." - Donald J. Trump
Donald Trump's heartfelt comments about the people of New York City rebuilding after 9/11 will live on long after the January 2016 Fox Business Republican Debate fades from memory. His sincere, humane, and humble, response will be analyzed in political and communications books and will serve as a lesson by debate coaches for years to come.
After highlighting socially liberal New York "values," Senator Cruz stereotyped everyone in a city of nine million people. "Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying."
It would have been extremely easy for Trump to respond with a lowbrow zinger. He could have taken a shot at Ted Cruz's Canadian birth by bombastically declaring, "Not a lot of them come out of Canada, either." Instead he defended not merely the city of New York, but her people by so eloquently invoking their courageous response to 9/11.
Make no mistake. This wasn't scripted. This wasn't rehearsed. This was as raw and natural a moment as I have ever witnessed in my years of covering politics and studying communication. This was also the moment millions of Americans saw beyond the media cliché of Donald Trump and saw a real man. A father, husband, grandfather, and resident of a city who not just witnessed, but experienced, anguish and recovery.
It also dismisses the notion that Trump is only all about Trump. His defense of a city that he most likely will not win in a general election reveals he isn't only thinking about his own personal benefit statement.
It was Reaganesque. A reminder how President Ronald Reagan put the age issue to rest in the 1984 debate against Walter Mondale with the famous line, "I will not exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and lack of experience." As I write about in my book The Seven Principles of Public Speaking, it was such a diffusing moment that even Walter Mondale laughed out loud.
But there's a key difference in Trump and Reagan's famous debate moments. Reagan's line was scripted and rehearsed. There's nothing wrong with writing lines and practicing them. In fact, it's advice I often dispense when I'm helping political candidates prepare for debates. Trump's line, however, was an impromptu moment from the heart. He wasn't expecting Ted Cruz to take a shot at an entire city, so he couldn't have anticipated the need for a prepared response.
That's why this moment so perfectly captured Donald Trump. When his city came under figurative attack, he defended its people sincerely. It also may demonstrate to voters the level of passion and commitment he would bring to the defense of a city if it came under actual attack.