Imagine you’re the Governor of Wisconsin. You’re planning to run for president of the United States. You decide to travel to London. Your rationale for the trip is to increase Wisconsin’s international trade.
And during a press conference on international trade the reporter asks you about… evolution?
Well, it’s not surprising to me. Reporters love trying to trip up conservative candidates. They want them to get in trouble with Bible-believing voters in Iowa.
That’s why last week reporters asked gotcha questions on vaccinations. And both Chris Christie and Rand Paul took the bait and gave answers which only ignited more controversy. And let us never forget former Clinton-spokesman-now-ABC-News-personality George Stephanopoulos asking Mitt Romney if he would make birth control illegal. What?!?
So Walker was wise to deflect the question on evolution. His response:
“For me, I’m going to punt on that one as well,” Walker said, prompting some murmurs in the crowd at Chatham House, a major London think tank. “That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or another. So, I’m going to leave that up to you… I love the evolution on trade in Wisconsin, and I’d like to see a bigger evolution as well.”
A perfectly good response to push back at these silly media gotcha games. But that didn’t stop reporters from rolling their eyes and tweeting about the ignorance of Republicans and their science-denialism. “Wow” tweeted Ben White of Politico.
Governor Walker responded to the bizarre reporters by releasing a statement clarifying his thoughts on the subject: “Both science and my faith dictate my belief that we are created by God.”
Again, non-surprising stuff here. The vast majority of Americans agree with Walker on this one.
But the agnostic/atheist press corps loves to look down on the rest of the country. And here’s where Mike Huckabee pushed back so well against this, during a 2007 Republican presidential debate.
Here’s how to handle this question:
Brilliant.
H/T to @SeanTrende