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Penn Jillette can vouch for racist Trump Apprentice tapes, but won't for "moral reasons"

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ElectricBlanketFire

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More in the maddening interview.

adj_noun said:
Link to the original interview
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AV Club said:
Pretty early on in Jillette's interview with Vulture, the conversation turned to politics, the magician's own libertarian beliefs, and the effect of Trump on the discourse. As a former contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, Jillette was asked point blank if he thought producer Mark Burnett had a tape of Trump saying "damaging things," to which Jillette responded, "Yeah, I was in the room." But when pressed to divulge the specifics of what Trump said or didn't say, the veteran performer cited a moral obligation to keep the story to himself.

"If Donald Trump had not become president, I would tell you all the stories. But the stakes are now high and I am an unreliable narrator. What I do, as much as anything, is I'm a storyteller. And storytellers are liars. So I can emotionally tell you things that happened racially, sexually, and that showed stupidity and lack of compassion when I was in the room with Donald Trump and I guarantee you that I will get details wrong…And I will tell you things, but I will very conscientiously not give you quotations because I believe that would be morally wrong. I'm not trying to protect myself. This really is a moral thing."

He would say racially insensitive things that made me uncomfortable. I don't think he ever said anything in that room like "African-Americans are inferior" or anything about rape or grabbing women, but of those two hours every other day in a room with him, every ten minutes was fingernails on chalkboard. He would ask one cast member if he'd rather have sex with this woman or that woman. He would be reading on the web about a real-estate deal he'd made — like he'd sold his house for a certain amount and someone on some blog had said he should have gotten more. Then he would turn and say that making X amount on a house makes him a good businessman, right? I would say to him, "What are you talking about? You don't know who it is reporting that. Is that Forbes?" He had no idea."
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WhoTurgled

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I think he just doesn't wanna be a tom arnold where they keep saying this shit exists but don't have anything to back it up
 
Vas

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Do you guys get the feeling something is about to drop and both sides are trying to get ahead of the story?
 
TheFireman

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TBH it sounds more like he doesn't know if he said it or not and just think it's believable that he did. But instead of just saying that, he comes off as a self-important asshole instead.
 
MasterYoshi

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Such horse shit
 
Futureman

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While he didn't give an exact quote he essentially confirmed Trump said racist/sexist shit.

Wonder what with happen if an "N-word" tape dropped? I assume would be worse fall out than grrrrrab 'em by the pussy.
 
Volimar

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Not going to throw Penn under the bus for not wanting to come out and say something that might be worded differently enough that if the truth came out Trump supporters would take the differences in what he remembers and what's on the tapes as a means to discredit Penn's account.
 

Daygon

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It's weird how some people can gain "morality" when it comes to a situation that they offer some help.
 
AndyD

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I actually respect that he won't offer a quote, but he will talk about the content in general. Because if he can't remember a quote, which is not likely to be able to do, he will be labeled a liar.
 
Hollywood Duo

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I don't see the issue. He's not 100% confident in his recollection so he doesn't want to go on record. This isn't a court proceeding.
 
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ElectricBlanketFire

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AndyD said:
I actually respect that he won't offer a quote, but he will talk about the content in general. Because if he can't remember a quote, which is not likely to be able to do, he will be labeled a liar.
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He wouldn't have to offer the word for word exact quote, just that he indeed say the n-word and there is a tape of it.
 

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I get what he's saying and it's frustrating to hear. Still, he is confirming it without quoting Trump exactly so it's still something.
 
Conciliator

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unless he has tapes and won't release them, it doesn't matter. Which I really don't think Penn does.
 
Enduin

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I think he's being a bit too coy about this but at the same time I understand how he may be concerned about saying something based on a hazy recollection and then have the story revolve around a possible misquote on his part rather than the actual substance of whatever messed up shit Trump said. Like he knows and states Trump said racist, sexist, etc shit but he can't recall exactly how and what was said and to try and quote him would be reckless.
 
Jebral

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Well I wouldn't start dropping quotes I was foggy on either, honestly. This seems like a non story.

"Yeah, he said some shitty things."

We know! He does it all the time.
 
Paperboywriter

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I don't really see the moral argument but trying to stay out of this shitshow might be a good idea. It's selffish but understandable
 
UnpopularBlargh

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The whole interview was kind of a mess. Penn's defense of Trump Supporters came off like a deflection of reality. Or at least a dismissal of the platform Trump and the Republicans run on.
 
KNZFive

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AndyD said:
I actually respect that he won't offer a quote, but he will talk about the content in general. Because if he can't remember a quote, which is not likely to be able to do, he will be labeled a liar.
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I was ready to pile on Jillette after reading the headline, but I can understand his reasoning after reading the full quote. If he says that Trump said specifically X & Z, but the tape never shows up or shows something different, he'll be labeled a liar and people would be less likely to believe him. It might even be a different tape that people then try to use as evidence that Trump didn't say X & Z, even though he absolutely did on another tape.
 
Jobbs

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Futureman said:
Wonder what with happen if an "N-word" tape dropped? I assume would be worse fall out than grrrrrab 'em by the pussy.
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  • The news would talk about it every day for most of a week and then he'd do something else outrageous the next week and they'd talk about that instead
  • GOP in congress would stay quiet or release little statements saying they disagree
  • his approval rating would stay the same
  • nothing would come of it
I mean he literally kidnapped children and locked them in cages, and literally many of them are still in those cages... And it hasn't affected him and the news has already moved on.
 

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Vas said:
Do you guys get the feeling something is about to drop and both sides are trying to get ahead of the story?
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Not really. Without the tape, its an entertaining story of "she said that he said and he said that she sucks" but we're already at the point of reheating old information on this one. Story dies in a week without a tape.
 
astroturfing

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hmm isnt this better than nothing? would be different if he himself had tapes and refused to release them, but is there really much else he can say if he can't remember the details..?

he's confirming Trump is a bigoted shithead, while he could have stayed completely silent.

btw, of all people, Sam Harris claims he knows for sure the n-word tapes exist. whatever you might think of his views, he isn't really known as a liar who makes shit up for fun.. i think i believe him.

my guess is that the recording(s) will come out right before the midterms to cause maximum damage to Republicans.
 
Lonewulfeus

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I get where he's coming from. Would you want to go on record about a litigious racist if you didn't have the proof to back it up? It sucks, and he did essentially confirm that it happened which is the best we'll get without hearing or seeing the actual tape.
 
CesareNorrez

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Paperboywriter said:
I don't really see the moral argument but trying to stay out of this shitshow might be a good idea. It's selffish but understandable
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His moral argument is that he can't say for certain what was said because memory isn't reliable. And because the stakes are very high, he doesn't want to quote anything even remotely inaccurately. If he says something and it can't be proven, or may be proven false, then it becomes ammuniton in Trump's favor.
 
Lump

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Without tapes, I'd rather have Penn take this stance as opposed to how someone like Tom Arnold keeps tauting receipts without producing them. Enough with the Schrödinger's Receipts.
 
TheGummyBear

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TheFireman said:
he comes off as a self-important asshole instead.
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So he comes across as Penn Jillette then. I mean, he did have an entire TV show that ran for eight seasons where he would literally decry anything he disagreed with politically as bullshit. Even when I agreed with what he had to say (Like the episode he did on anti-vaxxers) it was always clear that the man was pretty self important, given that he felt qualified to preach about such topics because of his background as a popular magician on the Vegas strip.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was just him trying to say that he hasn't personally heard anything, but believes the stories, while coming across as self-important because that's just who Penn is.
 
Baji Boxer

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I don't see a problem with what he said. If I'm reading this right, he pretty much confirms Trump said this and other terrible/stupid things, but doesn't trust himself to get the details right. Nothing wrong with that when people are looking for a public statement concerning POTUS.
 
AndyD

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ElectricBlanketFire said:
He wouldn't have to offer the word for word exact quote, just that he indeed say the n-word and there is a tape of it.
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But he might not know whether there is tape. And he might not remember which word was said about whom. And he might not have been paying attention, or he might have wondered in and out of the room. All those things contribute to the uncertainty, so I get his "lots of bad things were said" confirmation, but lack of specifics.
 
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