Replies

Did he bring up the rock thing today or yesterday? That was a mistake if he did. I think he wants out and is deliberately sabotaging his own efforts.

It was a question asked of him that was published yesterday - using the examples of the rock and Confederate symbols being removed from buildings, he was asked if Northerners don't understand Texans. They were obviously looking for him to kiss the ass of Iowa voters and give one of those sweeping answers to make Iowans feel good about themselves, but he had to go and talk about how he's proud of how he dealt with the rock, how his family dealt with it, the "media elites" saying all Southerners with accents are racist, and basically inviting the media to look at the rock thing all over again.

It's possible he had no say in the matter of the release, but given that he's stopping in Iowa tomorrow, he knew it would be released yesterday or today. The Iowa news people are rushing out interviews, etc. ahead of his appearance tomorrow.

Reading the interview, in retrospect, this was not a strategy. He gave a dumb answer in an interview (probably email) that invited it to be brought back up, and his wife breaking down and bitching about Republicans and Democrats brutalizing him was just that - her breaking down and bitching about Republicans and Democrats.