Donald Trump made a bizarre reference to Joe Paterno during a speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and his campaign now says the presidential candidate was talking about a Joe Paterno statue.
Campaigning in Pennsylvania, Trump was running through many talking points when he arrived at one about the former Penn State coach.
Video of Trump asking how's Joe Paterno… Lol pic.twitter.com/CXe569MVyp
— Ajit (@412Ajax) April 14, 2016
“How’s Joe Paterno? We’re going to bring that back, right? How bout that whole deal?” Trump said.
Even though he said “how’s Joe Paterno?” in present tense as if he were asking how the now-deceased coach is doing, the rest of the comments did not mesh. Then he said we’re going to bring “that” back. It’s the “that” part that makes us believe he was talking about the Paterno statue, which was taken down on the Penn State campus in 2012 following the child sex abuse scandal surrounding the football program.
ABC reports that Trump’s campaign clarified the presidential candidate was talking about the Paterno statue.
Trump was really playing to the crowd at his rally, talking about bringing more jobs to the city in addition resurrecting the statue for the Penn State legend.
Though Trump wants to bring the statue back, many others feel that given the uncertainty surrounding Paterno’s role in Jerry Sandusky getting away with child abuse for years, no statue should exist bearing the late coach’s likeness.
