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Curt Schilling says something dumb while trying to defend Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is losing supporters after a week in which he’s been haunted by things he’s said and done in the past. Some conservative politicians stepped away after the Trump Tapes leak last week and others have stopped coming to his defense as numerous accusations of sexual misconduct swirl around Trump.

But you know who still has Trump’s back? Even to the point of making himself look bad? Ex-MLB ace turned conservative pundit Curt Schilling.

Schilling appeared on Fox Business’ “The Intelligence Report” on Thursday, ready to defend Trump and give his insight into “locker-room talk.” But the segment with host Trish Regan went off the rails before even getting to the locker room.

By his own choice, Schilling wanted to discuss the recently re-published footage of Trump talking to 10-year-old beauty pageant contestants in 1992 and saying about one of the girls, “I’m going to be dating her in 10 years, can you believe it?”

Curt Schilling in 2012 at Fenway Park. (AP)
Curt Schilling in 2012 at Fenway Park. (AP)

It got uncomfortable fast between Schilling and Regan. Here’s a partial transcript:

Schilling: “How many times have you looked at a young man and said, ‘Wow, he’s a beautiful young man, he’s a gorgeous young man’ and that man was 12, 13, 14, 15 years old.”

Regan: “I’ll be honest, Curt. Zero.”

Schilling: “See, that’s a lie. There’s no way you haven’t seen someone else’s son and said, ‘Wow, he’s beautiful.’ ”

Regan: “And thought I’m going to be dating him? No. You’re on your own on this one.”

And later:

Schilling: “I have a daughter, my daughter has friends. I’ve seen my daughter’s friends, I’m a man — wow she’s a beautiful young lady. I don’t immediately jump to molesting her.”

Regan: “It’s fine to say she’s a beautiful young lady or a cute little girl, but do you need to follow that up with ‘I’m going to date her in 10 years?’ ”

It seems abundantly obvious that Regan is right here, because there’s a HUGE difference between saying a kid is cute and making plans to date 10-year-olds when they turn 20. Yet, Schilling dug his heels in, tweeting this after the show, even though it again fails to address the “dating” part:

Schilling, it should be noted, has proven in the past that he is passionately defensive of his own daughter, even tracking down Twitter trolls who were talking about sexually assaulting her. He then penned a blog post about defending his daughter. It included this passage:

What these kids are failing to realize, what this generation fails to realize is this; Everything they’ve just said and done? That is out there now, forever. It can, and in some cases will, follow them for the rest of their lives. We as a society have managed to get it to this point, and it’s absolutely because these idiots, at an age far past when they should know better, and have been taught better, are neither.

You want to know the scariest part? Some of their idiot friends, as I am sure some of you, are contacting me with “Dude lighten up, they’re just joking” and “Why are you saying things that might ruin someone’s life”? You pieces of garbage out there who are even starting to think “what’s the big deal?” or “I was just joking around” can stick it.

So, let’s distill that a bit: Old statement mights come back to haunt you. “Lighten up, it was a joke” isn’t an adequate response to sexual-assault talk. Grown-ups should know better.

Maybe Schilling should have just said all that about Donald Trump’s 1992 video. And, for that matter, his “locker-room talk.”

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!