RCT 2016 Election Coverage: Dunkgate

A debate has ripped our country apart the last 4 years. Lines have been drawn and both sides have passionately argued for their side.

I am talking, of course, about the controversy over Tyshawn Taylor's decision to dunk the ball at the end of the 2012 NCAA Tournament game against Purdue. When Taylor ran to the other end to dunk in the closing seconds of the game, he gave KU a 3 point lead but left a few seconds still on the clock. Some say he should have thrown the ball up in the air for the final seconds to tick off. Others say he did the only logical thing in the heat of the moment. Our countries leaders have been strangely silent on the issue...

Until now.

Yesterday at a press conference, President Obama was finally forced to weigh in on the bitter debate. Obama said that "Taylor made the right move" and he "played it smart."

Team Dunk breathed a sigh of relief. Dunkgate was finally over. With the Commander-in-Chief - who happens to be an avid basketball fan - in their corner, that has to be the end of the debate. Or so they thought.

Fresh off the heels of her major Donald Trump endorsement, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin dove head first into the dispute. Calling the move "reckless" and using terms such as "bonehead" and "selfish," Palin chastised Taylor for "putting himself over his teammates."

Critics were quick to point out a now deleted tweet from Donald Trump praising Taylor for his play. It was clear that this issue was anything but over.

Trump opponents wasted no time in jumping all over his flip flop on the issue. Sen. Ted Cruz came out with an attack ad the next day saying Taylor was "wrong to dunk then." Early polling has shown that Trump's waiver on the issue is making voters less likely to support him with a 7% drop from his previous mark of 40%.

How will this end? It is still too soon to tell. What is clear is that this issue is far from over.