The canned answer is standard-fare in politics because the media has been so happy to play clips of any mis-spoken comment on a loop starting in maybe the 90s?

The problem here is that he should have a goddamned canned response ready for such a soft-ball question. "We don't tolerate that, I've told them if they are not for Canada, they are out!" (crowd cheers, he wins the election, yada yada). He can't even manage that low bar.

When it's done once in a while, sure.

But I think Trump set the stage for normalizing this, and it's maddening to think that someone can hear what PP just said, and believe that he did a great job with that answer.