Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
At a Texas fundraiser, Donald Trump continued to call out members of his own party for not being fully supportive of him, the Texas Tribune reports.
Said Trump: “I think they forgot that there was an election, because something happened in the last month where you didn’t see them, right?”
He added: “Why aren’t they on the shows? Why aren’t they all over the place?”
Donald Trump attacked John McCain, calling him “foul-mouthed” and claiming credit for the Arizona senator’s primary win, Politico reports.
Tweeted Trump: “The very foul mouthed Sen. John McCain begged for my support during his primary (I gave, he won), then dropped me over locker room remarks!”
David Brooks: “Politics is an effort to make human connection, but Trump seems incapable of that. He is essentially adviser-less, friendless. His campaign team is made up of cold mercenaries at best and Roger Ailes at worst. His party treats him as a stench it can’t yet remove.”
“He was a germophobe through most of his life and cut off contact with others, and now I just picture him alone in the middle of the night, tweeting out hatred. Trump breaks his own world record for being appalling on a weekly basis, but as the campaign sinks to new low after new low, I find myself experiencing feelings of deep sadness and pity.”
“Imagine if you had to go through a single day without sharing kind little moments with strangers and friends.”
“Imagine if you had to endure a single week in a hate-filled world, crowded with enemies of your own making, the object of disgust and derision.”
“You would be a twisted, tortured shrivel, too, and maybe you’d lash out and try to take cruel revenge on the universe. For Trump this is his whole life.”
George Will: “Trump is a marvelously efficient acid bath, stripping away his supporters’ surfaces, exposing their skeletal essences. Consider Mike Pence, a favorite of what Republicans devoutly praise as America’s ‘faith community.’ Some of its representatives, their crucifixes glittering in the television lights, are still earnestly explaining the urgency of giving to Trump, who agreed that his daughter is ‘a piece of ass,’ the task of improving America’s coarsened culture.”
“Because Pence looks relatively presidential when standing next to Trump — talk about defining adequacy down — some Republicans want Trump to slink away, allowing Pence to float to the top of the ticket and represent Republicanism resurrected. This idea ignores a pertinent point: Pence is standing next to Trump.”
“He salivated for the privilege of being Trump’s poodle, and he expresses his canine devotion in rhetorical treacle about ‘this good man.’ What would a bad man look like to pastor Pence?”
“During Sunday’s debate, Donald Trump once again said he doesn’t know whether Russia is trying to hack the U.S. election, despite Friday’s statement by the U.S. intelligence community pointing the finger at Putin — and despite the fact that Trump was personally briefed on Russia’s role in the hacks by U.S. officials,” NBC News reports.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is counseling individual senators and candidates about how to position themselves alongside Trump — without dictating strategy — as he talks them through the political perils of this election cycle,” Politico reports.
“Officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent all weekend talking to candidates and campaign aides, urging them to be prepared to talk about Trump wherever they go but declining to offer explicit advice on whether Republicans should pull their support from Trump.”
“Republicans are still waiting for later this week to see just how bad the damage is in battleground states before they consider reevaluating their support for the Republican nominee, who was caught on tape in 2005 boasting about sexual conquests and describing grabbing women’s genitals.”
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Nate Cohn: “You do not need a statistical model to know that Donald J. Trump is in a lot of trouble.”
“His chances were already in jeopardy heading into the second presidential debate Sunday. Hillary Clinton’s lead has grown steadily over the last two weeks, and she was ahead by five to six percentage points before a videotape revealed Mr. Trump bragging about groping women and getting away with it because he’s a celebrity.”
“Now it’s fair to wonder whether he’ll drag down the whole Republican Party.”
Donald Trump, under pressure to step aside as the Republican presidential candidate after the disclosure of his having made lewd comments about his advances on women, told the Wall Street Journal that there is “zero chance I’ll quit.”
Said Trump: “I never, ever give up.”
He also insisted his campaign isn’t in crisis: “The support I’m getting is unbelievable, because Hillary Clinton is a horribly flawed candidate.”
Trump also called the Washington Post: “I’d never withdraw. I’ve never withdrawn in my life. No, I’m not quitting this race. I have tremendous support.”
“One week after explaining why he planned to vote for Donald Trump, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said it is time for the Republican nominee to drop out of the race and allow vice presidential nominee Mike Pence to represent the party,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone — saying that ‘when you’re a star, they let you do it,'” — according to a video obtained by the Washington Post.
The conversation was with Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood” in which Trump describes an attempt to seduce a married woman.
The video is worth watching, but here’s a brief excerpt:
TRUMP: “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
BUSH: “Whatever you want?”
TRUMP: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump responded in a statement: “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”
Hillary Clinton’s latest ad doesn’t get any more direct than this: Donald Trump can’t be trusted with nuclear weapons.
“I don’t need to rehearse being human.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by the New York Times, scoffing at the need to practice his body language and facial expressions ahead of this weekend’s town hall debate.
Washington Post: “But Trump was still Trump. As his motorcade pulled into Denver’s Ritz-Carlton hotel for the night, Trump was in a fury. He lashed out at aides for booking such luxurious accommodations, saying he would have preferred to stay at a Holiday Inn Express — a chain he considers reliably clean — as he did on occasion during the primaries, according to three people familiar with the episode who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.”
“So it went throughout the rest of this week, as pressure mounted on Trump to rebound or risk losing to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a landslide. Although Trump understood that he needed to improve his standing, he continued to boast behind the scenes about unscientific online polls showing he won the first debate.”
“Trump resisted suggestions from his advisers to practice exhaustively for the second debate, a town hall-style forum that will be held Sunday night in St. Louis. He flat-out refused to participate in mock sessions, saying such playacting was annoying.”
Donald Trump told CNN that he still thinks the Central Park 5 — who had been accused of brutally raping a jogger — are guilty, even though they have since been exonerated.
Said Trump: “They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.”
Researchers at the University of Utah say there’s a strong case to impeach Donald Trump, should he be elected as president, KUTV reports.
“Law professor Christopher Peterson said he found ample evidence to charge the Republican candidate with fraud and racketeering, both of which are considered felonies within state and federal law… Peterson also said Congress can push for an impeachment in civil cases — the president doesn’t need to be criminally convicted — and that it can consider crimes committed before the candidate was elected to office.”
“Only days before Donald Trump must face Hillary Clinton in a town-hall style presidential debate, the GOP nominee added just such an event in New Hampshire. It was seemingly a concession to anxious allies and advisers hoping he might hone his skills in what can be a difficult format even for the most dexterous of politicians,” Politico reports.
“While Sunday’s debate will stretch for 90 minutes without a bathroom break, Trump bolted from his town hall in Sandown after barely more than one-third of that time.”
“Trump’s campaign did place a two-minute countdown clock in front of their candidate on Thursday. He repeatedly blew past that time limit anyway.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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