Tag: Donald Trump

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Former Disgraced Congressman Sits In Trump Rally VIP Seat

Donald Trump, speaking to a crowd in Sunrise, Florida, took off on a rant about Hillary Clinton speaking in Florida two days earlier where Clinton didn’t realize that seated right behind her at the rally was the father of Omar Mateen, the man who murdered 49 people at a gay club in Orlando this past June.

Important to note that when notified about Mateen’s attendance, the Clinton campaign said in an emailed statement, “The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. This individual wasn’t invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event.”

Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman said later, “She disagrees with his views and disavows his support.”

Trump razzed Hillary about the elder Mateen’s attendance, BUT – wait for it – seated just behind Trump, in a similarly visible seat as Mateen had had, was former GOP congressman Mark Foley who resigned in disgrace back in 2006 after sending a series of sexually explicit instant messages to several underage congressional page.

Check what Trump had to say about Hillary’s Mateen mistake with Foley right over his shoulder:

“Wasn’t it terrible when the father of the animal that killed the wonderful people in Orlando was sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton? And by the way … a lot of the people here — how many of you people know me? A lot of you people know me,” Trump said, addressing the crowd behind him as Foley raised his hand.

“When you get those seats you sort of know the campaign, so when she said, ‘Well, we didn’t know,’ he knew, they knew.”

Delicious.

Hey Trumpster – you might check the house before you jump into your next routine.

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Dozens Of High Profile Republicans Beg RNC To Stop Funding Flailing Trump Campaign

Dozens of Republicans have penned an open letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus begging him to stop funding the flailing Trump campaign and shift those efforts to Senate and House races.

From Politico:

More than 70 Republicans have signed an open letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus urging him to stop spending any money to help Donald Trump win in November and shift those contributions to Senate and House races.

The letter comes as a number of Republican senators and high-profile GOP national security officials have come forward saying they cannot vote for Trump.

“We believe that Donald Trump’s divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide, and only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with a Trump-emblazoned anchor around its neck,” states a draft of the letter obtained by POLITICO. “This should not be a difficult decision, as Donald Trump’s chances of being elected president are evaporating by the day.”

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Donald Trump Covers TIME Magazine – “Meltdown.”

Donald Trump covers the new issue of TIME Magazine but it’s probably not a cover the Trumpster will frame and hang on the wall.

And the cover image is only the beginning as TIME delves into what may be the biggest presidential meltdown in history.

Well worth the read, here’s just a few highlights:

On Trump’s disintegrating relationship with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus:

But every bond has its breaking point. For this partnership, the moment nearly arrived in early August. Priebus was on vacation when he learned that Trump had declined to endorse Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and a close friend. The chairman had a frank message for the nominee, according to two Republican officials briefed on the call. Priebus told Trump that internal GOP polling suggested he was on track to lose the election. And if Trump didn’t turn around his campaign over the coming weeks, the Republican National Committee would consider redirecting party resources and machinery to House and Senate races.

On the mood behind the scenes at Team Trump:

Like the rest of the party, Trump’s staff has been flummoxed by his political naiveté. They describe a candidate who doesn’t understand the basics of modern campaigns, from why you knock on doors to how to read a poll to why he should be dialing for dollars more aggressively. His headquarters has enough palace intrigue and warring fiefs to rival the fictional badlands of Westeros. “You’re always afraid of getting fired,” says one staffer, “but it’s his fault, not ours.”

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Dan Rather On Donald Trump: “A New Low And Unprecedented In The History Of American Presidential Politics”

In a post on his Facebook page, legendary journalist Dan Rather eviscerates Republican presidential nominee over his controversial call for “2nd Amendment people” to shoot Hillary Clinton should she become president.

No trying-to-be objective and fair journalist, no citizen who cares about the country and its future can ignore what Donald Trump said today. When he suggested that “The Second Amendment People” can stop Hillary Clinton he crossed a line with dangerous potential. By any objective analysis, this is a new low and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics. This is no longer about policy, civility, decency or even temperament. This is a direct threat of violence against a political rival. It is not just against the norms of American politics, it raises a serious question of whether it is against the law. If any other citizen had said this about a Presidential candidate, would the Secret Service be investigating?

Candidate Trump will undoubtably issue an explanation; some of his surrogates are already engaged in trying to gloss it over, but once the words are out there they cannot be taken back. That is what inciting violence means.

To anyone who still pretends this is a normal election of Republican against Democrat, history is watching. And I suspect its verdict will be harsh. Many have tried to do a side-shuffle and issue statements saying they strongly disagree with his rhetoric but still support the candidate. That is becoming woefully insufficient. The rhetoric is the candidate.

This cannot be treated as just another outrageous moment in the campaign. We will see whether major newscasts explain how grave and unprecedented this is and whether the headlines in tomorrow’s newspapers do it justice. We will soon know whether anyone who has publicly supported Trump explains how they can continue to do.

We are a democratic republic governed by the rule of law. We are an honest, fair and decent people. In trying to come to terms with today’s discouraging development the best I can do is to summon our greatest political poet Abraham Lincoln for perspective:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln used these stirring words to end his First Inaugural Address. It was the eve of the Civil War and sadly his call for sanity, cohesion and peace was met with horrific violence that almost left our precious Union asunder. We cannot let that happen again.

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50 GOP National Security Officials: Trump Would Be “Reckless”

Fifty Republican national security officials have penned an open letter announcing they will not vote for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

From Huffington Post:

“We are convinced that [Trump] would be a dangerous President and would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being,” said the former officials, many of whom held top positions in the George W. Bush administration.

“Most fundamentally, Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President,” they added. “He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary.”

Signers include some of the best known intelligence, defense and security experts of the past two decades: Michael V. Hayden, the former director of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency; Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge, both of whom served as secretaries of Homeland Security during the Bush administration; Dov Zakheim, a former under secretary of defense; John D. Negroponte, a deputy secretary of state and a former director of national intelligence; Eric Edelman, a top national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney; and Robert Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state, United States trade rep and president of the World Bank.

In closing, the 50 officials wrote, “We are convinced that in the Oval Office, he would be the most reckless President in American history.”

You can read the entire letter, along with a complete list of signers, here.

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Donald Trump Dog-Whistles Assassination As Way To Stop Hillary

At a campaign rally today, Republican Donald Trump threw out what many thought sounded like a call to shoot his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

This is really unprecedented folks.

Said Trump, “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”

Politico reports:

The reference to the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, could be interpreted as a joke about using violence to stop Clinton or her judicial picks.

Trump was speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he repeated his regular claim that Clinton intends to “abolish” the Second Amendment, presumably by appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court. But Trump punctuated that line with an aside, suggesting that Second Amendment supporters might be in a position to stop her even if she’s elected.

Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook responded in a statement: “This is simple–what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”

Folks in Congress didn’t take the comment lightly.

Trump’s campaign later spun the dog whistle in a different direction. See below.

I’ll say this – if you think what he said wasn’t dangerous, try telling your boss that your “2nd Amendment” folks will “take care of him” tomorrow. See how that flies.

Click the image to enlarge.

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Donald Trump’s “Economic Plan” Does Nothing For Middle Class America

Donald Trump made a big deal about unveiling his “economic plan” for America, hoping for a kind of campaign reset as he plummets in the polls.

The problem is, though, none of what he is proposing is visionary or innovative.

We learned “trickle down” economics don’t work. Giving big tax cuts to the wealthy with the hopes that the rich will “reinvest” those gains into new employees or higher wages is a fallacy. Doesn’t happen.

And eliminating the estate tax does nothing to encourage the economy to grow. It’s just a big giveaway to folks like Trump’s kids.

Once again Trump is attempting to do a little flim-flam action saying “look what I’ll do,” when in reality none of this will actually “do” anything.

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Trending: #ManyPeopleAreSaying

One of Donald Trump’s favorite phrases to use when attacking his opponents is the very vague “many people are saying.”

Now, we never ever find out who those many people actually are, probably because it’s just Donald Trump talking to himself (which he has admitted he does quite frequently).

Twitter, of course, went wild for the idea and began trending the hashtag #manypeoplearesaying

Check out just a few below:

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GOP Sen. Susan Collins: “I Will Not Be Voting For Donald Trump”

Wow – this is a surprise.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine has penned an op-ed for the Washington Post wherein she announces she is the seventh Republican Senator to not vote for GOP White House nominee Donald Trump.

Collins opens thusly:

“I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country. When the primary season started, it soon became apparent that, much like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mr. Trump was connecting with many Americans who felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington and who were tired of political correctness.

“But rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency. Mr. Trump did not stop with shedding the stilted campaign dialogue that often frustrates voters. Instead, he opted for a constant stream of denigrating comments, including demeaning Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) heroic military service and repeatedly insulting Fox News host Megyn Kelly.

“With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing — either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level — that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president.”

Bolding is mine.

It’s worth noting that Collins is not a showboating “Ted Cruz” type of U.S. Senator. She is not some kind of “big-shot” power player in Washington.

She is a moderate who is well-liked by just about everyone. She has a 78% approval rating and not up for reelection until 2020. So, she didn’t need to raise her voice.

But she did.

For Collins to weigh in like this says a lot.

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Monmouth Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads By 13 Points

The latest poll from Monmouth University echoes what we’ve seen lately in other national polls.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a 13 point lead with 46% support versus 34% for Republican Donald Trump, 7% for Libertarian Gary Johnson and 2% for Green Party’s Jill Stein.

While Clinton has firmed up her base (92% of Dems say they’ll vote her way), Donald Trump is struggling with only 79% of Republicans.

Trump and Clinton currently split independents 32% and 30% respectively.