KEEPING UP

It is hard to keep up with Trump’s patterns of behavior. Not releasing his tax returns. Insulting veterans and their families. Calling Mexican’s rapists. Inciting violence among his supporters. 3AM tweetstorms. The scam that is his foundation and Trump University. The ban on Muslims. The list goes on.

On Friday the Washington Post published a recording of comments Trump made while on the Access Hollywood bus during an unaired portion of a 2005 interview. In the video, Trump made derogatory comments towards women and said you just grab her pussy.

Trump was describing sexual assault. There are no other words to describe what he said. There are many other words, but let’s cut to the chase. He is describing sexual assault and shows no remorse for the words coming from his mouth even in his “apology” that was uploaded online. He then later pivoted towards attacking Hillary Clinton due to Bill Clinton’s episodes of infidelity.

Like that is going to work

And the sexual assault statement was made after he married his third wife, Melania.

Donald Trump was expected to campaign with Paul Ryan in his Wisconsin district on Saturday. The comments were so incendiary that Ryan disinvited his party’s nominee. Vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence was supposed to appear with Ryan but canceled.

Meanwhile Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus and other Republican Party officials held a “debate preparation” session with their nominee in New York prior to traveling to St. Louis for the second debate.

This is fueling speculation that Trump will step down from the ticket.

For starters, it is already too late for the Republican Party to replace Trump. Ballots are already printed up and sent out for those taking advantage of absentee voting. Early voting is happening in North Carolina and Florida. Ballots drop in Colorado on 17 October. Many other states to follow. So I am not going to bother with reading posts about how the Republican Party can dump Trump at this point because the legal and constitutional gymnastics are so ridiculous at trying this stunt.

Even if the ticket was to switch it to Pence-Trump, 1) do you really expect Trump to play second fiddle, and 2) how well do you think it will go with his supporters?

As I stated in a previous post, the Republican Party and their voters are to blame for this. Not once was there a Sister Souljah moment for the party. By the time it arrived, it was too late and Trump had amassed enough delegates to claim the nomination in a hostile takeover.

The moment to condemn his candidacy was when Trump said Mexicans are rapists during his initial campaign speech.

While I disagree with McCain’s politics, like myself, he wore the uniform. The party should have disavowed him for the derogatory statements Trump – who never served in the military – made towards a POW. Other moments where Trump insulted the veteran community that should have resulted in his instant disqualification from office was denigrating a Gold Star Family and accepting a Purple Heart prior to a rally, holding up the medal saying he always wanted one to his adoring fans.

 Trump claims to be the “law & order” candidate but there is an irony when you are inciting riots at rallies and willing to pay the legal fees of those who rough up protestors, the most incendiary being in Chicago, Albuquerque, and California. Republican sheriffs and district attorneys should have condemned his actions as being contradictory to law and order.

The news media should have refused any coverage of him and pulled their field reporters after NBC’s Katy Tur had to be escorted by the Secret Service after Trump singled her out in a December 2015 rally in South Carolina. In addition, the networks and cable news should have refused any Republican primary debates after Trump’s remarks towards Fox News’ Megyn Kelly about blood coming from her “whatever.”

Retweeting white nationalists, embracing anti-Semitism, and his supporters sharing racist memes should have led an exodos of any black and Hispanic Republicans from the party in similar fashion that caused baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson to have his revelation at the 1964 Republican convention when the party chose Barry Goldwater. Robinson, a Republican, urged his party to reject Goldwater in favor of more moderate candidates but the party went with Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But no, it was this moment where Trump was caught on a working microphone demeaning a woman prior to an interview that when it originally aired 11 years ago.

Already there are more tapes with Trump’s crude remarks.

And elected Republicans may flee en masse to save their asses, but Trump’s core supporters are holding their ground. The party has begun efforts to cut funding from his so-called campaign.

I have no sympathy for the Republican Party.

You nominated him in the first place.

After Clinton defeats Trump this November, I sincerely do hope that the Republicans conduct a soul-searching exercise but in order to do that they would need to have a soul first.