August 26, 2016

Republicans Agree: Trump Is a Racist Boor

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Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump relies on racism and bigotry in his presidential campaign. Republicans must be filling the airwaves with denunciations of Clinton by now, so Philip Bump rounds up the outrage:

The day after Hillary Clinton delivered a vicious indictment of Donald Trump, the Republican party’s ostensible leader, on the same subject, Republican leaders haven’t risen to his defense.

The Republican Party has tweeted repeatedly since Clinton’s speech, praising the National Park Service, hitting Clinton on her Foundation and pledging to return to the Constitution. It offered no press release in defense of its nominee, issuing one only about Clinton having not held a press conference since last year.

Speaker Paul Ryan….Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference….Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell….MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin (who noticed the GOP’s silence early) asked party spokesman Sean Spicer about the lack of a coordinated rebuttal to Clinton. “I don’t know,” Spicer said. “I think Congress is in recess.”

Well, I’m sure Sean Hannity has offered a stirring defense, and that’s what really matters.

One other quick note about Trump: he’s been waffling back and forth on immigration all week. It’s his signature issue, and he’s been running on it for over a year now, but he still can’t quite seem to make up his mind about some of the most fundamental issues related to immigration policy. This has produced many thumbsuckers about whether Trump is pivoting, or staying the course, or some combination thereof. My advice: don’t bother. Trump doesn’t have a policy. He couldn’t care less about immigration. To him, it’s just a handy applause line in his speeches. Trying to follow his peregrinations is like trying to figure out what a five year old really wants to be when she grows up.

I have no idea why immigration foes took Trump seriously in the first place. If he ever became president, his first instinct would be to cut a deal, exactly what the hardliners don’t want. And since he doesn’t really care about it, he’d accept whatever Chuck Schumer and Paul Ryan could hammer out, and then count on being able to sell it as “the toughest immigration plan ever,” or somesuch. In the end, he’s probably the worst candidate for immigration hardliners, not the best.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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