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Donald Trump Tag

While the elite media, leftists activists, and Clinton's minions explored new human limits in hyperbole yesterday by connecting Donald Trump's Second Amendment comments to incitement to violence, the GOP presidential candidate's supporters experienced real attacks. Arguably, the most dramatic of these episodes involved a vividly colored sculpture by artist Scott LoBaido, whose work was displayed at the home of his friend, Sam Pirozollo. The artwork was torched over the weekend.

The opening segment of today's Morning Joe was one long fusillade against Donald Trump in light of his remark yesterday that there is nothing people could do to stop a President Hillary from abolishing the Second Amendment, "although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know." The single harshest criticism came from Joe Scarborough, who suggested that Trump had "crossed the Rubicon" into fascism. Scarborough said that in the past he had rejected use of the words "fascist" or "fascism" in reference to Trump because he had never made "a call to violence." Scarborough asserted that Trump's comments yesterday were a suggestion that "Second Amendment people" kill Hillary Clinton or judges. Concluded Scarborough: "he crossed a lot of Rubicons yesterday."

Late in the 2008 primary season, Hillary Clinton justified her refusal to drop out when it appeared impossible for her to win the nomination by saying "we all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California” during the 1968 primary. On today's With All Due Respect, host Mark Halperin asked Hillary surrogate Neera Tanden whether there was a parallel between Hillary's remark and that of Donald Trump today, who said "Second Amendment people" maybe could do something about a President Hillary trying to abolish the Second Amendment. Predictably, Tanden said there was "absolutely no parallel." Why? Because Hillary was "talking about a person she had deep respect for." Right, but on whose possible assassination she was hanging her nomination hopes.

Was New York Times columnist Frank Bruni suggesting there could be civil unrest if Donald Trump loses big and bitterly? That seemed a likely implication of his comments on today's Morning Joe. Bruni said his "fear" is: "what if he goes down big and goes down bitterly? I really worry about the aftermath. I worry about November 9th and forward in terms of what's been stirred up." Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson tried to soothe poor Frank's fears: "We survived Bush-Gore 2000, we made it through that just fine and I think we'll make it through post-Trump just fine, too."

Mike Murphy — who ran Jeb's Super PAC — says that "if it came down to just my vote and I had to decide, I'd probably vote for Hillary and then jump in a lake out of massive depression." Appearing on With All Due Respect, Murphy added that he hopes Trump doesn't win because he's "a demagogue and a neo-racist." Murphy gave Trump a 10% black-swan shot of winning. Murphy says he can't vote for Trump because "I love my country."

Earlier this morning, Mark blogged about rumors of yet another Republican-backed Trump challenger. Multiple outlets are reporting an obscure former CIA officer will launch an independent run against Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said that "I had multiple sources last night telling me that an independent with the backing of a lot of Republican money is going to launch today." None of the other panelists, including the well-connected Mark Halperin, had heard that. Scarborough continued: "several good sources told me that people, Republicans from, let's just say #NeverTrump land found somebody and they're going to put good money behind him." Scarborough said it would be someone "French-like," i.e., like National Review author David French whose name was floated not long ago before withdrawing.

What a long, strange trip this year's presidential election has become. The media (mainstream, liberal and conservative #NeverTrump) have swarmed all over Trump in the past two weeks. Some Republicans who did not previously oppose Trump also are breaking ranks and coming out against him. The media, by and large, has moved on from scrutiny of Hillary. For Trump supporters, it's confirmation of bias against him and the need to tear down the establishment in its broadest sense. For Trump opponents, it's confirmation of the reasons for their opposition. Certainly, "anything can happen." But as of now, the polls mostly look beyond horrible for Trump and have taken a nose dive. In a normal election year, it would not be worth the pixels to run a general election poll, because close to 100% of the readers would be voting for the Republican. But this is not a normal year. So, this will be our first 2016 General Election Reader Poll.

Both Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Governor Mike Pence and Trump advisor Newt Gingrich broke ranks with Trump and announced they'd be endorsing Senator John McCain and Senator Kelly Ayotte in their re-election bids. Earlier reports suggested Pence was mirroring Trump's decision to withhold endorsing the Republican Senators, but his aids later clarified:

Will Islamic terrorists launch a major pre-election attack to help elect Donald Trump? That's the scenario Donny Deutsch floated on today's Morning Joe. Deutsch is an ad man/Hamptons playboy. His pronouncements on national security and terrorism might thus be taken with a major grain of salt. But Deutsch was responding to a statement by Wapo's David Ignatius, a serious student of foreign affairs, who said a major attack could be a "game changer" that would aid Trump. Deutsch said if "the terrorists and the radical Islamists want Trump in there. And if the way Trump gets in there is a terrorist attack thus, I get scared." The always-emotive Mika Brzezinski could be heard emitting a major sigh.

The liberal establishment has yet to recover from the shock to its delicate sensibilities caused when Donald Trump spoke of Megyn Kelly having blood coming from her "wherever." But will anyone blink a whatever now that MSM member Mika Brzezinski has told Republicans that they need to "get their heads out of . . . something?" The ever-diplomatic Willie Geist suggested Mika had "sand" in mind, but it seemed clear she was referring to something else.

On today's Morning Joe, Mika repeatedly made the case that the Republican establishment should dump Trump. Analogizing the Trump candidacy to a car that has burst into flames, Mika called Republicans "wussies" for refusing to get out of it.

On Hardball, Chuck Todd called it a "fantasy," but . . . he reported that some Republicans think that maybe they can talk Donald Trump into quitting, and that an ideal replacement ticket would be Mike Pence and Nikki Haley. Chris Matthews was very skeptical, saying that there'd never be a week when Pence could beat Hillary, because he lacks the "pizazz." Todd replied that some Republicans believe that a generic Republicans could beat Clinton. Todd quoted one Republican as saying "take any two people in the White Pages. Make them the ticket. Put R's next to their name, and put them on a desert island and not say anything, and they think that candidate gets 47%." Then again, how tuned in can someone be who still thinks in terms of the "White Pages?"

You see, this is the problem with having a campaign predicated on the fact that you're leading in all the polls -- when polling data turns unfavorable, your alleged mandate dissipates. A new poll released by Fox News shows Hillary with a double-digit lead over The Donald. Hillary might me the least trusted presidential candidate in history, but she's still crushing Trump (if data is accurate, of course).

As a Tea Party Democrat, I have routinely covered that party's events as a Legal Insurrection author. I have been closely following the #DemExit movement that is afoot, as evidenced by DNC convention-week demonstrations in which delegates and other progressives decried the #DNCLeak and Hillary Clinton’s rigged nomination and blatant displays of party unhappiness during her acceptance speech that the party's officials tried to hide. Following the convention, it has become transparently clear that the Democratic Party's sole mission is to destroy Donald Trump completely.

We reported yesterday on Joe Scarborough's statement that Republicans, conservatives and so-called right-wing bloggers had been contacting him to ask about Donald Trump's "mental health." Scarborough himself called Trump "unhinged." Joe took things a significant step farther on today's Morning Joe, saying that Republicans have been contacting him, asking themselves "is Donald Trump a sociopath?" Scarborough was careful to state "I didn't say this, but this is what everybody is saying." Scarborough dropped the s-word in the context of hammering Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W., over his lesser-of-two-evils support of Trump.

After a rocky first day, the Democratic Convention showed signs of the benefits of Hollywood backing. Hillary's acceptance night was slickly produced, and obviously geared towards "humanizing" Hillary. If humanizing Hillary was the goal, her acceptance speech was just the opposite. We saw fighting, angry Hillary tonight. That has to have been a strategic decision, with Katy Perry's Fight Song played repeatedly as Hillary took the stage. Nothing is left to chance or done off the cuff by the Clinton campaign. Surely, a focus group somewhere predicted that was the way to go.

A little levity to kick off your evening -- yesterday, the good folks of Bad Lip Reading released an abbreviated and hilarious rendition of Senator Cruz's controversial RNC speech. If you're not familiar with Bad Lip Reading, they dub over clips of all kinds (not just political) with nonsensical garble.