;)
The Commentariat -- September 30, 2016
Afternoon Update:
American Public: Donald Trump has a ton of ties to Russia. Could be a big security risk. Shouldn't we check that out?
GOP "Leaders": Naaah.
Shane Harris of the Daily Beast: "Suspicion is mounting about Donald Trump's ties to Russian officials and business interests, as well as possible links between his campaign and the Russian hacking of U.S. political organizations. But GOP leaders have refused to support efforts by Democrats to investigate any possible Trump-Russia connections, which have been raised in news reports and closed-door intelligence briefings."...Akhilleus.
See Louis Nelson's report, linked below on Donald Trump's "3 am call" Twittershitstorm aimed at Clinton supporter Alicia Machado. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Fact-checkers have found no evidence that Ms. Machado, who was featured in Playboy, appeared in a sex tape. Her critics may be referring to a risqué scene that she appeared in on a reality television show." CW: Whether or not Machado made a "sex tape" (and I don't care if she did), Trump's attacks on her are beyond disgusting. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "While you were probably still sleeping, the 2016 Republican presidential nominee encouraged all of us to check out a 'sex tape' and offered a baseless conspiracy theory about his opponent helping the woman from the alleged sex tape get citizenship so she could take him down. And in doing so, Donald Trump did everything Hillary Clinton could have hoped he would, drawing out a now-week-long story about Alicia Machado, making things up and -- above all -- reinforcing all those very real questions about whether he has the temperament to be president." -- CW
Bible Banging 'Bama Bigot Booted. Boolah Boo! Kent Faulk of AL.com: "Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has been suspended from the bench for telling probate judges to defy federal orders regarding gay marriage. It's the second time Moore has been removed from the chief justice job for defiance of federal courts - the first time in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ) issued the order Friday suspending Moore from the bench for the remainder of his term after an unanimous vote of the nine-member court.... The court found him guilty of all six charges of violation of the canons of judicial ethics. Moore's term is to end in 2019, but because of his age, 69, he cannot run for the office again." -- Akhilleus
*****
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "From across the ocean and across the Green Line, they came on Friday to the mountaintop sanctuary of Mount Herzl to bid farewell to Shimon Peres, who did as much as anyone to build modern Israel and then became its leading advocate of peace. President Obama headlined a cast of prominent eulogists who praised Mr. Peres for his commitment to coexistence with the Palestinians and, in some cases, called for a renewed dedication to realizing that dream. 'The last of the founding generation is now gone,' said Mr. Obama, wearing a skullcap and standing next to Mr. Peres's coffin. He added that the work was 'in the hands of Israel's next generation and its friends.'" -- CW ...
Juan Cole: "President Obama vetoed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, but Congress has for the first time in his presidency over-ridden his veto. This is a disastrous law with potentially ruinous effects on the US economy and US policy. Individual tort suits against other countries had been forestalled by a doctrine of sovereign immunity, from which the United States and other countries also benefit. JASTA removes sovereign immunity for any state found to be practicing terrorism anywhere, apparently as defined by US court judges. Saudi Arabia is extremely unpopular in the US, more especially on the Left, but also among right wing Islamophobes. But however appealing it is to let the 9/11 victim families sue Riyadh for the attacks, it is wrong-headed every which way from Sunday." --safari ...
... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "A day after the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to override President Obama's veto, GOP leaders are expressing reservations about legislation that would allow lawsuits related to 9/11 to go forward against Saudi Arabia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) both said they were open to discussions about changing the bill, which Congress approved unanimously. 'I do think it's worth further discussions, but it was certainly not something that was going to be fixed this week,' McConnell told reporters on Thursday. McConnell also criticized the lack of a discussion about 'the potential consequences' of a very 'popular bill.' Ryan agreed that Congress may need to "fix" the legislation but said he wasn't sure when that would happen."...
... CW: I can tell you this: it isn't going to happen before Nov. 8. "A lack of discussion 'about the potential consequences,'" BTW, is a crockful of bull. The administration was screaming at the Congress about the dire consequences Juan Cole outlines in the post linked above. ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "White House press secretary Josh Earnest crowed after the top two Republican leaders suggested the measure needed changes less than 24 hours after Congress voted to override President Obama's veto. 'Well, it's hard to know where to start,' Earnest said with a smile. 'I think what we've seen in the United States Congress is a case of rapid-onset buyer's remorse.'" -- CW
$41MM & Nothing to Show for It. Boo-Fucking-Hoo. Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: Wells-Fargo CEO John G. Stumpf [CW: rhymes with Drumpf] "is forfeiting at least $41 million in pay. He vows that his bank will drop its sales incentive program -- blamed for prompting bankers to set up illegal and unauthorized bank and credit card accounts to meet their sales goals -- by the end of the week, not in January, as he had previously promised. But at a hearing Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee, nobody was impressed. If anything, the House lawmakers who interrogated ...Stumpf ... were even angrier and more hostile than their Senate counterparts who questioned him last week, before either of those steps had been taken. One by one, Democrats and Republicans alike took turns ripping apart Mr. Stumpf and what took place at the bank he leads." -- CW
Remember the Judicial Branch! Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Conservatives states are succeeding in getting friendly federal judges to issue broad -- often nationwide -- injunctions reining in federal government actions, thwarting key parts of President Barack Obama's agenda and imperiling some aspects of Hillary Clinton's platform. The tactic -- amplified by the 4-4 deadlock in the Supreme Court -- has already frozen Obama's immigration policy, is limiting his efforts to protect transgender rights and could hamstring Clinton's planned executive actions on immigration, labor and environmental issues if she wins the White House. The shorthanded Supreme Court is expected to start adding new cases to its docket as soon as Thursday, with the new term set to open Monday. But many legal experts say that if the high court remains split down the middle on key issues, the more important action will be in the lower courts, where the red-state-led onslaught is playing out." --safari
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Last August, a federal appeals court refused to reinstate a lower court's order that would have dramatically weakened a voter suppression law in Wisconsin. It did so based on assurances by the state's attorneys that Wisconsin had already taken adequate steps to mitigate the law's effect on voters facing disenfranchisement. It turns out those assurances were not true. As Ari Berman reports for The Nation, voters in Wisconsin still face potentially insurmountable obstacles between themselves and the ballot box. And these are the very same obstacles the state told the appeals court that it would eliminate." --safari
Presidential Race
Nate Silver: "Like a lot of you, we at FiveThirtyEight ... await new polls. Until we get more of those, figuring out how the first presidential debate affected the race involves a lot of guesswork. Still, the data that we have so far suggests that Hillary Clinton has gained ground as a result of Monday night's debate -- it's mostly a question of how much her position has improved.... The polls show a reasonably clear consensus so far of Clinton being up by 3 to 5 points nationally. If that's where the numbers wind up settling, that would reflect a meaningful bounce for Clinton...." -- CW
** Paul Krugman: "... the candidates we saw Monday night were the same people they've been all along. Mrs. Clinton's grace and even humor under pressure were fully apparent during last year's Benghazi hearing. Mr. Trump's whiny braggadocio has been obvious every time he opens his mouth without reading from a teleprompter. So how could someone like Mr. Trump have been in striking position for the White House?... Part of the answer is that a lot more Americans than we'd like to imagine are white nationalists at heart. [But the main reason is that] she got Gored. That is, like Al Gore in 2000, she ran into a buzz saw of adversarial reporting from the mainstream media, which treated relatively minor missteps as major scandals, and invented additional scandals out of thin air." ...
... CW: Every word Krugman wrote is right, including "and" and "the." There are reasons for the media's seemingly irrational coverage of Clinton. Clinton got Gored because the media got bored. Editors felt Clinton deserved equal time, and save the e-mails, she hadn't received it. So what's exciting about, "Clinton gives stump speech"? or "Clinton releases rational policy paper on K-12 education"? Pantsuit stories? -- Even the boys in the newsroom know better now. When the bottom line depends on click-bait, reporters are bid to produce a "scandal." Meanwhile, Trump ... well, the media could barely keep up. Add to that, editors assign approximately equal numbers of staff to cover the major candidates. Clinton reporters had to report something. And, needless to say, both-siderism is also in play. "Clinton Foundation saves millions of needy people; Trump Foundation an illegal scam" is so biased. Also too, it would be wrong to lose confederate readers when the media have worked so hard to wrest them away from Fox "News." (Corey Lewandowski.) ...
... Brian Beutler: "... editorials [endorsing Clinton], written by experienced conservative journalists, are implicit admissions that the overwhelming majority of horrifying, conspiratorial things conservatives and Republicans have said about Clinton over the years ... have been instrumentalist agitprop.... It is partly a failure of today's media that the public views Clinton only slightly less unfavorably than it views Trump, and sees her as far more dishonest than he. But it is also a failure that goes back a quarter-century.... Most years you don't count on your political nemeses to save the world from fascism." -- CW
David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton expressed doubts about whether the United States should go forward with a trillion-dollar modernization of its nuclear forces at a fund-raiser in February, questioning an Obama administration plan that she has remained largely silent on in public. Mrs. Clinton also suggested she would be far tougher against foreign nations that hack into American computer networks and would kill one of the Pentagon's pet projects, a nuclear-tipped cruise missile. 'The last thing we need,' she told the audience, 'are sophisticated cruise missiles that are nuclear armed.' Her comments were contained in an audio recording of the fund-raiser that appeared on the website of The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, which said it was gleaned from the hack of a campaign staff member. But it said nothing about who did the hacking." -- CW
USA Today Editors: "In the 34-year history of USA Today, the Editorial Board has never taken sides in the presidential race.... We revisit our no-endorsement policy every four years. We've never seen reason to alter our approach. Until now.... This year, one of the candidates -- Republican nominee Donald Trump -- is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.... He is erratic.... He is ill-equipped to be commander in chief.... He traffics in prejudice.... His business career is checkered.... He isn't leveling with the American people.... He speaks recklessly.... He has coarsened the national dialogue.... He's a serial liar.... Nor does this editorial represent unqualified support for Hillary Clinton, who has her own flaws (though hers are far less likely to threaten national security or lead to a constitutional crisis). The Editorial Board does not have a consensus for a Clinton endorsement.... Whatever you do, however, resist the siren song of a dangerous demagogue. By all means vote, just not for Donald Trump." -- CW ...
NEW. Kelsey Sutton of Politico: "The Chicago Tribune on Friday endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson for president, joining a handful of other newspapers around the country that have rejected both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees." CW: When a reporter told Johnson of the Chicago paper's endorsement, Johnson asked, "What is Chicago?"
Louis Nelson of Politico: "While Hillary Clinton is riding high after the first presidential debate, Donald Trump is jumping down into the gutter. In the wee hours of Friday morning, the impulse-control-deficient Republican nominee let loose a torrent of tweets, calling former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado 'disgusting' and accusing her of having [appeared in] a sex tape.... He wrapped up his rant with: 'Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?'" CW: This is a straight news report. ...
... Greg Sargent does some reporting of Trump's claims & concludes, "The ultimate irony of the whole tale is that the person who may have done the most to drive Machado to become a U.S. citizen and secure the vote for herself is [not Hillary Clinton, but] one Donald J. Trump. And if the preliminary evidence proves to be right, Trump is driving a lot more Latinos to vote in this election, too." -- CW
Esme Cribb of TPM: "Donald Trump complained about every part of the first presidential debate, from his opponent to the moderator to the subsequent poll results, during a Thursday campaign appearance. 'I had to put up with the anchor and fight the anchor all the time on everything I said,' Trump said of the debate's moderator, Lester Holt, at a rally in Bedford, New Hampshire. 'What a rigged deal.' He also cited online polls as evidence of his success, saying that 'every single online poll said we won.' On Tuesday afternoon, a Fox News executive sent a memo to staff that was leaked to Business Insider reminding them that online polls like the ones Trump touted should not be cited as though they were scientifically sound." See also "Tuck Chodd Has a Brief Moment of Clarity," linked below. -- CW ...
... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: "Just after Monday night’s debate, Donald Trump said that moderator Lester Holt had done 'a great job. Honestly, I thought Lester did a great job.'... Three days later, right now as I type, Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire how rigged the debates had been and, in particular, how biased and unfair the 'great' Lester Holt was.... Is this an example of what is known in writer-land as 'keyboard courage' -- of Trump's being genial to people face-to-face and then excoriating them from a safe remove? Has he forgotten what he said less than 70 hours ago? Does he think no one will remember? Does he not notice or mentally process the contradiction himself? I have no idea. I will contend that no one like this has ever gotten this far in U.S. politics before, and by 'no one like this' I mean someone who seems either entirely unaware or entirely unconcerned by the disconnect between what he says and the world of observable truth." -- CW ...
... Drumpf Knows Best. Eli Stokols of Politico: "Everyone but Donald Trump and his most ardent supporters recognize thatDonald Trump lost Monday night's debate. And because of the candidate's stubborn disbelief in his ability to do anything but win, Trump lost the post-debate period too. Now he's doubling down. Despite warnings from fellow Republicans against insulting a beauty queen he disparaged for gaining weight and launching an attack on Hillary Clinton for her husband's well-known infidelities, Trump is now directing his surrogates to do just that.... And during a rally Thursday afternoon in Bedford, N.H., Trump himself referenced the scandals of the 1990s that he’s been congratulating himself for not talking about all week. 'The Clintons are the sordid past,' he said. 'We will be the very bright and clean future." -- CW ...
... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump and his allies are refusing to let up on their attacks on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, with Newt Gingrich shaming her for gaining weight during her reign and Corey Lewandowski suggesting she's an attempted murderer. The sustained assault has provided a wide opening for Hillary Clinton's campaign to drive home the narrative that Trump is a misogynist and a horrible role model for voters' children." --safari ...
... Paul Waldman: "The strategic genius of the Trump campaign is still in evidence.... Yes, let's have portly serial adulterer Newt Gingrich attack Machado's weight, while sadistic adulterer Rudy Giuliani goes after Clinton for not being able to keep her husband from cheating on her. I can feel that gender gap shrinking already." CW: Aw, c'mon, Paul. Newt is a serial adulterer, too.
By Driftglass.Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump isn't afraid of being labeled as the guy who avoids paying taxes. At all. [In an appearance on Bill O'Reilly's show,] Trump didn't say Wednesday night whether he has paid income taxes over the past several decades, but he did say that someone who avoids paying them is what the country needs.... 'I never said I didn't pay taxes,' Trump maintained. '[Hillary Clinton] said, "Maybe you didn't pay taxes." And I said, "Well, that would make me smart," because tax is a big payment.... One big problem with Trump's comments Wednesday is that there is a record of him paying no or very little income taxes. Of the five years for which we have a record of Trump's taxes, he didn't pay any or nearly any.... A second problem is that he did appear to say Monday night that his past avoidance of income taxes was 'smart.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Gloria Borger, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump is angry that his aides and advisers have conceded to reporters -- largely without attribution -- that the Republican nominee struggled in his first presidential debate. In a conference call with surrogates Wednesday afternoon, Trump aides made clear the Republican nominee is upset that his allies publicly acknowledged they pushed him to change his preparation and tactics before his next bout with Hillary Clinton. And he wants them to stop it immediately. The message was 'not subtle,' a source familiar with the call said. Trump wants his supporters to make an energetic defense of his performance and refuse to concede that he didn't nail it." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Nevertheless ... Dana Bash, et al., of CNN: "Some of Donald Trump's advisers are discussing an overhaul in how he prepares for his second face-off with Hillary Clinton, and one option being floated internally is asking Chris Christie to take a leading role to get the Republican nominee ready. The New Jersey governor, a long-time friend of Trump's, is one of 'the few' in the billionaire's inner circle who has always been straight with him, and was 'brutally honest' about his shortcomings after this week's debate, according to a source familiar with the discussions. There's no sign that everyone in the campaign agrees this is the right path forward. There's been a round of recriminations within the campaign amid fallout from the debate.Christie told CNN no request has been made." -- CW ...
... Dara Lind of Vox: "Trump appears to be shutting out not only people who want him to change direction but even people who are just telling him, descriptively, that the debate didn't work out well for him. Presidents need to be able to hear bad news." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Trump Conspiracy Theory No. 137. And He Knows It Must Be True Because He Read It in the Sputnik News. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Donald Trump on Wednesday touted a long-debunked conspiracy theory that [Google,] the most popular internet search engine, suppresses negative headlines about his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump didn't cite a source to back up his claim, but the most recent report alleging this came from Sputnik News, a Russian state-owned news agency. 'Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,' Trump said, apparently referring to Google searches during the first presidential debate on Monday night.... The remark was not an off-the-cuff ad lib -- it was included in the prepared remarks Trump read from during his rally speech Wednesday night." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump's campaign is signaling that its new, post-first-debate message will be an attack on Hillary Clinton's finances, under the catchphrase 'Follow the money.' This is probably Trump's most fruitful avenue of attack.... And yet the notion that a voter ought to support Trump over Clinton on grounds of financial ethics or transparency is insane. Trump is corrupt on a world-historic scale.... How on Earth can a candidate run on the slogan 'Follow the money' while stonewalling any questions about his own money?" --safari
Paul Waldman on why Trump will likely do worse in the upcoming "town-hall"-style debate than he did in moderated debate. CW: I think Waldman is mostly right -- Clinton spent the early part of her primary campaign actually asking voters about their concerns & basing some of her policy papers on what they told her. But there's another Trump trait we've seen -- his ability to win by flattery. He is unlikely to bully the "ordinary people" questioners. Rather, he will agree with every questioner (even as he would be unable to supply a substantive answer to a specific concern) even if he has to take diametrically opposing stances from one questioner to the next. Some of the nuttiest things he said during primary season were in response to audience questions. And no matter how crazy an audience proposition was, Trump said, "We're looking into that."
Only the "best" criminals.... --safari
Donald Trump. Supporter of Communist Dictators for President! Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek: Donald Trump knowingly violated the US embargo against Cuba. "A company controlled by Donald Trump ... secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro's presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings.... Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 foray into Cuba at a time when the corporate expenditure of even a penny in the Caribbean country was prohibited without U.S. government approval.... Once the [Trump] consultants traveled to the island and incurred the expenses for the venture, Seven Arrows instructed senior officers with Trump's company -- then called Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts -- how to make it appear legal by linking it after the fact to a charitable effort." -- Akhilleus: Love to see Kellyanne spin this one tomorrow morning. "Oh the Donald needed a few cigars. No biggie. And anyway, when he got there, Hillary was skinny dipping with Fidel." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
strong>... Marc Caputo of Politico: "'Trump's business with Cuba appears to have broken the law, flouted U.S. foreign policy, and is in complete contradiction to Trump's own repeated, public statements that he had been offered opportunities to invest in Cuba but passed them up,' Clinton campaign senior adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.... Trump recently began making a big push to curry the support of Cuban-Americans who live in Miami-Dade, Florida's most populous county with the most Republicans, 366,000. About 72 percent of them are Hispanic, nearly all Cuban-American. They're one of the only blocs of voters in the United States who still favor keeping the embargo...." The Newsweek report is not going to go down well with those voters. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Josh Israel of ThinkProgess: "Donald Trump's campaign manager appeared to unwittingly confirm an explosive Newsweek story on Thursday, telling ABC's The View that a Trump company did indeed spend money in Cuba in 1998, in violation of a longstanding U.S. embargo that Trump has vociferously defended. Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald reported on Thursday that Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts spent at least $68,000 in 1998 in Cuba...Asked about the report, Conway first tried to defend Trump by pointing out that the company ultimately decided not to invest in Cuba and therefore was 'not treasonous.'...Asked if she was denying that they spent the funds, she conceded: 'I think they paid money, as I understand from the story, they paid money in 1998.' --safari ...
... Update, Update. Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Donald Trump Thursday denied that his company invested in Cuba and violated the U.S. embargo. 'I never went to Cuba. I've never been to Cuba. I never did business with Cuba,' Trump said in an interview with WMUR in New Hampshire. There's nothing else to say. I never did business in Cuba. I'd tell you very openly if I did. I was not involved in doing business in Cuba.'... In another interview Thursday with NH1 News, Trump questioned the integrity of the reporter behind the article." CW: That's funny, because doing something illegal, then using a charity to hide the illegal activities is SOP over there at Trumpapalooza, Inc. ...
... Like This. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "The New York attorney general is probing Donald Trump's reported use of money from his charitable foundation to settle a private legal dispute, a lawyer for the town of Palm Beach, Florida, confirmed. The lawyer, John Randolph, said that the attorney general's office contacted him to request documents related to a settlement Trump made with the town of Palm Beach in 2007 over unpaid fines. Last week, the Washington Post reported that Trump settled the dispute by paying $100,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, an apparent violation of self-dealing rules that prevent officers of charitable organizations from using funds for their personal benefit." -- CW ...
... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's charitable foundation — which has been sustained for years by donors outside the Trump family -- has never obtained the certification that New York requires before charities can solicit money from the public, according to the state attorney general's office. Under the laws in New York, where the Donald J. Trump Foundation is based, any charity that solicits more than $25,000 a year from the public must obtain a special kind of registration beforehand. Charities as large as Trump's must also submit to a rigorous annual audit that asks -- among other things -- whether the charity spent any money for the personal benefit of its officers. If New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) finds that Trump's foundation raised money in violation of the law, he could order the charity to stop raising money immediately. With a court's permission, Schneiderman could also force Trump to return money that his foundation has already raised." -- CW ...
... The Ag-Grand-izement of Trump. Ike Swetlitz of Stat: "The annual fundraising bashes that Donald Trump hosted at his Mar-a-Lago Club for the renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute were showy affairs.... And his titles from Dana-Farber kept getting loftier: First, he was a Discovery Celebration Chair. Then a Grand Benefactor. Then a Grand Honorary Chair. Those titles did not come at a cost to Trump because he himself has not donated to the cancer center in years. His foundation, which has not included any of his own money since 2008, has given the hospital $350,000 since 2010. Yet Trump himself may have profited from the relationship: The hospital has paid Trump's private club up to $150,000 a year since 2011, and once before in 2008, to host the fundraising gala." Via Paul Waldman. -- CW
Jim Fallows: "After Donald Trump became the Republican nominee, he was asked on Fox News about his views on NATO and other American alliances. He gave his familiar '" they’re freeloaders' answer.... On Monday night, in his debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump essentially acknowledged that he might not be paying any federal tax himself.... I'm not sure Trump would recognize any tension between his own outraged demand that allies start paying their way, and his reflexive response that 'it makes me smart' for him to avoid paying his own way." -- CW ...
** Trump Doesn't Lie. David Robert of Vox: "... there is no answer to the question of whether Trump opposed the war in 2003. In fact, the question itself is a category error.... The question presumes that Trump has beliefs, 'views' that reflect his assessment of the facts, 'positions' that remain stable over time, woven into some sort of coherent worldview. There is no evidence that Trump has such things. That is not how he uses language.... He treats all social interactions as zero-sum games establishing dominance and submission.... People [like Trump] who simply do not have beliefs as such are impossible to predict and easy to manipulate. They are unable to make credible commitments, build trust, or pursue opportunities for mutual benefit. Putting people like that in a position of great power always ends in disaster." -- CW
Burgess Everett & Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "John McCain pointed to the door of Senate subway train, telling a reporter recently to get out 'if you're going to ask about Trump.' Informed instead the subject was Mike Pence, McCain relaxed, as the Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee invited the reporter to ride along.... McCain's willingness to talk Pence but dodge on Trump is shared broadly among his fellow Capitol Hill Republicans and reflects a genuine excitement about the Indiana governor who could be vice president...So far, however, there's scant evidence that Pence has the pull to bring Trump in his direction. And while campaigning and governance are different, on the trail, at least, Pence has been the one bending to Trump." --safari note: I love how the GOP leaders act like farts in the wind, showing up with vigor unexpectedly and then disappearing without a trace.
Meet Your Trump Supporters, Ctd. Caroline Linton of CBS News: "A North Carolina gun rights group is raffling off an AR-15, ammunition and a photo of Hillary Clinton that they say is 'very popular at the range.' Grass Roots North Carolina, a political lobbying group, is calling the raffle 'The Hillary Clinton Special.' On the webpage for the raffle, it says 'Of course, we won't tell you what to do with the photo, but when we ran a picture of Hillary on the front of our newsletter, we heard it was very popular at the range.'" --safari...
... Meet Your Trump Supporters, Ctd. Travis Gettys of RawStory: "A Pennsylvania mayor is being urged to step down for repeatedly posting racist content and remarks on his Facebook page. Charles Wasko, the mayor of West York, compared President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, to monkeys in multiple posts and joked about lynching the nation's first black president in another social media post, reported the York Dispatch.... A friend of Wasko's suggested lynching Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other Democratic politicians.... The mayor did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but he posted two new items on his Facebook page -- one slurring liberals and another promoting Donald Trump for president." --safari...
... Meet Your Trump Supporters, Ctd. A mere coincidence, I'm sure. Travis Gettys: "The former Donald Trump campaign chair who was forced to resign after blaming President Barack Obama for racism sat onstage behind Mike Pence during an Ohio rally...and met Trump's running mate after his speech, reported the Youngstown Vindicator. Miller, who apologized for her comments on black Americans but did not retract them, said she and her son got front-row seats because they arrived early." --safari...
... Meet Your Trump Supporters, Ctd. Brad Reed of RawStory: "Although Donald Trump has repeatedly disavowed the support of David Duke and other white nationalists, they've never stopped loving him or his campaign. In fact, the Los Angeles Times has an interview with several leading white nationalist figures in which they crow about the ways that Trump's campaign has given them and their ideas publicity that they never would have had otherwise.... In return, it seems that the American neo-Nazi movement is giving Trump an army of grassroots volunteers who will proudly goosestep across the country in their quest to make America great again...'Virtually every alt-right Nazi I know is volunteering for the Trump campaign,' Andrew Anglin, editor of the white nationalist Daily Stormer website, told the Los Angeles Times. Infamous former Klan leader David Duke was similarly giddy about what Trump's campaign had done for his movement, and he told the LA Times that 'the fact that Donald Trump's doing so well, it proves that I'm winning.'" --safari.
safari note: Is anyone else seeing a very sickening, sinister pattern emerging here?
... "Watching the debate, the artist Barry Blitt recognized a significant moment in the Presidential campaign. Of all Trump's dangerous beliefs, Blitt said, his misogyny 'might just be his Achilles' heel.'" --safari
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. In a Brief Moment of Clarity, Tuck Chodd Abandons Both-Sider Credo. Brent Griffiths of Politico: "Chuck Todd tussled with Donald Trump's campaign spokesman Thursday.... 'Why do you think multiple polls, scientific polls have said Hillary Clinton won that debate by a 2-1 margin?' Todd asked Trump's spokesman Jason Miller.... 'I have to set you straight on that one,' Miller ... [said].... 'The polls that happened the night of the debate..., the ones that happen online, those all showed Mr. Trump winning in a huge way.' 'Those are fan polls, man,' Todd said. 'Those are polls that computer programmers can mess with, those aren't real.... I just don't understand why we are creating a reality that does not exist,' Todd said.... Towards the end, Todd followed up on suggestions by Trump that the search engine Google is rigged against him. 'Do you have any evidence for that?' Todd asked. Miller pointed to an article by Breitbart written earlier this summer." -- CW ...
... Annals of Journalism, Ctd., Gotcha Edition. Louis Nelson of Politico: "In an interview Wednesday night on [Fox 'News's] 'The Kelly File,' [Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne] Conway complained that Hillary Clinton has campaigned too hard on Trump's history with women and not enough on her own vision for America. Paraphrasing the GOP candidate's feelings after opting not to bring up Bill Clinton's history of marital infidelities, Conway said Trump's stance was that 'it's not nice that you're running hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads against me, and he has a point.' [Megyn] Kelly scoffed ... that there is no expectation of niceness in presidential advertising, to which Conway replied 'but the ads should be true.' The Fox News anchor responded that Clinton's ads use Trump's own words. [Emphasis added.] Later, the two returned to the issue of Trump's checkered history of remarks about women." -- CW
For a few good laughs during these seriously rough political times, check out Seth Meyers' Presidential Debate: --safari
Quite a Few Tokes Over the Line. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: In an-hour long interview on Chris Matthews' MSNBC show, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson had a self-described "brain freeze" -- he could not name one single "favorite world leader," even as Matthews & Johnson's running mate William Weld tried to help him out. It really was stunning. Weigel provides a transcript of the entire exchange. CW: MAG already highlighted this incident early in today's comments, but it is remarkable enough to flag again. Maybe Johnson was going to pick Putin, but he realized that name was already taken. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Harper Neidig of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton on Thursday mocked Libertarian Gary Johnson's inability to name a foreign leader by pretending not to be able to come up one herself when asked. When speaking with reporters on her plane in Chicago, Clinton was asked for her favorite world leader. 'Oh, let me think,' Clinton said sarcastically with a laugh. 'I like a lot of the world leaders,' she added. 'One of my favorites is Angela Merkel, because I think she’s been an extraordinary, strong leader during difficult times in Europe, which has obvious implications for the rest of the world, most particularly our country.'" -- CW ...
... As Nolan McCaskill points out, Clinton was also trolling Trump: "Trump has frequently attacked Merkel on the trail, panning her for Germany's intake of refugees, and will likely use that line against Clinton in the final stages of the campaign. 'Hillary Clinton is running to be America’s Angela Merkel, and we've seen how much crime and how many problems that’s caused the German people,' Trump said in a speech he delivered last month in Charlotte, North Carolina." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Amy Davidson of the New Yorker on the New Jersey Transit crash at the Hoboken Terminal: "Federal and state inspectors will spend days, perhaps weeks, examining the wreckage before they are able to announce a cause of the crash. One culprit that seems likely, though, is the particularly nasty politics of New Jersey, and of Christie's decision to block the legislature's efforts to fund transportation projects.... Christie had insisted that he would not fund the state's Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for major capital improvements and has been used for upkeep and maintenance, unless Democrats in the state legislature agreed to lower sales and estate taxes. They refused, and the fund went bankrupt." -- CW
Litterchur, Texas-Style. Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "Welcome to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, home to 140,000 prisoners and a list of 15,000 banned books.... The state's prison system, which is the largest in the country, has been repeatedlycriticized for censoring books for what detractors say are arbitrary reasons. Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' is allowed, but an illustrated history of World War II isn't. A 700-page defense of racial segregation is fine, but not Langston Hughes’s poetry. Kinky paperback memoir? No problem. Suggestive Shakespearean sonnets? No way." -- CW
Way Beyond
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The UN’s chief humanitarian official said the people of Aleppo are facing a humanitarian catastrophe worse than anything witnessed so far in Syria’s brutal five-year war. Stephen O'Brien made the remarks to the UN security council on Thursday as Russia rejected calls to halt its bombing campaign on eastern Aleppo, saying it might consider a 48-hour humanitarian 'pause' instead...'Syria is bleeding. Its citizens are dying. We all hear their cry for help.' Meanwhile, US officials said they were still considering options for a 'plan B' policy in Syria, after the failure of the administration's 'plan A' -- the attempt to pursue a ceasefire with Moscow." --safari...
... Martin Chulov & Kareem Shaheen: "As the most intensive air bombardment of the war has rained down on opposition-held east Aleppo this week, an army of some 6,000 pro-government fighters has gathered on its outskirts for what they plan will be an imminent, decisive advance. Among those poised to attack are hundreds of Syrian troops who have eyed the city from distant fixed positions since it was seized by Syrian rebels in mid-2012. But in far greater numbers are an estimated 5,000 foreign fighters who will play a defining role in the battle – and take a lead stake in what emerges from the ruins." --safari
News Lede
Washington Post: "Federal investigators are assessing whether equipment failure, an incapacitated operator or other factors could have caused a packed commuter-rail train to barrel into Hoboken Terminal and slam into the station in a Thursday morning rush-hour crash that killed one person and injured more than 100 others. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said the operator of the train, who was hospitalized and later released, was cooperating with the investigation. He will be interviewed by National Transportation Safety Board officials in coming days." -- CW
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Reader Comments (28)
safari: Guy whips! you already have tomorrow on today. Am going to savor your good works for tomorrow cuz I ain't got time to read all this today, but thank you, thank you for such diligent work.
Is anyone else seeing a very sickening, sinister pattern emerging here?
Yeah, basically Germany circa 1933.
@PD Pepe: For you, tomorrow is my today! Different perspectives I suppose. Regardless of time zones, Trump must lose bigly. I've had a number of French students asking me about Trump (and Cruz!) questions, probing if I'm a fellow confederate.
I like to leave some suspense...and then pop the balloon. But seriously, it's like George W. all over again, and Trump hasn't even won (yet?). I've been getting peppered left and right to see if I'm a Trumpbot. People here are astonished/freaked out.
Cute video about the candidates....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfF6chin5s
This World at One episode of 29/9/16 on BBC4 has an informative view of the Syrian debacle. One remark was that it is incredible that one of the P5 is shredding international law. The bravery of people is stunning. What to do? Syria has been destroyed.
If Newt thinks dopey donny was a "gentleman" for not alluding to Bill's affairs, what does he think dd is now?
Just got back to the net and checked out RC to see what I missed.
Thanks to all.
Loved PD's rant from the other day that ended, "And fuck the lot that doesn't cotton to her (HRC's) smile," but was a bit chagrinned to find out that poor journalist I am, I didn't report the man in the SD restaurant's remark accurately. My wife says he said "stupid little grin," not "smile."
I could apologize, but seems a screwup more in line with blessed accidents like vulcanizing rubber or discovering penicillin. I might have gotten it wrong, but I wouldn't change a thing. Thanks, PD.
Besides, no matter the precise words, Master Misogyny is still pulling the Donald's strings, evident I'd think to more thousands of those white suburban (did they used to be soccer moms?) voters every day.
@Ken: Good thing you didn't report the true remark or I would have been on an even more vehement rant. Yesterday I had an encounter with a woman in Stop and Shop who bumped into my carriage. Whoops, she said and added, "My big fat behind got in the way." I said, "Oh, don't let Donald Trump hear you say that." She made a face and said, "Isn't he awful? And he calls himself a Christian!" All I could say was, "Well, you know how some Christians are." She looked puzzled, but gave me a wan smile.
"But many legal experts say that if the high court remains split down the middle on key issues, the more important action will be in the lower courts, where the red-state-led onslaught is playing out."
Maybe that's the real reason why the Republicans wouldn't confirm Merrick Garland.
My initial read of USA Today's position was, "Yeah, right! Great! Gutsy" that is until I got towar the end of their piece. If only they had just stopped and not over-explained why they couldn't endorse Hillary.
"Our bottom-line advice for voters is this: Stay true to your convictions," the board wrote. "Whatever you do, however, resist the siren song of a dangerous demagogue. By all means vote, just not for Donald Trump."
What a wimp-out. What? Vote? For whom? Johnson? Stein instead? This vote your conscience crap is exactly that. It's what happened in Maine when three candidates were running in the last Governor's race. Damn! Eliot Cutler wasn't going to win and when he pulled out near the end...he didn't throw his support to Mike Michaud, and instead in Maine we got the embarrassing Paul LePage for a second term...because Cutler wimped out with, "Vote your conscience."
Don't give a hell or a damn? We're in Alice in Wonderland territory.
Things are appear to be more upside-down on the political landscape when even "Carl Paladino" offers up a reasonable comment on Trump's threat to bring up more about (Bill) Clinton's past sexual escapades.
“This stuff isn’t critical to the campaign or even relevant to the people we need to be winning,” said Carl Paladino, the hard-charging former New York gubernatorial nominee who is the Trump campaign’s co-chairman in that state.
“I’m not sure anyone gives a hell about Monica,” Paladino added.
MAG: I agree. "What is Aleppo?" Johnson or handcuffed Jill Stein would be the alternatives if they weren't promoting Hillary? Good grief!
Newt and Rudy–––the best buds in the bedroom advice columns––the former skilled in the affairs of the heart while being married to someone else and telling the first wife he wanted a divorce while she was in hospital with cancer, then cheated on wife 2 with wife 3 in the closets of Congress; the latter bug-––sorry, bud, got an annulment from his first wife of 14 yrs. because he claimed he did not know she was his cousin.( The Church is big on annulments cuz they be against divorce) so while Rudy was schumping someone else (who he later married and then divorced so he could marry wife number 3) the wife who is the cousin kicked him out of the mayor's mansion. But, by golly, he got to take communion!
These fiendish fellows now are dragging Hillary back down that dark period of Monica-gate. Here is where safari's perfect metaphor is apt and for the aforementioned two, who have lingered longer, may they, too, disappear without a trace.
" I love how the GOP leaders act like farts in the wind, showing up with vigor unexpectedly and then disappearing without a trace."
@PD Pepe: Farts in the wind don't just disappear. They are methane, thus part of humanity's contribution to destroying the planet. And for that reason, too, safari's simile works.
Marie
PD,
Regarding Confederate intransigence, re: Merrick Garland, I suspect it's several things but number one would be just one more opportunity to shove a pointed stick into the eye of the hated black guy.
If they had a hunch that, by denying Obama his choice to fill the court vacancy, the shade of Antonin Scalia would hover balefully about the chambers and deliver delicious dark side defeats to their many enemies, even after his dee-mise (as a friend of mine used to say), they sadly misjudged the rapidity with which the Scalia Curse dissipated (fart in the wind-ishly?). Most of the court was freed almost immediately, except for Alito and Thomas, both of whom keep a Nino Shrine in their basement before which they worship, piling up newspaper clippings of the latest atrocities to white Christian kultur, imploring the Dark Lord to send some mighty winger mojo from the beyond to help smite their foes, 60% of the American public.
In any event, they're not going to get a better shake should Clinton win (at least I hope to Christ they won't). But just for fun, were I she, I would announce, right after accepting Donaldo's almost-but-not-really concession, that my first order of business, after issuing an executive order to confiscate all the guns and install abortion clinics next to every Starbucks in the country, would be to name Barack Obama as my Supreme Court nominee, and as a backup, in case he just wanted to chill for a few years, I would name Bill Ayers.
The bottom line with Confederates, and one reason we decided at some point to use that term to replace the highly inexact expression "conservatives" is that their entire ideology is shot through with bigotry and racism. It's like stink on shit.
Hey kids, if you need a Friday morning laugh and you haven't checked out Bonnie's video (linked above), do it now.
It's pretty funny. And there's also a quick little nod to Wrongway Jill and Dime Bag Gary.
A Poppins way to start the day, I'd say.
I'm very much hoping that, if (when) elected, President Clinton will withdraw Merrick Garland's nomination for the Court and, instead, put forth the name of Barack Obama.
He'd make a fantastic justice, and it would serve the Republicans right for their unconscionable intransigence on the Garland nomination. I would love to see Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan choke on that one.
Sorry. I meant to preface my remark with, "Akhilleus, I agree completely."
This morning I was told by a Confederate colleague that he was voting for Trump no matter what. This was in response to the news that Trump was caught giving money to the Castro regime in direct contravention to longstanding Republican policy and, ya know, US law, that little thing. I asked how he justified that choice given all the evidence that his guy is a corrupt weasel. His answer was that Trump was better than Hillary. But, I returned, the guy seems off his rocker, a dangerous demagogue. No matter, was the answer, "At least he's not a..." and he trailed off, then left the room. I am pretty certain that what he was about to say was "At least he's not a liar" but some glint of reality forced it's way through and he thought better of making a claim so easily disproved.
For many people, the bottom line is Clinton Hatred, a condition so widespread and virulent that there's really no cure. For the real knuckledraggers, yes, Trvmpvs is their man: a woman hating, racist, nasty, vicious, foul-mouthed braggart who flashes wads of cash, like a drunk conventioneer at a strip club, and waits for the rubes to climb on for a lap dance. And they do. They're whores too.
Then there are those for whom anything bad for Democrats and liberals is good for them. They don't care about the country or the Constitution or civility or morals or ethics or food on the table for their kids. If Democrats can be hurt, fuck everything else. The kids can fend for themselves. Time they grew up anyway.
A huge subset of that hyper-partisan amoral douchebag group (and that includes "leaders" like Lyin' Ryan and Turtle Man), are the Clinton Haters. These idiots, who have been mainlining that vast rightwing conspiracy joy juice since before Whitewater, would vote for Jeffrey Dahmer straight up against a Clinton. And if Chelsea ever decides to take the plunge (please, god, no) she'll get the same treatment. They'll be tossing brickbats at her from their wheelchairs.
I don't know if there's ever been this kind of hatred directed toward an American political family, ever. Plenty of people hated (and still hate) the Kennedys, but it was never like this. Wingers will whine about Bush hatred too but a couple of things about that. First, Bush, especially W, but also Jeb, brought it on himself. The Decider lied to start a war. Bill Clinton lied about a blowjob. The same? Sure. Maybe on some other planet not called Earth.
Also, even if you posit that some Bush hatred is over the top, it is not in any conceivable universe as virulent and irrational as what Confederates direct toward Hillary and Bill Clinton. There is no phalanx of leftwing billionaires ponying up piles of dough to "get" the Bushes. There isn't a major television network and dozens of left-wing newspapers lined up whose sole raison d'etre is to fuck the Bushes. There is nothing similar on the left and thus Bush Hatred (which I believe is fully deserved) is in no way similar to Clinton Hatred.
But, as I say, a serial killer would be held up as superior, by Confederates, to Hillary Clinton were they to face off. And I'm not even joking about that.
Irrational right-wing ideology has damaged this country in uncounted ways. It's been the lifeline of mostly white Christian males who have seen changes in the offing and can't stand to think of a world in which they are not the sole lords and masters. And if they can't run things, no one will.
Schlemazel,
Amen, brother. And may Turtle Man and the Lying One live the rest of their days with the chicken bones of their intransigence stuck in their treasonous throats.
"I nominate Barack Obama for Supreme Court Justice. Choke on that, suckahs. How you like them apples?"
So Mike Pence is getting debate prep help from.....Scott Walker?
Do these people never tire of the stupid?
Hey, Mike, let's go get that guy who thinks standing up to his former second grade teacher and her friends is the same as beating ISIS. He'll fer sure help you whip that Tim Kaine guy!
Okay. I'll guess we'll leave out the part about how "standing up to" for Scott Walker means hiding under his desk for hours then being quietly hustled out the back door of the building by a pile of security guards, just in case any of those retired teachers, I mean, ISIS fighters, try to ask him a question.
Brains AND courage.
Trump "university".
Trump "foundation".
Cuba
How many crimes are you allowed to commit before you get arrested?
As far as "finger in the eye goes", assuming Clinton wins the election, Democrats had better retake the senate as well or we may well see four more years of a 4-4 Supreme Court, or considering the age of justices on both sides, even worse. Does the court have a quorum?
Ambassadors, Supreme Court and Federal judges will continue to be held up even if Mitch is evicted from his office. Obstruction will be the order of the day.
I doubt I'm being overly pessimistic.
@Marvin re: number of crimes
For you and me 1
But for the maximum number ask a banker.
As more and more questions are raised about Trump's super shady past, and more borderline illegal scandals are being unearthed, we must consider confronting a very serious, potentially constitutional crisis: Trump has proven to be the most brazen and shameless candidate we've ever seen, and he even publicly admits that he flaunts the rules. What would happen if some damning bombshell was unearthened by some investigative journalists, possibly connecting Trump to treasonous activities while Head of State. Could the Congress move to depose Donald, even without any GOP participation? Would a scandal-laden Donald accept to step down, even if forced out?
It's amazing, seeing the many scandals already being revealed, that the GOP are willing to tether their entire political party onto a USS Drumpf, blindly betting house money that there aren't any such bones in his closet, and if so, that they've been disposed of properly, erasing all links.
Its too much to hope that the media will accidentally tip over the tic tac container and find their teeny tiny balls. However, the standard by which female "disgusting" is judged in Trump world strikes as an easy target. Because, Mrs.Trump has quite a seedy resume herself. It's been widely on display; handcuffed to a suitcase of $, in bed with another nude woman ( calling the Family Values voters), nude posing while using her hand as a fig leaf. But he's "proud" of those photos. I guess still photos are ok, tapes cross the line.
A poignant moment at the funeral of Shimon Peres. Pete Souza, the WH photographer, captured the moment when Obama who was sitting next to Peres' son, handed him his handkerchief because the son was sobbing, and touched his arm in a sympathetic gesture.
I saw this on MSNBC this afternoon.
PD,
That sounds like a very "Obama" vignette. The funny thing is that I can't imagine that most Confederates, on their own, within their own group, are the monsters they seem in public. At least I hope not. I'm fairly certain (but I really can't say for sure) that Paul Ryan, at the funeral of a family member, wouldn't display at the very least a certain modicum of humanity, but the big question is how such natural humanity becomes subsumed and distorted by ideological demands in a public setting. And here's a larger question. I'm equally certain that Trump (and Breitbart and Stone and the rest of the He-Men Donaldo relies upon) would characterize such a gesture of kindness as some sort of namby-pamby pussified Democrat thing. Besides, He-Men don't cry at funerals. They clean the guns and get ready to shoot someone because some sum'bitch needs to pay, goddammit.
It's this categorical rejection of humanitarian responses that is the most startling and troubling feature of modern Confederate ideology. The idea that the only ones deserving of kindness or concern or support are their own. Everyone else can go fuck themselves with barbed wire.
And Trump is the apotheosis of this world view. Does anyone believe for an instant that were there the possibility of a financial meltdown during a Trump administration, he would spend a millisecond thinking about what was best for the country until he and his family were all strapped into golden parachutes with bundles of cash duct taped to their backs as well?
It's Reagan's "Fuck you, Charlie, I've got mine" operating principle on massive doses of steroids.
Say what you want about Bill Clinton, but those images of him comforting Americans after death or disaster were absolutely real, as are those of Obama doing the same. These guys did--and do--feel their pain. Confederates, on the other hand, and Trump, cause their pain; they inflict it like it was their mission in life. Then tweet that those people deserved it because they were fat. Or not white, or not Christian, or not 'merican enough.
It's the humanity, stupid.
Here is some excellent material for undecided friends, acquaintances, anyone in earshot, from Lawyers, Guns and Money. Even though we know that we know these things, I think we sometimes forget how far down damage goes. Like a burn, the harm goes deep, takes so long to heal, and leaves disabling scar tissue. Comments are on point too.
Dianne, it seems that the "tapes" are not of Miss Machado anyway, and so what if they were?. Most of his accusations are lies and I hope she can sue, another in a long queue. It's egregious that dopey donny can get away with smearing this young woman, and for the same "sins" as his (supposedly current) wife. We haven't seen much of Melania or of them together, how suspicious is that - just saying'. Their body language (on which I am a yuuge expert) suggests a very cool relationship. So many accuse the Clintons of having a marriage of convenience, but their body language looks much warmer to me. If they're acting, they're good!
I bet that the Clinton campaign can't believe that of all the plethora of remarkable things they have to attack dd on, any of one which should disbar him from public office, that Miss Universe would bring him down like this. I love irony.