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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Late Night Open Thread: Citrus Samson in the GOP Phillistines’ Temple

Late Night Open Thread: Citrus Samson in the GOP Phillistines’ Temple

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It seemed like a good idea at the time: Let a celebrity “billionaire” waste his own money & credibility running against Hillary Clinton in what looked like an election that was the Democrats’ to lose. If only those oh-so-religious Repubs had paid a little more attention to the stories in that Old Testament they’re so fond of selectively quoting…

… With Ryan’s Wisconsin primary scheduled for next Tuesday, Trump praised the House speaker’s underdog opponent, Paul Nehlen, for running “a very good campaign.” Trump said that Ryan has sought his endorsement — an assertion that a Ryan spokesman denied later Tuesday — but that as of now he is only “giving it very serious consideration.”

“I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country,” Trump said. “We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet.”…

In making his comments Tuesday, Trump may have been seeking retribution for Ryan’s dragging his feet about endorsing Trump in May. Trump’s phrasing of his uncertainty about Ryan — “I’m just not quite there yet” — echoes what Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a May interview about endorsing Trump: “I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now.”…

Ya think?


Further developments: Trump prepares to throw Pence under the bus when the GOP loses Arizona —

And here in New England, where McCain & Graham’s handmaiden Kelly Ayotte (R-Gilead) is facing ‘possibly the closest Senate race in the country’ —


Nice try, but not really, Emily. Trump’s NH base will show up to vote for him, and leave the down-ticket spots blank. A few may even vote for Maggie Hassan, out of spite, cuz that is how they roll in the Granite State.

Where’s RNC PR BS been, lately?…

A millipede parade’s worth of shoes dropping — and it’s barely August!

As a different high-ranking Repub lady once said: Let. Us. Savor.

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    RaflW

    BTW, @Reince hasn’t tweeted since July 28th. I’m seriously worried for his wellbeing.

    Hahahahahahahahahaha

  2. 2.

    Eric NNY

    I’m enjoying this bit of awkwardness. What’s the possibility Trump pulls it together? Here in the sticks, he could piss on the flag and they’d still make excuses for him.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Trump’s campaign is looking more and more like a game of “How many ways can we fuck this up?” There will be generous helpings of sweet Schadenfreude for everyone.

  7. 7.

    MCA1

    Harwood was on O’Donnell’s show tonight reporting that inside the Trump camp they’ve all basically given up on the candidate. Manafort is now “mailing it in.”

    We’re ONE WEEK into the general election campaign. A week. Trump’s tied in one poll in f’ing Georgia, he’s going to be in for a fight in Arizona (will be awesome to see him campaign on the same trail as McCain), he just put three prominent R’s up for reelection in a bind by driving a bus over them today.

    My new theory today: Trump’s real purpose is to demonstrate exactly what it takes to get 27% in a Presidential election.

  10. 10.

    Soylent Green

    By saying “I’m not quite there yet” with regard to endorsing Ryan, Trump is mocking what Ryan said on May 7 about Trump, ““I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there yet.”

    The fucker never forgives a less-than-glowing review.

  17. 17.

    Keith P.

    By September, his only friends are going to be 3 of his 45 kids. (I think he croaks by heart attack by this time next year…well-done steaks, taco bowls, and buckets of KFC are not what a 70-year old should be eating). He’s seriously pissing off every demographic except for people who love the concept of “Trump”. And with pissing off the RNC, he really needs their money and infrastructure.
    The dude either has dementia or is trying to lose.

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    @Eric NNY: Eric.. a couple of things…

    1) he got a “skip” from the GOP Convention, not a bounce, as everyone did their best to put the best possible spin on that train wreck of a convention.
    2) the Dems totally outclassed them in their message and how it was presented. Dissent was allowed to play itself out but the majority kept control of the message
    3) post the convention its been a complete shit show for the GOP, as the Dem message hit home and the GOP response outed the extremism in such a fashion that the media couldn’t spin it with a brigade of magical balance fairies
    4) The early polling post convention are showing leaks in the GOP facade in places where there shouldn’t be… he’s behind in all of the swing states and even places like Utah, Arizona and Georgia suddenly look like they may be in play.
    5) the blood is in the water and if the MSM can’t sell a horse race, they sure as fuck can sell a scandal and Trump is tailor made for them, the sob won’t shut up and they’ll let the cameras roll and allow him to hang himself.
    6) The Dems have a superior ground game and they appear to have money banked, Trump hits all of the coalitions sweet spots, as he’s pissed off women, hispanics, blacks, asians and muslims. Trump is also pissing off GOP voters who worship the vets and the Bible-thumper leadership is being exposed as simply being craven for power and not very Christian at all to throw their support behind him.
    7) there are a significant number of folks out there that have firing synapses out there that are watching this unfold that are registering to vote, the GOP is hoping its all angry white guys, but I’m not so sure they’re the only ones registering to vote.

    Do we get complacent… no.. but this has all of the indications that not only is the Senate in reach, the house may be too… despite the gerrymandering of the local legislative bodies. I’m excited that we may actually be able to get some shit done again.

  20. 20.

    jl

    @Keith P.:

    ‘ He’s seriously pissing off every demographic except for people who love the concept of “Trump”. ‘

    Trump got through today OK. Them damn babies don’t vote.

    Edit: unless some lousy federal judge makes some voter fraud decision and lets them! It’s rigged!

  21. 21.

    Eric NNY

    @piratedan: Good points all. I like #5 especially but Fox is the choice by far out here in the boonies. When they turn, I’ll start to believe.

  22. 22.

    TriassicSands

    Gallup: this GOP convention is first *ever* where more say they are now less likely to vote for the party’s nominee.

    Then how do he get a 6-7 point bounce out of the convention? Isn’t it more likely that the decrease is being caused by more recent problems like the epic Trump-Khan cage match?

    We’re approaching the two-month anniversary…

    A two-month anniversary?

    Hmm. Pet peeve. There is no such animal. Is it so hard to say “two month celebration?” An anniversary is an annual event and can’t be less than a year. Is that really so difficult to grasp?

  23. 23.

    jl

    @piratedan: Good points. And if the GOP is seriously weakened, we don’t need a majority in the House to get a few things passed. Just get it close enough to the Speaker is afraid to be completely obstructionist, and can win over a few scared more moderate House GOPers. Won’t get much done, but will be able to get some things done.

  26. 26.

    p.a.

    Kansas results. Lots of incumbent state reps (TeaTards?) go down. Is Brownback up, or is he off-year? Any Kansas posters/lurkers? Ozark H the closest? Should we root for signs of Rethug sanity (for the citizens, dontcha know) or should we hope for the party to go flaming tire necklace. I say FTN. They deserve it.

  27. 27.

    Fair Economist

    @jl: Obstruction has worked so well for the Republicans in Congress over the past few years I can’t imagine Ryan being scared to do it. The only way a narrow majority would hurt the Republicans would be if a fracture between the Tea Party and the Establishment made it impossible to elect a Speaker.

  29. 29.

    danielx

    Keep repeating to self: do not focus on…that orange colored boil on the neck of the body politic, nor yet upon his works. Focus instead on the amazing image of a dozen or so elk walking along the skyline in single file, calves and all, at 11,800 way above the treeline. One of those moments of wondering “am i really seeing that”…..

  30. 30.

    TriassicSands

    @sigaba:

    Imagine if Trump owned a restaurant, he’d spend his whole day on Yelp haranguing reviewers.

    Not quite. He’d spend part of his time “haranguing” and the rest posting phony raves under assumed identities. For example, he’d suggest that Michelin called Trump and told him they wanted to give his restaurant 4 Michelin stars, because it was in a class all its own. The old 3 stars just wouldn’t do Chez Trump justice. But he told them “Thank you, but that will make other restaurants so envious that they’d start sabotaging him.”

    That kind of post would give Donald the chance to do all the things he does best. First, he would make something up that was completely untrue that made him look incredibly good. 4 stars. Then, he could throw in a touch of his paranoia — others would come after him for being so unbelievably good. That post would give him a starting point from which to expand.

    Other Trump “anonymous” reviews:
    Thomas Keller (owner/chef The French Laundry): “Quite frankly Chez Trump is the best restaurant on the planet. It’s not even close. And their steaks are to die for. After eating there I was so embarrassed by the hash we serve at The French Laundry that I’ve decided to close the doors and enter a monastery.”

    Ferran Adria (former head chef at el Bulli): “After eating at Chez Trump I lost the will to live. Therapy has helped me regain that will, but I had to close el Bulli because I knew that compared with what Chez Trump was offering, I was serving dog food. Four Michelin stars wouldn’t be enough — to be fair they’d have to give second place three stars and Chez Trump 10. Oh, and try the steaks, they’re out of this world. Rumor has it the cattle are raised on Mars where the thin atmosphere makes for ultral-lean meat. Increible!

    Note: observant readers noted with curiosity that el Bulli closed its doors as a restaurant in 2011, while Chez Trump did not open until 2014. Must be some kind of typo.

  31. 31.

    p.a.

    The conservative vision. Kansas. Louisiana. What’s propping up North Carolina, the university areas? Wisconsin, stumbling v Minnesota. Federalism thou art a bitch. The states: petri dishes of democracy theocracy.

  33. 33.

    Splitting Image

    @piratedan:

    5) the blood is in the water and if the MSM can’t sell a horse race, they sure as fuck can sell a scandal and Trump is tailor made for them, the sob won’t shut up and they’ll let the cameras roll and allow him to hang himself.

    This is the key. The bobbleheads’ natural instinct is to push a horse race, but if that proves impossible to get, they may settle for a train wreck. Imagine having the chance to document a gen-you-wine Realignment like the one which made David Broder a media fixture for thirty years. Or even better, being the journalist who exposes Trump’s Russian connections and rides the gravy train for forty years like Bob Woodward did after Watergate.

  34. 34.

    p.a.

    @amk: from reports, ‘mainline’ Repubs, which for Kansas will I guess be bad enough, but not The Tribe Who Rubs Shit in Their Hair types (h/t driftglass)

  36. 36.

    NR

    Ryan’s camp responded by saying he never asked for Trump’s endorsement. I think he’ll win his primary anyway. We’ll see.

  37. 37.

    NR

    @piratedan:

    The Dems have a superior ground game and they appear to have money banked, Trump hits all of the coalitions sweet spots, as he’s pissed off women, hispanics, blacks, asians and muslims.

    Per the CNN poll, the GOP is now losing white voters with college degrees for the first time in about 60 years.

  38. 38.

    TriassicSands

    @p.a.:

    Brownback was re-elected in 2010.

    “No person may be elected to more than two successive terms as governor…”

    He won in 2010 with 63.3% of the vote. You can’t blame Kansas’ problems on a minority of the voters. Honestly, I think 63.3% is damn good for someone who had already shone his fellow Kansans he was a complete disaster. They got to experience four years of Sam and then voted for Son of Sam the Sequelin which our hero feeds the state economy into a wood chipper borrowed from the set of Fargo.

    Kansas Republicans are so stupid I wouldn’t be surprised to see them change the law so Sam can run again. After all, two terms may not be enough to completely destroy the state, and Brownback deserves the opportunity to finish what he started.

    Note: I extend my sympathies to any Kansas Democrats out there. You don’t deserve what you’re getting.

  40. 40.

    TriassicSands

    @TriassicSands:

    Ooops. Brownback was elected in 2010 with 63.3%. He won re-election in 2014 by only about 4 points. It seems that some Kansans did learn a lesson from 4 years with Sam. I apologize for the error.

  41. 41.

    ? Martin

    There were some comments before about Obama calling out Trump maybe backfiring. To the contrary, I think he’s put the GOP in a really tight spot. Trump is subtly going after the Republicans that have been critical of him, but still have indicated support in order to prevent them from dropping their support. Obama is doing the same thing from the perspective of the opposition – by demanding that these same people drop their support for Trump, they’re now all trapped. If they drop their endorsement, it’ll look like they are meeting Obama’s demands.

    Obama isn’t worried about beating Trump. He wants to win House and Senate seats and the best way to do that is to push them into Trump and simply trust that Trump will keep fucking up dragging everyone down. He’s more worried that the GOP will cut Trump loose. So is Trump. They’re working together, sort of.

  43. 43.

    Matt McIrvin

    I keep thinking this can’t be real. They’ll find some way to swap in Mitt Romney while we’re not looking and he’ll get a three-month media tongue bath and carry 40 states.

  45. 45.

    TriassicSands

    @? Martin:

    We might be getting to the point where we can sit back and watch Trump completely self-destruct. By providing him with reasons to take to Twitter in a rage (for example, Mr. Khan), we can give him enough rope to hang himself a hundred times over. If it happens, it will be very satisfying to watch.

    Trump must be worrying that a defeat will dampen support for his next reality show — Inside the Oval Office with President Trump.

    There’s no way that being president will be enough to occupy Donald’s ADHD brain. And won’t it be fascinating to tune in each week and watch Trump invite Putin to annex former Soviet states one by one or cut diplomatic ties to France and Germany because they wouldn’t buy enough of his steaks? Why he may even “fire” Merkel.

  46. 46.

    ? Martin

    Interesting development.

    Knowing many of my pro-life friends feel torn between voting for an unpopular but highly qualified pro-choice candidate in Hillary Clinton and an incompetent narcissist who poses a unique threat to our American democracy in Donald Trump, I’d like to make a proposal:

    You should vote for Hillary Clinton.

    And I’d like to suggest that voting for a pro-choice candidate in this election, or any election, need not overburden your conscience.

    Here’s why:

    Glimmers of hope.

  47. 47.

    Groucho48

    @Eric NNY:

    He’s definitely got the 27%. Of the rest of the base 45% Republicans, that’s a big question. My thinking and my hope is he’ll lose at least a few % points from that. I also don’t seeing him picking up a lot of the Dem votes. So, I see his ceiling at around 43-44%. Barring some disaster, of course.

  48. 48.

    Aleta

    This is funny. From J O’Neill about attending the Trumps wedding at mar**larg*.

    The golf course looked like the set of an old Tarzan movie: man-made knolls and lakes; fairways bordered by countless newly planted palm trees; and, at one par three, an unapologetically fake cliff tricked up with artificial waterfalls. Unexpectedly, the course’s most memorable feature was an immense and forbidding concrete building that loomed just out of bounds. This was the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center, somebody told me. Evidently, the detainees fell into the habit of screaming at the passing golfers, many of whom had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of joining the golf club, and it wasn’t until Trump donated some flat-screen televisions to the jail that things quieted down in there. Certainly, I heard no screams when I walked by.

    Article at new yorker

  49. 49.

    TriassicSands

    @Aleta:

    Something just occurred to me. If Trump were to win…well, Nixon had his Western White House in San Clemente, so Trump will undoubtedly have his Southern White (Gold?) House in Florida. I would support his never taking up residence in the real White House, because his redecorating would be sickening. Imagine the amount of gold that would go into Trump making the WH agreeable for his consummately tacky preferences (I find i can’t use the word “taste” in any sentence that involves Trump.)

    The threat to good taste that you know who poses is almost unimaginable. Every time I’ve seen a photograph of a Trump residence or a Trump office or any building interior used by Trump, I’ve been nauseated by the trashiness. In truth, whenever I see the interior of almost any building owned by a conspicuously wealthy person, I’m amazed by the tackiness.

  51. 51.

    Poopyman

    I would never call Nooners a “High ranking Repub lady”. The “lady” part of that phrase is questionable, but I have a particular issue with the “High-ranking” part.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    @Poopyman:

    I would never call Nooners a “High ranking Repub lady”. The “lady” part of that phrase is questionable, but I have a particular issue with the “High-ranking” part.

    She’s got a lifetime gig at the Wall Street Journal and all the tv gigs she can fit in around drinking bouts speaking engagements. As St. Ronnie’s “most devoted” speechwriter, Noonan stands high in Repub society, even if she’s a joke to us normal people Democrats!

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Newt Gingrich vouching for Donald Trump kinda like John Wayne Gacy recommending the best clowns for kids’ birthday parties

    Ouch.

  54. 54.

    qwerty42

    @sigaba: We should all pitch in and send him a bottle of Baileys for his corn flakes.
    By now he may have gone full Travis Bickle and is using whisky. The large handgun is next I believe.

  57. 57.

    NorthLeft12

    Regarding the large amount of support that the odious orange one is receiving from the Religious Right, I think Dennis Green said it best;”They are who we thought they were!”

    These supposedly gentle, god fearing, Christians are exposing themselves to the world as hateful, greedy, and bigoted hypocrites. Exactly what they have been for so many decades before.
    Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I hope to see Christian membership drop as people realize that their worship of choice is filled with absolutely awful people who are not really Christians, and on the other side those awful people will quit out of frustration, because they are not getting what they want.

  59. 59.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Eric NNY:
    Trump will not change his strategy. If he could, it would have happened already. This isn’t a plan, he is what we’re seeing and GOP primary voters love it. How that effects the general I won’t predict, except that he will permanently damage GOP support from minorities.

    @piratedan:
    I agree with almost all of this, but modern American fundamentalism is based on hate, and its political activism was launched by anger that their children had to go to school with blacks. At most, Trump’s obvious stupidity may embarrass them.

  60. 60.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Romney couldn’t win in 2012 with Obama still struggling with a weak economy. Romney won’t win even if he’s now clearly a saner choice than Trump because the old Mittster is still selling the same snake oil – Republican BS – that Trump is. The message matters as much as the messenger.

  61. 61.

    NorthLeft12

    @TriassicSands: I met a couple of Bob Dole Repubs from Kansas in Europe a couple of years back. This seventy year old couple were old school Repubs who believed in competence and equal opportunity for all regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation. The husband railed about Brownback and was horrified that he was going to get re-elected [which he did by about 4%]. The wife took a fellow traveler [an Episcopalian pastor] to task for not supporting the acceptance of gay ministers into their religion. I told them that they say they are Republicans, but they don’t sound like any Republicans that I have ever heard of.
    I was told by another traveler that they were from Lawrence, and that sort of explained everything. You Yanks can be a strange lot at times.

  62. 62.

    Waldo

    I caught a few minutes of Fox’s Bret Baier last night (it was on at the gym when I got there, I swear!) and the panel of repubs was completely thrown by Trump’s nonendorsement of Ryan and McCain. It was fun watching them squirm as they tried to downplay the rift. Talk about awkward. No one, including Baier, wanted to address the dying elephant in the room. Delish!

  63. 63.

    Betsy

    Thank you so much, Anne Laurie. Can you have any idea how much I am enjoying reading this post? I think you can!

  64. 64.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Frankensteinbeck: Agree with both of your points. Well said. I laugh whenever I hear people talk about Trump pivoting during the general election season. What pivot do they expect? The man has been a boor his entire life.

  65. 65.

    Shalimar

    “Won’t support Paul Ryan”, my ass. If Trump had the guts and tell-it-like-it-is spirit he claims, he would support Ryan’s opponent. What’s the point of stabbing someone in the back if you keep the knife clean?

  67. 67.

    scav

    @Patricia Kayden: Pivot?! Donald Trump pivot? Donald don’t pivot. Donald with a D (Drump!), Donald of the golf courses? Divot People! Yuuuuuuuuuuuuge classy DIVOT!!!

  69. 69.

    Chris

    @Amir Khalid:

    Trump’s campaign is looking more and more like a game of “How many ways can we fuck this up?”

    If I didn’t know better, actually, I’d swear the Trump campaign was an experiment orchestrated by Republican political strategists to see just how far they could go. Or rather, just how much of the American population would stick by them even if they threw every bit of common sense to the winds and just ran a bonafide fascist.

  70. 70.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Trump will not change his strategy. If he could, it would have happened already.

    Yep. Trump’s base is WWE wrestling fans so the very second Trump tries to act like a statesmen he loses them.

  71. 71.

    Aleta

    The US President said that England has sought his help rebuilding Hadrian’s Wall, an assertion that a spokesman for the Queen denied later Tuesday —

  72. 72.

    Aleta

    The President said that China has sought a franchise agreement to open millions of his trademarked White House Burgerhouses — an assertion that a Chinese spokesman denied today —

  74. 74.

    different-church-lady

    @TriassicSands:

    Then how do he get a 6-7 point bounce out of the convention?

    My guess is it had more to do with the negative vibes of the DNC hack than Trump’s convention.

    Is it so hard to say “two month celebration?”

    Does any of this look like something you’d want to celebrate?

  77. 77.

    philpm

    @p.a.: The moderates gave the conservative ‘pubs a pretty good thrashing last night, kicking out 8 conservative state senators, and either 10 or 12 reps, including the state house speaker. I’m particularly satisfied that Tim Huelskamp got his ass kicked by 13 points. One domino in the fall of the Tea Partiers in Congress down.

  78. 78.

    Stan

    “When your enemy is making a mistake, don’t interrupt him” – Napoleon.

    Yeah, let’s just let Trump be Trump. This is getting awesome.

  80. 80.

    TriassicSands

    @different-church-lady:

    OK. Celebration for positive events and acknowledgement or recognition for neutral or negative events. You’re right, in some cases “celebration” would feel too positive, but an anniversary is still an annual event, so there still isn’t anything called a “two-month anniversary.”

    Words are fun.

  81. 81.

    3am

    I know there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that someone will see or reply to this, but how they heck to people rate Hillary’s speech more negatively that Gore or Kerry’s? Would love to be a fly on the wall of those crosstabs.

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