So our boy Johnny finally came around to disavowing his endorsement of Donald Trump, only when he calculated that it might now be safe to do so. Courage! Sen. John McCain withdraws support from Donald Trump:
Sen. John McCain on Saturday formally withdrew his support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose presidential campaign was wilting in an unprecedented crisis related to his past use of vulgar terms about women and other misogynistic comments.
“I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated. He was not my choice, but as a past nominee, I thought it important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set,” McCain said in a lengthy written statement. “I thought I owed his supporters that deference.
“But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy. (McCain’s wife) Cindy, with her strong background in human rights and respect for women fully agrees with me in this.”
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McCain said he and his wife will not vote for the celebrity billionaire Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, but instead will “write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be president.”
As President Obama said to Willard “Mittens” Romney during a presidential debate in 2012, “please proceed.” You see, unless one is a qualified write-in candidate for the ballot, writing the name of someone on your ballot simply does not count. You are throwing away your vote. So if Tea-Publicans want to throw away their vote for president, “please proceed.” Great advice, Johnny.
Better yet, all of you Christian Right/Tea Party voters who voted for Donald Trump in the GOP primary knowing full well the man he is, ‘Still the best candidate’: Some evangelicals still back Trump despite lewd video, Despite latest controversy, some Christian conservative leaders say they’re still with Trump, should do penance and pray for God’s forgiveness on Election Day by staying home and fasting, throw ashes on your head and gird yourselves in sackcloth, and lament your pact with the devil.
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., McCain’s opponent in Arizona’s Senate race, said McCain’s gesture comes too late.
“John McCain showed today he only cares about one thing: his political career. His decision is nothing more than a political calculation,” Kirkpatrick said Saturday in a written statement. “It’s been more than 24 hours since Trump’s comments were released. If it takes a full day for McCain to decide something is inappropriate, then he clearly doesn’t have the leadership Arizonans need. He has abandoned his principles and changed his positions whenever he thought it would help prolong his 33-year career in Washington.”
McCain “missed the chance to show political courage and lead,” she added.
Damn straight!
And then there is our “woman warrior” who runs TV ads to tell us how “tough” and “strong” she is, but she will not debate her Democratic opponent or renounce Donald Trump because she needs his deplorable base of voters to support her.
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., expressed her dismay at the comments, but remained inscrutable on whether she plans to support her party’s nominee.
“Trump’s comments are disgusting. Joking about sexual assault is unacceptable. I’m appalled,” she wrote on Twitter.
McSally’s comment came hours after a meeting at The Republic in which she refused to say whether she recommended voters in her southern district support the Republican nominee.
“I don’t plan on endorsing anybody and I haven’t in the past,” she said. “Who we vote for is our own private decision. It’s not my focus or my responsibility. … I think the voters are smart enough to figure out who they want to vote for for the president.”
Matt Heinz, McSally’s Democratic opponent, said McSally should be ashamed of herself.
“This is truly a disgrace,” Heinz said in a written statement. “While members of her own party are abandoning Trump, Martha McSally still refuses to tell the people of the 2nd District who she’s voting for. It’s now clear to everyone, including many long-time Trump supporters, that he is completely unfit to be president.”
And finally there is Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu aka studboi1 who has his own checkered history of sexual indiscretions.
Congressional hopeful Paul Babeu briefly joined the Republicans who disavowed Trump in a tweet that disappeared an hour later.
“Donald Trump’s comments are reprehensible. They have no place in our public discourse. I will be writing in (Trump running mate) Mike Pence for President,” the Pinal County sheriff wrote in a tweet Saturday afternoon.
The tweet generated a torrent of criticism from readers condemning him for backing away from the GOP nominee.
One person, identified as Ed Gary, a country and western singer, said, “I will write you off as well.”
About an hour later Babeu’s tweet was deleted. Saturday evening Babeu issued a statement via Facebook saying the tweet had been sent without his approval. In the statement, Babeu called Trump’s comments “not acceptable” but said nothing about his endorsement or whether he would vote for him. It was time to “get back to the issues,” Babeu’s post stated.
McSally and Babeu’s difficulty in explaining their views on Trump reflects a greater dilemma for Republicans nationally as they try to avert down-ticket losses as a price for loyalty to a compromised candidate.
Babeu earlier in the week was among the dignitaries who spoke in support of Trump at a rally in Prescott Valley.
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Babeu’s opponent, Democat and former state lawmaker Tom O’Halleran, said the sheriff’s disavowals would not work and tried to bring it back to Babeu’s past at a troubled Massachusetts school.
“Paul Babeu’s transparent attempt to distance himself from Donald Trump’s imploding campaign comes far too late and is just another example of Babeu’s lack of leadership and judgment, including his unwillingness to stand up for the most vulnerable in our society,” O’Halleran’s statement said. “It was just three days ago that Paul Babeu stood on a stage and declared his unequivocal support for Trump. It should come as no surprise that a man who laughed about and praised child abuse and then denied responsibility is among the last to recognize Donald Trump’s actions as inexcusable. But it fits with his long record of allowing others to be victimized while advancing his own political career.”
McCain statement on Friday that Trump “alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences,” is bullshit. Every Tea-Publican who endorsed Donald Trump, who supported him, and who voted for him in the GOP primary bears responsibility for Trump and should pay the consequences for their actions on Election Day. Kick all Tea-Publicans out of office!
The Republican civil war in Arizona is heating up. Here’s a statement from the state party chair, a possible Reince Priebus successor.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/arizona-republicans-priebus-trump-229567
Arizona has two neighboring states with Republican governors. Both Governor Gary Herbert from Utah and Governor Susana Martinez from New Mexico have jumped off the Trump train. When will Governor Doug Ducey come out of the closet? Both Arizona senators Jeff Flake and John McCain have escaped the Trump tornado. When will Doug Ducey go? Is he waiting for the ok from the Koch brothers?
Governor Ducey will renounce Trump when the Koch brothers give him permission.
Gosh! I haven’t heard the Koch Brothers mentioned so far in this election. That surprises me because they – and their “dark money” – are usually front and center when it comes to elections. I guess that just shows how many distractors there have been in this election…
I just saw an Ann Kirkpatrick ad linking John McCain to Donald Trump. The ad states that McCain has endorsed Trump over 60 times.
Now I think it’s time to pivot. The new ad could say something like this: John McCain now says that Donald Trump is unacceptable to be our president. Really, why did he think that he was acceptable when he said this… or did this.
This will cut to John McCain’s insincerity and also tell the Trumpsters that McCain has jumped off the train. I doubt that he will gain any votes by unendorsing but he may lose lots of votes from the true believers.
McCain is now in a very tough position. He tells us that he thinks Trump is an unacceptable President, but he also tells us that he will not vote for Supreme Court justice Merrick Garland because he wants Trump to pick. Or does he really want Hillary to pick? That will really make him popular in the alt right world.
We agree that Trump is an idiot, a scumbag, a peice of privilege white trash, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, but curiosity drives me to ask: Back when Bill Clinton was an embarrassment to (or, more correctly, should have been embarrassing to, but wasn’t) the democrats, what were your thoughts about him? I was in the Sudan, pretty much out of touch, and missed most of the hooplah during his fiascos. What did you have to say as stories of his sexual proclivities emerged, his less than honorable treatment of women, his alledged forcefulness in dealing with women sometimes, etc., were emerging almost weekly. Did you condemn him? Did you defend him? Just curious…
Yes, Donald mentioned that tonight. Media gasbags will likely be discussing it for a few days. This was a no brainer, of course, that Donald would bring this up in response to the questions he was asked about his “locker room banter.”
Please don’t get the wrong impression…I can’t stand Trump. I just find myself defending sometimes because Hillary gets such a pass here. I just want to remind people that we have very little to vote for this year.
Since you were out of town at the time, let me give you the ten second history lesson from the Ken Starr days, Steve, and maybe this will help poor hapless John Kavanagh, too.
The GOP, led by Newt Gingrich, was hell bent on taking down Clinton, and knew he had some female skeletons in his closet.
So Ken Starr spent 40 million dollars on an investigation that turned up an affair. 40 million taxpayer dollars from the party of Fiscal Responsibility.
People were pissed at Clinton, and the GOP.
Clinton was humiliated, no doubt, but wait! In a shocking twist, it turned out Newt Gingrich, and lots of other folks in the GOP, were also having affairs, at the same time they were pointing fingers at Bill!
By the end of it all, the country was more disgusted with the GOP because of their brazen hypocrisy and Clinton’s approval ratings reached record highs.
So when you and Donald the Molester use Bill Clinton to shame Hillary, and then wonder why it’s not working, it’s because the Bill Clinton Sex Scandal was actually a Clinton/GOP sex scandal.
Get it? While you and Kavanagh whine about Liberals giving Clinton a pass, you’re overlooking the fact that you two are giving Gingrich, child molester Dennis Hastert, Robert Livingston, Bob Barr, Dan Burton, Helen P. Chenoweth-Hage, and bunch of others, a pass.
Conservatives…. such short memories.
Thank you, Not Tom, for a concise and clear explanation of what happened from the Democrat perspective. It was very informative!
Dude, I wasn’t a Dem at the time and I’m not entirely sure I am now. I’m a recovering libertarian.
People got sick of hearing about Clinton’s sex scandal the same way they got tired of hearing about Watergate, if you go back that far, and it doesn’t stick to Clinton now because EVERYONE was sticky back then.
Someday maybe you and Kavanagh can explain to the class why you give Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich a pass.
I just made an assumption you were a democrat. Sorry for the over reach.
I don’t blame Giuliani and Gingrish because I don’y know enough to blame them for anything. When I was wearing a uniform I didn’t pay much attention to politics. I was too busy doing my job, training others to do the job, helping the doctine and methodology for doing the job, helping develop the training regimen for Special Operation people and spending way too much time in the Middle East and North Africa. I just didn’t have the time.
It wasn’t until I retired and started a business that I became aware of politics and the impact government had on business development that I started taking an interest. Even when I agreed with the purpose of regulations and ordinances, I found dealing with lazy, self important and arrogant government employees was more difficult than developing a customer base. Not all of them were that way, nor even the majority, but enough were to make government a real obstacle to the success of my business. So much so I had to eventually hire two full time attorneys to deal with the bureaucracy. Anyway, that was when I got interested in politics. Anything prior to that I have to go back and research. Thus, I have no opinion about Giuliani and Gingrich.
The People of Arizona have been bamboozled since they sent McCain to the one State they knew would vote for a POW regardless of his capability or actual philosophy, if any. Think of what McCain has survived, in his career, Charles Keating, Kemper Marley, saving and loan melt down, flip flopping to an endless degree, Sarah Palin, a doomed Presidential bid, his endlessly blown up temper, his constant warmongering, and now Trump. Arizona, you all have always been just a prop for McCain’s ego, and have always rewarded him blindly. Now is the time to retire him.
This election has gone so far beyond what I could have imagined as the worst case scenario that I am without words to describe how much I loathe it. I actually try not to pay attention anymore except to check in with Nate Silver once a day.
Yet, I could not help but notice that a Cat-4 hurricane has created another humanitarian crisis in Haiti and has also caused major damage to the US southeastern coast in five states. And surely there must be other significant events happening at this time?
But who would know? BBC and the Weather Channel have covered the hurricane, but the big story this weekend is Donald Trump and his lewd, disrespectful comments about (white) women. Did I get that right? Is there anything else to it?
So Donald Trump, self-annointed leader of the Birther Movement, decided to run for president mainly because of his seething hatred for President Obama. He could destroy the Obama legacy and also buy an extension for white supremacy which faces inevitable doom unless HE can save it (as in make America WHITE again). In the course of his campaign he has disrespected and/or verbally assaulted almost everyone except perhaps other white supremacists who are his core supporters.
I am struggling to understand what has changed. Everyone is shocked, absolutely shocked that billionaire scumbag Donald Trump talks like a scumbag. I just don’t see where there was much about Donald Trump that has been hidden from view, and I have to wonder who is fooled by all of this faux outrage. The fact that someone like Donald Trump succeeded in winning the GOP nomination for president says much about this country that is just plain and simply not good. It says more about this country than it says about him.
Next month the Trump voters will provide a head count of white supremacists, for what that is worth.
In the interim, I guess we are all supposed to be sitting on the edge of our seats in wide eyed wonder watching the so called debate and waiting for someone to ask Trump about his “locker room banter.”
Who cares? Seriously. Same sh!!, different day.
So I watched the “debate” for the first hour and I do intend to watch the rest of it tomorrow. I’ve never seen anything like this.
Sad.
So true. I had higher hopes for this one because I thought their handlers would have instructed them better, but not, it turned into another mud fight. As you said, Liza, so sad.
I finished watching the debate and even listened to some of the gasbags (“analysts”) afterwards. Well, aside from the obvious issues, one thing that was on full display that no one is talking about is Trump’s hatred for President Obama. That is really what motivated his bid for the presidency. And I think it’s unfortunate that no one mentioned his recent comments about the Central Park Five. His role in that travesty really underscores who he is.
But all I can really say at this point is that I do not want either of these candidates to be the president. A lot of folks seem to feel that way, but with one candidate being so much worse than the other we have to hope that Hillary wins. And, of course, she will.
Ok, this is weird. Martha McSally has captured Ron Barber’s former press secretary and had that person rewrite Ron’s statement in 2012 about the presidential vote. It’s uncanny how similar the two statements are.
Ha! Babeu will write in Pence of all people!
That’s everything you need to know about the GOTeaP in 2016 right there.
Aggressive idiocy, on an epic scale.