This
is the point of no return for Donald Trump
Richard Wolffe
Disgusting
comments about groping women, and a non-apology, have sealed his
fate. The only question now is what the GOP can rescue of its own
reputation
@Richard Wolffer
Saturday 8 October
2016 14.43 BST Last modified on Saturday 8 October 2016 21.58 BST
It’s going to get
worse for Donald Trump and his Republican party. Much worse.
Normal candidates
might have realized they were bumping along the bottom of their
election – if not, their life – when video emerged of them
bragging, as a newlywed, about forcing themselves on women, genitals
and all.
But not the man who
promises to make America great again. No, Donald Trump’s so-called
apology video was even more incompetent and incoherent than the rest
of his campaign to date. And that’s quite an achievement for a man
who has attacked a grieving, Gold Star family.
Trump pretended he
was a different man. A changed man. A man humbled by meeting real
people on the campaign trail.
“Anyone who knows
me, knows these words don’t reflect who I am,” he said, before
dismissing the whole thing as a distraction. But then he dropped the
humility and apology shtick for not-so-subtle hint of how he intends
to play this.
“I’ve said some
foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and
actions of other people,” he said. “Bill Clinton has actually
abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and
intimidated his victims.”
If you think talk of
sex is a distraction, you probably shouldn’t make it clear you’re
going to continue the conversation at the next TV debate.
And you probably
shouldn’t attack a wife for her husband’s affairs if you want to
win back a couple of women voters. Even if that wife is your
opponent.
Then again, this is
a Republican nominee who urged the world via Twitter to check out the
non-existent sex tape of a former Miss Universe who criticized him
for demeaning her. This is a presidential candidate who has made an
appearance in part of a soft porn video. This is a supposed leader
who takes political advice from Roger Ailes, who was forced out of
Fox News after numerous allegations of sexual harassment.
This is Donald
Trump: a man no longer fit for polite company. His name will be torn
off walls just as Ailes’ was. Republican candidates up and down the
land will be chased to election day with their previous endorsements
and quotes praising the groper-in-chief.
Condemning Trump’s
words will not be enough to save them. It was just a few days ago
that the US senator in New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte, said “absolutely”
when asked if she would tell kids to look up to Trump. She has since
said she “misspoke”. But no amount of regret and criticism will
erase that foolish misjudgment.
Ayotte’s
misjudgment is really shared by an entire party establishment that is
now stampeding for the doors. Republican leaders thought they could
cutely tiptoe between their Trump-loving base and Trump-disgusted
moderates. Just as they have tried to appease the Tea Party,
Obama-hating fringe for the last eight years. Now they find
themselves consumed by their own compromises.
You know it when you
see it. That moment when an election turns decisively. Not a blip,
not a gaffe, not a bad few days. But instead the point of no return
for candidates and undecided voters alike.
In 2008 you could
sense it in the 24-hour period around the first debate: when John
McCain suspended his campaign, then revived it, ahead of his big
moment on stage with Barack Obama. Erratic was the rap against
McCain, and erratic was how he behaved.
Four years later, it
came with the 47% video of Mitt Romney talking at a private
fundraiser. Out-of-touch elitist was the caricature, and that’s how
Romney sounded behind closed doors.
Now we have the
grotesque video of Donald Trump bragging: “Grab them by the pussy.
You can do anything.” With it, Trump showed he is indeed the sum of
all the sexist snippets we’ve heard so far.
The basket of
deplorables just found their Mr Universe.
There is no point in
pretending that Trump can claw his way back from here. He has now
confirmed that he disdains women, and many women voters will surely
return the favor.
Until now, Trump’s
defenders liked to justify his remarks about Rosie O’Donnell and
Megyn Kelly by saying that the GOP nominee was just an entertainer.
That’s not possible any more. Trump’s disgusting comments were
made in private, not as a public performance. And that’s precisely
why they are indelible.
Trump was hardly in
good shape with women voters before he slobbered over the prospect of
assaulting them. They have represented the majority for almost 40
years of presidential elections, and this cycle will be no exception.
Given his disastrous
position with minorities, Trump’s sole hope was to win among white
voters. But he was already losing to Clinton among white women: a
voting group that Romney won. There simply aren’t enough white
voters for Trump to win without sweeping the votes of white women.
“I pledge to be a
better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down,” Trump said
in his half-baked apology video.
Of all the
unbelievable words that have come out of his pouting lips, these may
be the least credible. Donald Trump will let his party down on
Sunday, live on national television. The only remaining question in
this election is whether his party can rescue anything of its own
reputation even as he flushes his own down the sewer.
On the campaign
trail John McCain liked to quote the bleak joke from Charles Schulz,
the cartoon creator of the perennial loser Charlie Brown: “It
always looks darkest just before it gets totally black.”
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