Another handpicked candidate by Trump is about to flame out, and deservedly so. Don’t worry, I blast Harris too.
Republican Party Kamikazes
Here we go again. The Wall Street Journal comments on Republican Party Kamikazes
If you want to understand why Republicans keep losing elections they should win, events this week in North Carolina and Washington, D.C., are illustrative. The party keeps nominating candidates whose record makes them unelectable in competitive races, and too many candidates who happen to win in safe GOP seats have no interest in governing.
The meltdown of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for Governor of North Carolina, is embarrassing to behold. His campaign was already in rough shape before CNN reported that he had once called himself a “black NAZI!” and defended slavery on a pornographic forum. The network said he posted the sexually explicit and graphic messages from 2008 to 2012 on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic site with a message board. CNN said he posted that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, including “tranny on girl porn.”
Mr. Robinson published a video on Thursday denying that the words reported by CNN were his, and the state GOP is sticking with him. “Mark Robinson has categorically denied the allegations made by CNN but that won’t stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks,” the party said. If those aren’t Mr. Robinson’s words, he is the victim of a libelous smear, but CNN’s trail of internet evidence looks compelling.
One reason the story has resonated politically is that Mr. Robinson is already famous for his incendiary public declarations. He has said homosexuality and transgenderism are “filth.” He has campaigned against the separation of church and state and made polarizing statements on race and education. He is losing badly to Democrat Josh Stein, the state’s Attorney General, for the open Governor’s seat.
Yet GOP voters nominated Mr. Robinson anyway. It’s another example of Republicans falling for someone who claims to be a “fighter” but whose language and extreme positions make him toxic in a general election. Republicans did the same in nominating Doug Mastriano for Pennsylvania Governor in 2022. Donald Trump endorsed both men.
That cost the Harrisburg statehouse for another four years, and Mr. Robinson could depress turnout for the GOP in the Tar Heel State this year. That could hurt Donald Trump in a swing state he needs to defeat Kamala Harris and regain the White House.
The Republican kamikaze wing was also on display in the U.S. House this week. Fourteen Republicans joined Democrats to defeat Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempt to keep the government funded after the current budget expires at the end of this month.
Mr. Johnson had attached a voting-integrity provision to his six-month funding bill at the demand of the Freedom Caucus. But the SAVE Act had no chance of passing the Senate, and the GOP’s do-nothing wing refused to go along with Mr. Johnson in any case.
Mr. Johnson now must come up with a funding bill that can attract Democrats in the House if he wants to avoid a government shutdown. That means accommodating some of their terms, which means no policy reforms and a funding extension that runs right up to the Christmas holiday. That’s what Senate Democrats and the big spenders in both parties want so they can jam another omnibus spending blowout into law and skip town.
Compelling Evidence
Here is the Compelling Evidence the WSJ cited.
If your only rebuttal is “That’s CNN”, then you have no rebuttal.
How Trump Cost Republicans the Senate
Trump cost Republicans Senate seats in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona.
Trump also cost Pennsylvania the Governorship in 2022.
That’s not just my opinion, its also the opinion of the National Review in its take How Trump Cost Republicans the Senate
This is the first in a series of articles looking at Donald Trump’s impact on the Republican candidates chosen to run in the 2022 midterms.
When you look at the big Senate races, it is clear that Donald Trump blew his party’s chances at claiming the majority.
What follows is an examination of exactly how badly Trump harmed Republicans, beginning in this first installment with the big three Senate races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. All three were eminently … [Paywalled]
The National Review is a conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs.
The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr.
Judge of Character
Trump is one of the worst judges of character in history. If you disagree then please explain Trump’s cabinet.
Trump Administration Departures, Resignations and Firings
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (2nd L top row) who U.S. President Donald Trump said will leave his job at the end of 2018 and former Trump administration appointees are seen in this combination photo, (top row L-R) Rex Tillerson, Kelly, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, H.R. McMaster, Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, and Nikki Haley, (middle row L-R) Anthony Scaramucci, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks, Rob Porter, and Omarosa Manigault, (bottom row L-R) David Shulkin, Rick Dearborn, Joe Hagin, Tom Bossert, Sebastian Gorka, Dina Powell, Marc Short, and Don McGahn, from Reuters files.
That Reuters List is from 2018. Many other followed.
Resigned Under Pressure
The Brookings Institute counts 24 who resigned under pressure and another 22 who simply resigned.
Trump constantly surrounded himself with people whose advice he refused to take.
Ultimately, Trump openly feuded with his own Vice President.
Top Staffers Quit Mark Robinson’s Campaign Following Claims of Racist, Antigay Posts
The Wall Street Journal reports Top Staffers Quit Mark Robinson’s Campaign Following Claims of Racist, Antigay Posts
Four senior staffers stepped down from North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s embattled gubernatorial campaign following accusations that the candidate posted racist and antigay views on the internet more than a decade ago.
Senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Whillier and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk quit the campaign Sunday, Robinson said in a statement.
Last week, the Republican candidate committed to stay in the governor’s race against state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, denying he had made inflammatory comments on a pornography-website message board more than a decade ago.
“Let me reassure you, the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said in a video posted on X shortly before CNN published a story accusing him of using antisemitic and racist slurs.
Trump Sticks With Robinson
NBC reports Trump has no plan to pull his endorsement of Mark Robinson after alleged porn site scandal.
Donald Trump is facing calls both from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
In a statement, the Trump campaign did not directly address the underlying reporting about Robinson, whom the former president endorsed in March and has called “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
There are pockets of advisers within the Trump campaign who have quietly been urging him to withdraw his endorsement of Robinson, but so far those requests have fallen on deaf ears, according to a campaign official who, like others in this piece, was granted anonymity to speak about the matter freely.
Additionally, Republican members of the North Carolina congressional delegation, including Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who is from North Carolina, planned to privately urge Trump to pull his endorsement of Robinson, according to a person familiar with the conversations.
But if Trump does end up pulling his support, it would be a break from what he has done in the past. He rarely backtracks on endorsements publicly because he has long believed doing so would make him look weak — which is a part of the reason he is unlikely to formally withdraw his endorsement of Robinson.
Recent polling has had Trump in a statistical dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, at roughly 48%. That outperforms Robinson, who has been polling in the low 40s against Democrat Josh Stein, who has consistently had a lead in the race.
Even before Robinson’s alleged message board comments were unearthed, he was seen as an underdog in his own race and a potential drag on Trump because of past controversial comments. He has called same sex marriage “wickedness,” said women who get abortions are not “responsible enough to keep your skirt down” and mocked the victims of school shootings.
Robinson is not the only controversial candidate Trump has stood by.
In 2017, Trump backed the failed Alabama Senate bid of Roy Moore, who had been accused of sexual misconduct with young girls.
During the 2022 midterms, Trump endorsed North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s failed re-election bid after the freshman lawmaker had been embroiled in several scandals — including bringing a loaded handgun to an airport, being eyed by ethics watchdogs over suspicions about possible insider trading related to a meme cryptocurrency.
Trump also stood by Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker in 2022, even after a report that the staunchly anti-abortion candidate had paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009.
No Time to Waste
Trump is still continuing his disastrous debate.
He attacks Harris but can’t bring himself to focus on anything of consequence.
Karl Rove says Trump Acts as if He Has Time to Waste
Every presidential campaign wrestles with how to use its three biggest resources—money, issues and time. The last is the most precious. Campaigns can always raise more money or generate more issues. But they can never create more time.
This is why Kamala Harris’s campaign wisely isn’t responding to many of Donald Trump’s attacks. The Republican, unfortunately, has been wasting precious time going after her on inconsequential matters. The Biden-Harris record on inflation, the border and world events remains relatively unmentioned. He’s letting her skate.
Mr. Trump also spent days complaining Ms. Harris hadn’t gone through any primaries, making her selection undemocratic. He called it “the first ever ‘Coup’ in America” and whined it was “not fair.” Team Harris ignored him.
Mr. Trump also complained on and on that Ms. Harris not only hadn’t laid out her agenda; she didn’t even have a policy page on her website. When she put one up Sept. 8, the Trump campaign called it “a late-night, half-ass wish list to her website to solve the problems SHE helped create over the past four years.” Again, swing voters don’t appear to be upset about this issue. Many were busy getting their kids back to school.
Mr. Trump chewed up more valuable time whining that Ms. Harris had changed her positions on fracking, the Green New Deal, the abolition of private health insurance and other progressive nostrums. “Everything that she believed three years ago,” Mr. Trump grumbled in their debate, “is out the window.”
Ms. Harris has been content to let Mr. Trump fritter away the past eight weeks on these ridiculous attacks. Every day he focused on them—and on calling her a “Marxist, communist fascist” without concrete evidence—he neglected topics where he could inflict damage.
With less than seven weeks until Election Day—and voters in some states already receiving mail-in ballots—Mr. Trump better stop wasting time.
Will Mr. Trump manage to hit the bull’s-eye? Drilling down on real issues in a sustained way may not appeal to the former star and co-producer of “The Apprentice.” But if he doesn’t, and instead continues failing to spell out his second term agenda, swing voters may swing away from him.
Is Trump’s Message Wrong?
The problem in many cases isn’t that Trump’s message is wrong.
The problem is Trump keeps focusing on the wrong message, and even worse, in the wrong way.
Belittling people and preposterous name calling is not presidential. Nor will it will over a single independent voter.
It’s the wrong message because anyone still undecided will not be swayed by childish antics.
But name calling will win meaningless cheers from clueless supporters. And Trump can’t resist going after cheers.
I discussed this long ago.
March 1: Trump Would Rather Win Adoration From the Base Than Win the Election
Recently, Trumped picked J.D. Vance not because Vance was the person who could most help the ticket. Rather, Trump picked Vance because no one sucked up more.
Trump repeatedly picks people who suck up to him the most, then gets rid of them and calls them names if they ever disagree.
Please recall Trump appointed Chairman Powell. Then Trump publicly bashed Powell and now vows to dump him.
August 8: Trump Fires Arrows Missing the Target Badly, Will a Recession Save Him?
Trump’s strategy has gone from boring to shockingly bizarre and counterproductive. Does Trump think his opponent is Brian Kemp or Kamala Harris?
Let’s Now Blast Harris
August 6, 2024: How Progressive is Tim Walz, Kama Harris’ VP Running Mate?
A friend told me that Walz was not as much a Liberal Progressive as I thought. Let’s investigate.
August 16: Kamala Harris and Her Free Money, More Inflation Now Proposals (MIN)
Does anyone still have their Whip Inflation Now (WIN) buttons? If so, toss them in favor of MIN buttons, soon to be the new collectable.
August 24: Vote for Harris if You Want Radical Racial Indoctrination of Your Kids
What starts in California and Minnesota is guaranteed to not stay in California and Minnesota if you vote for Harris.
September 21: Harris Declines to Comment on Her Changing EV Position (Everything Else Too)
Let’s tune into the internet archive Wayback Machine to Kamala Harris’ Climate Plan for the People to see what she was saying about climate change and EVs.
Let’s Blast All of Them
September 23: Trump Proposes a Cap on Credit Card Interest, So Does AOC and Bernie
The competitive self-destruction of the Republican party as we once understood it is on full display today.
Some Hope for Trump
September 23: Take Heart Republicans, Mark Zandi Says Harris Will Win
Mark Zandi is the near-perfect contrarian indicator. I am wondering if anyone is better.
I don’t care about persons or parties. I care about policies.
As you might decipher, I am sick of this whole damn mess.
I wonder how many people sit this out. Will there be a smaller turnout than four years ago?