By Mark Rhoads -
It is time for Donald Trump to end his childish and vulgar campaign against women and resign his nomination while there is still time for the Republican National Committee to replace Trump at the top of a new ticket.
There is still time for the RNC to save some down-ballot candidates and nominate Gov. Mike Pence, who can unite the party and defeat Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Trump supposedly issued two insincere "apologies" last night for the obscene statements he made about women to the host of the Access Hollywood TV show in 2005. The fake "apologies" will not be enough because his own words on tape go so far beyond what Trump dismissed as "locker-room banter" and called "a distraction."
Trump tried to exonerate himself by claiming the he has heard former President Bill Clinton make worse vulgar statements on the golf course but so far Trump has not produced a tape of Bill Clinton making those comments. Even if Bill Clinton did make similar vulgar statements to Trump, that was foolish of Clinton but his remarks still do not absolve Trump.
Trump stressed that his obscene comments were made 11 years ago even has he overlooks that Bill Clinton's crimes were committed 20 years ago and that Clinton lost his license to practice law because he lied under oath to a federal judge. Trump's comments could be seen as tantamount to advocating violence against women in a far more recent year and Trump too should pay a price.
The obscene tape remarks reveal who Donald Trump really is and are further evidence that Trump is not fit to serve in any public office let alone the office of President of the United States. It does not matter that some early and absentee ballots have already been cast because the popular vote does not elect the President and Vice President. Republican members of the Electoral College from each state are free to vote their conscience and most of them are long-time regular party leaders and not new extreme Trump loyalists who voted for him at the Convention.
The RNC has influence with the GOP Electoral College members and they have a right to use that influence to save the GOP from a dangerous and childish demagogue. Mike Pence as the new nominee is the only person who can unite the GOP and save GOP candidates for the U.S. House and Senate and governors and state legislators who are in extreme danger in the next 32 days. Mike Pence knows how to keep his cool in a debate with Hillary Clinton and without the baggage of Trump, Pence can make the broad case against Hillary that Trump himself cannot make.
Several GOP members of Congress already called yesterday for Trump to step down and have taken back their previous endorsements of him. Gov. Scott Walker and Speaker Paul Ryan asked Trump not to appear with them in Wisconsin today. Trump supporters who claim their most important goal is to defeat Hillary Clinton will call on more GOP leaders to demand his removal as the GOP nominee. The election is far too important to depend on the vanity of just one deeply flawed 70-year-old child.
I agree, Pence for President.
And then Trump can say he was forced out and try again. Or run third party. His die hard supporters will vote for no one else. They will write him in.
Also it may be too late to change the ballots. early voting has already begun.
The Clinton camp could of dropped this in August and they chose to drop it now for maximum damage. He’s made it so easy for her. And the GOP by associating with him may have lost their down ticket support with this.
It does not matter if some people write in Trump. The popular vote and printed ballots or ballots already cast are all irrelevant to the idea of replacing Trump with Pence at the top of a new ticket. The RNC has the power on its own to declare that Trump’s actions have created a vacancy that exists so they can replace Trump with Pence at the top of a new ticket. As I said before the state GOP presidential electors are mostly long-time party regulars and are very different from the Trump loyalist convention delegates. It is the presidential electors and only the electors who elect the next president and any hope of saving the GOP now rests on the state GOP electors alone unless there is a 269-269 tie in which case the GOP state delegations in the House can elect anyone they want to as the next president.
Ridiculous, even just from an operational viewpoint. It’s too late to change the ballots in quite a few states including NC, MI, TX. Any votes cast for Trump there already would not be added to any replacement nominee. The Dems faced this predicament in MN when Senator Wellstone went down in a plane crash in 2002. They replaced him with Mondale but the votes already cast for Wellstone were set in stone (All of this is an argument against early voting of course).
And Trump has said some crude things, but considering the long long history in our country of Presidential scandals and scurrilous affairs this is in no way disqualifying. The uproar is by those in the GOP who never wanted Trump to win anyways based on ideological grounds. I knew Speaker Ryan would cut and run the first chance he had.
The change in direction that this country desperately needs and that Trump represents should outweigh any concern over this remarks.
Right, and everybody thought Trump would be the one to break the pledge, support the party’s nominee. With this kind of loyalty to publicly expounded principles, it’s easy to see how Obama ran all over the Republicans’ majority in both houses as if it weren’t there.
Fox News interviews at the Ryan nonevent this afternoon, showed Republicans voters more upset with the party people running away than with The Donald. There’s nothing new here, except the Democrats had to drop their “bomb” now to distract from even more “incriminating” emails.
Where’s the outrage and dismay over Bill Clinton being the First Husband? He was impeached. Where’s the dismay and where’s the outrage?
What’s embarrassing about Paul Ryan, who I might add choked in debate four years ago and hurt his ticket, is where’s the outrage for a former President who was impeached and could be First Husband?
Another stupid article from Rhoads. Who cares what Trump said 11 years ago? You and all the other turncoat Republicans are handing the election to Hillary, and will then complain bitterly for the next 4 years. As Sean Hannity has repeatedly said, if Clinton wins, “you guys own it.” It’s on your heads — radical Supreme Court justices, hundreds of thousands of unvetted “Syrian” refugees, higher taxes, ruination of the coal industry, continued government corruption, open borders, more regulations, and more.
So you really do not care about beating Hillary Clinton. You care most of all about being an enabler for the Trump ego trip. Trump is toast. The campaign is over. Trump might not get more than 161 Electoral Votes vs. 322 for Clinton and Kaine. I am not happy about a Clinton victory on Nov. 8 but I did not vote for Trump in the primary. The only question now is how many GOP candidates Trump will drag down with him. The Senate is gone and I never dreamed it possible that the House GOP majority might be in danger too but with more than 30 GOP Members of Congress asking Trump to resign, obviously they think so. Trump’s own obscene words are not the fault of the media or the Clinton campaign, they are his own fault. Only Trump can be blamed for his own humiliation and defeat. There is no way for him to recover from this. Trump will lose Illinois by 20 points and he will lose many states that were carried by Romney in 2012. The GOP will be in shambles and Trump will not care because he had never been a Republican anyway. He is still today a left-wing Democrat who is laughing at all of you who still cling to his fake campaign and his fake pose as a Republican.
Absolutely, positively.
Rhoads, and his ilk, own the final nail in the coffin of the once great US of A.
Own it, born losers.
Maybe if the Democrats take control of the House too, the likelihood of more asinine trade deals goes down. Because if they do take control it will create a crisis within their own caucus about trade and my gut says that there are more anti- free trade Democrats in their House caucus than pro-free trade ones. They would also have full responsibility for running the country and would still have to deal with half of the population of the country being against them. It would also end the career of Paul Ryan, which by itself may be worth a temporary 2 year Dem majority.
Honestly, Rhoads. The Republicans have had both Senate and House for the past 2 years and done NOTHING at all, so what difference does it make whether they keep it? Certainly not with this sorry group.
Your comments look even more stupid after his outstanding performance tonight.
Mark,
I have been reading your comments for years now. The unfortunate reality is most people go through a period of cognitive decline as they age. Moreover the people close to them often are not willing to call their attention to it and more and more, the unfortunately soul makes a mockery of the person that once was and moreover the causes and institutions they once venerated are tarnished by their continuing acquaintance.
Thomas Jefferson said it very eloquently, as thus:
Man, like the fruit he eats, has his period of ripeness. Like that, too, if he continues longer hanging to the stem, it is but an useless and unsightly appendage
Food for thought.
Mark supported John McCain! Who has openly supported ISIS! Enough said?
(if not, check the polling results on DRUDGE)