What an interview with Trump's campaign manager. So many astonishing admissions in one place
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-paul-manafort-general-election_us_574619eee4b0dacf7ad3e201
"You don’t change Donald Trump. You don’t ‘manage’ him."
---- Paul Manafort
Democrats and many Republicans have hammered Trump on his call to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. until some unspecified future time when he deems it safe to do so. “He’s already started moderating on that,” Manafort said. “He operates by starting the conversation at the outer edges and then brings it back towards the middle. Within his comfort zone, he’ll soften it some more.”
“I will be surprised if he puts them out. I wouldn’t necessarily advise him to. It’s not really an issue for the people we are appealing to. His tax returns are incredibly complicated. I wouldn’t understand them, so how are the American people going to? . . .The only people who want the tax returns are the people who want to defeat him.”
“Does he know enough? Yes, because he knows he has more to learn. And he is constantly doing that.” Trump doesn’t read briefing papers, but he is a magnet for information, Manafort said. “He reads the newspapers, and he talks on the phone and to office visitors in a never-ending stream. You’re sitting there in his office and you realize that he is constantly picking up stuff as he goes.”
The vice presidential pick will also be part of the process of proving he’s ready for the White House, Manafort said. “He needs an experienced person to do the part of the job he doesn’t want to do. He seems himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO. There is a long list of who that person could be,” Manafort added, “and every one of them has major problems.” The campaign probably won’t choose a woman or a member of a minority group, he said. “In fact, that would be viewed as pandering, I think.”
Yes: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/27/trumps_a_walking_time_bomb_dont_be_fooled_by_his_victory_he_can_implode_his_own_campaign_at_any_moment/
[Digby] This is delusional. . . [read on]
You want more? Here's a segment on Jimmy Kimmel
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/26/11783864/jimmy-kimmel-donald-trump-transgender-bathrooms
KIMMEL: You believe that transgender people should be able to use whatever bathroom they want to, which is contrary to what a lot of people, most people in your party believe. Why do you think people are focused on that?
TRUMP: What really I'm saying is — and I think it's pretty simple — let the states decide. And, you know, we have to protect everybody. It's a very, very small group. Right now, it's a very small group. Perhaps it's getting larger.
KIMMEL: But would you say, though, if you were voting personally, a member in New York state, that you would vote for that right?
TRUMP: Well, the party generally believes that whatever you're born, that's the bathroom you use.
KIMMEL: But what about you?
TRUMP: Me? I say let the states decide.
KIMMEL: Do you personally support it? I think you do.
TRUMP: No. What I support is let the states decide. And I think the states will do hopefully the right thing.
KIMMEL: And what's the right thing?
TRUMP: I don't know yet. I mean, I don't know. Honestly, I don't know.
Had enough?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/05/26/1531404/-Donald-Trump-pivots-to-the-general-election-You-have-to-be-wealthy-to-be-great
Donald Trump: 'You have to be wealthy to be great'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/26/trump-wants-to-make-the-gop-a-workers-party-heres-what-he-really-means-by-that/
I asked Trump what he thought the GOP would look like in five years. “Love the question,” he replied. “Five, 10 years from now — different party. You’re going to have a worker’s party. A party of people that haven’t had a real wage increase in 18 years, that are angry. What I want to do, I think cutting Social Security is a big mistake for the Republican Party.”
Trouble in Trumpland
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/team-trumps-seething-mosh-pit-forces-key-staffer-out
Team Trump’s ‘seething mosh pit’ forces key staffer out
More: http://crooksandliars.com/2016/05/oh-dear-trumps-sr-press-rep-crashes-and
Oh Dear. Trump's Press Rep Crashes And Burns Again?
An insightful point
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/you-can-believe-me-or-you-can-believe_26.html
Jonathan Chait has written one of those pieces that when you finish it you go "ahhh, now I get it." It's really, really great and a truly important insight. He teases out the relationship between the two most important aspects of Trump's personality: his fundamental disregard for truth or even reality --- and his frightening authoritarianism. They are two sides of the same coin. . . . [read on]
Obama
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/qotd-prez.html
When asked at the G7 about whether world leaders have said anything about the upcoming election: “I think it’s fair to say that they are surprised by the Republican nominee. They are not sure how seriously to take some of his pronouncements, but they’re rattled by him, and for good reason. Because a lot of the proposals that he’s made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what it is that is required to keep America safe and secure and prosperous and what is required to keep the world on an even keel.”
Vince Foster's sister
https://politicalwire.com/2016/05/26/vince-fosters-sister-responds/
“It is beyond contempt that a politician would use a family tragedy to further his candidacy, but such is the character of Donald Trump displayed in his recent comments to The Washington Post. In this interview, Trump cynically, crassly and recklessly insinuated that my brother, Vincent W. Foster Jr., may have been murdered because ‘he had intimate knowledge of what was going on’ and that Hillary Clinton may have somehow played a role in Vince’s death. How wrong. How irresponsible. How cruel.”
I'm not the biggest Elizabeth Warren fan, but she is pretty good at this. And more and more people are saying she makes sense as Clinton's VP
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/this-might-actually-be-fun-by.html
“Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap,” Warren said at a Washington, D.C. gala for the Center for Popular Democracy Tuesday night. “What kind of a man does that?” an incredulous Warren asked. “Root for people to get thrown out on the street? Root for people to lose their jobs? Root for people to lose their pensions? Root for two little girls in Clark County, Nevada, to end up living in a van?” “What kind of a man does that?” “I’ll tell you exactly what kind,” Warren continued. “A man who cares about no one but himself. A small, insecure money-grubber who doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as he makes some money off it. What kind of man does that? A man who will never be president of the United States.”
Clinton's VP dilemma: http://www.vox.com/2016/5/27/11767624/hillary-clinton-vp-shortlist
The Republican opposition to Merrick Garland is reduced to this
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/orrin-hatch-merrick-garland_us_57470db6e4b055bb117157e4
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in an op-ed published early Thursday morning that a meeting with Merrick Garland hadn’t persuaded him that Garland should be confirmed to the Supreme Court . . .The meeting, however, had not actually taken place yet.
Sanders says he wants to debate Trump. Two reactions: (1) what a STUPID idea and (2) what the hell game is Bernie playing now?
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/05/bernie-sanders-switching-teams
Trump is the master of modern publicity, and he knows perfectly well that a debate like this would (a) help Trump and (b) hurt Hillary. That's it. That's all it would do. And Bernie is all in. Is Bernie really so aggrieved by losing the Democratic nomination that he's now willing to explicitly campaign on Trump's behalf? Because that's all this is. What happened to the old Bernie Sanders?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/really--23
It is truly difficult for me to imagine that a Trump v Sanders debate is really going to happen. But it is an amazingly terrible idea for anyone who cares about preventing Trump from being the next President. Indeed, does anyone alive believe this helps elect a Democratic president? And if not, what is the rationale? . . . It is only a spectacle by which both candidates, Trump and Sanders, can indulge their tacitly-agreed common interest in sidelining and diminishing Hillary Clinton. . .
I don't want to speculate about Sanders' motives, other than that it is probably a good way to elevate himself into the appearance of an ersatz Democratic standard-bearer and to get media attention which has slackened as most of the attention has moved toward the general election. . . . I think there's a very good chance it would descend into a Hillary-bashing fest. Indeed, how could it not?
The GOP's lack of a ground game
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/rnc-staff-state-republicans-223642
The Republican National Committee is scrambling to respond to increasingly frantic concerns from state GOP officials that the party has not provided enough field organizers and will be badly outgunned by Democrats in battleground states. . . .
A question
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/05/how-can-you-barack-obama-loathe-hillary-clinton
How Can You Like Barack Obama But Loathe Hillary Clinton?
After it was announced that President Obama would be moving into a mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., following his two-term tenure, conservative publication The Daily Caller is making a stink about the house’s proximity to a mosque. “The mammoth, multi-million-dollar mansion … is located 1,096 feet from the Islamic Center of Washington — one of the largest mosques in the Western Hemisphere,” writes Daily Caller education editor Eric Owens. . . .
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