Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:03 pm
It continues to get worse for Donald Trump. Not because of bad luck or accidental missteps, but simply the result of actions taken by the man himself. Most recently, it’s Trump’s widely condemned racist attacks on one Indian-born federal judge.
As I wrote yesterday, it’s not necessarily the fact that Trump made the comment that Judge Gonzalo Curiel can’t do his job because of his race – it’s that the presumptive GOP nominee has repeatedly doubled down on those remarks.
As a result, many in the GOP are beginning to line up in opposition to Trump. Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk even unendorsed him, something pretty unprecedented in modern American politics.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Kirk tweeted this earlier today:
Given my military experience, Donald Trump does not have the temperament to command our military or our nuclear arsenal.
— Mark Kirk (@MarkKirk) June 7, 2016
“I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President,” Kirk added.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who rather unsuccessfully ran for president before dropping out this year, called Trump’s comments about Curiel “the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy.”
Graham added, “There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”
Republican senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said today that he “just can’t” support Trump. Flake added that “there are a lot of people who want to be loyal to the Republican Party, including me, but there’ll come a point in time where we’re gonna have to understand that it’s not just about the 2016 race, it’s about the future of the party.”
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican, said Trump’s comments “make it very difficult” for her to support the billionaire buffoon’s candidacy.
Bob Corker, the GOP senator from Tennessee, called the presumptive GOP nominee’s comments “inappropriate” and warned that Trump has “two or three weeks” to get his act together. He didn’t say what would happen if he doesn’t, but it sure sounded like a threat.
Even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan – who chose one heck of a week to endorse Trump, by the way – slammed the spray-tanned billionaire’s bigotry.
“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said. “I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
Ryan, of course, still says he will still support the man making racists attacks – for now, at least.
So, too, will Sen. Mitch McConnell, who also condemned Trump’s comments and said he “couldn’t disagree more” with him.
One by one, leaders in the Republican Party are beginning to see the writing on the wall. If Trump continues to implode, don’t be surprised if there is a renewed effort by the GOP to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee at the convention in Cleveland.
In either case, there is one beneficiary of this entire fiasco: Hillary Clinton.
Keep your popcorn handy, folks. This freak show is just getting started.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
