President Obama absolutely blistered Donald Trump today, and the interesting thing about what he said is that there’s really nothing debatable about any of it. The Republicans absolutely know that Obama is correct, down to the smallest detail.
“I think what’s been interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading Republicans,” he said in a press conference. “The question I think they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer? This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly where they are distancing themselves from statements he’s making.”
Obama wondered what comment from Trump would actually force Republicans to withdraw their support for the Republican nominee.
“There has to be a point in which you say this is not somebody I can support for President of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party. The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow. I don’t doubt their sincerity. I don’t doubt they were outraged about some of the statements that Mr. Trump and his supporters made about the Khan family,” he said. “But there has to come a point in which you say somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesn’t have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world because a lot of people depend on the White House getting stuff right.”
He noted that the denunciations coming from Republicans differ from the typical policy disagreements between Democrats and Republicans.
“I think I was right and Mitt Romney and John McCain were wrong on certain policy issues, but I never thought that they couldn’t do the job. And had they won, I would have been disappointed, but I would have said to all Americans, this is our president, and I know they’re going to abide by certain norms and rules and common sense, will observe basic decency, will have enough knowledge about economic policy and foreign policy, and our constitutional traditions and rule of law that our government will work,” Obama said. “But that’s not the situation here.”
“There has to come a point in which you say, enough,” Obama told Republicans.
The President also said that Trump is “unfit” to be president in light of his attacks on the Khans, who are the parents of a Muslim-American soldier who died in combat.
“Yes, I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president,” he said at a press conference when asked if he questions Trump’s fitness to serve given his comments on the Khan family and on Russia. “I said so last week. And he keeps on proving it. The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that had made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia means that he’s woefully unprepared to do this job.”
It’s awfully early for the country to be at this point, and it’s not like anyone is going to cancel the campaign or the election, but Trump isn’t an option and that’s not going to change.
When Obama spoke today, he spoke for every person of even modest judgment, and that includes nearly every Republican officeholder in the country. This charade will not hold for another three months.
>>that includes nearly every Republican officeholder in the country
betting on the judgment or basic decency of Republicans is a really good way to lose all your money.
I said what “they’re thinking” not what they’ll actually vocalize or act on.
Trump on Twitter in 3,2,1.
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When Obama spoke today, he spoke for every person of even modest judgment, and that includes nearly every Republican officeholder in the country.
LOL!! No, it doesn’t. Most of them, the GOP officeholders, are as incompetent as Trump is. He’s a reflection of them. Rick Snyder. Lex Luthor down in Florida. Rauner in Illinois.
That’s for damn sure. There’s too many GOP incompetents to list, but what about my “representative” known-criminal Daryll Issa, the original Benghazi!!!111!!! money waster, followed quickly by Trey Benghazi2!!!111 Gowdy, not to mention another Southern CA dumbo Duncan Hunter who EAGERLY RACED MADLY to endorse Trump, and probably to this minute is vapidly defending his “hero.”
Most GOP pols are worthless hacks just shilling for the money. The Tea Partiers are even worse – rude, uncouth, poorly educated, out for themselves. Their only worry about Trump is whether Trump will deliver the payola to THEM.
Booyah.
a stretch.
They are setting the stage. I thought it would have been better optics to do it during the convention, but attacking the parents of a soldier killed overseas; that just may be too much. Now you have “principled” (and I use that characterization advisedly) Republicans putting up the trial balloon that Trump be de-nominated by the RNC and replace him with Pence, who would then pick a VP candidate. Trump himself is building an escape hatch saying the election could be rigged, and usually if it ain’t cheating in his favor, then he doesn’t want to play. I just hope the pressure builds so much that the GOP leadership has to eat crow before the Donald boards his jet for sunny beaches.
Ridge
Sorry, where is this Pence scenario being bandied about? By whom exactly? Interested in details, please.
I saw it on a talk show last day or two. Brought up by an sntiTrump Republican” (is that anything like a a Good German after WWII?) who I think was involved in a Bush Admin or Romney campaign. Couldn’t find it right off. If he does have that pedigree, then its natural to float that kind of idea.
Does RNC have the guts to do it? The don’t have the guts to denounce Trump now, so I doubt it. But its probably being discussed in certain quarters.
I think when its all said and done, there will be some personal history shading concerning GOP support of Trump, just like there was by the German survivors of WWII and the support of a certain Corporal.
R
Sounds like somebody’s wishful thinking. For over a year, they’ve been desperately searching for a candidate that could perform as well as Romney did. Now they’d settle for a Goldwater.
I would say maybe, but the pressure is getting incredible to renounce him or drive him off the ticket. Even Mr. Conventional Wisdom himself, Chuck Todd, is reporting of an “intervention” (GOP, the touchy feely party) and some whispers of getting him off the ticket.
Blood is in the water.
Mr. and Mrs. DC Village Consensus (Joe and Mika) both yesterday and today openly questioned Trump’s mental competence. That may be the out they need.
R
Unfortunately for them, their choices seem to have been reduced down to figuring out which reconstruction effort would be easiest after: a) Trump trashes the place or b) GOP trashes the place by ousting Trump and inserting someone else. The only also ran that somewhat caught on was Cruz, but he has also been trashing the place. Pence? A solid rightwinger with the demeanor of Romney/Kaisich. When it was the “no more party driven milquetoasts” that fueled Trump’s win, how will those voters respond if Trump is yanked? OTOH, Trump is pushing a faction of the GOP to HRC.
Between a rock and a hard place I would say.
“This charade will not hold for another three months.”
Another charade — that Trump is in any way an outlier within the Party, either philosophically, rhetorically, or affectively; or that the Party is not still the same monolith it has been — has been holding for a lot longer than three months, and it is not clear what might cause that to change.
The modern Republican Party has always been trying to ride to power on the back of a mob. They convinced themselves in advance that the mob would be plenty big enough. It wasn’t. They didn’t know what to do about that and they still don’t. They’ve tried redefining the mob. This cycle, Trump got out ahead of them and redefined it for them; but that is the nearest thing to “conflict” or “schism” that emerged during the primaries and it’s all papered over now.
The very strong point that President Obama made today is that the need for McConnell, Ryan, McCain and other national Republicans to have to continually repudiate offensive statements that their nominee makes, and repudiate policy positions that their nominee continues to reveal, rips away the papering over you refer to here.
If the GOP nominee’s actions and positions are unacceptable, then the nominee is made unacceptable by the accumulation of those unacceptable actions and positions. The papering over cannot effectively hold. If the paper is made to try to hold this cognitive dissonance for three more months, it will tear.
They successfully rode that “mob” from 1966 to 2006. The core issues of the elites that control the GOP don’t sell to anywhere near a majority of the American public. So, they add-on a bunch of low cost issues with high emotional content that keeps the mob in check and voting for them.
. . . about that and they still don’t.”
Well, they’ve certainly hung big hopes on a massive vote-suppression campaign. Thankfully, courts have been recently ruling what a steaming crock of horseshit the rationalizations for that are (in terms almost that strong, just slightly more circumspect).
SF Chronicle – SF’s landmark tower for rich and famous is sinking and tilting.
Thanks. I read about that, too. San Francisco is one huge mess these days. Greed has nearly ruined this once great city. I used to go to SF a lot in ye olden days. Now it’s a trial if I have to go there on business.
Not sure I’d describe it as a mess. (Problems/issues with the Millenium Tower notwithstanding. Possibly not the best builder for the project; at least not before Obayashi purchased it.)
Cities with desirable qualities, natural and human made, attract wealth. SF, perhaps more so than other cities, can’t grow out; so, it grows up. That process has been going on for a very long time. This latest round of wealth squeezing out those with less seems to be getting more attention because there are so few with much less left and it’s hitting the salaried classes because the working classes are gone.
No good answers that I can see to that.
For me, it’s more about the logistics of trying get around SF, esp if driving. So much construction going on, that roads are impassable. Combined with more overcrowding, plus increasing costs to do anything. Parking is an expensive nightmare. It’s really hard to get around anymore. Yes, one can walk and take public transportation, which I do, but even that’s becoming more of an ordeal.
I’ll server cheese with my whine next time.
But I do have a hard time explaining to my out of town friends why they really nead to pony up $60 to ride the train in, rather than trying to drive. grumble whine grumble…
seems outrageous (and a cause of your driving problem to boot) all by itself.
Last time I recall doing it, the Max from the airport to downtown Portland, OR (with numerous other destination options) was $1.50 IIRC.
THAT’s how public transportation is supposed to work (and how it can help relieve other congestion issues, including parking).
Driving in SF has been challenging for at least a couple of decades. In the late nineties suggested to a boss that he skip the rental car and we take public transport. Did he listen? No. Within two days, the car had been such a pain in the ass that we left it in the garage and took a cab to dinner. Amazing to recall that except for certain routes at certain times, driving in SF had been so was easy.
The Guardian – San Francisco rejects ‘tech tax’ plan to require firms to back housing programs
As I said, no good answers.
Not a complete answer, but you could make an enormous dent in SF’s problems by allowing enough multifamily construction. If the entire urbanized Bay Area had SF’s population density (which is already low by European standards), you could easily accommodate 2 or 3 times as many people there. New construction tends to be more expensive than existing construction, but at least people with decent paying jobs wouldn’t be living in shipping containers.
The problem is that with zoning and NIMBYism new multifamily construction is very limited. There’s some going up, but not nearly enough. Seattle is doing a much better job, and they have managed to stop the rent escalator and even reverse it a bit.
The Millenium Tower is multi-family.
It’s not as if SF hasn’t been doing that for decades, but it’s always been a difficult because property owners/developers have a lot of wealth and political clout and the residential areas in the city were built out by the 1960s. SoMa, industrial areas, and mud flats have been added, but it’s not enough to satisfy the demand of those with an ability to pay. “Affordable” in new multi-family buildings isn’t so affordable.
And it’s not merely a question of multi-family housing:
I know that this item was posted here primarily as off-topic snark, but what I think of is this: Sure sounds like some really poor geotechnical engineering went into this project. If I recall my SF geography correctly, 301 Mission would not be terribly far from the Bay, meaning that the building may have been built on fill. But good lord, you don’t do a project like this one without really really careful engineering. Instead what have we got? Another full-employment opportunity for big law firms.
O/T snark but news of some interest to some readers.
There’s some info on the engineering and construction decisions in the article. It was all probably good enough and no seismic risk is seen by engineers that have recently evaluated it. However, over-engineering and over-building in the private sector isn’t as common as it once was.
It’s a 58-story tower built on sand because they didn’t want to pay to put the pylons 120 feet deeper, where they’d be on rock. Skyscraper + sand foundation + serious earthquake country = are you kidding me? Even if the modeling said it would be OK they should had more safety margin. Too much cost-cutting on this one.
It’s only sinking and leaning a little bit. It may be fine. Wouldn’t rush to accept the opinion of one person as to why the design was chosen and that it was a simple matter of cost cutting. But if there’s a way to stick it to the City of SF as the culprit, I’m sure the owners will do that.
(I only note that the premier builder of SF high rises wasn’t used on this project. Although the new parent company is skilled in high rise and seismically active construction.)
Worked for Pisa.
I disagree with the prominent theme of this post. I see it more as:
Uppity Blah sez whut? Who does Obama think he is? President of the USA? Well he’s not the President of Trump’s white supremacist/nationalist/GOP supporters, who have been carefully trained and taught by all the rightwing think tanks, Hate Radio, Fox & “Christian” broadcasting to see Obama as an “illigitimate” Kenyan Muslim (what is it? like over 50% of GOP voters BELIEVE that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim??).
GOP politicians, beginning with Mitch McConnell on down, vowed to block Obama as completely as possible, and in that, they did a “good” job. All based on the notion that Obama was a KenyanNaziSocialistCommie, who is “illigitimate” as President.
GOP politicians and party “leaders” have ginned/riled up the mob with inflamed racist/bigoted, xenophobic rhetoric for the past 30+ years, and it’s only gotten worse on orders of magnitude that I didn’t think possible during Obama’s terms of office.
Yes, there are SOME Republicans saying: NeverTrump. But who the eff knows what they’ll do in the voting booth. And of those vowing NeverTrump? WHAT, pray tell, are they doing NOW to make improvements in the GOP?? If anyone has links showing any GOP defecter, who’s actually, you know, attempting to improve the GOP, I’d love to see it.
What I see is the continuance of the “Both Sides” bullshit hype rhetoric – wherein no matter what Trump says or does, no matter how outrageously egregious and/or obviously and pathetically know-nothing stupid, the pundits and talking heads race forth to fill the vacuum with the But Hillary! (or But Democrats/Liberals) are the SAME or WORSE… and then maybe provide some vacuuous example that simply does NOT prove how the Ds are the same or worse.
But whoever said it first: tell an outright lie often enough, and almost everyone will believe it. And if you lie, lie BIG.
So whereohwhere are there ANY efforts by anyone from the GOP to make improvements to their racist, xenophobic, homophobic, hate-filled, fear-mongering party that’s been led by the Southern Strategy for well over 30 years???
Show me.
So what’s going to happen? I’ve been thinking the same thing — this can’t go on for three months. Even a month of this seems like it’d be impossible.
You, Josh Marshall, Al Giordano, and a couple others have been the most insightful about the Trump situation. I’m curious where you think it goes from here.
There’s only one way for the R’s to keep from going down in flames. They are going to have to get rid of Trump. For instance, he has a health crisis, a mental breakdown, something, that allows Pence to step forward and take the mantle. I wouldn’t be completely surprised even if there were an assassination, blamed on leftists. I know I’m starting to sound like Bob in Portland, but I don’t know, this election cycle has been pretty crazy.
The thought of three more months of this is depressing.
Run-ups to presidential elections are usually a time when there are vigorous policy debates as the candidates hone/explain their positions. Instead we will have three more months commenting about how this turd got into the punch-bowl.
What a waste.
On the bright side, we get to “enjoy” the spectacle of a man who has no shame, no moral compass, no filter, and (most importantly) no competence to govern, try to prove to the world that Americans are as dumb as he believes we are.
Run-ups to presidential elections are usually a time when there are vigorous policy debates as the candidates hone/explain their positions.
Really? I seem to recall, “shining city on a hill,” “morning in America,” Willie Horton and “read my lips, no new taxes,” …
I’ve never ever been fond of our mega-overly long election season. Waste of time and money. I lived in Australia for years and am still envious of their short election seasons. Lucky ducks. And believe me, their shorter process has not resulted in things being worse than up here.
It’s a worthless waste of time.
But this election is just mind-blowingly awful. Trump is beyond boringly tedious, along with all the rest of the negative adjectives.
I don’t own a tv, but I. Can’t. Wait. For. It. To. Be. OVAH!!
Thankfully I am leaving the country for most of Sept and Oct. I am one smart cookie for planning my foreign adventures in that time period. And I will come back having missed exactly nothing of any value at all… and voting for the person in November whom I’d vote for today.
The break in the political consensus is startling, disturbing: one party nominates a candidate the other party refuse to recognize as legitimate, which is actually the import of Barack Obama’s pointed remarks calling for revolt in the Republican party. The gentleman’s agreement between the parties is now torn up. Neither one is now playing according to the rules that have prevailed until recently. Donald Trump’s manner makes it impossible: uncooperative and provocative. The Democrats with their cocky disdain for anything outside their self-congratulatory zone of money and influence may be about to overplay their hand. Is Trump going away? I don’t dare say. Trump has been going away for as long as anyone can remember and he’s still there. Bernie Sanders would have put an end to the dilemma in a split second but he has been nullified because the Democrats preferred to go with a deeply compromised family who is not all that far removed from Trump’s world: the photo of the Clintons at Trump’s last marriage says we are all Americans, a clan united in wheeling and dealing, so let’s get on with it.
“one party [R] nominates a candidate the other party [D] refuse to recognize as legitimate”
[R and D added for clarity]
Turnabout is fair play. One might have said the same thing 8 years ago with the R and D reversed. At least this time legitimacy is not based on race.
I think Obama is trolling Repubs, rubbing salt in the wound. By stating it the way he did, Obama plants a flag, making it even more onerous for any Republican in anything other than a deep blue district to take the plunge and un-endorse. Anyone doing so before the President’s statement faced the probability of a primary challenge down the road, driven by the rabid mob, who don’t miss out on making their voices heard in primaries. Now, with Obama preemptively calling them out, craven fence sitters can either suffer through the endless night of this sick, sick “man” with tiny hands or they can agree with Obama. Which is worse?
The President understands that we need to provide a path back to sanity for those Republicans who can still be reached. They are not the enemy. These are our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. Even though the feeling is often not reciprocated, we cannot forget they are our fellow Americans. Most of them are not the moral monsters their leaders are.
They have been misled and misinformed. Yes, in many ways they have been willing accomplishes to their own bamboozlement. They vote Republican out of tribal loyalty. We need to break the tribal link they have with the GOP and bring them back to the light. They need a way to do that that enables them to keep some of their self respect. That cannot happen if we treat them as the enemy.
The alternative is a breakup of the nation and/or civil war.
Good luck. I’ve found, sadly, that the only way to remain on amicable terms with neighbors, coworkers, and relatives who espouse GOP talking points is to avoid talking about politics. Full stop. And I haven’t yet heard one say that Trump is manifestly unfit to be president.
One.
This in a group of 6 or so tennis buddies having beers after, out of which 2 or 3 said they favored Trump. I (and I presume 1 or 2 others) bit our tongues. (I said something about maybe best we don’t get into politics, then, in keeping with your advice above.)
One though did say that, while he usually votes “conservative” (didn’t specifically say GOPer, suppose could consider himself indie), Trump was a bridge too far (not his word choice, but the gist of it).
But that’s it.
Amazingly, my rightwing fundie family members hate Trump and claim they won’t vote for him. Of course, they are all Cruz fans, whose ICK & creep factor is only marginally less than Trump’s (and who may, in fact, be more dangerous than Trump). Of course, they have been so thoroughly brainwashed to loathe, detest & despise criminally crooked Hillary that there’s no way in hell that they’ll vote for her either (not that I totally disagree with some of their criticism). They may simply vote GOP/Tea Party down ticket and not vote for POTUS, although one or two are toying with the Libertarian guy.
I have other friends who’ve shocked me that they support Trump – very much so! Think he’s great and will “do things” and “shake things up.” Go figure. These are well educated teachers, no less, so it’s sort of nauseating. I’ve talked a bit with them, but they simply dismiss the D party as worthless. Despite one rather lengthy conversation – where I was totally non-judgemental and asked a lot of sincere questions – I’m still not clear on why they like Trump. Really. They’re answers were pretty facile. I think it mainly boiled down to: all politicians are terrible (there’s something in that), and Trump is the anti-politician.
Otherwise, I stay far away from politics. I find it difficult to have conversations with most citizens no matter how they vote, but the Fox crowd are the hardest.
P.S. I tried to watch Fox recently while at a relative’s house – just to see what they said. I gave up after about 5 minutes. Pure hysteria, vacuuous flag waving, hatred and no substance. When Ghouliani came on, I ran screaming from the room.
I agree. I’m fairly comfortable that Hillary is going to win, but I also think it is very important going forward that she is competitive in every demographic. Much of the white working class is lost this cycle, but I think Obama is appealing to country club Republicans. Lots of people making, say, $100,000 and up are conservative simply because the philosophy is always best for their pocketbooks.
College educated Republicans do not want to stand with Donald Trump on any of these issues either, and in their hearts they know he will be a disaster as President. “Country over party” will be Clinton’s pitch to this group and winning them is in my opinion the key to a Clinton landlside.
between college-educated and no-college (and I think especially the older white-male split, i.e., my demographic) is stark, and goes very far in explaining how Trump gets even as much support as he does.
Which also carries lots of interesting implications, several of them obvious.
I’m seeing talk this was a brilliant move by Obama to box in Republicans: since Obama said they should, they can’t. I’m sure there is a part of Obama that can make that calculation, but that wasn’t my impression. My impression was he was speaking earnestly and directly from what he perceives as the dignity of his office. I think Obama tends to be at his best leveling with people and getting real.
Anyway, the idea the Republicans can’t repudiate Trump because Obama said they should is kind of dumb. If true, it shows how utterly craven and spineless the party has become.
. . . and spineless the party has become.”
So presumably true.
Meg Whitman already said she won’t vote for Trump, now says she’s voting for Hillary, funding superPACs for her. Sad!
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/politics/meg-whitman-hillary-clinton-endorsement/index.html