Trump sex tape comments frustrate GOP supporters

The Hill ^ | 9/30/2016 | Jonathan Easley

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Donald Trump’s middle-of-the-night tweets about a beauty queen sex tape are frustrating Republican supporters, who worry once again that their candidate’s lack of discipline will hamper his campaign.

They say Trump needs to keep his focus on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, prepare for their second debate, on Oct. 9 in St. Louis, and quit taking the bait from Democrats.

“It’s unlikely the Miss Universe flap is hurting Trump with current supporters, but it’s hard to see how it helps grow our vote,” said one GOP lawmaker who supports Trump.

“Maybe it's quaint conventional wisdom. But it seems he would help himself to talk about the real world problems that every day voters face,” the lawmaker said.

Trump has not been able to let go his feud with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

In a series of tweets beginning at 3:19 a.m. on Friday and ending at 5:30 a.m., the New York billionaire sought to discredit Machado by drawing attention to tawdry details about her past, including allegations — debunked by fact-checkers — that she has filmed a “sex tape.”

Those allegations reignited Democratic attacks against Trump over his treatment of Machado just as the issue seemed ready to peter out.

Clinton already had been doing everything she could to keep the Machado story going, believing Trump’s fat-shaming of the Venezuelan would help her with both women and Hispanic voters.

She responded to Trump’s tweet-storm with her own series of tweets, calling Trump “unhinged.”

“What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?,” Clinton tweeted.

“When something gets under Donald's thin skin, he lashes out and can't let go,” she said. “This is dangerous for a president. To Donald, women like Alicia are only as valuable as his personal opinion about their looks.”

[nathanbedford]

It's funny or ironic that two people want the same thing, the election of Donald Trump and the defeat of Hillary Clinton, find themselves diametrically opposed to the others ideas.

I believe that Trump had created the momentum to win this election prior to the debate and he has squandered it since. He does not need to win on issues, he merely needs to tell the people that he isn't crazy, that he isn't a misanthrope, that he isn't a racist and he won't blow up the world. Actually he doesn't tell them he shows them. He has done the opposite in the debate and in the week since. Let me state my belief in the boldest version leaving it most vulnerable to attack: it does not matter what issue Trump takes on, it matters how he presents it.

Here is my view stated in two recent replies:

Hillary's biography offers a target rich environment and you have done a good job of identifying several targets. But more important than the targets selected is the manner of exposing and attacking her record.

The problem for Trump is not that the people are unaware that Hillary is a criminal and a liar, the problem for Trump is that Hillary is successfully bringing him down to her level. The only way she can win this election is to bring both campaigns down to the gutter where her advantages in the electoral college, Democrat infrastructure, money and media support will prevail because people are distracted from her criminality.

So Hillary must bring Donald down to fighting about beauty queens. Trump as a whole different agenda.

Trump has the same challenge in presenting his affirmative case to be president, the manner of its presentation is as important, indeed more important, than the issue itself. In other words, the world, fully cognizant of who Hillary Clinton and her liabilities is looking for an alternative, they want reassurance that Donald Trump is worthy of the office. They want to know if he will be a safe president.

That means that Trump does not have to win on the issues, he already owns the issues for the majority of people, Trump must sell himself as fit for the Oval Office.

I believe he failed signally to do so in the last debate, I believe that Hillary prevailed by looking good on the issues and Trump looked at best unappealing and perhaps even unpresidential. All of this was totally unnecessary, all Trump had to do was to moderate his voice, slowdown his speech, decline to become defensive and appear to be reasonable. That he could do with any one of his issues and that he should have done in the face of the personal attacks against him.

……

A television pundit on Fox said that Trump's willful neglect to prepare for the debate amounted to malpractice, that is, a breach of his duty to his supporters who nominated him and support him today, of whom I count myself one.

This mindless gutter brawl with a whore is likely to cost more than battleground states and begs the question whether he is incorrigible.

He can still win this election if he will just act like a potential president should!

[hsmomx3]

Facebook now has some HuffPo article circulating and it sure seems like the left is going full speed ahead trying to make Trump look like a pervert. The article says how he found Paris Hilton attractive. Of course the other big story is about he and Epstein being close friends. I am getting so fed up with this nonsense. I guess it’s ok for Bill to be friends with Epstein...and I am sick of Mark Cuban, too. I am done ranting for the evening.

[stylin19a]

They say

Lyle: They? Who in the hell is 'they'?

[CASchack]

This mindless gutter brawl with a whore is likely to cost more than battleground states and begs the question whether he is incorrigible.

He can still win this election if he will just act like a potential president should!

I agree. He needs to step away from the tweets and buckle down. Otherwise, I'm afraid he will throw this thing away on petty nonsense.

[Red Steel]

Hillary can impugn Trump at will making it a big part of her campaign while Trump cannot defend himself according to the panty peerers here. Trump should push back and defend himself and he can take on the other issues all at the same time.

[Electric Graffiti]

If Trump wants to win, he needs to follow the Karl Rove/G.W. Bush example of how best to deal with demoncrats and the leftist press......Bend over, lube up and take it in the ass, repeatedly. That worked so well, didn't it? /s

Rub their farking face in it, Trump. You magnificent bastard!

[Luke21]

The Clintons are sliming Trump left and right, knowing the media will ignore their use of projection, amplify the charges, and ignore any inconvenient details. Trump is fighting back, hard. It’s the only way.

[Wallace T.]

Trump played the “basket of deplorables” remark to his advantage. He may do the same on this former Miss Universe turned porn star.

[okie01]

If he was worried about being polite & non confrontational & taking the high road he would be history like McCain & Romney. He takes the battle to those that attack him.

It's not about "being polite & non-confrontational" or "taking the high road". It's about avoiding distractions, not being defensive and asserting a confident presidential manner.

He can still "take the battle" to Hillary, but on more substantive issues than a c. 1996 Mis Universe contestant.

This election is Trump's to lose...but he has ceded control of the line of scrimmage to Hillary.

[kabar]

Hillary still has her in her ubiquitous campaign ads every day. So Trump should keep mum about a porn queen spewing out lies. I guess that is the way the Stupid Party operates. What’s next, instructing Trump supporters not to use Hillary’s middle name. Let Trump be Trump.

[Red Steel]

Trump is fighting back, hard. It’s the only way.

This women hasn't got a very good reputation to start throwing stones. I read she had/has a criminal kingpin boy friend. I agree you push back especially when it can easily boomerang on the enemy Hillary - who didn't vet her. That's a mistake. The Bushies, GOPE, Romney would let it hang out there without any defense. They let the enemy have open field to run. Now that's stupid. Some here just don't understand it.

[ifinnegan]

“including allegations — debunked by fact-checkers “

It’s not debunked.

On a broader note, the sleaze attack is beginning. Trump’s comments about 12 year old Paris Hilton on Howard Stern many years ago are trending.

As we head toward the finish line, this is just the start. It’s all Hillary has. It is what the Clintons do.

[JayGalt]

Thank you for your reply. On the whole I still disagree. Trump is not distracted; he is just setting the record straight and talking truth to power. Hillary having picked & showcased this porn star as a part of her campaign demonstrates much about her character, judgement and duplicity. Trump is just pointing that out, clearly.

I do not agree at all that Trump has squandered his momentum. Watching the turnout at his rallies this week and the sharp rise in people following him on social media suggests just the opposite. I will be very relieved when this election is over and Trump has assumed office.

[kabar]

you kill it, by starving it.

The woman is on all the cable channels including Fox. She appears daily in Hillary's campaign ads. Trump has no control over that. The Clintons had already contacted the pornstar this summer. Prior to the debate, the Clinton campaign circulated press kits on Machado to the MSM noting that Hillary would be bringing her up during the debate. This was a well-orchestrated hit job on Trump.

Unless someone can expose this fraud, the issue will continue right up until election day. Machado has become the Michael Brown of Trump's mistreatment of women. It is all a lie and Machado is the worst person to hold up as an example of an abused woman.

[okie01]

As we head toward the finish line, this is just the start. It’s all Hillary has. It is what the Clintons do.

Regrettably, Trump is helping her keep stuff like this front and center.

[nathanbedford]

I will be very relieved when this election is over and Trump has assumed office.

So will I.

[Red Steel]

Shrillary wants to run to the bottom this last month.

Super pacs or Trump could counter when Hillary got off the rapist she knew was guilty and happily bragged about, which is recorded on tape.

[jonrick46]

The story that is emerging, because Trump was brilliant enough to understand it, is the poor decision making ability of Hillary Clinton. That she chose to use a porn star, a drug lord’s significant other, and an accomplice in a murder is a reflection of her bad judgement. This just adds to her long list of bad choices: lack of preparedness in Libya, her misjudgment as to al-Qaeda’s strength, the absence of a coherent plan to address the Arab Spring, a faulty assessment of Bashar al-Assad (whom she labeled a “reformer”), her role in the deteriorating relations with Israel and her obsessive focus on settlements, her clueless withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq that gave ISIS radicals a foothold, her negligence at Benghazi, her lying about the cause of Benghazi, her backing Hugo Chavez’s candidate in Honduras rather than the pro-America middle and business classes’ choice, her pulling out anti-missile sites from Poland and the Czech Republic, her lack of a cogent approach to the Middle East, her downplaying of human rights, especially with China, her role in allowing Iran to reach a nuclear weapons capability, her pay-for-play influence paddling, her use of a private server to cover up her influence peddling, her mishandling of top secret information that jeopardized national security, her lying to the F.B.I. and congress, and her calling Trump Supporters “a Basket of Deplorables.” The list is longer and it does not include her poor judgement as First Lady in Arkansas and in the White House. She has enough baggage to sink the Titanic. And what we know about her is the tip of the iceberg.

[jonrick46]

That’s how I see it too. Trump can out Alinsky the Alinskyites. The spew out the next Alinsky attack and WTH it has boomeranged and is hitting them in the teeth. They thought they had it made with those damned Rules.

[jonrick46]

One of the issues in this election is Hillary’s long list of poor judgement. That she used a porn star, a drug lord’s significant other, and an accomplice in a murder is a reflection of her poor judgement. Trump had to make that case. He also caused her smear to blow back into her face. Check mate!