“Every
few generations, we Americans are called upon to defend our country. To defend
it not so much from foreign dictators or war or terrorism, but from those here
who have no commitment to progress or democracy or representative government—no
commitment to anything except their own out-of-control minds and the bottomless
pits of their egos.
“Our
society has thrown up these people before: Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace,
Father Coughlin, Jefferson Davis, Aaron Burr, The Know-Nothings, the
Blacklisters, the America-Firsters, and we have always thrown them out.
“And
now our generation has its own: the most dangerous individual ever nominated by
a major party for the highest office in this country. His base wants few
details and fewer facts; they just want to burn it down and blame their
failures on the collective other. And Donald
John Trump is their demonic messiah in Oompa Loompa's clothing!
“We
must stop him. It is not pleasant. It is not fair that we have to do this. But
it is our turn...
“The
Emperor's New Clothes quality to the Trump campaign has survived these 15
months because, as we react to each outrage, our shock and revulsion has been
refracted like light through a prism.
“But
these outrages are not separate events, not even a pattern. They are, simply,
Donald Trump! Seen all at once, they—and he—are horrifying. You must see them
‘all at once.’
“Thus—in
brief—the story so far:
“The
Republican party has actually nominated for president a man who attacked the Pope.
“Who
attacked John McCain for being captured by the North
Vietnamese.
“Who
attacked Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan and then juxtaposed their names with the phrase ‘Radical
Islamic Terrorism.’
“Who
attacked Hillary Clinton as a ‘bigot.’ Who attacked her as ‘brainwashed.’ As ‘unhinged.’ As ‘a monster.’ As ‘the devil.’ As ‘the most corrupt candidate ever’—showing her face
on piles of hundred-dollar bills and the Star of David.
“Who
attacked her as someone whom ‘Second Amendment people’ should do something
about. As someone whose religion ‘we don't know anything about’—after he
explained he had never asked God for forgiveness.
“Who
attacked President Obama and implied he was a traitor. Who attacked him as having been complicit in the Orlando terrorist attack. Who
attacked him for having lower approval ratings than Vladimir Putin, as if
Putin's approval ratings could be trusted. Who attacked him as being born in another country. Who attacked him as the founder of ISIS, then said it was sarcasm, then said it wasn't sarcasm, then attacked him again as the founder of ISIS.
“Who attacked Carly Fiorina for her face; Hillary Clinton for her non-presidential ‘look’; Heidi Cruz for her appearance; Megyn Kelly for having ‘blood coming out of her
wherever’; Mika Brzezinski as ‘crazy and very dumb,’ ‘neurotic,’ ‘not very bright.’
“Who
attacked the women who accused Roger Ailes of harassment. Who attacked
the women who choose abortion—and said there should be punishments.
“Who
attacked a New York Times reporter because he had a condition that made his arms look atypical; who
attacked Judge Gonzalo Curiel because he was of Mexican
descent; who attacked Senator Elizabeth Warren over allegedly lying about her
heritage to get into Harvard when she never went to Harvard; who
attacked Senator Jeff Flake by saying he won't be re-elected this year, when Senator Flake isn't up for
election until 2018.
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and claimed they stole
millions; who has attacked Ted Cruz's father and claimed he was connected to
the assassination of President Kennedy; attacked Bill Clinton and claimed he was a rapist!
“Who
attacked Mexicans as rapists, bringing drugs and crime;
who attacked African-Americans and claimed they were all
living in poverty with no jobs and schools that were no good; who attacked Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as a ‘war zone’ and
attacked the United States of America and claimed it is in a
‘death spiral.’
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who lied about
opposing the war in Iraq when there is a tape of him supporting it, a tape recorded on the first anniversary of 9/11.
“Who
lied about opposing the war in Iraq during a speech in which he insisted, ‘I will never lie to
you.’
“Who
lied about six million dollars in charitable donations to veterans’ groups from his telethon; who lied
about donating his profits from The Apprentice, about charitable donations
from The Celebrity Apprentice, from ‘Trump the Game’ and to St. Jude Cancer Center.
“Who
lied about a plan to debate Bernie Sanders for charity. Who
lied about why he wouldn't release his taxes because he was being audited and then proved himself a liar by saying he would release
his taxes if Hillary Clinton released her e-mails; who lied about how much money his father gave him helping him get out of college; who lied about sending his private jet to ferry stranded U.S. servicemen;
who lied about talking to the Attorney General of Florida, who
declined to investigate Trump University after she had been given a campaign donation; who lied about his business in
Russia; who lied about meeting Russian president Putin; who lied about offering child care to his employees, when it was child
care for his hotel guests; who lied about ‘some people’ wanting a moment of silence for the murderer of five Dallas
policemen; who lied about seeing thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating
9/11; who lied about 9/11 hijackers sending their wives and girlfriends home to Saudi Arabia.
“Who
lied about thousands of Syrian refugee terrorists being secretly admitted to this country; who lied about
the Chicago police urging him to cancel a rally; who
lied about the Chicago police saying they could solve crime there with ‘tough police tactics’; who lied about how there was no drought in California, how he never said Japan should have nuclear weapons, how he opposed
the ouster of Egyptian president Mubarak, how the unemployment
rate is 42 percent.
“Who
lied about ISIS making millions a week selling Libyan oil; who lied about dozens of secret terrorist cases in this country; who lied
that a protester who tried to rush onto his stage had
‘ties to ISIS’; who lied last May and again last week about refugees entering this country
carrying cell phones with ‘ISIS flags on them’ and phone plans pre-paid by
ISIS!
“Can
you hear me now?!
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who congratulated
himself in two tweets and a press release for predicting terrorist attacks
like Orlando, while bodies still lay in the Pulse nightclub.
“Who
congratulated himself after the killing of Dwyane Wade's cousin. Who congratulated himself
on predicting Brexit, even though three weeks
earlier he had never heard of Brexit.
“Who
congratulated himself on Republican Convention TV ratings, even though those for his closing
speech were lower than John McCain's. Who congratulated himself by
disseminating a video
showing how much of that speech's total running time was taken up by applause. Who
congratulated himself on having ‘the world's greatest memory,’ then three weeks
later testified in a deposition he had no memory of ever saying that.
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who has proposed
that Russia or China should enact a Watergate-like hacking of Hillary Clinton's e-mails; who has
proposed banning Muslims from entering this country, then said it
was only a suggestion, then proposed it again; whose running mate has
proposed banning members of other religions; who has proposed open racial profiling; who has proposed banning people
from ‘terror nations,’ saying, ‘Look it up, they have a
list’! Who has proposed ‘ideological certification’ for immigrants; who
has proposed worse than waterboarding while praising how Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un handled protest and terrorism; who
has proposed that American civilians be tried by military commissions at Gitmo; who has proposed killing the families of terrorists or suspected terrorists.
“A
man who has proposed teaching mandatory patriotism in schools; proposed that his
supporters appoint themselves as election-day voting
monitors; proposed making American protection of fellow NATO members C-O-D; whose campaign proposed purging the government of all Obama appointees;
proposed avoiding government debt by printing more money; proposed reducing national
debt by paying less than we agreed to; proposed
forestalling new financial regulations by executive order—and then
in the same speech proposed eliminating some executive orders.
“A
man who proposed a wall along the Mexican border to keep out
undocumented immigrants; proposed mass deportation of undocumented immigrants;
proposed a smaller wall and fewer deportations during a
taped TV interview that played at the same moment he was giving a
speech in Phoenix insisting on a larger wall and more
deportations.
“A
man who has proposed immediately expelling at least two to three million undocumented immigrants, even though this would
be like trying to evacuate the city of Chicago in one day; proposed immediately
expelling any others not convicted—but merely accused—of a crime.
“A
man who has proposed to enact all this by executive action, bypassing Congress, even though
he employed undocumented immigrants himself in the building
of Trump Tower; even though those immigrants say he not only knew of them but
hired them personally; even though his own modeling agency and television shows enabled and
employed undocumented immigrants; even though his own wife may have worked here
without proper documentation; even though his own grandfather was reportedly not merely a
fraudulent emigrant to this country, but was also denied re-entry to Germany
because he was a draft-dodger.
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who claimed he
understood the sacrifice of losing a child in war because he had
spent money to hire employees; who has claimed he understood prejudice against African-Americans because the
system is also rigged against him; who claimed the election will be rigged against him; claimed the opinion polls are rigged against him, then
praised one of the exact same polls when it favored him; claimed he
would be leading those rigged polls by 20 points but for rigged media; claimed
Democrats are voting ten times each; claimed that his crowd in Colorado
Springs would've been larger but the fire marshal was a Democrat; claimed that his
speech in Washington would have drawn as many as Martin Luther King's ‘I Have a Dream’
speech, but ‘nobody would let them in.’
“A
man who has claimed he was his own best foreign-policy adviser; claimed that Putin will not
go into Ukraine when he already invaded Ukraine in 2014;
claimed the U.S. is paying rent for a military base in Saudi Arabia when the last one there closed in
2003; claimed that to avoid hacking, the military should stop communicating ‘on wires’ and
return to using messengers!
“A
man who has claimed that any candidate using a teleprompter should be ineligible, and then
himself began using a teleprompter; claimed that he
doesn't use notes for speeches during a speech he gave
primarily from notes! Claimed he will fix the problems of African-Americans, then days later suggested that
an African-American athlete protesting police shootings should leave
this country.
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who was revealed to
have asked his foreign-policy advisers three times in one hour why this country
can't use nuclear weapons if we have nuclear weapons—after
having asked a television interviewer the same question; who was revealed to have not
known what the ‘nuclear triad’ was.
“A
man who was revealed to have erased all his e-mails, including those sought in
a lawsuit for five years; revealed to have plagiarized 20 pages in his Trump Institute
handbook; revealed to have employed the purported author of his wife's
Convention speech, which plagiarized part of a speech written for Michelle
Obama by Hillary Clinton's former speechwriter; revealed to have said on his 2008 radio show that Hillary Clinton would ‘make
a good president!’
“A
man who was revealed to have admitted using the pseudonyms ‘John Barron’ and ‘John Miller’ while
pretending to be his own press spokesman and boasting of his sexual conquests
in the 1990s; revealed to have used the pseudonym ‘John Baron’ while his
company threatened his undocumented workers; revealed to
have telephoned one television network to alert it to something
positive being said about him on another television network.
“A
man revealed to have millions in outstanding loans to the Bank of China; revealed to have tried to make
investment deals with Muammar Gaddafi; revealed to have once kept a
book of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet near his bed!
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who has allied
himself with his campaign adviser and delegate, who said Hillary Clinton should
be shot by firing squad for treason; who has allied himself
with another campaign adviser who mused about waterboarding Hillary Clinton; who has allied
himself with an African-American pastor who disseminated an image of Hillary
Clinton in blackface; who has allied himself with his own
son, who follows a series of white-supremacist Twitter accounts.
“A
man who has allied himself with at least seven campaign staffers who have disseminated
racist and/or violent messages on social media; who has allied himself with a
state campaign co-chairman who tweeted: ‘Lynch Loretta Lynch’; who has allied
himself with an Illinois Trump delegate who is a white supremacist; a California Trump delegate
who is a white-nationalist leader; a former personal butler who wrote on Facebook that President Obama
should be ‘hung for treason.’
“A
man who has allied himself with three different campaign chiefs: the first who manhandled a woman reporter, then lied
about it; the second who was listed to receive $12 million from
a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine; the third who has been accused under
oath of anti-Semitic comments and domestic violence.
“A
man who has allied himself with a foreign-policy adviser accused under oath of anti-Semitic comments; with a New York State co-chair who suggested Khizr Khan
supports ISIS and is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood; with a close adviser who says a Clinton aide could be a ‘Saudi
spy’ or ‘terrorist agent.’
“A
man who has allied himself with a former campaign state chairman accused of drawing a gun on another campaign staffer; with a
conspiracy-theorist radio host who claims the Newtown school shootings were a hoax; with a political
operative so corrupt he was once fired—by Republicans—for falsifying evidence…against Hillary Clinton.
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who has offered to
pay the legal fees of any supporter who becomes
physically violent against a heckler; who encouraged crowd members to harass
and threaten a reporter, whom he called out by name and who
then needed Secret Service protection; who accepted a military medal from an audience member and said, ‘I
always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier’; who conducted a
news conference to introduce his running mate, only to spend the first 25 minutes
talking only about himself! Whose prominent Latino surrogate warned Mexican immigration would put ‘taco
trucks on every corner’—four months after the nominee commemorated Cinco de
Mayo by tweeting a photo of himself eating from a taco
bowl!
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president a man who tweeted thanks to singer Billy Joel for
dedicating songs to him, never realizing Joel was, by doing so, mocking him; who gave a trade speech in Monessen,
Pennsylvania, standing in front of a wall made out of bales of compressed garbage; who bragged during a
presidential debate about the size of his genitalia; who gave a television interview while seated in front of a photograph
of himself wearing the same suit, shirt, and tie; who appeared, in a joint news
conference with the president of Mexico, with two bobby pins visible, holding
his hairdo in place!
“The
Republican Party has actually nominated for president an irresponsible,
unrealistic, naive, petulant, childish, vindictive, prejudiced, bigoted,
racist, Islam-o-phobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, fascistic, authoritarian,
insensitive, erratic, disturbed, irrational, inhuman individual named Donald
John Trump.
“This…is
madness!
“Any
questions?!”
Keith
Olbermann is GQ’s new special correspondent.
For Transcript:
One Hundred and Seventy-Six Reasons Why Trump Shouldn’t Be President by Keith Olbermann
One Hundred and Seventy-Six Reasons Why Trump Shouldn’t Be President by Keith Olbermann
Keith has, as usual, covered it all, and it's nice to have it all in one place for future reference. Thanks, Mr. Brown, for bumping it along. This needs to be read--and read again. The prospect of this self-loving lunatic being elected gives me nightmares at night. During waking hours I have to fight rage as the relentless media coverage of this guy plays on and on.
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