Welcome back to our evening roundup of Donald Trump news, now certified as a genuine Circle of Hell. Visitors are reminded to keep their wrist bracelets on and visible at all times and to stay with their tour groups.
We begin where we always begin, with Donald Trump being insane and the subsequent dispatch of willing surrogates to the various network shows to explain that his latest angry grunting noise was, in fact, quite clever and not at all the ravings of a lunatic mind. The particulars this weekend were Trump's repeated declarations that the crooked media and the crooked voters were rigging the election against him; the surrogates sent out to pretend this is a rational claim for the Republican nominee for the presidency to make were Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, et al.
With the scene set, let us dispatch with the rest of it.
• In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Melania Trump defended her husband from her husband's 2005 taped admission of sexual assaults. She declared that it was Billy Bush's fault: It was "boy talk, and he was led on—like, egged on—from the host to say dirty and bad stuff." You may now search Twitter for the resulting #billybushmademedoit hashtag; we will not judge you here.
• She also declared her husband's attacks on Bill Clinton fair game, saying the Clintons were "asking for it" after pictures from Melania's modeling career were reprinted in the press. Yup, she seems nice.
• An apparent firebombing of a North Carolina Republican office was met by the Clinton campaign with swift condemnation, and by Donald Trump with a tweeted claim that "animals representing Hillary Clinton" were behind it.
• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is standing by Trump after a Clinton campaign ad tying candidate and lunatic together.
• CNN Trump analyst Corey Lewandowski was caught this weekend trying to hide his face from the media while getting off Trump's private jet. Maybe he just needed a lift to the studio?
• Top Democratic lawmakers Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi issued a statement condemning "rigged" claims as contrary to the "basic functioning of our democracy." The statement also specifically called out the failure of House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell to similarly affirm the inherent fairness of the process, calling it "complicity."
• We're going to have to make Ryan and McConnell's Vow of Trump Silence into an ongoing feature, it seems. Along with Trump's increasingly irate attacks on them for not defending him properly.
• Trump and Trump surrogate claims that illegitimate voters will be rigging the election against him in certain non-Republican neighborhoods continue to carry racist overtones, because of course they do.
• Also dipping his toe into "rigged election" waters: Rep. Steve King.
• Some Trump-wary Republicans are continuing to (veeery gently) push back against Trump's "rigged election" claims, quite possibly fearing that the talk will suppress Republican base turnout. If you think the outcome of the election is rigged, after all, why would you bother voting?
• There may be a year when we can retire the "both sides" trope from the political lexicon. But readers are not advised to hold their breath.
• Anticipating a Trump loss, Arizona Sen. John McCain broadly promised that Senate Republicans would be "united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up." A spokesperson walked back that promise to deny Clinton any appointments to the court later in the day, amending it to a statement that McCain "believes you can only judge people by their record". Oops?
• Sen. Richard Burr appeared to take Trump's line on the Russia-backed hacking of the DNC, refusing to concede that the intelligence community had identified Russia as the actor behind the efforts. This is especially awkward because Burr is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and was almost certainly briefed on Russian involvement by that intelligence community.
• Trump adviser A.J. Delgado denied that Trump attacked women who accused him of sexual assault by claiming they were unattractive, despite the rest of us watching that happen.
• Rep. Joe Heck is getting considerable flak from his base for unendorsing Trump. While Heck portrays his change of heart as an expression of principle, it may also have something to do with his opponent edging ahead in the polls.
• As Trump's support continues to ebb, now even Arizona appears to be in play. Nationwide, one factor in the expanding map is Latino voters' overwhelming opposition to Trump.
• The Trump campaign may not have a "ground game" to speak of, but downticket Republicans will be receiving tens of millions of dollars of campaign aid from the Koch brothers. Much of it is focused on door-to-door voter contact, encouraging Republican voters to turn out even if they can't stomach the man at the top of the ticket.
• "What if Putin insults him? Does he drop a bomb on Moscow or something? [...] I think he is a jackass and I don't think he's mentally balanced," says one Republican fundraiser. But he's still voting for him because he "can't stand" Clinton.
• Among the big losers of Trump's 2004 casino bankruptcy: His own employees, who had been encouraged by management to invest their retirement savings in the company's stock.
• Trump will not be appearing in Alaskan voters' state-produced voter's guides this election, because the campaign failed to submit an entry by the August 30th deadline.
• It may be easier at this point to list the people in the world Donald Trump does not consider to be involved in the worldwide secret conspiracy against him.