We begin today’s roundup with a scathing editorial from The New York Times on “spineless” Republicans who still support Donald Trump:
Sure, some have come out with strong criticisms, but none have gone far enough. Repudiation of his candidacy is the only principled response. [...]
Few carry as much weight on military matters as Senator John McCain of Arizona, himself a decorated hero of the Vietnam War, who issued a statement Monday sharply criticizing Mr. Trump, saying, “It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party.”
It’s hard to imagine, a year into the campaign, that Mr. Trump could ever set such an example. The truth is, it’s time for Mr. McCain and other Republican leaders to set an example for their party by withdrawing support for Mr. Trump.
Here’s Ryan Cooper’s take at The Week:
Literally nothing in American politics is more universally valorized than soldiers who have died in combat. It's hard to imagine a more pointless and politically damaging fight for Trump to pick.
Trump, for all his facility with manipulating the media, is at bottom an impulsive and profoundly ignorant racist bully. But the reaction from establishment Republicans is equally damning. With a few exceptions, they have squirmed and rationalized past Trump's comments. It's a portrait of a party in utter moral and intellectual freefall. [...]
[No Republican leaders have] rescinded their endorsement. The reason is obvious: Many Republican voters are fine with bigotry. They support Trump's big wall to keep out Latinos. They support his Muslim ban. Ninety percent of Republicans want Trump to win. He is now the party's center of gravity.
Margaret Hartmann at New York Magazine also takes Republicans to task for their reaction to Trump’s attack on a Gold Star family:
While some have embraced Trump and a smaller number have revolted against him, most Republicans are somewhere in the middle, trying “to avoid the taint of Trump’s racist ideas while maintaining the support of the voters who are attracted to them.” [...] it looks like when it comes to Trump, they’re totally committed to passive-aggressive resistance. When the Trump campaign asked Republicans in Congress to issue statements backing him up in his fight against Khan, they responded by leaking the memo to the press.
At The Daily Beast, Olivia Nuzzi chronicles 15 hours of Donald Trump’s lies:
The lying started at 7:27 a.m. and did not stop until after dark.
Even for Donald Trump, Monday, Aug. 1, was a banner day for bullshit.
On a final note, The Washington Post’s Eugene Robsinons asks if Donald Trump is competent for office:
During the primary season, as Donald Trump’s bizarre outbursts helped him crush the competition, I thought he was being crazy like a fox. Now I am increasingly convinced that he’s just plain crazy.
I’m serious about that. Leave aside for the moment Trump’s policies, which in my opinion range from the unconstitutional to the un-American to the potentially catastrophic. At this point, it would be irresponsible to ignore the fact that Trump’s grasp on reality appears to be tenuous at best.