We now return to our daily roundup of the Donald J. Trump campaign. Today was October 7th, 2016, the day the presidential race gave all of America the dry heaves. I don't even want to recap it. None of us deserve this. And yet here we are ... and Donald Trump remains in the race.
Today tape surfaced of Donald Trump bragging about committing sexual assaults. Despite the delicate headlines in much of the press, this was not "lewd conversation" or "locker room talk"; this was bragging about committing assaults because, according to Trump, "when you're a star they let you do it." If someone you know professes to not know the difference, you should probably avoid knowing them. If a political pundit does not know the difference, you might gently point out to their network that they probably should take another job.
Trump very quickly issued a statement saying—not kidding—that he apologized “if anyone was offended."
What effect this new news of the Republican now-presidential nominee bragging on tape about committing sexual assault and getting away with it will have any effect on the race is—not kidding on this one either—still hazy. Because the Republican Party has fallen just that very far, to the point where it's not at all clear that a presidential candidate bragging about getting away with sexual assaults would be a deal-breaker. There are still tax cuts to be had, after all. There are still anti-abortion laws to write.
Oh, in other news the United States government made an official announcement that they were now "confident" that the overseas hacking of U.S. political organizations was indeed conducted with the knowledge and approval of the Russian government. That's right. That's not even the lead story today. That's just page 2 stuff now.
Honestly, I think we can just stop there. There's no point in even covering the rest of it. You're sick, I'm sick, we're all completely sick of talking about the great orange human shitstain that the Republican Party base decided was the perfect man for making America great again.
But this is the job, and we have to go forward knowing that just because hell's own Cheeto was caught bragging about assaulting women and getting away with it because he was "a star" doesn't mean he won't still be getting the same votes from the same people next week that were voting for him last week. So here we goddamn go.
• Before all of that, today's big story was likely to be Donald Trump's insistence that the so-called "Central Park Five", a group of black men who were infamously (and falsely) charged with the 1989 assault of a jogger in New York's Central Park, were guilty despite DNA evidence exonerating them. His reasoning: The police doing the original investigation said so. Does it matter that the DNA proved another man was the actual culprit? Nope. Does it matter that the police coerced confessions from the innocent men through food and sleep deprivation? Nope. Because that's what Donald Trump means when he promises to make America great again: To hell with the evidence, from now on we'll be going with whatever the loud rich guy says.
• The Russian government has lodged a formal complaint over the U.N. high commissioner on human rights' condemnation of Donald Trump's far-right nationalism. Yeah. That happened.
• The press pool following vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was removed from the restaurant Pence was dining at when the Trump tape broke.
• Trump's base is peddling notions that the government may be lying to them about Hurricane Matthew's danger in order to "exaggerate" the effects of climate change. Welcome to modern Republicanism.
• Ties between Trump and the racist right continue to strengthen, with two nativist anti-immigration groups acknowledging that they consulted with the Trump campaign on Trump's immigration policy.
• Trump yesterday attended a "town hall" event that appeared to be planned as preparation for Sunday's upcoming presidential debate; it didn't go well, with Trump dodging every question, then leaving halfway through. But he still had time to answer the question of one prominent supporter: Al Baldasaro, who previously demanded Hillary Clinton be executed by firing squad.
• Trump hits a new historic mark with exactly zero major newspaper endorsements for the presidency. That's the first time that's ever happened.
• Trump continues to promote notions of rampant potential voter fraud in the election, asking his base to "protect" voting places to prevent it. This poses the very real danger of belligerent and untrained volunteer "poll watchers" showing up at polling places to accost or intimidate legitimate voters.
• The time Trump personally went to Congress to ask for a tax break. The man certainly knows how to take care of himself.
• Florida Gov. Rick Scott's insistence that his state's voter registration deadline would not be extended no matter how much damage Hurricane Matthew might wreak may or may not be related to the overwhelming drubbing Democrats are delivering to Republicans when it comes to registering those state voters.
• Planned Parenthood says they will be spending $30 million in a massive effort to defeat Trump.