With less than a month to go, all hell is breaking loose in the Republican Party. And Donald Trump couldn't be happier to watch it happen. Welcome to your daily roundup of Trump campaign news, which continues to be R rated because this is your Republican Party now, America. Cherish it.
• The day started as yesterday ended, with the Republican presidential nominee declaring all-out war against Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. The cause: Ryan's reluctance to stand behind Trump's taped bragging about sexual assault. That's right, the campaign collection of Trump, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon cannot fathom why the House Speaker would want to devote his limited remaining time to propping up Republican candidates who have not yet been caught on tape bragging about using their fame to molest women, because of course they can't.
This really is the perfect culmination of the alt-right-boosted campaign. Not one of us ever made up an endgame quite as apropos as the real one turned out to be: A mostly-male, nearly-all-white Republican base led by some of the worst human beings in America not only insisting that their candidate be allowed to talk about sexually assaulting women, but demanding absolutely loyalty from the rest of their nauseated party after he does. And Republican leaders can’t do a thing about it because they carefully molded this most spiteful segment of their party—angry, racist, sexist, and conspiratorial—for a decade. Fox News’ whole existence has been a buildup to this campaign.
• As far as those House Republicans go, they're screwed. Those that attempt to stay above the fray, like Ryan, are being pilloried by the Republican base for abandoning Trump. Those that do stick with the candidate risk abandonment by voters who are fed up with Trump. Indeed, new poll numbers show that Republican candidates are equally wounded by either choice, rendering election day damage unavoidable.
• A self-decribed-as-"unshackled" Trump is now doubling down on the nastiest of his prior racist rhetoric, asking his supporters to "watch other communities, because we don't want this election stolen from us." He’s also releasing new ads that are among the more unhinged offerings of the season.
• Breitbart head Steve Bannon's complete control of the campaign was evinced debate night with the presentation of a collection of 1990's-era Bill Clinton accusers, at least one of which allowed that her presence was being paid for by Breitbart "news" (the campaign later clarified that she must not have meant that, what with that being illegal and all.) Further evidence can be found in Trump's new personalized war against Paul Ryan: At Breitbart, Bannon declared Ryan "the enemy" in staff calls and declared his "long game" to be Ryan's forced exit. He also bragged of running the Breitbart site as Trump's "campaign manager" in August of 2015.
Standing behind Trump no matter what:
• Gov. Chris Christie, who says "this election is about bigger issues" than Trump's boasts of sexual assault.
• Ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani, who agrees with Trump that the Central Park Five were guilty despite DNA evidence exonerating them.
• Qusay Trump, who hewed closely to the party line in explaining that such talk (bragging about sexual assault) is common among "alpha" men like his father. Thanks for weighing in, Qusay.
• Man-who-has-a-selfie-of-himself-with-Jesus Ben Carson, who went on CNN to explain that talk of assaulting women was common among men, telling CNN host Brianna Keilar he was "surprised you hadn't heard that" and that "maybe that's the problem."
• Mike Huckabee, who went on CNN to explain that Trump was like the "vulgar", "salty" Captain Quint in the movie "Jaws", who's also "the guy who's going to save your butt." Upon which the host had to inform Mike Huckabee that the shark ate that guy.
• Trump spokesperson Katrina Peirson, who sniffed that Trump voters weren't voting for him because they wanted www.politico.com/..."an altar boy or someone they wanted their kids to look up to."
Clarifying their previous remarks:
• RNC spokesman Sean Spicer, who was caught on tape declaring that "I don't know" whether grabbing a woman "by the genitals" counts as sexual assault, now says he never said exactly what the tape records him saying.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions, who says he was "mischaracterized" when he responded to a near-identical question by saying "I don't characterize that as sexual assault." He now says his "hesitation" about answering the question was due to the "chaotic post-debate environment"—but so far refuses to clarify whether he does or does not think the behavior described by Trump is indeed assault. Jackass.
Elsewhere:
• Trump surrogate Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who spoke at the Republican National Convention not long ago, now faces criminal contempt charges for disobeying court orders meant to remedy longstanding racial profiling actions by his department.
• Despite previously calling Trump's remarks "impossible to justify", Sen. Marco Rubio reaffirmed his support for Trump today.
• Megachurch pastor James MacDonald calls Trump's leaked remarks "lecherous and worthless" and suggested he was the sort "who gets a punch in the head from worthy men who hear him talk that way"—but he's staying on Trump's evangelical advisory council unless something comes up that's worse.
• The Turtle of Capitol Hill continues to steadfastly refuse reporter requests to say anything at all about the presidential election.
• Trump lied about his income when faux-"disclosing" his income at the beginning of the campaign. It's not even clear at this point whether he has a net-positive income at all.
• As Trump's electoral chances continue to burrow deeper into the earth's crust, the largest pro-Clinton Super PAC is turning their attention to key Senate races.