When Don Trump sewed up enough votes to secure the nomination, Republicans at all levels hurried to queue up behind him. No matter what had been said in the primaries, there was the good of the party, the will of the voters, Reagan’s 11th commandment, and the most compelling force in conservatism “that’s the way we always done it” all working to get their cabooses tied to the Trump train.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Cleveland: Donald Trump kept talking. Republican officials who had apparently passed the primary season in a cone of silence started to notice that, even by the standards of a party that embraces both Louie Gohmert and Ted Cruz, what Trump was saying seemed … unsupported? No, that’s okay. Stupid? Uh, didn’t we just say Gohmert? So blatantly racist, nationalist, misogynistic, and religiously intolerant that it was clear he’d traded in his dog whistle for a bullhorn? Not really a problem. They noticed that his polls were dropping? That! They noticed that!
Mitch McConnell is the latest to gently remove his trunk from Trump’s tail and move into not quite #NeverTrump land.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he has reservations about the candidate at the top the 2016 Republican ticket: Donald Trump.
McConnell made headlines earlier this week for declining to say whether Trump is qualified for the presidency. … But in an interview with Washington, D.C. bureau reporter Geoff Bennett, McConnell said Trump is not yet a credible presidential candidate.
Naturally, the turtleman gives Trump plenty of pivot room, saying that he would need to change to win the general election and revealing what Republicans mean when they say “presidential.”
... people are looking for a level of seriousness that is typically conveyed by having a prepared text and Teleprompter and staying on message.
See, Trump’s problem isn’t that he’s a reality show idiot. It’s that he doesn’t know how to read a script. Notice what’s not in there? Any hint that the substance of what Trump is saying matters at all.
McConnell isn’t any different from many other Republican officials. He doesn’t care that Donald Trump is wrong, or uninformed, or dangerous. He just wants him to take a break in his 70 years of acting like a jackass and pretend to be a politician for four months.
McConnell, however, called Democrat Hillary Clinton "intelligent and capable" in the interview but said he hopes Republicans win the White House this fall.