THE TRAGEDY OF TRUMP

At a rally in Florida Monday (8/08), Seddique Mateen, father of Omar Mateen, who murdered 49 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, sat behind the podium where Hillary Clinton was speaking.

Seddique is not responsible for his son’s horrific crime. But he has some fishy associations. Evidently Hillary – or at least some on her staff – have difficulty distinguishing between Moslem patriots such as Army Capt. Humayan Khan, and Islamist terrorists such as Omar Mateen.

A top official at the Clinton Foundation told State Department aides to give special access to a Lebanese businessman who pled guilty to laundering funds for a Nigerian dictator, emails released Tuesday (8/09) revealed.

Why?  Because Gilbert Chagoury pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009.

Handed two big clubs with which to pound his opponent, Donald Trump chose instead to beat his own brains out.

In a word salad in Wilmington, N.C. Tuesday, Trump said: “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is.”

That could be interpreted – as many Democrats and “mainstream” journalists were eager to do – as implying Hillary could be assassinated.  But that’s almost certainly not what The Donald intended to say.

He was trying to tell a joke, said Sen. Jeff Sessions. R-AL, Trump’s strongest supporter in Congress. But “You should not in any way suggest that violence could be used in this political system,” Sessions added. “That’s contrary to everything we believe in.”

Trump kept the flap alive through another news cycle by sending out spokespeople with conflicting, preposterous explanations for what he said.

He’s not going to pretend there is doubt any more about the outcome of the presidential election, said political analyst Stu Rothenberg. “We will look back and agree that the presidential election was over on Aug. 9.”

Americans have made up their minds about Donald Trump. The results are ugly.

“Do you think Donald Trump is qualified to serve as president?” the Washington Post asked. Sixty one percent said no. Just 37 percent in a Fox News poll, only 27 percent in a Monmouth poll think The Donald has the temperament to be president. Only 40 percent in the Fox poll think he has the knowledge to be president.

Apparently among those who agree with Stu Rothenberg are Donald Trump, his campaign manager, and his foremost enablers.  They’re making excuses, planning their exit strategies, pointing fingers away from themselves.

The election’s been rigged, The Donald said on multiple occasions last week.

A “longtime ally” of campaign manager Paul Manafort told CNBC’s John Harwood that Manafort “is mailing it in. Staff suicidal.”

“If in 96 days Trump loses this election, I am pointing the finger directly at people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and John McCain,” said Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity.

The GOP was in “freefall” before Trump, said radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Since Barack Obama’s election, Republicans have gained 13 seats in the Senate, 69 in the House of Representatives, 11 governors, and more than 900 seats in state legislatures.

The GOP is in freefall now, thanks to Trump. Analysts think Republicans will lose the Senate, maybe the House too.

As poll after poll indicates Hillary will crush The Donald, Trumpkins retreat into a fantasy world.

“Social media patterns show Trump is looking at a landslide victory,” said Joe Hoft at Gateway Pundit. Trump has 10.17 million “likes” on Facebook, while Hillary has just 5.39 million. Trump has 10.6 million followers on Twitter, Hillary just 8.1million.

This is beyond asinine. More than 130 million will vote in November. Trump may have more intensity of support, but nowhere near the breadth of support Hillary does.

So is this. “If you take away the polls, show me evidence Hillary is winning,” said Trumpkin Bill Mitchell, a radio talk show host.

“Take away the only useful form of evidence, then demand evidence?” mocked Patrick Tomlinson. “Good work, Skippy.”

No one was more responsible for foisting Trump on the GOP than Hannity and Limbaugh.

“While he is not at all a bright guy, (Hannity) seems to be able to see this handwriting on the wall, and appears to be already desperately concocting a narrative to protect himself from the attacks which will be coming his way,” said radio talk show host John Ziegler.

“Any conservative media member who backed Trump…was either a complete moron or a lying, ratings-driven fraud,” Ziegler said.

Yesterday (8/10), the WaPo reported on a polling of “Walmart moms who feel ‘nauseated’ by the choice of Clinton or Trump.”  “It’s like choosing which arm to cut off,” one of them said.

Clinton is an immoral, lying, corrupt disgrace.  Trump is simply a tragedy.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  He is the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.