How Can Anyone Be Surprised at What Trump Said

Here's just a little of what Trump said:

“I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump is heard saying. It was unclear when the events he was describing took place. The tape was recorded several months after he married his third wife, Melania.

“Whoa,” another voice said.

“I did try and f--- her. She was married,” Trump says.

Trump continues: “And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’”

“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump says. “Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

Only after this are Republicans saying they cannot support Trump. They are shocked and outraged over this. Really!

A little sampling of the "outrage" from Republican officials:

“As disappointed as I’ve been with his antics throughout this campaign, I thought supporting the nominee was the best thing for our country and our party,” Rep. Martha Roby (Ala.) said in a statement. “Now, it is abundantly clear that the best thing for our country and for our party is for Trump to step aside and allow a responsible, respectable Republican to lead the ticket.”

Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire senator in a tight reelection race, who had said she supported but did not endorse Trump, tweeted Saturday morning that she would not vote for him and would instead write in Pence.

“I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ayotte said in a statement.

Just amazing. Just amazing. But not all that surprising. Republicans, in general, long ago put their party above what was best for this country. And that has now come home to roost in the guise of Donald Trump.

The fake outrage is best summed up by a column by E.J. Dionne in the Post:

Maybe the Republicans who are now oh-so-outraged and are pulling their endorsements have done their political calculations. They figured that they could write off African Americans, Muslims and Latinos, but could not possibly offend all women, too. Perhaps they remembered the things they have said about “family values” and the importance of “character” and realized they just couldn’t roll with this one.

But if they cared about “character” and “family values,” Trump had already made clear that these meant nothing to him. This is a guy who bragged about sleeping with (terribly Victorian of me, I know, to use that term) married women.

Once again what matters to Republican was using the people who supported Trump to ride to victory. Just as they used the Tea Party to gain the House and then the Senate. Making all sorts of promises they knew they would never keep. They thought they could control these people. Then they found out they couldn't.

Trump is the result.

But still establishment Republicans thought each time he says something outrageous will just go tsk tsk. Say how bad he is and that he needs to change. They dismissed any and all over the top statements by Trump as a reason not to support him. Now they're shocked by what he says.

Dana Milbank has a great column in the Post he says in part:

Here, for the benefit of those Republicans feigning surprise about Trump’s video, is a partial catalogue of reported remarks Trump has made about women — remarks which, by embracing Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, office holders in the party have already condoned.

There then follows a long list of just some of Trump's comments. Click here to see the whole list.

The important thing to note about this column is that this is only a partial list of the incredible statements made by Trump.

But most Republicans are once again giving Trump cover and excusing what he said. The Post editorial board hits on the mark in their editorial. This is what I think is the most important part of it:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan correctly described Donald Trump’s 2005 taped sexually predatory conversation as “sickening,” but anyone interested in the health of the Republican Party should focus on the next part of Mr. Ryan’s statement. The sentence that counts — the statement that reveals the amoral, abject corruption at the heart of the Republican Party in this sad season — is this: “I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests.”

Thus did the Republican Party once again initiate the same pathetic little dance it has performed with its party’s nominee from the beginning. Claim the moral high ground; insist on improvement, as if improvement were a relevant concept in this situation; and then, when nothing improves, pronounce yourself satisfied nonetheless. It’s true that this time some Republicans are jumping ship, including (finally) former presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Sen. John Thune (S.D.), part of the GOP Senate leadership. But vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Republican Chairman Reince Priebus and most other office-holders continue to join Mr. Ryan in pretending that Mr. Trump is not what we all know him to be. Are they fooling themselves, or just fearful of offending the Trump supporters whose votes they need in other races? Either way, the effect is the same.

 And so the campaign goes on. And the moral decay of the Republican Party continues. But that's all that much of a surprise.