Octopus Overlords

Tic Tac released a statement denouncing Donald Trump after a video leaked in which the Republican nominee said he used the candy to freshen his breath before forcing himself on women he found attractive.

“Tic Tac respects all women,” the company said in a Twitter post on Saturday. “We find the recent statements and behavior completely inappropriate and unacceptable.”

Hamlet3145 wrote:And . . . Condoleezza is out too:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/condo ... le/2604023

A prominent Trump bundler told CBS News that he “could not tell you how many” calls he’s gotten from donors in the course of the last day. After the Washington Post first published the tape, people want their money back, he said. (The Republican party and the campaign’s fundraising apparatus is not returning donations.)

Smutly wrote: I don't support Trump. I just find him much less reprehensible than Hillary Clinton.

Smutly wrote: I don't support Trump. I just find him much less reprehensible than Hillary Clinton.

Smoove_B wrote:Donors demanding refunds:

A prominent Trump bundler told CBS News that he “could not tell you how many” calls he’s gotten from donors in the course of the last day. After the Washington Post first published the tape, people want their money back, he said. (The Republican party and the campaign’s fundraising apparatus is not returning donations.)

I don't care if it's a single person that wants a $10 donation back, the fact that it's a headline is hilarious.

Why now? And why this?

For the legion of Republicans who abandoned Donald Trump on Saturday, recoiling in horror from comments their party's White House nominee made about using his fame to prey on women, there is no escaping those questions.

For months, they stomached his incendiary remarks about Mexicans, Muslims, prisoners of war, a Gold Star military family and a Hispanic judge, along with offensive statements about women too numerous to count. Democratic critics argue that their silence — or the promise to vote for Trump, but not endorse him — amounted to tacit approval of misogyny and racism.

There were no good answers Saturday, and few Republicans attempted to offer any.

Some, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, didn't say anything at all about the top of the party's ticket. A steady stream of others revoked their endorsements or called for Trump to drop out of the race, condemning the New York billionaire in emailed statements and carefully crafted tweets.

Those fleeing from Trump may ultimately say it was the shock of hearing and seeing the businessman's crudeness on video that prompted them to finally walk away. On Friday, The Washington Post and NBC News both released a 2005 recording of Trump describing attempts to have sex with a married woman. His words were caught on a live microphone while talking with Billy Bush, then a host of "Access Hollywood."

Some may draw a distinction between Trump's outrageous earlier comments about women, minorities and others by noting that this time, the businessman wasn't just being offensive — he was describing actions that could be considered sexual assault. In the video, Trump is heard saying that his fame allows him to "do anything" to women.

"Grab them by the p----. You can do anything," he says.

But with a month until Election Day, and early voting already underway in several states, the truest answer to why Republicans are dropping Trump now — and why they're dropping him over this — is likely political.

During the Republican primary, GOP officials worried that disavowing Trump would alienate his supporters and hurt the party in congressional races. In the general election, Trump's crass behavior also seemed easier for Republicans to tolerate when stacked up against Democrat Hillary Clinton, a candidate so reviled by many in the GOP that virtually nothing Trump did seemed worse than the prospect of her becoming president.

But these new revelations come at a time when the White House race seems to be slipping away from Trump. He's been unable to attract support beyond that offered by his core backers. His performance in the first debate was undisciplined and he followed it up by tangling with a beauty queen whom he shamed two decades ago for gaining weight.

"There were people who were just starting to feel like this ship was going down and now this gives people a good excuse to jump off," said Katie Packer, a Republican strategist who advised Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign and led an unsuccessful effort to prevent Trump from becoming the GOP nominee.

While some Republicans expressed astonishment and dismay over Trump's 2005 comments, those who steadfastly refused to endorse him throughout the campaign suggested their party knew full well what they were getting with the brash real estate mogul and reality TV star.

"Nothing that has happened in the last 48 hours is surprising to me or many others," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was critical of Trump when he ran against him in the primary and has remained so for months.

Privately, even Republicans who didn't formally revoke their support for Trump conceded there was little he could do to right his campaign at this point. Early voting is already underway in some key states and the comments aired in the video will likely be unforgivable with independent women, a constituency Trump desperately needs to win if he has any hope of beating Clinton.

The last hope now for many Republicans is that an unimaginable election year will still end with the GOP in control of the Senate. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, both locked in tight races, joined the parade of officials Saturday who said they simply couldn't stand by Trump anymore.

For Ayotte, the move earned her no quarter from her Democratic opponent, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan.

"She has had one example after the next of Donald Trump's despicable words and his despicable behavior as reasons that she should have disavowed him," Hassan said. "It took her until now when the revelation of his comments from a decade ago were made to decide that politically she couldn't stand with him anymore."

Look for more of the same in races nationwide. Democrats made clear Saturday they would spend the next month trying to ensure they and other Republicans get no credit for walking away now.

So long, farewell...So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu!

Smoove_B wrote:I wasn't going to watch the debate tomorrow night, but I'm thinking now there's a good chance Donald is going to get all coked up and come out swinging. I mean...what could he possibly do or say that's worse than this?

Carpet_pissr wrote:

Smutly wrote: I don't support Trump. I just find him much less reprehensible than Hillary Clinton.

Then you're either blind, in denial or both. I would love to see someone try to prove with say three examples, how Trump is less reprehensible than Clinton.

My God, the mental gymnastics you must have to go through if you actually believe that.

Rip wrote:*crickets*

Max Peck wrote:The saga of the Trump Foundation continues...

The New York attorney general's office has ordered Donald Trump's charitable foundation to immediately stop fundraising in the state, saying it isn't registered to do so.

The head of the attorney general's Charities Bureau, James Sheehan, wrote in a letter to a lawyer for the Republican presidential nominee's foundation that the failure to stop immediately and answer demands for all delinquent financial reports within 15 days "shall be deemed a continuing fraud upon the people of the state of New York." The letter was dated and sent Friday.

Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been investigating the Donald J. Trump Foundation following Washington Post reports that foundation spending personally benefited the presidential candidate. The newspaper, citing tax records, also reported that the charity has been funded entirely from outside donations since 2008, when the candidate made his last contribution to it.

The attorney general's office said the Trump Foundation had a registration for an organization with assets in New York but the law requires a different registration for those that solicit more than $25,000 a year from the public.

"Based on information received by the Charities Bureau to date, the Trump Foundation was engaged in solicitation or fundraising activities in New York State in 2016 and was not registered with the Charities Bureau pursuant to Article 7-A, and thus was not permitted to engage in such activity during this period," Sheehan wrote.

The Trump campaign has said the foundation intends to cooperate with the investigation. The campaign previously called Schneiderman "a partisan hack who has turned a blind eye to the Clinton Foundation for years and has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president."

"While we remain very concerned about the political motives behind A.G. Schneiderman's investigation, the Trump Foundation nevertheless intends to cooperate fully with the investigation," Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Monday.

In September interviews, Schneiderman told Politico that in June his office had communicated with foundation lawyers about what appeared to be an unlawful campaign contribution and didn't make a public fuss about it and hold a press conference.

"If I'm a traffic cop, but I'm a Democrat, and (Trump) speeds by me, I have to give him a ticket. It's that simple. Charities have to follow the rules," Schneiderman told "CBS This Morning."

His spokesman Eric Soufer said Monday, "The attorney general's office is the sole regulator of charities in New York State, and when evidence of clear misconduct is brought to our attention, we take action."

The Clinton Foundation failed to properly file non-profit paperwork required by New York state for years and did not disclose government grants on its filings as required by law, yet Attorney General Eric Schneiderman gave it a pass.

A search of the New York charities database by The Post found that for the years 2010 through 2014, the Clinton Foundation was years late in submitting the required paperwork to raise money in New York — waiting until 2016.

Rip wrote:Nothing to say. In a world where a POTUS gets blowjobs from interns and has been the subject of numerous sexual assault allegations the latest news ins't really noteworthy.

Unagi wrote:Um. No tgb.
He means it entirely the way a monkey would mean it.

Rip wrote:Nothing to say. In a world where a POTUS gets blowjobs from interns and has been the subject of numerous sexual assault allegations the latest news ins't really noteworthy.