House Speaker Paul Ryan described Donald Trump's Second Amendment gaffe as "a joke gone bad" and said: "I hope he clears it up very quickly." In regard to the Khans and their son being killed in Iraq: "His [the son's] sacrifice -- and that of Khizr and Ghajala -- should always be honored." And on Trump's verbal assault on Judge Gonzalo Curiel: "Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It's absolutely unacceptable. ..."
Danielle Allen, a writer for the Washington Post, takes Paul Ryan harshly to task for his refusal to completely sever his support for Trump. "Trump dwells in the realm of the suggestive to land his hits while also maintaining plausible deniability. The comment-that-can-never-really-be-cleared-up is his basic working method." "And what precisely is Ryan enabling? Not merely Trump but also a further and especially steep descent of American political culture into a nihilism corrosive enough to imperial the foundations of democracy and constitutional politics. Ryan has accepted marriage to Trump's immoral, unconstitutional commitments for the sake of the potential acquisition of power that will permit him to pursue his agenda." "If you have been given the opportunity of political leadership but undermine the foundations of democracy and constitutionalism in the process of trying to wield their powers, you will go down in history not as a statesman but as a self-serving, self-deceiving sycophant."
Paul Ryan is, of course, not the sole target of Danielle Allen's stinging indictment, as many other Republican leaders have accepted, by default or embrace of Donald Trump's many assaults on the basic foundations of our nation, as described so well by Danielle Allen; also, Donald Trump has engaged in ugly insults of those who displease or oppose him in any way. He has gone well beyond the pale in how he has characterized his opponent, Hillary Clinton. He has said he is very close to endorsing the idea that Clinton should be in prison.
ADDENDUM:
*At a October 8, 2015 rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, Phillip G. Ruffin, the owner of the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, announced that Trump gave $20 million to the St. Jude children's home. A spokeswoman for St. Jude, Kelly Schulz, said St. Jude had never announced a gift of this kind. A spokeswoman for Ruffin said she had seen no evidence that Trump had made such a gift.
The last recorded gift was for $50,000 in 2008. A list of charitable donations to St. Jude made over a 5-year period by a Donald Trump-owned entity added up to $92,603; however, much of that amount was in in-kind gifts, such as free golf or gift certificates.
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