C. Fraser Smith, The Daily Record Newswire
Last January, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on New York’s Fifth Avenue with no loss of support.
Might have been true then. Now? We’re about to find out.
Trump hasn’t shot anyone as far as we know, but he’s taken some positions that would be fatal to many political figures.
After Khizr Khan’s eloquent Democratic National Convention speech – suggesting that Trump had no business running for president – Trump claimed that he had been “viciously attacked” and proceeded to attack Khan and his wife.
Rather than giving him the pass he might have enjoyed months ago, many of his party’s leaders castigated him.
Khan’s son was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. Khan’s speech was designed to illustrate that Muslim Americans are patriotic and deeply committed to the nation – and to highlight Trump’s misguided anti-Muslim pronouncements.
More than that even, Khan was asking how such a man could be a major party’s nominee for president.
“This candidate amazes me – his ignorance,” Khan said Monday on NBC’s “Today.” “He can get up and malign the entire nation – the religions, the communities, the minorities, the judges.
“And yet a private citizen in this political process, in his candidacy for the stewardship of this country, I cannot say what I feel?
This, he seemed to say, is not what my son gave his life for.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized Trump for disparaging the Khan family.
“[Trump] has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States – to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement,” McCain said. “I hope that Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers or candidates.”
A group of veterans joined McCain: “The Khans sacrifice has earned them the right to ask hard questions of those seeking elected office.”
So maybe Trump’s inviolability is beginning to slip. President Obama’s declared him unfit.
And there are other straws in the wind. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, holds substantial leads in important states.
And this report from a friend of mine: standing in an airport security line, a woman interrupted an election conversation to say, “I’m for Trump.”
“Really?” said my friend.
“Absolutely,” she said. “You elect these ‘qualified’ people. They promise change, but they get to Washington and nothing changes.”
She had a point. So a frustrated and angry electorate says, let’s try something else. Hence Trump.
My friend pressed his point.
“Do you really want a president with no governing experience of any kind – even in matters of war peace? Do you really want Trump to be in charge of The Button, the one that launches nuclear strikes?”
“Well,” said the Trump voter, suddenly pensive, “there is that.”
Obviously some of us haven’t been paying attention. Presidents get The Button. Should be sobering.
Still, there is hope.
We have a campaign. And The Button will be a focal point.
Some other issues will arise, to be sure. For example: Just how unqualified can a candidate be?
That question came up during the convention in Philadelphia when Khizr Khan spoke.
A man of authoritative bearing, Khan had wondered if the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim Trump had read the U.S. Constitution. Khan just happened to have a copy in his jacket pocket. He offered to let Trump borrow it.
Trump’s response: “We’ve had a lot of problems with radical Islamic terror.”
He couldn’t have been talking about Khan or his son.
So, here’s a thought: What Trump said about shooting someone and losing no support is apparently still true for GOP leaders.
They disown him but they still endorse him for president.
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C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst for WYPR. His column appears Fridays in The Daily Record. His email address is fsmith@wypr.org.
