Trump's most insidious claim yet

Michael Sean Winters | Aug. 16, 2016

The list of outrageous things Donald Trump has said is now so long that it is, what's the word, disqualifying. From his initial statement announcing his candidacy last summer, during which he suggested most Mexicans were rapists and criminals (he allowed that "some" were good people), through his insulting the family of a U.S. Army officer who died fighting in Iraq, to last week's suggestion that the "Second Amendment people" might have a way to stop Hillary Clinton from nominating new justices to the Supreme Court, Trump has demonstrated heretofore unthinkable bigotry and stupidity, worse than any candidate for the presidency.

Yet, he has now topped his list of outrageous things with a new charge, the most insidious to date. He has said that if he does not win the election this November, it will be because the election is rigged.

The first time I heard him suggest this scenario was on the "The Sean Hannity Show," right after the Democratic National Convention, and I did not think much of it because it was Hannity who first raised the prospect and who egged Trump on. My reaction at the moment was to be repulsed, of course, but I put most of the blame on Hannity. My thought about Trump was that I would not want someone in the White House who is so easily egged on! Then, the next day, Trump repeated the suggestion at a rally. It has now become a staple of his interviews and makes a regular appearance in his stump speech.

I say this is the most insidious thing he has said for several reasons. In the first place, it reveals something deeply disturbing about Trump's personality, his utter unwillingness to take responsibility. When he derails his own campaign and distracts the entire country for 48 hours on account of his flippant remarks about the Second Amendment, he blames the media. Blames them for what? Reporting on what he says? When the GOP convention is widely viewed as one of the less successful conventions in history, Trump does not take ownership of the fact and pledge to do better. He simply denies the assessment and proclaims it was the best convention ever. Harry S. Truman used to say "The buck stops here." Trump does not what the buck is, let alone where it stops.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/trumps-most-insidious-claim-yet