August 15, 2016

The Trump Campaign Is Off the Rails Again—And It’s Only Going to Get Worse

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The New York Times reports today on the latest about Paul Manafort, favored lobbyist of sleazy dictators worldwide and currently Donald Trump’s campaign chairman:

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

…The papers, known in Ukraine as the “black ledger,” are a chicken-scratch of Cyrillic covering about 400 pages taken from books once kept in a third-floor room in the former Party of Regions headquarters on Lipskaya Street in Kiev. The room held two safes stuffed with $100 bills.

That sounds pretty bad. Still, I suppose it could be worse. For example, Manafort could—eh? What’s that, Adam Weinstein?

Well, so much for the latest pivot to normalcy for the Trump campaign. It was already in pretty tattered shape after his Sunday Twitter rant about how unfairly the media mistreats him. Unsurprisingly, a lot of Republicans are finally concluding that a Trump pivot away from uncontrolled ranting and raving will never happen. Politico reports that “party leaders have started talking about cutting off support to Trump in October and redirecting cash to save endangered congressional majorities.” I can’t say that I blame them. I only wonder why they’re planning to wait until October.

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