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To paraphrase a line from Hamilton, well, you’re never gon’ be secret’ry now. 

The local axis of Donald Trump sycophant/enablers stands steadfastly by its man. Nick Langworthy, Chris Collins, Carl Paladino have no problem with anything that Trump has said or done. Muslims, Mexicans, Immigrants, women, Miss Teen USA contestants, Apprentice sound guys, Miss Universe winners, Gold Star Parents, a native-born federal judge of Mexican descent, fallen soldiers, veterans with PTSD – there seems literally not to exist a person or group that Donald Trump won’t demean and degrade, and there exists a concomitant bottomless pit of resulting delight from his core supporters. 

To Trump’s cult, degradation and insult are added value, not a flaw. 

You can’t be surprised, though. Langworthy doesn’t react because no one in the local press corps asks him to. Collins? On October 12th, he’s reportedly doubling down on his support of Trump, despite saying on October 8th that Trump’s admission of sexual assault was, “frankly unacceptable”. Well, clearly it’s acceptable, after all. I would guess that the difference in Collins’ attitude and tone has to do with admonitions from the Trump campaign and its perimeter guards like Carl Paladino, who just a year ago quite literally went out of his way to defend a guy caught on tape calling the Mayor of the City of Buffalo and other local African-American politicians, “nigger”. 

What we’re left with, America, is a situation where the guy who boasted to Billy Bush about how he makes unwanted sexual advances and assaults on women still finds support for his Presidential bid, while Billy Bush is fired from NBC for laughing at them. 

At the Tire Fire 2nd Presidential Debate last Sunday, Anderson Cooper asked Trump whether he had actually committed the sex assault he bragged about. Trump denied it. That prompted more of his victims to finally come out and tell their stories. A former Miss Teen USA Kamie Crawford tweetstormed a disturbing story about Trump’s racist attitude towards Black people. Two separate women, Rachel Crooks and Jessica Leeds, went to the New York Times, explaining in detail how Trump groped them. Mindy McGillivray told the Palm Beach Post that Trump grabbed her buttocks while she was working as a photographer’s assistant at Mar-a-Lago. Other Miss Teen USA contestants, including Tasha Dixon, told the press how Trump would barge into the dressing room while girls as young as fifteen were naked, according to former contestant Mariah Billado. Indeed, Trump boasted of this inappropriate dressing room conduct to Howard Stern. People Magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff wrote that, “We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.” The next morning, Trump arranged for Stoynoff to have a massage in a fully booked facility, and skulked around, lying in wait. She passed on the massage. Finally, to turn the creep factor up a bit, a 46 year-old Trump commented about how he would be dating a passing 10 year-old girl in 10 years. 

The timing? These women are coming forward because Trump lied in response to a direct question about whether he had engaged in this sort of sexually aggressive, assaultive, indecent, and improper conduct. He denied it, and they’re going to tell their stories. 

Trump campaign attacks the New York Times for doing exactly what the Trump campaign has been doing to Bill Clinton pic.twitter.com/yuTSLUXO99

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 12, 2016

So, after being appropriately admonished, Trump’s first congressional backer – the guy who wants to be Secretary of Commerce – is today quite adamant about his continued support for Trump. Let’s start with this startling admission: 

Collins said he has not had talks with the Trump campaign in the wake of The Washington Post story that exposed that 2005 video where Trump spoke crudely about women.

But when asked, Collins went on CNN and the Fox Business Network to defend the candidate after the video surfaced.

Collins did so even though he’s never seen the full video that caused the controversy. Instead, he said he’s heard snippets of it and read full accounts of it in the news media.

Asked why he had not seen the full video, Collins said: “Because I’d rather watch ‘American Pickers,’ ” a reality show on the History Channel that documents the travels of two antique collectors.

That’s Collins’ favorite show, but as for the controversial Trump video, Collins said: “I had no reason to see it.”

He never saw the tape he was defending. Never heard it. Went on TV, and talks to Jerry Zremski from the Buffalo News about how he continues to support Donald Trump even after the release of a tape he knows nothing about. 

The litmus test for finding fault with Trump’s comments is merely, “decency”. So, setting that aside, Collins has daughters, a wife. If someone talked of them this way, would he feel differently? “I did try and fuck her. She was married…I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look…Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

@jbarro It’s almost like buying a beauty pageant is kind of a creepy thing for a rich old man to do.

— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) October 12, 2016

Zremski continues,

Collins was combative, dismissing Trump’s comments in the video as mere words and, like Trump, contrasting them to the actual sexual indiscretions that resulted in the impeachment of Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Got that? Bill Clinton is a womanizer, therefore two wrongs make a right. 

How interesting that Donald Trump is now calling multiple women, who are alleging sexual assault, liars. Didn’t he accused Hillary of that?

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) October 12, 2016

 

“I was concerned” upon hearing about the video, the Clarence congressman said in a phone interview. “They were inappropriate words, to say the least, and I’ve said that. I needed to hear Donald Trump apologize, and he did.”

The relevant text of Trump’s apology: “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.” I think the Howard Stern tapes reveal these words to exactly reflect who he is. I think his vitriol towards any woman who criticizes him – Rosie O’Donnell, Alicia Machado, Megyn Kelly – reveals exactly who he is.  

Moreover, Collins noted that Trump said he never actually touched a woman the way he described in the video. “He didn’t do it,” Collins said. “He said he didn’t do it. But we do know that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted women.”

What? The woman against whom Trump made these advances has been identified as Nancy O’Dell of Access Hollywood. But again: if it’s bad when Bill Clinton does it, doesn’t it follow that it’s bad when Donald Trump does it? (And he’s very much alleged to have done it – not just to adults, but to juveniles.) After bringing up Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky, Collins makes the failed connection to Hillary Clinton: 

“Bill Clinton preyed on women for decades with her (Hillary Clinton), frankly, acting as his enabler,” said Collins, dubbing the Democratic nominee “a phony feminist.”

That was just part of a tirade Collins launched against Hillary Clinton – about her role as secretary of state during the attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and a host of other instances throughout her career.

“She’s had 30 years of abject failure in every job she’s held,” Collins said. “The country can’t survive four years of Hillary Clinton as president.”

That’s what they said about the first four years of Obama. 

And the second four. 

It’s a lie.

It’s just propaganda uttered by another Washington insider career politician. Collins just wants the cabinet post he’ll never, ever get. Here’s the pitch: 

Trump is the “change agent” Washington needs to bring back jobs, to secure America’s borders and to get tough on Russia, Collins said.

Challenged about Trump’s praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Collins dismissed the question as “a liberal bullshit line,” and threatened to hang up.

At the Commander-in-Chief Forum in September, 

I’ve already said [Putin] is very much of a leader. The man has very strong control over his country. You can say, “Oh, isn’t that a terrible thing,” I mean, the man has very strong control over his country. Now it’s a very different system, and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly in that system he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.

At various other times, 

[Putin is] “doing a great job” in “rebuilding Russia,”and “I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin.” After Putin called Trump a “talented person” last year, he returned the favor: “It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

It may be a “liberal bullshit line”, but it’s also one that apparently concerns the cadres at the National Review. 

Here are some more examples of Chris Collins’ Presidential candidate heaping praise on a neo-fascist authoritarian dictator: 

• October 2007: “I mean this guy has done—whether you like him or don’t like him—he’s doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period.”
• June 2013: “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow—if so, will he become my new best friend?”
• March 2014: “I believe Putin will continue to re-build the Russian Empire. He has zero respect for Obama or the U.S.!” Also: “Putin has become a big hero in Russia with an all time high popularity. Obama, on the other hand, has fallen to his lowest ever numbers. SAD”
• May 2014: “I was in Russia, I was in Moscow recently and I spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could not have been nicer, and we had a tremendous success.”
• October 2015: (Re: the downing of MH17), “They say it wasn’t them,” he says. “It may have been their weapon, but they didn’t use it, they didn’t fire it, they even said the other side fired it to blame them. I mean to be honest with you, you’ll probably never know for sure.”
• December 2015: “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader. Unlike what we have in this country.”
• July 2016: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he says during a news conference. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Finally, as to the criticism that Donald Trump insulted the Gold Star Khan family, Collins reveals,

It makes my skin crawl when I hear people say that Donald Trump insulted a Gold Star family, that he’s best friends with Vladimir Putin,” Collins said, referring to the family of the late Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq.

Well, then it must make his skin crawl a lot. Here’s what Sen. John McCain said about the Khans in response to Donald Trump’s unhinged, insane defamation of them:

“It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party,” McCain said. “While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us. Lastly, I’d like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Khan: thank you for immigrating to America. We’re a better country because of you. And you are certainly right; your son was the best of America, and the memory of his sacrifice will make us a better nation — and he will never be forgotten.”

And Senator Lindsey Graham: 

This is going to a place where we’ve never gone before, to push back against the families of the fallen. There used to be some things that were sacred in American politics — that you don’t do — like criticizing the parents of a fallen soldier even if they criticize you.”

Because Donald Trump said this about the Khans: 

“Who wrote that? Did Hillary’s scriptwriters write it?” Trump said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard.”

and

Mr. Trump told Mr. Stephanopoulos that Mr. Khan seemed like a “nice guy” and that he wished him “the best of luck.” But, he added, “If you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably — maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me.”

and, 

I’d like to hear his wife say something.

The fact remains that Chris Collins and Donald Trump would implement a complete ban – a religious test – on Muslims entering the United States. It’s not going to be a “virtual wall”, and Trump isn’t discussing a “rhetorical deportation” of 12 million people. All of this white identity and race hatred is something that might play well in some pockets of western New York, but is nevertheless wholly unbecoming of a representative who is sworn to serve all the people – not just the white Christians. Maybe Collins sleeps better at night by kidding himself about what he’s promoting. 

Chris Collins is just another bullshit artist culture warrior, deflecting people’s attention from his horrific record as County Executive and his worthless, achievement-free time moistening a seat in the House. Here’s something else Collins wants: a ban on all abortion, even when the life of the mother is at risk, or where the pregnancy is the result of the kind of rape that his candidate Donald Trump stands accused. Collins’ opponent, Democrat Diana Kastenbaum, characterizes this as Chris Collins’ “war on women”. 

Kastenbaum, by contrast, had this to say about Trump’s boasts of sexual assault, 

I am sickened by the comments that have been made by Donald Trump regarding women. They have also been reinforced by his surrogates who continue to defend him and his misogynistic old boys’ club. Even my opponent, Rep. Chris Collins (R), stands by his man.

There is a particular type of ugliness when women are made fun of, degraded and dismissed. However, we shouldn’t be surprised because we’ve seen it before throughout Donald Trump’s campaign. What is most disturbing though is the merry band of men and women who support him and echo his words. Some may not say it out loud, but their very support of him speaks volumes.

He crossed the line years ago when he accused President Obama of not being a U.S. citizen. He crossed the line when he called Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers. He crossed the line when he mocked a disabled reporter. He crossed the line when he said John McCain was not a hero and that POWs were not heroes because they allowed themselves to be captured. He crossed the line when he disparaged a Gold Star family. And yet, his defenders tried to tell us how we misinterpreted or misread his statements. We waited patiently for the press and media to question him, call him out on his bigotry and prejudices, but the lies kept coming and his surrogates kept getting their sound bites.

Now the attack is on all women – our daughters, our mothers, our grandmothers. Finally people are getting angry and saying they have crossed the line for the last time. But have they? Mr. Collins has not. In spite of the now growing list of Republicans saying they cannot support a President who says such things, Mr. Collins has said “there is no change in my support of Mr. Trump as our nominee”.

This latest degradation of women should offend everyone, even Chris Collins, and it is amongst a long list of abusive behavior. I am a Mom who has a daughter. My instinct is to immediately try and shield her from these horrible comments, just as my Mother would have done for me and my grandmother before her. I ask myself, “who brought this man up?” Who raises these people to hate women so?

Mr. Trump and Mr. Collins, women are 51% of the population and we vote. We are married to men who respect their wives, their mothers, their daughters and they vote. We have sons and daughters whom we have brought up to be fair, open, non-prejudiced, wonderful human beings who want a better world without bullies, bigots and misogynists and they vote too.

The time has come for all the voters in NY27 to take a long, hard and unbiased look at the candidates and when you cast your vote I hope you take into consideration the kind of country you want to leave to your children. It has to be about issues, but it must also be about a person’s character as well. We should all keep in mind the words of Billy Graham, “when wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.”

It’s not exactly a war on just women. It’s a war on decency. I guess there’s not much more to expect from guys like Chris Collins, who casually demand a “lap dance” from prominent businesswomen. Trump and his cult have crossed too many “lines” to count, and all of it – in the aggregate – would have destroyed a thousand campaigns. 

I’ll pass along another anecdote about what kind of world Donald Trump is enabling – breathing new life into racial animus and white supremacy. Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year – began at sundown on October 2nd. After services, Diana Kastenbaum exited Temple Emanu-El on Bank Street in Batavia before her husband and daughter to get in the car, and she heard unusually loud male voices coming from a house on the street. As the Kastenbaums pulled into the street, they heard someone shout “Heil Hitler” at them.  Shocked, they drove to the corner and decided to come back down the street again.  As their car approached the house from where the epithet came, there were two or three men sitting on a darkened porch.  Someone on that porch shouted, “Heil Hitler” at the Kastenbaums two more times, very loudly. They stopped in front of the house and rolled down the window and Kastenbaum’s husband, Hiram Kasten, said, “what’s up with that?”  The anti-Semites on the porch immediately backed down and said, “we didn’t mean anything by it”.  Kasten then said, “why don’t you come out here to the street and let’s talk about that”.  They said again, “we didn’t mean anything by it”.  Kasten yelled at them that it was against the law and anti-Semitic.  They did not say anything else and the family drove home. 

People like the Batavia porch nazis that Kastenbaum’s family had to endure after New Year’s services have become emboldened by Donald Trump and his appeals to white resentment, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and race hate. It’s called the “Trump Effect” and it’s polluting the country. 

It’s producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported.

Other students have been emboldened by the divisive, often juvenile rhetoric in the campaign. Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail.

Carl Paladino can defend misogyny, sexual assault, and racism yet still be elected to a school board in western New York. Chris Collins can pretty much do whatever he wants and be Congressman for life. Let’s at least try and make a dent on the latter. Contribute to Diana Kastenbaum, a CEO running for the NY-27 seat. Like most of us, she has the common sense to know right-wing apologia for sexual assault, racism, and abject contempt for everything America stands for. Freedom, opportunity, and a new nation of immigrants striving together to do the right thing even in difficult times.

When Trump fanboy Chris Collins is challenged by a journalist, he loses his cool. Brianna Kielar pressed Collins on Trump’s taxes. While Collins wanted to talk about how Putin fanboy Trump would be tough on Putin or about all the fresh misogynist energy and new white supremacist blood Trump brings to our polity, Kielar wanted to push back on Collins’ suggestion that only she – and no one else – cared about what was in Trump’s tax returns.

A CNN poll reveals that 73% of the electorate cares. So, Collins and Trump are way out of touch. 

This is really something to watch. Collins quite clearly isn’t up to the pretty light challenge. Some might remember that Collins, too, refuses to release his tax returns, preferring instead to “show” whatever he chose to the Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski and Bob McCarthy. Transparency is anathema to Collins, who is too good to be bothered by the notion of an informed electorate. He thinks that his “competitors” would get sensitive information if he released his tax returns, but that never stopped other businessmen running for office from revealing their returns. This is what Collins said about his taxes and his refusal to release them, and it reveals everything you need to know about his attitude towards voters: 

“My federal return is probably 25 pages long,” Collins added. “It’s too much for the public to absorb.”

While the electorate in NY-27 may be made up, in Collins’ mind, primarily of innumerate hicks like the Tops store manager who’s “not paying federal taxes”, that’s why we have journalists, who can use tax accountants to help parse the information in tax returns to determine whether our elected officials have any conflicts of interests, and whether they pay any federal income taxes at all. 

On the issue of Trump’s tax avoidance, sure, no one pays more than they are legally required to pay, but that’s not the point. The point here is that this is a person who manipulates what amounts to a bespoke code for billionaire tax avoidance while dumb schmucks like you and I pay until it hurts. Remember: when Clinton confronted him with the probability that he didn’t pay any federal income taxes, he – uninvited – blurted that this made him “smart”. What it makes him is a freeloader. Not only is he such a piss-poor businessman that he lost a billion dollars in the casino industry and real estate during a growing economy with rising real estate values, but his completely absent business “acumen” allowed him to be worse than any “taker” Trump and his ilk have been denigrating for their low incomes and lack of federal tax exposure – the 47% Mitt Romney so casually denigrated in 2012. 

Donald Trump is awful, yes. His manipulation of the tax code, by the way, doesn’t make him a “genius”, as his surrogates would have you believe. If anything, the genius is his accountant. The issue is that Donald Trump die-hards have their decision already baked in. Ditto the Clinton Democrats. As always, these contests come down to undecided voters in swing states. When a Donald Trump – awful as he is – is revealed to be a guy who not only didn’t pay taxes, but thinks that the reason you and I do is that we’re stupid, that won’t play well where and with whom it matters.

Collins subscribes to the whole maker/taker class warfare. Literally. Chris Collins reckons a supermarket store manager is so privileged that she doesn’t pay federal income tax. That is an actual thing that an actual federal representative said to a TV reporter on the record, on the air. 

Go check out Diana Kastenbaum, the Democrat running in NY-27. She’s a businesswoman from Batavia who doesn’t treat the electorate as subjects or idiots. 

The genius of the Trump campaign is the way in which the candidate can be so easily baited into making an outrageously racist or otherwise insensitive statement, allowing the matter to pivot from the substance of the underlying claim to Trump’s own petulant demeanor. 

It is now August 2nd. Khizr and Ghizala Khan appeared at the DNC on July 28th. They spoke early in the proceedings – not in prime time. People loved the speech and it went viral, which prompted The Toddler to hit back. It’s still in the headlines, and we have Trump to thank for that. The only people who feel happy about Trump’s treatment of the Khans are his core base – Trump dead-enders. Just about everyone else, regardless of political persuasion, is aghast not just at the substance of his attacks, but its procedural ineptitude. 

It bears mentioning that the Khans were not duped into helping Hillary Clinton – the Khans spoke out spontaneously against Trump back in December 2015. Immigrants put up with a lot of shit in this country; even more so immigrants who look or sound or pray differently from what is supposed to be the mainstream. Even today, as the Khans articulate that they merely wish to be treated with some modicum of respect, Donald Trump’s allies and surrogates smear them as foreign agents or terrorist sympathizers. It’s such a simple smear – every outspoken but devout Muslim has terrorist ties. It’s the same libel as Trump’s original smear, birtherism. It is a way to dehumanize and disrespect immigrants – especially non-white, non-Christian immigrants – as being beholden to forces opposed to America or democracy or Christianity. 

It isn’t fair commentary, it’s bigotry. It’s bigotry when Roger Stone accuses Gold Star parents of being terrorist sympathizers. It’s bigotry when Donald Trump spends over a year going birther, or suggests that a federal judge of Mexican ancestry is disloyal or unfit. It’s bigotry for Trump to recommend an indefinite ban on people of the Muslim faith – including US citizens – entry or re-entry to the United States. 

I don’t have much to add to the overall media storm over Trump‘s incredible, unhinged interaction with the Khans. It all speaks for itself. I want to focus on local Congressman Chris Collins – a Clarence millionaire who treats his elected office as a peerage, and who was the first Congressman to endorse Trump, and a guy pandering to the worst forces in his party. 

Collins appeared on MSNBC and attacked the Khans – a Muslim couple who came to this country from Pakistan, and whose son was killed while fighting in our military for our country. The reason why Gold Star parents should be left alone by craven politicians? Their family sacrifice is to be honored and respected, regardless of what they say. Here is how George W. Bush – a President whom I think to be among the worst in history – showed his respect for military parents: 

One mom and dad of a dying soldier from the Caribbean were devastated, the mom beside herself with grief. She yelled at the president, wanting to know why it was her child and not his who lay in that hospital bed.

Her husband tried to calm her and I noticed the president wasn’t in a hurry to leave—he tried offering comfort but then just stood and took it, like he expected and needed to hear the anguish, to try to soak up some of her suffering if he could.

Later as we rode back on Marine One to the White House, no one spoke.

But as the helicopter took off, the president looked at me and said, “That mama sure was mad at me.” Then he turned to look out the window of the helicopter. “And I don’t blame her a bit.”

One tear slipped out the side of his eye and down his face. He didn’t wipe it away, and we flew back to the White House.

Sending your child off to war. Sending young people off to war. It’s the hardest thing a parent could do, and it’s one of the hardest things a President can do. Love him or hate him, Bush at least understood to some extent the gravity of what he had done. For Trump, however, it’s all a game. It’s all reality TV. 

Donald Trump is the Kardashian candidate. 

Chris Collins, who is gunning for a cabinet post in what would probably be America’s last government, doubled down on Trump’s disrespect for the Khans specifically, and Gold Star parents generally. The VFW took the unprecedented step of condemning Trump’s insane treatment of the Khans. 

Collins told MSNBC that the Khans had no right to attack Donald Trump, and that once they did, it’s open season. 

Here’s the funny thing: the Republicans in Trump’s thrall are all whining, accusing the Democrats of trotting out these Gold Star parents to attack Donald Trump with impunity. This is a tactic the Republicans have engaged in forever. This crowd is respectful of military service only when it politically suits them – when it doesn’t, they do stuff like put on Band-Aids with Purple Hearts printed on them to attack Vietnam Veteran John Kerry – attacks that have entered the political lexicon as “Swift Boating”. The Republicans are now Swift Boating the Khans because they do not believe that these immigrant Muslims cannot don the mantle of patriotism; they look, sound, and pray differently and can be more easily libeled and dehumanized. They have come out to support a Democrat, which makes their sacrifice an afterthought. From TPM: 

At this point, 12 years later, Mr. Khan has decided to enter the fray, attack Mr. Trump in a very inappropriate way when, in fact, it’s Hillary Clinton that ignores the First, Second and Tenth Amendments,” he said. “At that point, I can’t blame Mr. Trump for saying, I’m going to defend my integrity and my understanding of the Constitution.

I can. I can blame him. Here’s an idea for Donald Trump and all his surrogates: it’s ok to shut the fuck up every once in a while. It’s ok to shut the fuck up when the grieving mom and dad of a hero criticize you for calling them less than American. 

Pretty much anyone with any real political experience agrees that if Trump felt compelled to say anything, he should have thanked the Khans and reiterated how he would “make America safe again”. Instead, he launched into almost a week’s worth of ad hominem attacks on them, cheapening their sacrifice because they humiliated him.

In the Trump cult, humiliating the Leader is haram. 

It doesn’t matter that the Khans launched their criticism twelve years after their son’s sacrifice – they are addressing a candidate who has already cheapened it by suggesting that the Khans are unqualified for entry to the United States based on their religion, regardless of Passport. They have a right to be angry and indignant at this clown who suggests that they are insufficiently American. 

Maybe Chris Collins thinks being a Boy Scout is the same as being deployed to a war zone. 

Collins went on to point out that Clinton supported the Iraq War, a position Trump repeatedly attacked her for. He then cast Khan as an “attack dog” for Clinton and said that he uses his late son as a “shield” from criticism.

No, that’s decent Americans saying that attacking the Khans is going too far. Donald Trump even accused Mrs. Khan of being religiously forbidden from speaking at the DNC; he attacked a woman who had quite literally said nothing against him. Trump then said that Mr. Khan, “has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution.” Actually, the Constitution itself holds that he has exactly that right. 

“He’s become Hillary’s attack dog, and every time Donald Trump will say something, he puts up the shield, if you will, of the loss of his son,” he said.

It’s brilliant trolling. Every time Trump responds insensitively, attacking the Khans, this sweet couple shows their sympathetic faces and reminds everyone that their son died for their country, and Donald Trump can’t help but attack them more. 

“Mr. Khan is saying I’m immune from anyone criticizing me because my son died in a very heroic loss to the family and also in service of the country,” he continued. “But today he’s taken on a political role as an attack dog for Hillary Clinton, and I think, in that regard, he’s got to take what comes back at him.”

No matter what, apparently. 

Collins concluded the interview by saying he didn’t not blame Trump at all for the way he acted in response to Khan’s Democratic National Convention speech.

“That was very hypocritical, frankly, of someone to stand next to someone who has absolute disregard for the Constitution and then wave a pocket Constitution out in front of the camera,” Collins said. “That was an insult. We all know Mr. Trump. You take a swing at him, he’s going to punch back. Maybe some of the rest of us in the political world aren’t quite made up of that, but that’s Mr. Trump’s character, and, frankly, I don’t blame him.”

Collins also expressly disagreed with what former POW John McCain – a person whose military service Trump similarly disrespected and insulted – had to say: 

The Republican Party I know and love is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.”I wear a bracelet bearing the name of a fallen hero, Matthew Stanley, which his mother, Lynn, gave me in 2007, at a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. His memory and the memory of our great leaders deserve better from me.

In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents. He 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. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.

Make no mistake: I do not valorize our military out of some unfamiliar instinct. I grew up in a military family, and have my own record of service, and have stayed closely engaged with our armed forces throughout my public career. In the American system, the military has value only inasmuch as it protects and defends the liberties of the people.

My father was a career naval officer, as was his father. For hundreds of years, every generation of McCains has served the United States in uniform.

My sons serve today, and I’m proud of them. My youngest served in the war that claimed Captain Khan’s life as well as in Afghanistan. I want them to be proud of me. I want to do the right thing by them and their comrades.

Humayun Khan did exactly that — and he did it for all the right reasons. This accomplished young man was not driven to service as a United States Army officer because he was compelled to by any material need. He was inspired as a young man by his reading of Thomas Jefferson — and he wanted to give back to the country that had taken him and his parents in as immigrants when he was only two years old.

Captain Khan’s death in Iraq, on June 8th, 2004, was a shining example of the valor and bravery inculcated into our military. When a suicide bomber accelerated his vehicle toward a facility with hundreds of American soldiers, Captain Khan ordered his subordinates away from the danger.

Then he ran toward it.

The suicide bomber, striking prematurely, claimed the life of Captain Khan — and Captain Khan, through his selfless action and sacrifice, saved the lives of hundreds of his brothers and sisters.

Scripture tells us that ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’

Captain Humayun Khan of the United States Army showed in his final moments that he was filled and motivated by this love. His name will live forever in American memory, as an example of true American greatness.

In the end, I am morally bound to speak only to the things that command my allegiance, and to which I have dedicated my life’s work: the Republican Party, and more importantly, the United States of America. I will not refrain from doing my utmost by those lights simply because it may benefit others with whom I disagree.

I claim no moral superiority over Donald Trump. I have a long and well-known public and private record for which I will have to answer at the Final Judgment, and I repose my hope in the promise of mercy and the moderation of age. I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent.

Arizona is watching. It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party. While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.

Lastly, I’d like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Khan: thank you for immigrating to America. We’re a better country because of you. And you are certainly right; your son was the best of America, and the memory of his sacrifice will make us a better nation — and he will never be forgotten.

Chris Collins, Nick Langworthy, Carl Paladino – all of them have fallen in line behind the Donald Trump cult. Their obeisance to the Leader trumps even their loyalty to country, their duty to constituents, and their respect for fallen American heroes and their parents. 

Here is a statement released by Collins’ Democratic opponent, Diana Kastenbaum: 

Mr. Collins’ appearance today on MSNBC was insensitive to the Khan family and self-serving. As the representative of the people of NY-27 and a so-called advocate for Veterans it was even more thoughtless and uncaring.

Diana Kastenbaum said, “Collins continued to be Trump’s surrogate by reiterating the insults to the Khan family in his interview. To have a talking point, which he used not once but twice, saying that it happened 12 years ago made it seem somehow irrelevant. My response to Mr. Collins is – the loss of a child has no expiration date for one’s grief. Collins also stated that Mr. Khan is not immune from anything as he has entered the political fray; therefore he leaves himself open to condemnation and criticism. I would ask Mr. Collins, is that how we treat the memory of our heroes and Gold Star Mothers among us?”

Mr. Collin’s defense of the Trump attacks on the Khan family was another opportunity for him to stand by the Republican nominee and the divisiveness that he is inflicting on our country. 

The Democratic Party Chairs of the 8 counties comprising the 27th released this: 

The Democratic Chairs of the 8 counties that comprise New York’s 27th District condemn in the strongest terms Rep. Chris Collin’s outrageous statement on MSNBC this afternoon. As he desperately attempted to defend his chosen candidate’s criticism of the Kahns, the Gold Star family who criticized Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigrants since it would have prevented their son who died heroically in the service of our nation from even entering the United States, Rep. Collins went way over the line.

Incredibly, he accused Mr. Kahn of using his dead son as a “shield” from criticism and suggested he deserved anything he got, since he had dared to enter the fray.

Veterans and their families make up a proud part of this congressional district. All of them understand better than Mr. Trump or Rep. Collins what sacrifice actually means. Capt. Khan died defending his men and our nation. His family deserves our thanks and our compassion.

Rep. Collins brags about his role as a surrogate for Mr. Trump, even saying a few weeks ago that he had appeared on cable television for Mr. Trump’s campaign over 100 times. We have to wonder how much he is even concerned with New York’s 27th district, in the midst of this whirlwind of activity.

We understand that Rep. Collins desperately wants his candidate to become president, since, as he admits, he hopes to be named Secretary of Commerce. Today’s comments prove there are no depths to which Mr. Trump can sink that he will not gladly follow. The voters of NY 27 deserve a representative who has as his priority the people of the district, not his own advancement. The many veterans and service families of NY 27 also deserve someone who understands and appreciates the sacrifices they made and continue to make. Rep. Collins clearly does not. 

The Khans were mean to the Leader? Grow up and take it like men. Your childish, petulant, and fundamentally mean-spirited hatred is unbecoming, and I hope the parents of servicemen and women throughout the 27th Congressional District are appalled by Collins’ callous and casual disregard for their family sacrifice. 

Chris Collins has no clue what valor is. He and every other Trump supporter owns the disrespect their Leader has for people like the Khans, whom they would indefinitely exclude from the United States based solely on their religion. 

Representative Chris Collins (NY-27), a prominent Trump campaign surrogate, appeared on WBEN’s morning show on Tuesday to react to the massacre of patrons at an LGBT club in Orlando. 

Listen as he assails Democrats for “politicizing” this massacre, and then in literally the next breath, gets in a plug for Donald Trump. When asked whether the mass murder by a madman armed with a handgun and an AR-15 might lead to tighter restrictions on gun ownership, Mr. Collins replied, 

“No…it’s actually quite shameful. Our president politicizes every tragedy with a suggestion to Americans that some sort of gun legislation to take away Americans’ second Amendment rights would stop this from happening, and that’s just not truthful. In fact, it’s an outright lie. When you think about it, this was a security guard who obviously had weapons, and it…anything that the President would have suggested, this person still would have had his weapons, and unfortunately the tragedy still would have occured.  We should be focused on the root cause, which in this case is ISIS – it’s Islamic terrorism, it’s those who don’t respect America’s way of life, who hate women, who hate gays, and hate America.  And that’s the difference you saw yesterday – we need to identify the enemy – it is ISIS, we need to take the fight to them and we shouldn’t try to divide America, and especially suggesting that there’s some sort of law we could pass that would stop ISIS, whether this was a lone wolf or not, from attacking Americans. So, I was very … not pleased at all with the response of the President, Hillary Clinton, or Chuck Schumer, who yet again are politicizing tragedy.

I will say this – I think there’s a lot of Americans waking up this morning saying, who’s going to keep me safe? Who’s putting America first? And in fact that is Donald Trump, I think this could be a bit of a turning point as people are focused not only on jobs and the economy, but they’re focused on their own safety, and I think Americans know who the enemy is, and it’s not the Republican Party. So I was yet again disappointed, and that’s just a mild adjective, in the President, and certainly Hillary Clinton, but I wasn’t surprised…they politicize every tragedy, and it’s shameful. 

Notice the bolded text. I was worried there for a moment that Chris Collins couldn’t assail the politicization of an LGBT hate crime while simultaneously politicizing it by attacking – by name – President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer. I was concerned for a moment that Collins wouldn’t have found the political upside for Donald Trump in the mass murder in an LGBT club. But, dang it, he did it. That’s some class-A surrogateship, right there. Use 49 lives to attack Obama, Clinton, Schumer, and the Democrats while puffing Trump. Kudos. 

The next question from the WBEN morning zoo mentioned that it was Trump’s birthday, and queried whether it was a good idea that Trump wants to somehow suspend immigration from places where there is terrorism. (Like, apparently, Orlando and San Bernardino).

A little common sense – sometimes we wake up in the morning and our heads bob up and down, say, “yup” – that’s common sense. When the director of the FBI cannot certify that these people immigrating from these dangerous parts of the world where ISIS, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations are operating, you’re darn right, it’s time to put America first, keep America safe, our fallback position should be, we’re gonna keep America safe until our intelligence people can tell us the folks coming into our country are, in fact, who they say they are, or they are not a risk to Americans, and I think most Americans would say, it’s about time we put America first. 

I’m not quite sure why no one’s being specific, and mentioning that this discussion is about the humanitarian crisis of millions of Syrian refugees escaping a protracted civil war being waged by terrorist organizations against an authoritarian dictatorship. I suspect the focus groups indicate that keeping it all vague and abstract allows people to forget the human scope of what’s happening. 

Finally, a question whether Mr. Collins has heard from constituents regarding the tightening of gun restrictions. 

Oh, I hear from people all the time, and they’re all saying much of what I’m saying, as well. We know who the enemy is, and the leader – in this case the President – should be identifying and focusing all our efforts on defeating ISIS, and we have a President who won’t even use the terms, “radical Islamic terrorist”, and that distracts all of us from focusing with one laser focus on the enemy, and so – we saw this coming, there was actually disruption on the House floor yesterday, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and the Democrats actually disrupted the entire House floor because right then and there they wanted to start a debate on gun control yet again, it’s very disrespectful, and – you know – our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, but here we’ve got the Democrats – and let’s face it, that’s what it is – trying to politicize yet another tragedy, and that’s shameful. 

Thanks in large part to the President, ISIS’ territory in Syria and Iraq has shrunk, they’re on the run, and they are significantly weakened. As I noted in this column, the phrase, “radical Islamic terrorist”, which Mr. Collins claims a deep need to have the President repeat verbatim, has no magical properties. It’s not like saying, “Beetlejuice” three times. He knows it, too – without prompting, he attempts to explain that phrase’s significance, and the best he can do is say that Obama’s failure to utter it, “distracts all of us” – himself included, presumably – from “focusing with one laser focus on the enemy.” 

What that means is that until and unless Barack Hussein Obama (get it?) utters the phrase, “radical Islamic terrorist/m” Chris Collins and our military and House Republicans just can’t get the laser to focus on ISIS or al Qaeda. It’s a dramatically weak, stupid, and pathetic argument. A 4th grader could do better. 

Meanwhile, Collins gets in a quick, almost begrudging, “thoughts and prayers” template, and again names two Democrats to attack while denouncing the “politicization” of something that isn’t so much a tragedy as it is an obscenity. 

It’s not just an obscenity because it was a hate crime against LGBT people. It’s an obscenity because the shooter was known to law enforcement as a person with terrorist sympathies, yet he was still legally allowed to purchase and own the tools that enabled his mass murder. 

In December 2015, it was revealed that people on the Department of Homeland Security’s “no-fly” list were eligible to buy and keep firearms. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) proposed a bill that would have essentially been, “no-fly, no buy”.

It’s that “common sense” Mr. Collins discussed – head bobbing and all. If law enforcement and intelligence agencies have determined that you are too much of a risk to allow you to board a plane, surely you’re too much of a risk to buy or own a gun. 

The vote was held on the day after the San Bernardino shootings, which were also perpetrated by “radical Islamic terrorists” who were known to law enforcement. The bill had originally been proposed by President George W. Bush in 2007. 

The NRA did not respond to a request on Friday for comment. But the gun rights lobby group told MSBC last month it wants to ensure that Americans who are wrongly on the terrorist list are are afforded their constitutional right to due process.

However, the bill would allow people to legally challenge a denial by the Justice Department to purchase a firearm, if they believe they were mistakenly placed on the terrorist watchlist.

The GOP-controlled Senate refusal to pass new gun control measures came weeks after the Washington Post reported that suspected terrorists had successfully purchased more than 2,000 guns from American dealers between 2004 and 2014, even though law enforcement is notifiedwhenever someone on the FBI’s watchlist attempts to purchase a firearm.

Also on Thursday, the Senate failed to pass another bill that would have expanded background checks to gun show and online firearms sales. The measure would also prevents convicted felons and the mentally ill from having access to weapons.

So, when Democrats disrupt the House so that Republicans can’t have their meaningless, empty “thoughts and prayers” or “minute of silence” for victims, it’s because flaccid sentiment and jingoism are not adequate replacements for sane gun policy. The 2nd Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, but not all arms, not all individuals, and it is not an unrestricted, unlimited right. Just as the 1st Amendment does not allow for libel or inciting a riot, the 2nd Amendment doesn’t have a built-in allowance for people on a terrorist watchlist to own an AR-15. 

Empty rhetoric and showmanship is what Chris Collins is fighting for here. That, and an opportunity for him to hypocritically pivot from attacking the politicization of this massacre in one sentence, while politicizing it himself in the next. 

Shameful isn’t strong enough a word here for Chris Collins, who objectively wants people on terrorist watch lists to have free and open access to legal firearm purchases. 

CNN’s Chris Cuomo interviewed cross-examined Congressman Chris Collins over Donald Trump’s outrageous and unconscionable attacks on a judge overseeing one of the Trump University fraud cases. This was expertly done and truly leaves Mr. Collins looking not just foolish, but juvenile – he is truly reduced to the mean-spirited schoolyard bully he is, and it is glorious to see. 

Maybe Nick Langworthy should worry less about “Rust Belt DeBlasios” and worry more about the depths of depravity to which those in his own party – Donald Trump, Chris Collins, Carl Paladino, Rus Thompson, Angela Wozniak – have descended. 

Via Media Matters: 

CHRIS CUOMO (HOST): Two days ago your man was being called a racist by GOP leaders. You know — I respect your decision to try to spin us away from it, but it’s very much, not just in the news cycle, but it’s a reality there.  That’s why we saw Donald Trump do something, whether on his own accord or pushed by staffers, to give a speech on a teleprompter, which we know he hates. Right? He insults people for using the teleprompter, but there he was, saying ever word he was told to say as he was told to say it. The question becomes, how do you move past this? Do you think Trump should apologize?

REP. CHRIS COLLINS (R-NY): Donald Trump has moved past it. As he said, he’s done talking about. We’re going to be doing a contrast to Mrs. Clinton as we move forward —

CUOMO: Should he apologize? Because the fact that Clinton has trouble, which nobody is arguing, right? Her unfavorables are every bit as high as his, doesn’t take this away. Right? When you accuse me of something, I can’t say “yeah, but what about that other news anchor, he stinks even worse.” That’s not a good defense for myself. It shouldn’t be a good defense for Trump. Do you think he should apologize? Would you have in the same situation? 

COLLINS: I would not tell Donald Trump what to do. He’s run the most brilliant campaign that’s ever been run in the history of politics. Again, I’ve moved on it, others supporting him have moved beyond it, so at this point no, I’m not going to tell Donald Trump to apologize. I wasn’t in this situation, so I don’t really have a thought in that regard, but I would say as we’re now — we’ve coalesced around Mr. Trump, and we’re taken the fight and contrasting his message of securing the borders, getting the jobs back from Mexico and China.

[…]

CUOMO: The problems are obvious. The country has challenges. The question is, who’s the right person to deal with those challenges? Temperament goes to that. What people are using this situation as is, Donald Trump not only said things about a judge’s heritage that were out of line, but he said things about the case that weren’t true to advance his own cause, things that even his own lawyer disagrees with. Don’t you think that’s something he should deal with?

COLLINS: Well, America is looking for a change agent. They’re looking for a fighter, somebody who’s spent their life winning, creating jobs. So, no, I think the temperament and the personality of Donald Trump is exactly what America wants. We don’t want status quo, we don’t want somebody wordsmithing every word, doing a focus group as they decide what language to use. They want somebody who speaks directly to America, that says we’ve lost our way, it’s time to make America great again. It’s time to put America first and stop the nonsense of China and Mexico stealing our jobs. 

CUOMO: But Congressman, if you want to put America first, you’ve got to put its institutions first and you’ve got to put its values first. Going after someone for their heritage when they’re a judge that nobody has ever assailed before on that basis? Not an American value. Going against your case and saying things happened in it that were bad for you when that’s not true and you’re president of the United States? That’s not an American core value you want put forward. Why don’t you think he has someone like you, right? A respected surrogate come forward and say, “you know what, he shouldn’t have said those things about the case, he’s upset that he has a case against him. That’s normal. He’s a fighter. He went too far, he brought in the man’s heritage, he shouldn’t have. He respects judges, he apologizes.”

COLLINS: Well, Mr. Trump said his comments were misconstrued —

CUOMO: How were they misconstrued though? That’s what I don’t get. He said the judge was unfair. The judge was not unfair, if you look at the rulings. 

COLLINS: Chris, I would disagree. You and I don’t know the details of the case. 

CUOMO: I do know the details. I do know the details of the case. We’ve been studying this for weeks now, what’s going on with Trump University. Every ruling that you look at, when lawyers review it — forget about me as a lawyer. When lawyers review it, they say, “this judge was following it.” And those lawyers, Trump’s own lawyer says his judge is doing his own job. The biggest ruling in the case was continuing the case, buying Mr. Trump more time to campaign and not deal with the litigation. These are all things that were in his favor, and he says the judge is biased. Is that right? 

COLLINS: In his opinion the judge is biased, and I’m not going to speak for Mr. Trump. I will say I’m very happy the judge has decided to hold this in abeyance until after the election. We need to put the distraction of this case behind us. I believe, as of his speech two days ago, we have now done that. But when you want to talk about someone being honest or not, look at Mrs. Clinton and her comments on Benghazi, look at her comments on the email, look at the Inspector General report —

CUOMO: But we had 11 hours of testimony on Benghazi to vet Clinton, right? And what congressmen dream of, you had a whole day to beat her over the head with her own words. Here you’re saying, “well, let’s not do that. Let’s move on right away, let’s not deal with what he said about this case.” Is that a fair appraisal?

COLLINS: Sure, we’re going to move on and we’re going to be talking about Mrs. Clinton.

CUOMO: Why?

COLLINS: Well, because we need to talk about the character flaws of Mrs. Clinton, who is not honest. She cannot be trusted. She’s shown bad judgment again and again and again. 

CUOMO: But why would I see your candidate as the better choice, if I’m a voter, if he won’t deal with his own situations and you just talk about the other candidate?

COLLINS: I think the issue is plain and simple. Do you think the country’s going in the right direction?

[…]

CUOMO: So Congressman, this is a tough question for you, but as you know, I know you well and I know what you stand for and what you do in New York on a regular basis. You’re saying to me that you don’t care if Donald Trump unfairly maligned a federal judge and misstated the situations in a case that includes fraud for his own benefit? You don’t care? 

COLLINS: Well, that’s your take on it. My take on it is, Donald Trump with his actions has shown he is not a racist. You look at his hiring practices —

CUOMO: I never used that word. I don’t even see being Mexican as suggestion of race. What I’m saying is, he brought the man’s heritage into it. He talked about what the judge did in this case, which is demonstrably untrue. His own lawyer disagrees with him, and you’re saying “I don’t care.”

COLLINS: I’m saying Donald Trump is the right individual to be the next president of the United States.

Building a wall along our border with Mexico – and getting Mexico to pay for it – is one of Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises, and his biggest applause line. He went so far as to explain that he would halt the flow of remittances to Mexico from the United States. 

The rounding up and deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants is another promise that Trump’s supporters really get behind, and the ovations keep coming. 

Donald Trump will end birthright citizenship, without which I would have been born a citizen of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, despite never having lived there. 

Trump’s indefinite, total ban of Muslims from entry to the United States is also one of presumptive GOP nominee’s big, bold, forward-thinking ideas for America. He now says it’s just a “suggestion”, but that’s got to be a lie. That proposal is right there on his campaign website. From Trump’s own statement, it is not temporary, but indefinite. The ban is not a suggestion, but a platform plank. He purports to make exceptions for his Saudi friends or the Mayor of London, but it says, “total and complete shutdown“. It would (a) apply to American citizens of the Muslim faith; (b) be pretty difficult to enforce – how do you tell if someone is Muslim? Their name? Their nationality? A modern interpretation of the works of Arthur de Gobineau? 

To my mind, if you are a lawmaker who has endorsed Donald Trump, you endorse all of these policies, positions, and proposals.  Every one of them. If you are, say, Representative Chris Collins (R-NY), then you have bought into all of this; you co-own it. This is especially true given his status as the co-chair of Trump’s “House Leadership Committee“, which is an irony and a misnomer if ever one existed. 

In the Buffalo News, Chris Collins – who has become Trump’s most high-profile Congressional puffer – Trump’s “man on the Hill” – is now attempting to do something quite elaborate and complicated that he should be wholly foreclosed from doing. He is trying to pretend that Trump’s controversial proposals aren’t real. They’re make-believe. Let’s hop on Trolley and see what King Friday has to say: 

Of the wall: 

I have called it a virtual wall. Maybe we will be building a wall over some aspects of it; I don’t know. 

Of the identification, detention, and deportation of 11 – 12 million men, women, and children: 

I call it a rhetorical deportation of 12 million people. They go out that door, they go in that room, they get their work papers, Social Security number, then they come in that door, and they’ve got legal work status but are not citizens of the United States, so there was a virtual deportation as they left that door for processing and came in this door. We’re not going to put them on a bus, and we’re not going to drive them across the border.

Of Trump’s indefinite, total ban on Muslim entry to the United States: 

[Collins] was encouraged that Trump recently said on Fox News Radio that his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration was “just a suggestion.” The congressman said that he disagrees with an overall ban on Muslim immigration and that he thinks Trump may have oversimplified his views on the issue to some extent. “When I hear the word ‘Islam,’ it doesn’t necessarily mean terrorist extremists,” Collins said. “It’s a religion. That’s me, and that’s why I say I don’t agree with the way he has said it.” Collins said he thinks that what Trump meant to say was that Syrian refugees who are undocumented and who can’t pass an FBI security check because of their lack of documentation should be banned until the FBI director can say they are safe to admit to the United States. “I disagree with his broad-based ban, but I am comfortable that this is what he really meant,” Collins said.

This is insanity. We are through the looking glass. Donald Trump has finagled for himself what is bound to be the Republican nomination for President in part due to his tough talk on Muslims and immigration, yet he doesn’t really mean it? It’s all “virtual“? This is such utter, unmitigated, unfiltered bullshit. 

Donald Trump doesn’t get the support and ovations based on “virtual” deportations out a Congressman’s door and back again with temporary work papers. Trump has sold these people the idea of an anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim pogrom, and by God, a pogrom is what these people want. Because the entire ethos of Trump’s campaign has been based on victimhood and resentment.

Collins brushed those differences away by basically saying he doesn’t look at Trump’s campaign promises as promises. They are, he said, merely the opening offers in a series of policy negotiations.

“Sometimes Donald says some absolutes,” Collins said. “And a CEO saying that means, ‘Challenge me on it. Let’s have a debate on it.’ … That’s Donald’s background. It’s not people hanging on every word, every nuance and saying that you can never modify what you said.”

Yes, but which CEO basically calls for the identification and rounding-up of 11 million men, women, and children, then detaining them in Arpaio-style camps near our Southern Border prior to deportation? Aside from costing half a trillion dollars, aside from it doing unnecessary harm to our GDP, and aside from it bringing about a humanitarian crisis of Biblical proportions, and aside from it being something not seen since 1945 in Northern Europe, (or 1995 in Southern Europe), and aside from the way in which the optics of this thing will absolutely destroy America’s standing in the world for centuries, what “policy negotiation” is all this meant to “open”? 

I suppose Collins realizes that this whole Trump thing isn’t a sure bet, and he wants to hedge a bit so it’s not too awkward when he bumps into a Muslim physician at the Spaulding Lake Club one warm summer evening. Perhaps Collins remembers that a lot of his constituents are farmers who rely a great deal on migrant labor – documented or not. Either way, you have a Presidential candidate who got where he is on domination politics and a contemporary version of the “stabbed-in-the-back” mythology. Just tell people that their misfortunes are the fault of Mexicans or Muslims or Chinese or Indians, and that we need to do something about the people who so took advantage of us. This is extraordinarily dangerous and ugly territory, but Collins is happy to hold Trump’s hand through it. 

Collins’ weak explanations and excuses don’t resonate quite like Trump’s plagiarism of Reagan’s “Make America Great Again”. 

In the end, either Trump is a liar, or Collins is a dupe – maybe both are true (probably). But the next time you hear some loudmouthed right-wing lunatic express admiration for Carl Paladino or Donald Trump, and their willingness to “say what everyone else is thinking”, remember this fundamental truth: 

The giveaway was this bit from Trump about [NYT Reporter Serge] Kovaleski: “He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a paper that is rapidly going down the tubes.” That’s what Trump’s fans think is going on all over the place. The blacks, the Hispanics, the disabled, the immigrants, the poor: sure, they’ve got problems, but who doesn’t? They’re just making a big deal out of it in order to gain sympathy and government bennies that the rest of us have to pay for. And the worst part is that you know what everyone else is already thinking about this claptrap, but you get in trouble if you say it. Republican candidates have tapped this vein of resentment for years, but usually in coded ways that won’t get them in too much hot water. Trump just dives in. Other politicians may have paved the way, but it’s Trump who’s finally figured out how to turn it into electoral gold.

My Congressman, Chris Collins, has endorsed Donald Trump. Since then, he has become more of an embarrassment than ever before. This weekend, he wrote an un-comical op/ed for that liberal stalwart, the New York Times. 

Americans are angry. I hear it from the former factory workers who lost their jobs to other countries because of bad trade deals, the veterans who wait months to see a doctor at a Veterans Affairs hospital and the small-business owners who are struggling to stay afloat because of the Affordable Care Act’s crippling regulations. The professional politicians they trusted and supported have repeatedly sold out our country in favor of special interests and the status quo. Finally, millions of Americans are saying, “Enough is enough.”

The VA is understaffed and underfunded by the Republican Congress. (Can’t have big government). More Americans have quality, real health insurance than at any time in history; not dying is a “special interest”. Manufacturing? Collins should know as well as anyone that it’s been automating or shifting overseas for generations. 

Are people angry about, e.g., Chris Collins’ company failing to pay its workers a contracted-for prevailing wage? Are they angry about Chris Collins’ company manufacturing its bike balancing gizmo in China? Hypocritical doesn’t begin to describe that first paragraph. 

I see the failures of career politicians in the experiences of the hardworking men and women in Western New York whom I represent in Congress. The safe manufacturer SentrySafe, which once employed hundreds in the Rochester area, will close its doors this June and shift much of its operation to Mexico. That means the loss of good-paying jobs because our state and national leaders do not know how to encourage businesses to stay and grow in the United States.

When given the chance, Chris Collins – a man who has been in politics for almost two decades – manufactured his bike balance thing in China. Not in western New York.

America cannot afford another professional politician residing in the White House. We need a leader who has faced tough real-life situations before, and won. As Republicans prepare to vote in the New York primary on Tuesday, I hope they will send a resounding message that they believe Donald J. Trump is that type of leader.

Over the past several decades, Mr. Trump has built a family business into a network of highly successful enterprises. One of the many reasons Americans are rallying behind him is his record of success and commitment to taking the lessons he’s learned to the White House. When he talks about being a president who would create jobs, win negotiations and stand up to enemies, people believe him because he has done it before.

To fix the mistakes made by President Obama, our next president needs to speak frankly about the problems that exist, explain how he or she will correct them and have the fortitude to take necessary actions, no matter how unpopular they would be with Washington elites.

Get that? You can fix bad policies and systemic failures by “speak[ing] frankly”. He will build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. He will drop nuclear bombs on “ISIS”, without regard for innocent civilians who are vaporized. He will commit torture, abrogate the Geneva Conventions, and murder terrorists’ innocent relatives (but likely not, by example, the parents of Timothy McVeigh, who slaughtered 168 innocent men, women, and children). Chris Collins endorses all of it. 

Yes, being a blunt-spoken political outsider gets a nominee only so far. But Mr. Trump continues to win because his message and his ideas for fixing America are resonating with voters. He is committed to securing our borders, taking back the manufacturing jobs that have been stolen from the middle class by Mexico and China, and standing up to enemies threatening our way of life. These are things people in my district care about. His demand that foreign countries stop cheating on international trade is especially welcome in Western New York, a region devastated by the North American Free Trade Agreement and other poorly negotiated trade deals.

“Red China Chris” Collins is a political insider who has done nothing to abrogate or challenge bad trade deals. On the contrary, he outsourced his own product to China, because he could and because it was cheaper than employing western New Yorkers to do it. 

Even some of his supporters don’t agree with everything he says. I believe his plan to deport the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States is unfeasible, and his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering our country will not end radical Islamic terrorism.

“Avoidable humanitarian crisis of Biblical proportions” can now be euphemised into “unfeasible”. Make no mistake – the rounding up, detention, and deportation of 11 million men, women, and children will be nothing more than contemporary concentration camps. They’ll be Dachau and Omarska for the 21st Century. Banning Muslims – even American Muslims – from entry or re-entry isn’t just something to avoid because it won’t work, but because it’s fundamentally illegal, unconstitutional, stupid, and ignorant. Trumpisti are quick to say it would be “temporary”, but that’s not true; something “temporary” has an expiration date. The proper word is, “indefinite”. Chris Collins endorses all of it, despite his weak and mealy-mouthed protestations. 

However, there is something to be said for a candidate who is willing to put forward proposals to protect our nation, rather than skirt uncomfortable issues — as President Obama and Hillary Clinton all too often do. His lack of political correctness shows that he is independent and understands the things people care about. Unlike career politicians who take policy positions based on their fear of losing elections or angering deep-pocketed special interests, Mr. Trump is accountable to no one but the voters.

Hey, my candidate might say horrible, wretched, and unworkable things, but gosh he’s willing to say them! Also, “political correctness” has become Republican shorthand for, “let’s treat people like garbage again”. 

Republicans recognize that the remaining Republican candidates have all advanced conservative solutions to the problems our nation is facing, as evidenced by the record voter turnout we have seen. But while Senator Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich both have strong visions, neither possesses Mr. Trump’s proven negotiating skills or ability to enact real change.

Donald Trump’s negotiating skills must explain why his name is still up on junk-bond-financed, twice-bankrupted Trump Taj Mahal, the 13th best hotel in Atlantic City, according to Tripadvisor. 

I know firsthand how important Mr. Trump’s private-sector know-how is to improving the way government operates. I spent my career buying and rebuilding distressed companies, which created and saved hundreds of middle-class jobs. I put that experience to use in 2007 when I ran for executive of Erie County, a region that had been devastated by losses in manufacturing jobs.

In office, I made the necessary tough choices and turned a nearly bankrupt, debt-ridden county into one with a surplus. I believe Donald Trump will achieve the same results for America.

Shorter Chris Collins: Trump needs the assistance of an imposed control board to lead. 

Americans have a chance to set our country back on course and restore the possibility of the American dream for our children and grandchildren. For too long the political class has denied everyday Americans a real voice in government. This election, voters are finding a leader who is listening to them over the clamor of Washington special interests, and voters are speaking loud and clear. They want a leader like Mr. Trump; a chief executive, not a chief politician.

Here’s a news flash for Red China Chris: you are a member of the political class, and you never schedule or attend events where you might have to deign to hear from people who don’t agree with you and buy into your Spaulding Lake shtick. Your policies were so horrible for western New York’s middle class that you were ejected from county office after one unnecessarily turbulent term. You are an embarrassment to your constituents, to your town, and to yourself.