[guest post by Dana]

Standard operating procedure:

On Tuesday, Trump pointed out ABC News reporter Tom Llamas and called him “a sleaze.” Llamas’ crime? Asking the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to explain why he had misled people about how much money he’d raised for veterans.

During his tirade about the press, he interrupted CNN’s Jim Acosta who was asking Trump about his ability to deal with scrutiny, to say sarcastically, “Excuse me, excuse me. I’ve watched you on TV. You’re a real beauty.”

The attack, which came amid one of Trump’s familiar diatribes about the “dishonest” media, was the latest in a string of personal insults Trump has made against reporters covering his campaign.

So, to remind Trump that The Media is not to be trifled with, a bold reporter lobbed a heat-seeking missile of inquiry straight at the GOP presumptive nominee:

–Dana

John Sexton catches the Hillmeister in a giant lie today. Compare and contrast this, from John Podesta:

Secretary Clinton believed her emails to and from officials on their state.gov accounts were automatically captured and preserved in the State Department’s electronic system.

It was not until the Department contacted her in 2014 that she learned this was not the case.

With this, from Hillary’s press conference in . . . March 2015:

Second, the vast majority of my work emails went to government employees at their government addresses, which meant they were captured and preserved immediately on the system at the State Department.

Last time I checked, March 2015 came after 2014. Meaning that, after she had been told in 2014 that her emails had not been captured and preserved, she told the world in March 2015 that they had been. Nice catch by Sexton.

We can’t elect someone this dishonest.

Meanwhile, Kevin Drum (yes, Kevin Drum — facts pointed out by leftists are still facts) does an amazing job pointing out the differences between what Whiny McWhinyface said this morning about veterans’ funding, and what Trump said at the time. The contrasts are . . . stark. Go to his post for all of it, presented in a clean, easy-to-follow table. Here is a teaser:

What Trump says now: On why it took so long to disburse the money: “When you send checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to people and to companies and to groups that you’ve never heard of, charitable organizations, you have to vet it. You send people out. You do a lot of work.”

What Trump said then: The organizations had been chosen before the event even took place: “The night benefited twenty-two different organizations, a number of which are Iowa based Veterans groups.”

Good work by Drum.

We can’t elect someone this dishonest.

This pretty much says it all:

Even so, McConnell matter-of-factly endorsed Trump when it was clear the real-estate mogul would win the nomination, a stark contrast to the continuing deliberations by House Speaker Paul Ryan. McConnell sees no political percentage in Republicans trying to disassociate themselves from the presumptive nominee by saying they won’t vote for him.

“I think that would be a mistake,” McConnell says, “because, obviously, you would like the people who are voting for your candidate for president to vote for you.”

With this guy, it’s all about getting people to vote for you. What you have to do in order to get that vote is almost completely irrelevant. (Perhaps the word “almost” doesn’t even belong in the previous sentence.)

Donald Trump is the culmination of this philosophy: a man who stands for absolutely nothing (except, in Trump’s case, selling the perception that he is a Tough Guy).

He and McConnell are made for each other.

Ben White at Politico (cached link; no links for bullies):

Donald Trump claims a net worth of more than $10 billion and an income of $557 million. But he appears to get there only by overvaluing properties and ignoring his expenses.

POLITICO spoke with more than a dozen financial experts and Trump’s fellow multimillionaires about the presumptive Republican nominee’s financial statement. Their conclusion: The real estate magnate’s bottom line — what he actually puts in his own pocket — could be much lower than he suggests. Some financial analysts said this, and a very low tax rate, is why Trump won’t release his tax returns.

. . . .

The case against Trump’s accounting of his wealth: His businesses apparently generate a lot of revenue but may not put much cash in his pocket; he assigns himself a net worth that is impossible to verify and may be based in part on fantasy; and he is selling assets and increasing debt in ways that suggest a man scrambling for ready cash.

This, of course, will change no minds, nor is my posting of it an attempt to try. His supporters will ignore it, while we skeptics already assume that any word out of the man’s mouth is a self-serving lie. Anyway, we’re not his audience. It’s the boobs who are “persuaded” by interminable repetition of lies who are his target audience. Turns out there are a lot of them. Are there enough? Time will tell.

Let me give you a lesson in how Donald Trump is the Master Persuader. Kudos to Scott Adams of the Dilbert blog for pointing out Trump’s genius as a communicator.

“Do you think — honestly, honestly, honestly — do you think Hillary looks presidential?” The crowd answered in unison as Trump smirked: “Noooo!”

“I don’t think so,” Trump continued, shaking his head. “And I’m not going to say it because I’m not allowed to say it because I want to be politically correct, so I refuse to say that I cannot stand her screaming into the microphone all of the time.”

You see Trump’s genius at work here. See, if someone is upset by this Linguistic Kill Shot, and accuses him of being politically incorrect, he can deny having said it, pointing to his explicit denial: “I refuse to say it.” Trump wins! But if someone enjoys listening to Trump making fun of Hillary, then they will recognize what Trump is really saying, and applaud. Trump wins!

I admire his good, solid sense. It’s precisely what they lack on Capitol Hill.