Tuesday, Aug. 2, may be remembered as one of the worst days of the 2016 election for Donald Trump.
To kick off the flurry of Trump campaign catastrophes, four separate national polls put Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump. And FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast boosted Clinton’s chances of winning the general election from nearly a 50-50 split last week to 69 percent (nice) early Tuesday—although it fell to just over 66 percent later in the day.
At a Virginia rally, Trump said there was “something phony” about the polls that show Clinton in the lead.
Next up, New York Rep. Richard Hanna became the first Republican lawmaker to publicly support Clinton over Trump. “I think Trump is a national embarrassment,” Hanna, who is retiring at the end of this term, told Syracuse.com. “Is he really the guy you want to have the nuclear codes?”
Just as news of Hanna’s endorsement of Clinton crossed the wires, President Barack Obama called on all Republicans to abandon Trump in November. Obama cited Trump’s ongoing feud with the bereaved Gold Star parents of late Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in a suicide attack in Iraq in 2004, as deserving more than mere condemnation from fellow Republicans.
“Is he really the guy you want to have the nuclear codes?”
“The question they have to ask themselves is: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?” Obama said at a White House press conference. He added that Trump is “woefully unprepared” to be president.
Amid all of this, a Trump supporter in Virginia gave the candidate his Purple Heart, an award given by the U.S. president to those wounded or killed in the line of duty. “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart—this was much easier,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you, it was such an honor.” His “this was much easier” joke comes one day after the New York Times revealed that Trump received five draft deferments, keeping him from fighting in Vietnam.
Oh, and despite the man telling Trump that the Purple Heart was real, the guy told a reporter earlier that the one he gave him was a replica.
The man who gave Trump his purple heart told me earlier today, it was a copy of his purple heart.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) August 2, 2016
Finally, to cap it all off, Trump kicked a mother and her crying baby out of that same Virginia rally. Really.
As baby cries during rally, Trump first says "I love babies," then "Kidding, you can get the baby out of here." https://t.co/FhVeiFAelU
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 2, 2016
Trump was not, of course, the only political operative to have a crappy day on Tuesday. Amy Dacey, CEO of the Democratic National Committee, has reportedly resigned over the fallout from some 20,000 emails and voicemails stolen from the DNC by hackers believed to be from Russia and published online by WikiLeaks. The emails showed ample coordination between Democratic Party officials and Clinton’s campaign.
At least two other DNC officials, CFO Brad Marshall and Communications Director Luis Miranda, will also reportedly step down.
https://twitter.com/gdebenedetti/status/760544815243259906
Despite the DNC shakeup, however, it’s hard to imagine Clinton not enjoying this.