Never, Trump

     On October 9 I was shocked when I opened the Los Angeles Times to page A-10 and read the f-word.  The expletive was part of a transcript of the 2005 conversation between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush.  While Trump rightly assumed “Access” would cut most of the video footage down to a few sound bites, he could not ignore the fact that tape was rolling as he crowed about his conquests.

     “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful – I just start kissing them.  It’s like a magnet. I just kiss.  I don’t even wait.  And when you’re a star, they let you do it.  You can do anything,” said Trump. “Grab them by the….”

     Just read it.  I can’t type what he said.

     The fact that the Times tossed aside 99 years of decorum to publish these words demonstrates depth of commitment.  It is the duty of the Fourth Estate to accurately report current events for posterity.  Another duty of the Fourth Estate is to act independently of government and politicians to discern and articulate the truth.  The content of the 2005 Trump/Bush transcript surely made editors wince, but they quoted him precisely and without embellishment.

     Yet, in the second presidential debate, Trump tried to minimize the damage by calling his banter “locker room talk.”  Debate moderator Anderson Cooper asked Trump: “For the record, are you saying, what you said on the bus 11 years ago, that you did not kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?”  Cooper asked three times before Trump stopped tap dancing around his “respect” for women and replied, “No, I have not.”

     In her response, Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could have excoriated Trump.  Instead, she said:

     “You know, with prior Republican nominees, for president, I disagreed with them. Politics, policies, principles. But I never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald Trump is different. I said starting back in June, that he was not fit to be president and commander in chief. And many Republicans and independents have said the same thing. What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women. What he thinks about women. What he does to women. And he has said that the video doesn't represent who he is. But I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly what he is.”

    A debate is not a court room or a blog.  As moderator here I shall permit Trump’s debate request to “get on to much more important things” such as three legal actions that came as a result of actions Trump denied.

     In the 1991 divorce proceedings of Donald and first wife Ivana Trump, Ivana alleged a 1989 “rape” in a sworn deposition.  After attorneys claimed spousal rape was not a crime, her language was softened.  Regardless, the original deposition was included by author Harry Hurt III in his 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump.

     In 1997, Florida businesswoman Jill Harth filed a sexual harassment law suit against Trump after he pushed her against a wall at his estate, attempted to kiss her forcefully and fondled her.  Trump reportedly settled for over $100,000.

     As was previously discussed here, in June of this year, Katie Johnson filed a civil suit in New York federal court naming Trump as a co-defendant who allegedly held her as a sex slave and raped her at the New York home of level three sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 1994 when she was 13 years old.  Trump denied the charges.

     Please follow the links above and don’t take my word for this record.  These stories are not mere musings of bitter ex’s, business partners or pretty girls who let Trump steal a kiss and a squeeze because he was “a star.”  These women were sexually abused and brought complaints to courts of law risking the costly tit-for-tat civil suits for which Trump is famous.  The incidents demonstrate Trump’s pattern of violence and predatory behavior.  As Secretary Clinton said, this is “exactly what he is.”

     He may apologize for words he said when he was bragging; but essentially, Trump was bragging because he was proud of what he did and what he was able to get away with.  In his own words, he exposed himself as a sociopath.  He exposed himself as a person who either does not know the difference between right and wrong or a person who just doesn’t care.  The general public might call him “crazy;” but, in a court of law, a person who cannot tell the difference between right and wrong can also be identified as “criminally insane.”

     Let that sink in.

     The Republican presidential nominee demonstrates the qualities of Antisocial Personality Disorder and may be insane.

     After making the decision to print the true, vulgar words of Donald Trump, the Los Angeles Times also ran an editorial entitled “The last Trump straw,”  which said:

     “For those of us who have long argued that Donald Trump is unfit for the White House. The ugly disclosures of the last couple of days are further proof of what already seemed obvious.  But if it takes this last straw to break the back of Republican denial, so be it.  Now those who profess to be shocked by this latest detail must act on their outrage and say the words: “Never Trump.”

     Never.  Never.  Never.  Not ever, Mr. Trump.