Not fit

The Guardian has a big collection. A yuuuuje collection.

Donald Trump’s apology for the latest in a string of controversial comments about women came as no surprise to the political strategist and fellow Republican Ana Navarro. “He is not fit to be the president, he is not fit to be the Republican nominee, he is not fit to be called a man,” Navarro said on CNN. “How many times does he get away with saying something misogynistic before we call him a misogynist? How many times does he get away with saying something sexist before we acknowledge that he is a sexist? It is time to condemn the man.”

But what about free speech? Heterogeneity of opinion? Vigorous dissent? Isn’t Trump just part of the rich pageant of democracy?

Certainly not in my view, but there are a lot of people who talk about that kind of thing without explaining how they draw the line.

Nadia Khomami goes through the familiar examples, then gets to some less familiar ones.

Trump has regularly targeted Arianna Huffington, the editor and co-founder of the Huffington Post, as being “unattractive both inside and out”. When the New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote about rumours of his bankruptcy, he sent her a copy of her own article with her picture circled and “the face of a dog!” written across it. More recently, when his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was charged with battery for yanking Michelle Fields’ arm as she tried to ask questions, Trump was quick to accuse the reporter of changing her story.

He has also maintained a brutal verbal campaign against comedian Rosie O’Donnell. In 2006, during an appearance on Entertainment Tonight, Trump said she was “disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at her, she’s a slob. How does she even get on television? If I were running The View, I’d fire Rosie. I’d look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, ‘Rosie, you’re fired.’ We’re all a little chubby but Rosie’s just worse than most of us”.

The verbal assault did not stop there, as he continued to attack her personal life and offend the LGBT community at the same time: “Rosie’s a person who’s very lucky to have her girlfriend. And she better be careful or I’ll send one of my friends over to pick up her girlfriend. Why would she stay with Rosie if she had another choice?” he said.

As I’ve mentioned all too often…he’s indistinguishable from those vulgar people who live on Twitter and type insults all day.

Verbal indiscretions aside, perhaps what many fear most is the more serious allegations about Trump’s conduct towards women. Jill Harth, a woman at the centre of sexual assault allegations against the billionaire, spoke for the first time in July about her personal experience with him. The makeup artist has accused Trump in a lawsuit of cornering and groping her in his daughter’s bedroom. She told the Guardian that she stood by her charges, which her lawyers described in the lawsuit as “attempted ‘rape’”.

Shortly after Trump announced his bid for president it emerged that his first wife, Ivana, had alleged in testimony during their divorce that he had raped her in 1989. When the allegation resurfaced in the Daily Beast, a lawyer and aide to Trump told a reporter that the claim was moot because “you cannot rape your spouse”. In a statement issued through Trump’s lawyers, Ivana later said she did not want “rape” to be “interpreted in a literal or criminal sense”.

The shame of a nation.

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