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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/us/politics/d...
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POLITICS
NEWS ANALYSIS
09/17/2016 10:51 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/us/politics/d...
Besides using his campaign as a platform to make money on a new hotel, Mr. Trump
leveled an untrue assertion that Hillary Clinton had been the first to claim Mr. Obama
was born abroad. He also boasted about his health on the show of a daytime television
celebrity while releasing just his testosterone levels and a few other details about his
well-being.
Mr. Trump also continued to flout 40 years of tradition by refusing to release his tax
returns, a decision that his eldest son admitted this week was not based on an audit, as
Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed, but on a desire not to distract from the campaigns
main message.
Beyond his handling of personal information, he also casually accused the chairwoman of
the Federal Reserve of corruption, claimed that the bipartisan national debate commission
was rigged against him, and stated that Mrs. Clinton had not proposed a child care plan.
(She has, and did so a year before he did.)
He also mocked an African-American pastor who had just welcomed him to her
church, and again referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who once said
she had Native American roots, as Pocahontas.
And that was all before Friday night, when Mr. Trump hinted at violence against
Mrs. Clinton by inviting her Secret Service detail to disarm and see what happens to
her.
Routine falsehoods, unfounded claims and inflammatory language have long been
staples of Mr. Trumps anything-goes campaign. But as the polls tighten and November
nears, his behavior, and the implications for the country should he become president, are
alarming veteran political observers and leaving them deeply worried about the
precedent being set, regardless of who wins the White House.
Its frightening, said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from
Minnesota. Our politics, because of him, is descending to the level of a third-world
country. Theres just nothing beneath him. And I dont know why we would think he
would change if he became president. Thats whats really scary.
Stephen Hess, who served in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations, could not
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Privacy Policy
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either of them, said Tom Coburn, the former Oklahoma senator, of Mr. Trump and Mrs.
Clinton.
Still, Mr. Weber, who arrived in Washington as a congressional staff member shortly
after the post-Watergate election of 1974, said Mr. Trumps approach would inflict the
most damage on his own party.
You dont want to say this is the equivalent of Watergate, Mr. Weber said. But at
least that was a discrete crime. In a way, Trump is harder to deal with. And Republicans
didnt feel compelled to defend Watergate: they drove Richard Nixon out of office.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news
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A version of this article appears in print on September 18, 2016, on page A4 of the New York edition with
the headline: Anything-Goes Campaign an Alarming Precedent.
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