Donald Trump
was a yelling demagogue last night but he mostly made an effort to at least stay on script, reading from the telemprompter and refraining from calling someone ugly or making fun of people with disabilities or encouraging violence against protesters, etc. 

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Apparently bored with this approach, he’s back to full-on crazy today, once again peddling a bizarre conspiracy theory that Ted Cruz’s dad was affiliated with JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (as always, Trump claims that it’s not him saying, other people are saying it, and he’s just repeating it). 

I get that Trump says crazy stuff constantly, so it’s not exactly a madman bites dog story here. But with our democracy now one election away from potentially electing a vengeful huckster entirely dislodged from reality by the force of his own petty narcissism, it’s worth keeping in mind that we should never normalize such a monster in our political system. Even if too many Republicans who should know better are willing to do just that.

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Here’s the transcript of his Cruz/JFK rambling, via Vox:

His father. I don’t know his father, I met him once. I think he’s a lovely guy. I think he’s a lovely guy. All I did was point out that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now, Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead he said, “Donald Trump!” — I had nothing to do with it!

This was a magazine that frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got OJ, they got Edwards. If that was the New York Times, they would’ve gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting. I’ve always said, “Why didn’t the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for Edwards, and OJ Simpson, and all of these things?”

But anyway, so they have a picture, an old picture, having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald. Now, I’m not saying anything. Here’s how the press takes that story. This had nothing to do with me. Except I might have pointed it out, but it had nothing to do with me, I have no control over anything. I might have pointed it out. But nobody ever denied — did anyone ever deny that it was his father? It’s a little hard to do, because it looks like him.

So here’s the story, they say, “Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories, he went out and said his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald, and he assassinated the president.” What’d I do?

…I know nothing about his father, I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald. But there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer which does have credibility, and they’re not going to do pictures like that because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong. There’s a picture, and that’s the only thing I know. 

In other As the GOP Turns news, TPM reports

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A Republican Ohio official grudgingly apologized for saying this week that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “should be hanging from a tree.”

Licking County Commissioner Duane Flowers made the untoward remark during what he thought was an off-the-record conversation during a public board of commissioners meeting on Tuesday.

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