Since the latest bombshell that dropped last Friday in which Donald Trump bragged to Billy Bush during a break from "Access Hollywood" that he could grab women's genitals because he was a star (although he used much cruder language), there has been a mass exodus of Republican leaders who have either unendorsed or distanced themselves from Trump. Paul Ryan has finally decided to no longer defend Trump (although he still endorses him). Several Republican leaders have come out and endorsed Hillary Clinton. Polls have shown that the likelihood that Clinton will be elected POTUS is widening and many pundits believe this election is effectively over.
Here is a question though. Why is it just NOW that many of these leaders are dropping Trump like a hot potato? Why are they so shocked at this behavior? He has been shown to be this kind of person for a year now (actually, most of his adult life). But just take a look at how he came into politics. He falsely accused President Obama of not being born in the United States, and wouldn't let that go for years. And although most Republicans knew that was ridiculous, they didn't forcefully go after Trump and disavow those statements.
When he announced his candidacy, he stated that Mexicans who immigrated here were murders and rapists. Yet that still wasn't enough for Republicans to disavow him.
Then he announced that if he were elected President, he would ban all Muslims from entering the country. Still, the Republican leadership, while uncomfortable with this rhetoric, still stood behind him.
When asked if he disavowed David Duke and the KKK, he claimed to not know who David Duke was and not know anything about white supremacist groups. That should have been disqualifying right there. But it wasn't.
Then Trump made disparaging statements about Judge Curiel, saying that he could not be impartial because he was Hispanic and his parents were from Mexico, implying that somehow he would automatically be biased. Again, the Republican leadership was quick to criticize the comments, but still stood behind Trump.
After the Democratic National Convention, Trump criticized a Goldstar family, the Kahn family, who had lost their son, Capt. Humayan Kahn, in the Iraq War. Trump implied that Mrs. Kahn wasn't speaking because perhaps she wasn't allowed to (because she was Muslim). The public was up in arms about this, Republican leaders were aghast, yet they STILL stood behind Trump.
Trump goes to a mostly white rally and talks about how African-American and Latino lives are "hell" and says "What do you have to lose?" by voting for him. Crickets from the Republican leadership.
After the first debate, it was revealed that when Trump owned the Miss Universe Pageant, he called Alicia Machado, then Miss Universe, "Miss Piggy" (because she had gained some weight) and "Miss Housekeeping" (because she was Latina). Women everywhere were absolutely disgusted. Yet still the Republican leadership defended Trump.
It wasn't until this final straw last Friday, the bragging about the sexual assault (presumably of white women) that many of the white men in the Republican leadership had had it. Perhaps they didn't empathize with the previous disqualifying behaviors that Trump displayed. Was it not enough when Trump said all those things about people of color and Muslims? It appears that only when your own lives were touched, when it was about YOUR wives, YOUR mothers, YOUR daughters that you finally were moved to act.
This shows the GOP's true colors. Republican leaders care only about themselves. They don't give a damn about anyone else. If they did, they would have stopped supporting Trump a long time ago.
