Robert Reich is touting eight reasons why Republicans must dump presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“Republicans still have time to dump Trump. For the good of the country and the world, they must,” wrote Reich, the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
“Why are there so few statesmen left in the Republican Party?" he wrote in his
Huffington Post blog.
"Are there no principled Republicans whose loyalty to the nation is greater than their eagerness to win back the White House? No Republican leaders with the courage to stand up and say this is wrong — that this man doesn’t have the character or the temperament to be president, and his election would endanger America and everything we believe in and stand for?”
Reich cites eight reasons he says the GOP should find another candidate:
- Trump “divides us by race and ethnicity and religion.”
- Trump’s “incendiary lies are inciting violence across this land, but he excuses them.”
- Trump “bullies, humiliates, and threatens those who dare cross him.”
- Trump “spreads baseless conspiracy theories.”
- Trump’s “hateful and demeaning attitudes toward women and boastful claims of sexual dominance have been filling the airwaves for years.”
- Trump “believes climate change is not caused by humans, contrary to all scientific proof.”
- Trump “proposes using torture against terrorists, and punishing their families, both in clear violation of international law.”
- Trump “wants to cut taxes on the rich, giving the wealthiest one tenth of one percent an average tax cut of more than $1.3 million each every year - exploding the national debt and endangering the future of Social Security and Medicare.”
CNBC and MSNBC contributor Ron Insana says that Trump may drop out of the race for the White House before the November election.
“Given his personality type, I think he is exhibiting signs of intense frustration that comes from the diminishing amounts of undeserved adulation he received during his primary run,”
Insana writes in his blog. “That may very well lead him to simply take his ball and go home. That decision could be further accelerated by a GOP that is now having a rather serious case of buyer's remorse.”
Real estate developer Trump received the votes of 1,542 Republican delegates during the primary elections, surpassing the 1,237 needed for the nomination. His campaign as a political outsider has resonated predominately with white voters whose top worries are the economy, national security and the national debt. Trump’s detractors describe him as a racist, sexist xenophobe.
“Trump's presidential obituary has been written more than once, and prematurely,” Insana says. “But there seems to be a change in the air. His behavior is more erratic. Republican leaders appear to be backing away from him, fearing a voter backlash if they stand too close to someone who, until recently seemed only toxic, but may now be radioactive.”
Politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties have pilloried Trump for his suggestion that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel cannot fairly preside over lawsuits against Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. Class actions targeting the now-defunct organizer of real estate seminars describe its methods as fraudulent and predatory.
Other respected economic and investment voices aren't as concerned about Trump.
Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has said a Trump presidency wouldn’t be the blow to U.S. business that some fear,
Bloomberg News reported.
“If either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton becomes president, and one of them is very likely to be, I think Berkshire will continue to do fine,” Buffett, 85, said at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
The outcome of November’s presidential election is unlikely to change the fact that the U.S. is a “remarkably attractive place in which to conduct a business,” said Buffett, who endorsed Democrat Clinton at an Omaha rally in December. U.S. companies have enjoyed “terrific” returns on equity despite a sustained period of ultra-low interest rates, he added.
Trump and Clinton are their parties’ respective front-runners in a campaign that has exposed discontent with Washington insiders, anger over global trade deals, frustration with Wall Street and furor over the growing gap between rich and poor.
Buffett, who has criticized Trump in the past and scorned politicians’ pessimism about the country, looked past the current voter angst for a longer view of U.S. economic prospects.
‘Far More’
“Twenty years from now, there’ll be far more output per capita in the United States in real terms than there is now. In 50 years, it’ll be far more,” Buffett said. “No presidential candidate or president is going to end that. They can shape it in ways that are good or bad, but they can’t end it.”
Asked how a Trump presidency might affect Berkshire’s business, Buffett replied, “That won’t be the main problem.” He didn’t elaborate.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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