This Is Becoming A Pattern

Donald Trump could fuck up a free lunch:

Donald Trump walked back a claim that he saw a video of U.S. officials giving Iran a $400 million payment, a rare retraction from the normally stubborn businessman. Friday’s statement contradicts claims he made earlier in the week that he had seen "secret" video of cash being unloaded off a plane in Iran.

Presidential nominees from the two major parties are typically given access to classified information via intelligence briefings, though his campaign said those briefings hadn’t begun yet. “Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off the airplane,” he told a crowd in Florida. “It’s a military tape; it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”

As the President noted yesterday, this transfer of money to Iran is an old story. The GOP's apparent plan was to rehash this old story as a distraction in the event that something catastrophic occurred during the General Election such as, say, a complete and total meltdown by the GOP nominee.

The problem with such a plan, however, is that the GOP nominated a delusional candidate.  What that means in this situation is that the manufactured money transfer story takes second fiddle to the fact that Trump went into great detail discussing a video that does not exist.

Trump has done similar things before.  During his Convention, Trump called into Fox News right at the time the mother of a fallen Benghazi State Department employee was giving an emotional speech about her dead son and thus totally preempted this woman's remarks.  More recently, Trump's meltdown over the Kahn Family completely overwhelmed Hillary Clinton's statement during an interview that she was truthful to the American people about her emails, a statement that rated four pinocchios from the Washington Post.  Trump, however, couldn't be "distracted" by such a story because he was too busy going after a Muslim-American Gold Star Family.

This time, Trump not only walked all over the GOP's attempt to roll out a manufactured story -- he also demonstrated he is delusional and even hinted that he would not be able to keep secrets. And there is still three months to go before the November Election.  If I was a member of Trump's campaign, I would wonder how much more damage Donald could do during that time, not only to himself but also to the Republican brand.

And by the way, what is it with Republicans and non-existent videos?