I'm beginning to think that Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency is employing some sort of book of "political disaster mad-libs" at this point. After a week that featured Trump again coyly talking about Hillary Clinton being assassinated and ridiculously claiming that she had invented birtherism (and that he had "ended it"), it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a few of the "normal" days from his campaign that has thus far seen him bounced between unhinged mad man and "totally normal politician who definitely doesn't look like a prisoner reading a speech on a teleprompter."
But no. Instead we got another bizarre sight this morning. At a church in Cleveland this week, Don King took to the pulpit to introduce Donald Trump. Now on most campaigns this would be weird enough—after all Don King is basically the walking embodiment of corruption in boxing. He's been sued for fraud by boxers like Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, and Mike Tyson. He was convicted of second degree murder (later reduced to manslaughter and eventually pardoned for years after his release) for beating one of his employees to death in 1967. That's the second time he had killed someone as he also shot and killed a man in 1954 who was trying to rob King's illegal gambling operation. That shooting was ruled a "justifiable homicide." ANYWAY, that's not typically who you would want introducing you during your presidential campaign, but this is Trump, so here we are.
King took the pulpit and started going down a path where he used the word "negro" over and over again, before slipping and saying the n-word, while a delighted Trump looked on:
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Look, Don King can say the n-word if he wants. But there's nothing not gross about this. The fact that Trump thinks black people should just forgive his unrelenting racism, because now he's transparently and poorly trying to pander to them is gross. And his idea of "outreach" is to have a corrupt boxing promoter hit the trail with him? I hate to steal a phrase, and it's sad to say but... Only in America.