My Sister's question: Why didn't the GOP opposition research find out about tRump's sexual assaults?

[That Guy 888]

My answer: Maybe they did and just didn't see anything wrong with what he did. Anyone else have any opinions?

Edit to clarify: my sister meant the goppers in the primary, not tRump's campaign. And I meant that the gopper's didn't see anything wrong with sexual assault, not me.

Hopefully final edit: My sister, who is less cynical/paranoid than me thought I was being unfair to the republicans. I reminded her of former Congressional Representative Mark Foley. He "groomed" underage Congressional Pages I don't know if things went any further than that, but the GOP definitely knew what he was doing. There were reports that the republicans warned Congressional Pages about him in orientation - republican Congressional Pages. They also let Foley sit on a committee that was supposed to design laws to protect minors from sexual exploitation.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Trump refused to allow them to do it.

In the wake of a half-dozen women coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment by the G.O.P. presidential nominee, and more stories of inappropriate sexual behavior still surfacing, some Republicans are asking why Trump wasn’t better vetted, even by his own staff. Traditionally, a political campaign allows staff or other allies to conduct a thorough investigation of the candidate’s past, in order to discover any potential scandals and formulate strategies in advance to handle them. But Trump repeatedly refused suggestions that he do opposition research on himself, according to a Bloomberg report Thursday. Everyone from Trump’s former campaign manger, Corey Lewandowski, to Trump’s longtime confidante, Roger Stone—not to mention his lawyer, Michael Cohen—reportedly asked the billionaire to allow them to use “forensic research effort” to exhume his skeletons. He said no.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-campaign-opposition-research

[That Guy 888]

3. That's his campaign, my sister meant the other repulicans that got their asses handed to them.

She had a good point, it doesn't seem likely that John Ellis Bush-Bush or Ted Cruz wouldn't do opposition research because tRump told them not to.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. My guess is that the other GOP candidates didn't do oppo research

because they didn't think Trump could win the nomination until it was too late.

[That Guy 888]

12. Yeah, what you and Buckeye Democrat posted below seem to be the best answers

Arrogance is something that the goppers have in abundance.

[ReformedGOPer]

21. Agree.

[GP6971]

5. True

He wouldn't allow the campaign to conduct a "murder board"....basically a full fledged background check looking for past indiscretions etc.

[Raster]

8. tRump certainly had the right to nix his own opposition research with him as the subject...

...what I don't understand is why the GOP did not vet tRump. Rancid Penis and the GOP should have done their own opposition research before handing tRump the keys to the car. The Word Salad Sarah debacle should have taught them a few things.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. It took a D. woman to do job 16 Republicans failed to do. Jeb had $130 million. Cruz had Harvard. nt

[saltpoint]

4. There are reports that Trump himself

blocked such inquiries.

It could be that his staff had no idea.

[randome]

6. Because no one is in charge of the GOP. It's a circus without tents or a ringmaster.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. I don't think they took him seriously until it was too late.

Rubio's team seemed to dig up a little dirt, but that was just days before Super Tuesday.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

10. The RNC probably did, which is why they didn't want him to be the nominee

But since they've spent so many years creating the hateful and vile tone of their base the whole damn thing ran away from them.

They deserve it and with the despicable way these idiotic male Trump excuse makers are acting right now they are going to lose the majority of Republican women. They don't value women at all, not one bit.

[geek tragedy]

11. No oppo uncovered them. The women came forward after the tape and his denial. nt

[duncang]

19. This!

The first real hit was the woman who already had filed a law suite against him years back. Then the news started seeing some reports about it. They started checking along with any other group who had old videos or tapes of him. Followed by the women coming out after seeing him on news.

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. My guess is that they all have some skeletons in their closets

That they didn't want Trump bringing out and as others have said, he just got too far ahead, too fast.

[liberal N proud]

14. Opposition research in the primaries is not as in depth

There have been many surprises in the general election that could have been known in the primaries if the primary contenders had done deeper research.

It's partly party politics, no one wants to find something on a candidate they may have to support.

[Old Terp]

15. My guess is that the RNC saw all these new lifeforms crawling out from under rocks and stuff.

They wanted to harvest them and use them later. Accordingly, they didn't want to attack Trump and have these people drop out again when Trump lost. Man, that did not work out as they planned.

[Yavin4]

16. Wasted time trying to get into a one-on-one with him.

Recall, Kasich, Rubio, and Cruz all stayed in very late even though they hadn't won anything.

[okaawhatever]

17. They probably did learn about some of it, but wouldn't have used it with primary voters. Do

you think GOP voters wouldn't vote for Trump because he sexually harassed women? (Like you said)

What we're really asking here: Why would we expect voters who support Trump despite his marital infidelity, 3 bankruptcies, 3,500 lawsuits, zero paid in taxes, running a sham university, selling products made in China while promising to bring jobs back to America, hiring H1-B visa workers for Mar-a-Lago LAST MONTH, lying about donating money to charity, using charitable donations to buy a 20k portrait of himself, pathological lying, and conspiring with a foreign power to steal information to be swayed by claims of sexual harassment?

The only oppo research that would have swayed the Trump voter was proof he liked Mexicans, AAs, Jews, Muslims and thought women equal. Those are the deal breakers my friend.


My other answer is that the Republicans have proven they suck at oppo research. A secret Muslim born in Kenya slipped right by them.

[Cakes488]

18. I'm sure all his rivals are kicking themselves in the ass

[OldHippieChick]

20. Perhaps they did

But were unable to use it w/out corroboration. It was Trump himself that brought this out of the woodwork. Even though Clinton may have had this research, her campaign did not bring this out. He shot himself in the foot and I truly believe it took the press to bring this out w/ the video. Had the video been released during the primaries we may not have gotten to this point.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. Because they're dumber than a box of rocks

[HAB911]

23. that gets my vote

[ChairmanAgnostic]

24. They did run oppo research, but only as to those

candidates they thought were real candidates, not a joke like trump. The joke's on them, as it turned out.

Pity our reality TV loving, pseudo-journalists fell down on their jobs, while they provided billions in free advertising - how did that former race car driver, turned sportscaster out it? A SPECTACULAR crash! - for Teh Donald.

[Bad Thoughts]

25. Because Trump's name is not Bill Clinton

Because they only care about issues related to sexuality and gender if they can harm democrats.
Because they are willing to overlook and forgive egregious behaviour in republicans because they all have their hands in the cookie jar.

[Sunlei]

26. IMO,Jeb! had to have known if he ever spoke to his first cousin Billy & attended same wild parties

Trump may have something on them, enough 'dirt' to make them quit and be quiet even today.

[retread]

27. They probably knew some or at least a little of it. They were silent because they wanted to win the

primary not increase his support.

[Proud Public Servant]

28. Simple answer: they needed his voters

Trump voters are about a half-step removed from a cult; they knew that and assault on Trump would bind him closer to his base and backfire on them. Hillary has no such problem, knowing that she'd never peel away his bad anyway.

[Bear Creek]

29. Acceptance

They just did not think there was anything wrong with it. The woman asked for it is the usual comment. Expected in the workplace if you want a job or to get promoted.( There are women who do this willingly) but afterwards they expect it from all women. Trump acts just like most corporate bigwigs that he is entitled to and it is expected.
Another aspect would be why would it be surprising about this where the GOP is concerned. For all their I'm a christian they get caught. Dennis Hasert probably the worse.

[Cracklin Charlie]

30. I think it may simply be economics.

Research costs money.

I think they just didn't have enough money.

[exboyfil]

31. Even without the harassment claims

I would have thought they had enough with the Howard Stern tapes. Cruz should have running ads in Iowa and the deep South with that theme. Throw in the publicly available pictures of his very touchy relationship with his daughter overlaid with his voice (especially the "piece of as*". He wouldn't have to do it himself just get a ally to pull it off.

Every republican this time ran a horrible campaign. The biggest problem the GOP had was their anointed candidate (Jeb) had the last name Bush. Now at least the Bush's can sit back and take comfort in the fact that their last name is no longer the most hated name in politics.

I think after the election the flood gates of Trump supporters will open up, and he will be reviled by everyone. By his own standard he is the biggest loser presidential candidate in history.

[LisaL]

32. Trump's supporters don't seem to care.

So I doubt it would have made a difference in the primary.

[beachbum bob]

33. the media wouldn't push anything that went aginst trump in the primaries for starters, besides

the shit storm for women coming forward didn't happen until trump stood before america in the second debate and said I have NEVER assaulted any woman in my life....a direct challenge to all those he has raped, assaulted and harassed to step forward.....trumps challengers in the primary where overmatched in manipulating the campaign by trump....and the media kept pushing and supporting Don the con because it was all about viewership and ratings

[jcgoldie]

34. I don't think they did any

I don't think any of them really started to treat him as a serious candidate until it was pretty much too late.