Trump has been a political dilettante for decades, but he first rose to prominence in modern GOP circles with his overtly racist “birther” campaign. When asked about it during this election season, for many months Trump has stonewalled, dismissing the question by simply saying “I don’t talk about that anymore,” and remarkably — with rare exceptions — he has gotten away with that.
But the Trump campaign’s outrage and attendant posturing over Clinton’s “deplorables” comment emboldened Wolf Blitzer (of all people!) to delve into Trump’s numerous absurdities, including the birther issue. Blitzer cornered Trump’s running mate on CNN yesterday; summary via TPM:
After repeatedly calling for an apology from Hillary Clinton for her remarks that “half” of Donald Trump supporters are a “basket of deplorables,” Trump’s running mate refused to say Monday whether Trump should apologize for his lengthy “birther” crusade against President Obama.
“We’re just not talking about that issue. It’s a 4-year-old issue,” Mike Pence told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, later adding that he believes Obama was born in Hawaii.
“It’s not what the American people are talking about, it really isn’t,” he said.
Actually, Peak Birther occurred five years ago, but now that Pence has specified that issues older than four years are off the table, we can look forward to Benghazi-free campaigning and coverage from here on out since the fourth anniversary of the Benghazi attack was Sunday. I know I’m relieved.
But Pence opened up a brand-new can of deplorable worms during the CNN interview:
Pence also refused to say whether he would call former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who has embraced Trump’s presidential campaign, “deplorable.”
“I’m not in the name-calling business,” Pence said, while arguing that the campaign already made clear it did not want Duke’s support.
The thoroughly deplorable Duke was happy to remain unrebuked by the Trump campaign:
Wolf Blitzer demands that Pense call me "Deplorable" and he refuses.. Wolfie boy, still upset that I outed you on CNN as an AIPAC AGENT?
— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) September 13, 2016
For those keeping score at home, this is the Republican ticket’s second refusal to deplore / disavow / condemn the country’s most notorious Klansman and white supremacist.
Okay, yeah, Pence said the campaign made it clear it doesn’t want Duke’s support (wink-wink!), but 1) it’s laugh-out-loud ridiculous for anyone associated with the Donald Fucking Trump campaign to demur on the basis of name-calling, and 2) calling David Motherfucking Duke “deplorable” should be about as controversial as coming out against childhood hunger or in favor of world peace.
I don’t know, you guys. It’s almost as if the Trump-Pence campaign is taking great pains to avoid offending an important constituency…
Major Major Major Major
Yeah, but Robert Byrd, so both sides do it!
jonas
Hold on, who ever said Trump or his supporters aren’t giddily in favor of starving kids and war?
SiubhanDuinne
Why . . . It’s almost like an amnesty.
SP
“coming out against childhood hunger”
Socialist, those kids should feed themselves their own bootstraps or something.
The email server was 2009-2013 so most of it is also beyond the Statue of Pencitations.
BR
Every once in a while the media understands that they have a job to do, but they’ll forget in a minute and won’t remember again for another week. So that’s why everyone should sign up for at least one volunteer event. We’re talking 50 days or so until we decide whether or not we elect a neo-fascist. There has never been a more important time in this country’s history in the last 80 years. Please, sign up.
Percysowner
New ad by Hillary. It’s pretty great!
scav
“We’re just not talking about that issue. It’s a 4-year-old issue,” Well, yes, Mike Pence, it is a four-year-old issue, it was a four-year-old issue four or five years ago, and I can think of no reason in the world to entrust this nation to the four-year-old that was shoveling it.
Corner Stone
I have just about run out of my supply of “can’t evens”. The last 48 hours or so have just drained my cant’s right out of me. I can’t even with these fucking clowns right now.
Even as bad as it was last night, thank goodness for the return of the NFL season.
Patricia Kayden
http://www.mediaite.com/online/meet-trumps-basket-of-deplorables/
Here are the unrepentant bigots in Trump’s basket of deplorables. Of course, Trump is the biggest deplorable of all.
Major Major Major Major
@Percysowner: I can see what they were going for, but it’s not my favorite. ?
O. Felix Culpa
it’s almost as if the Trump machine was shocked, SHOCKED to hear of name-calling in this campaign, as if “Pocahontas,” “Crooked Hillary,” “Lyin’ Ted,” et al. came from, I dunno, the ether?
MrSnrub
The way that Trump is bulldozing himself through the campaign is just wearing me out. I have campaign fatigue at a level I’ve never felt before. I may take a 2-3 day sabbatical from all things campaign, maybe look at cute kitten videos instead.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
I’m right there with you. I’m at peak stabby.
James E Powell
Trump’s “birther” campaign doesn’t have the impact on this election that it should have because while it was going on the press/media treated it like a legitimate, non-racist argument. Just like they refused to acknowledge any racial component to the Tea Party, to “you lie,” to opposition to Obamacare, to one thing after another.
Mike E
I’m really concerned…Psych!
But seriously, this media fuckery makes The Aristocrats look tame by comparison. Good times!
James E Powell
@Major Major Major Major:
Agree. It’s fine for what it is, but we need a new line, something pro-Clinton rather than anti-Trump. I’m not saying give up negative ads, just start running something positive. Stronger together, domestic policy.
O. Felix Culpa
From the not-so-liberal NYT, a somewhat dated but impressive (in a not-so-good way) list of Trump’s name calling.
Iowa Old Lady
@Percysowner: Whoever is creating her ads is clever and quick. Of course, they have Trump’s own words to work with. The people who did oppo research on him for months must feel like they wasted their time.
SteveinSC
I’m just thrilled that we are at the “Well if the number is not 50% of the Trump supporters are deplorable, can you tell me what is the percentage, Gov Pence, is it 60%, 40%, or what, I mean, don’t we have polls that say 49% of Trump supporters think Obama is a Muslim…” stage.
Like Lyndon Johnson said about accusing an opponent of fucking barnyard animals..”I know he doesn’t fuck animals, just make him deny it.”
shomi
@Major Major Major Major: Can you? You can see something that is designed to be understood by a child. So you can see what they were going for? Congratulations.
How is your Chrome project coming along?
BR
@Iowa Old Lady:
I hope not actually. I hope they start a slow drip of oppo documents on Trump. It’ll cause a slow drip of stories on Trump just like the email releases did against Clinton. Now is the time to do it because October will be too late.
PPCLI
Memo to all talking heads: Whenever a Trump spokesrobot issues the standing talking point about how awful name-calling is, the very next thing out of your mouth should be the absolutely obvious point: “If you dislike name calling, are you upset that Trump has repeatedly called people “Lying Ted Cruz”, “Little Marco”, “Goofy Elizabeth Warren”, “Low Energy Jeb”, “Pocahontas”, …
When they give the standard non-answer, ask them again.
Keep “Lyin’ Hilary” in reserve, since if you mention that right away, the spokesrobot is programmed to give a five-minute segment-derailing filibuster on how Hillary really does lie all the time and what about that pneumonia which was probably caused by Parkinsons,….
If the spokesrobot is Kellyanne Conway, mention that she used to be a campaign aide for Ted Cruz, and ask her if she believes it wasn’t name-calling when Trump started obsessively speaking of “Lyin’ Ted”.
Memo Times Public Editor: This is not a partisan point. It is the most basic, obvious thing to say. A child could say it. It is an embarrassment to journalism that this isn’t the standard follow-up. Obsessive name calling is part of Trumps modus operandi, and there are dozens of obvious examples right there for the plucking. How Trump is given a pass on this while he and his people drum-beat on “name-calling” is mind-boggling.
Major Major Major Major
@shomi: it’s still not working, apparently, since your posts still appear to be from an annoying cockwaffle who has nothing of value to say and whose inexplicable time spent at a blog he hates so much makes me wonder if he wasn’t abused by a liberal political blog as a child.
Iowa Old Lady
@MrSnrub: I’ve reached the same point and am watching less coverage. The stupidity just numbs your mind and heart.
@BR: Farenthold is getting a lot of attention for his investigation of the Trump Foundation. Maybe that will inspire a couple of others to do genuine reporting. Farenthold’s example suggests you don’t need many good reporters and you don’t need coverage of everything. Deep information on a couple of aspects may be enough.
Roger Moore
Given Republican opposition to SNAP and support for attacking anyone and everyone, that makes calling David Duke deplorable strictly off limits.
Major Major Major Major
@shomi: oh, look, you edited your post again to make yourself sound less deranged. Fun times.
different-church-lady
It’s like a dog whistle in Echo Canyon.
BR
@Iowa Old Lady:
Still, can’t rely on the media to keep the focus. You just know Fox / Assange / Judicial Watch / etc. have misc emails to feed to the media in the next month and they will go nuts over it.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, do you two know each other?
different-church-lady
@SteveinSC:
Except that in the current example they actually do “fuck animals”.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
They’re taking touchbacks to the 25-yard line now! Talk about I can’t even.
rk
Hillary’s medical records are the new “show me your birth certificate or I want to see the transcripts”.
We will never ever get rid of these morons. It’s always something new with them. However ridiculous, however evil, the media always falls for it.
different-church-lady
@BR: Yeah. Say, wasn’t Greenwald about to drop some bomb that would blow the Obama administration clean out of Washington any moment ago?
Micheline Gros-Jean
@Major Major Major Major: I get so sick and tired of hearing this retort nevermind that Byrd renounced his racist past.
bluehill
Unfortunately, some people have learned from history. The repubs have using the big lie strategy over and over. Welfare queens, Kerry’s heroism, Obama’s birthplace, Clinton’s honesty.
ET
If you need a break the National Zoo just announced a new baby orangutan. The picture is soooooo cute I could stare at it all day!
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/orangutan-born-smithsonians-national-zoo
Steeplejack (phone)
@Major Major Major Major:
“Show me on the lolcat where the blog touched you.”
Major Major Major Major
@Gin & Tonic: good lord, I hope not.
@different-church-lady: and didn’t Assange have some sort of proof-like revelation that would land Hitlery in prison?
MattF
@bluehill: There’s also the Big Lie/projection technique, pioneered by Karl Rove but raised to an art form by Trump.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): What I can’t even with right now is how they are loudly declaring boom and busts. It’s week 1, fergodsake!
Carson Wentz beat the damned Cleveland Browns! He’s not a world beating champion just yet, boys.
Corner Stone
OMG! For a reason I know not, I just changed it back to MSNBC for a minute. And was met with THE FULL GLORY THAT IS TAMRON HALL IN THAT YELLOW LEATHER STRAP DRESS!
It is the ultimate can’t even. I am now dead. I have ceased to be.
Felonius Monk
The Great Orange Testicle and his little white pal can’t atrophy fast enough to save the Republic..
Matt McIrvin
Gee, Hillary’s email server is getting pretty close to the four-year mark, isn’t it?
gene108
I am utterly amazed during this election cycle that Republicans are unable to say “white supremacists have no place in the Republican Party”.
It’s not difficult to disown Neo-Nazis, KKK’ers, etc.
Yeah, there are people, who are racist and don’t like other people not like them.
But the Nazis, KKK, etc. will actually kill someone for being different, which sets them apart from your average Fox News watching keyboard commando.
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): It’s been 4 years”
Micheline Gros-Jean
@James E Powell: Agree, Clinton needs to focus on policy.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
I know. Week 1 is a success if nobody soils himself on the field and everybody makes the team bus on time.
The talking heads are venting eight months of pent-up verbiage.
gwangung
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this year, Trump supporters are tired of political correctness. Clinton supporters are starting to get tired of being polite to bigotry, racism and sexism.
bluehill
@MattF: Yeah, Trump has mastered it. He seems to resemble you-know-who more and more. Clinton’s health is the nascent big lie. The comments after the first debate should be interesting.
Major Major Major Major
@gene108:
This is apparently not true.
JMG
@srv: No idea of what. That Matt Bevin is both demented and a moron? I knew that.
Felonius Monk
@Corner Stone:
Corner, get a grip on yourself (well, not that way). Stop obsessing over hot women on the teevee. It is not healthy. :-)
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
New this year in the NFL, boss.
gwangung
@Felonius Monk: Um, is there a problem with that?
different-church-lady
@gene108:
I know: you’d think it would be something very easy for them to lie about.
gene108
@Steeplejack (phone):
Every year, for the last few years, I hear speculation that the rules committee will abolish kick-offs, because they worry about the liability from the concussion issue.
Bringing a kick-off to the 25 yard-line encourages returners to take a knee rather than running it out, thus indirectly nudging the game in the direction they want it to go.
Also, punts still go back to the 20 yard line, if there is a touchback.
hovercraft
@Percysowner:
Now that’s a counter punch.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ll see your Robert Byrd, and raise you a Strom Thurmond. He actually worked both sides. Originally a Dixiecrat, he “came home” to the GOP in 1964.
Cermet
But both sides! Hillary stated provable facts that we all know – facts have a liberal bias – so, we must find trivial issues with her and spend 24/7 attention upon them by all networks/outlets.
catclub
@Felonius Monk:
oh, come on. Hinckley obsessed over a woman in the movies, not tv. TV is probably ok. Plus, Hinckley is now out.
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108: White supremacists are, and always have been, a key part of the GOP base since the time of Nixon.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: Nicely done.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Assange is saving it for the October Surprise.
Villago Delenda Est
@gwangung: The best example of political correctness out there right now is the reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s take a knee protest.
It’s always projection with right wing assholes. Always.
bystander
The party opposed to political correctness and with a fondness for “telling it like it is” candidates is positively oscillating with the horror of Clinton’s basket remarks. I’m surprised she got up off her death bed to mouth the words.
hovercraft
@Micheline Gros-Jean:
But Morning Joe told me this morning that it doesn’t matter what policy prescriptions Hillary has, gives speeches about or whatever, the story will always be about today’s latest kerfuffle, Aides marital problems, e-mails, illness/health, Benghazi, FBI, the Clinton Foundation,there will always be something to pull the medias attention away from what she wants to be talking about. This is an issues free campaign because Trump has no policy, and Hillary is constantly embroiled in scandal.
No mention of the fact that the media doesn’t want to cover policy because they find it boring. If aliens landed on earth and took all of the media away, would we be any less informed than we are now ? Juicers excepted.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
@Micheline Gros-Jean:
You guys are so cute. No one cares about policy. I don’t know if anyone ever cares about policy. And in Trump, you have someone who is even more ignorant of policy than peak Sarah Palin. His appeal to his supporters and to potential Clinton voters has nothing to do with policy. It comes down to this: “Vote for me (Trump) because I am great and will make America great again. Don’t ask me how, or for specifics, just vote for me because I am entertaining, while Hillary is a disaster.”
I also disagree with your negative vs positive categorization. The sad fact is that Trump’s policy, what there is of it, is negative, especially with respect to its potential impact on immigrants.
Here’s the conundrum. Everyone treats Trump as though he is a credible candidate. He is not. And increasingly the people who he surrounds himself with as advisors and potential presidential staff are fueled by various resentments, including a stated desire to restore white supremacy.
What “positive” policy discussions do you propose to counter this?
hovercraft
@Felonius Monk:
As a woman of approximately the same age as her, I am envious of her, not just her looks, but she had Prince. She gets to look like that, and she had my biggest youthful crush. I going to start working out, really I am, no really.
Origuy
@Villago Delenda Est: People were talking here yesterday about the Klan in Indiana during the 20s. The politicians involved with the Klan were Republicans; the GOP was the majority party then as now in Indiana.
gwangung
@Villago Delenda Est: Hell yeah.
gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
There’s a difference between courting voters, who think other people not like them are icky and those, who think people not like them should die because they are superior.
The neo-Nazis, KKK, etc. have a history of violence against other people. People, who are openly white supremacists have a history of inciting or committing acts of violence.
There’s a line there. A great big line.
You are free to think other people are icky, but the groups that openly espouse violence against those “icky” other people should be denounced.
The GOP can longer denounce the latter, and seem to be O.K. with including those wanting to do violence into their party.
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
I wonder if other progressives are talking to Assange, to try to get him to step back from fomenting disaster. He seems to be motivated by some desire for revenge against Clinton. But he also seems dedicated to the progressive delusion that neoliberal Clinton is worse than Trump because she stands in the way of progressive unicorn utopia. Assange seems to be one of those nutjobs who believes that if he can bring Clinton down, he will help pave the way for a cleansing leftist revolution, even if the country first has to survive the disastrous misery of a Trump presidency.
geg6
@James E Powell:
Don’t know where you live, but she’s been running positive, pro-Hillary ads here in PA for months now. About a jobs agenda, about clean energy…it’s not been just negative stuff here. In fact, the really, really negative stuff from our side of the aisle has come from super PACs supporting her. Not quite as much from her own campaign.
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
He’s a meglomanic, so there’s no point talking to him. He’s now a regular on Sean Hannity’s show, a new hero of the right. The same people who were calling for his head a few years ago, are now his biggest champions.
JustRuss
Well, it did sort of work out that way for Germany. For those who survived, at least.
glory b
@srv: Nah, I read talkingpointsmemo all the time. Why do you think no one else does but you?
Trust me, black folks know plenty. One of the saddest times of my life was listening to my suffering-somewhat-from dementia grandfather talk about seeing klan members coming towards our neighborhood.
It’s you who doesn’t know the half of it. We know exactly what they are capable of.
gwangung
@Brachiator:
There’s at least two problems wrong with this progressive daydream: A) Who says the leftists are gonna win that revolution? B) And even if they did, it’s going to take a long time to clean up and you have no guaruntee you’ll retain that power throughout the cleanup (we obviously have short memories after Bush II got swept out of office).
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
White supremacists and the klan are as American as apple pie. And that is a poisoned pie that has been baked by both political parties.
And even in modern times, white supremacists began moving to the Republican party as a reaction to the Democrats firmly and finally embracing civil rights during the Johnson era. It is overly simplistic to try to make the Nixon era the bright line on this, Southern Strategy notwithstanding.
gwangung
@glory b: Heh. As usual, white people don’t pay no mind to people of color unless vouched for by other white people.
glory b
@gwangung: I know, right?
Trust me, all of us have family stories like this.
Here’s another one: My mother is mostly Creole in origin, and fair skinned/straight haired enough to pass for white. When she and my father got married, he took her to visit his relatives. When some of them saw them from the road, they were too afraid to let them come up to the house, in case white men had seen them on the way.
Huh. Think WE don’t know (channeling rikyrah)?
Anyone think that’s enough to make srv go away?
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
There is no ‘seems’ part about the revenge. He has stated outright that he wants to sink Clinton’s campaign because he blames her for his having to hide from extradition.
Miss Bianca
@glory b: Are you kidding? White trolls gonna be white-trolling. It’s all fun and games to most white people, because WE aren’t the ones who get hurt. That’s how come white dudebros and -sisses can talk so glibly about “berning it down.” Because, as Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman, pointed out, “The RIGHT people NEVER get hurt.”
Sad but true. : (
Immanentize
@Origuy: Look, the debate about the Klan being democrats or republicans is idiotic. It has been/is both, but more republican now.
But one thing that is certain is that the Klan has always been white.
Elie
Hillary took a risk w the “deplorables” but I am generally supportive because fingers crossed, they have to further define who they are in responding back. Timing ended up a bit off because of her Illness but it should still work. The goal is to knock the scales from the eyes of indie white voters. Maybe she was a bit too snarky in her tone, but I agree w the direction and importantly she did not back down. For those wringing their hands about her dissing voters they should remember what respect for this bag of shits got Obama in 8 years Nothing. Not one vote.
MomSense
@Brachiator:
Assange is not a progressive. Never has been.
Immanentize
@gwangung: @glory b: Some day, maybe over a few drinks, I will tell you the story of when I served a federal subpeona on teh Grand Wizard of the KKK during a Klan rally in Alabama…. True story. I also, although white, know a bit about what folks like them are always wishing/planning.
And no amount of reason will send srv away.
Elie
The reply link ain’t working.
There is a lot of white supremacist splainin right now about how unfair it is to call them by what they do. We can’t move forward w these people so let’s not waste anymore time. Get modern or get left behind. The country is not yours and it’s not 1950.
Gindy51
@gene108: It’s hard to win an election if you dismiss your whole base.
Aleta
glory b
@Immanentize: Trust me, I’m bookmarking that story.
Brachiator
@gwangung: RE: Assange seems to be one of those nutjobs who believes that if he can bring Clinton down, he will help pave the way for a cleansing leftist revolution, even if the country first has to survive the disastrous misery of a Trump presidency.
Progressive nutjobs (as opposed to regular progressives) would rather welcome catastrophe rather than work hard to achieve their results. This is why they never look at their own failures and inability to persuade others to join their cause, and instead work themselves into a frenzy over the “betrayals” of neoliberals.
This is why the worst of this bunch always prattle about how Clinton is worse than Trump. They are like an insane demon child who, when told they cannot have their cookie today, get angry and set fire to the entire house.
The Lodger
@O. Felix Culpa: Came from the ether?
Must… not … think … of … Hunter … S … Thompson …
Aleta
-Margaret Hartmann at NY Mag
The Lodger
@Steeplejack (phone): BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That was far better and timely-er than my response would have been.
lurker dean
secret video of democrat arguing with republicans using facts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKup63OXvxQ
(warning: ridiculously cute kitten and pugs video)
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: I think it’s much more personal than that: the man is a rapist who happens to hate a powerful woman. What a surprise!
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@glory b: You know what I saw in those idiot Bundys and their friends when they got in a jam up in Oregon? I saw people who were there for a cleansing war against the forces of evil socialist multiculturalism and really expected to see huge numbers of people rise up to join in with them. They didn’t get that–and props to local, state, and federal LEO for being patient enough to give them the rope to hang themselves, while isolating them from the rest of the community–but seeing their obvious expectations laid bare was chilling.
After all DT’s yawping, I am afraid the next time someone tries this it won’t end nearly as well. I think anyone who finds themselves worried about their own safety at this point has every reason to do so.
Aleta
@ET: The elephants are throwing dust on their heads. Elephants move so beautifully. Something tells me it’s all happening at the zoo.
OGLiberal
Hell freezes over…Dana Milbank says that, yes, half of Trumps supporters – and that might be low – are racist….and cites facts and figures, just what TNC wrote the journalists should be doing when reporting on this type of stuff….because, hey, it might be true!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/clinton-wasnt-wrong-about-the-deplorables-among-trumps-supporters/2016/09/12/93720264-7932-11e6-beac-57a4a412e93a_story.html?utm_term=.a80e608de199
Now if he can get Cillizza to agree with him…of course, that would require hell freezing over multiple times over.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@gwangung: Yes, just how well did that whole “Nach Hitler, uns” thing work out for Thällman and Zetkin and Thalheimer and the rest? Of those who made it out of Germany in time and didn’t die in exile elsewhere, how many were killed by Stalin for failure to be sufficiently useful and obedient?
nutella
@Matt McIrvin:
Yep. Assange was charged with rape by two Swedish women and is sure that HRC was behind it. The international feminism conspiracy harassing an innocent man.
He claims if he went to Sweden to face the charges Sweden would hand him over to the evil Americans. Why he thinks Sweden is more likely to do us evil Americans a favor than the UK is not clear. Well, it’s clear to me that he’s lying to get out of accountability for the rapes.
catclub
Because he is not on UK territory while in the embassy, so UK has no hold on him. He went to the embassy because the UK probably would hand him over to either Sweden or the US.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
@MomSense:
There’s obviously some personal animus at play, here, but (from the Observer) Assange’s statements are in line with faux progressive stupidity:
SiubhanDuinne
@nutella:
Vagenda of Manocide!!!
MomSense
@Brachiator:
Didn’t Assange ask his supporters to throw their votes to the Australia First Party in 2013? Seems consistent with the preferences of other Russian allied people and groups.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
LOL!
Montanareddog
@catclub:
There would be riots in London if the UK handed Assange over to the US. The extradition request came from Sweden; the Brits loathe rapists and admire whistleblowers. Giving him to the Americans would be seen as the most craven capitulation