That our nation’s electoral system has been horrendously corrupted by the pursuit of campaign funds since the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision has been obvious to anyone who bothered to look. Not even one year into his disastrous presidency, Donald Trump is already raising funds for a re-election campaign that even the most pessimistic of his opponents believe he couldn’t possibly wage effectively from the prison cell they just know he belongs in, given the treasonous actions he is accused of.
Even those who think that campaign fundraising is a necessary evil, however, would draw the line at exploiting the recent tragedy in Las Vegas for the purposes of lining campaign coffers. Yet that is exactly what the Trump/Pence campaign did today in their weekly newsletter to their subscribers.
Politicizing a mass murder that was enabled by Republican refusal to even consider common-sense gun regulations, like reinstating the assault weapon ownership ban, is the height of hypocrisy, but that didn’t stop the Trump-Pence Weekly Newsletter from regurgitating President Trump’s comments to the victims and first responders in the Las Vegas shooting in a fundraising email.
Pollster Matt McDermott got a copy of the email and posted it on Twitter to express his disbelief at the unmitigated gall that the exploitation of such a tragic event represents.
Unreal: the Trump campaign just sent an email using the Las Vegas shooting to fundraise for the campaign. pic.twitter.com/MWYu0Sa3VF
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) October 7, 2017
Yes, why bother with calling for real action to prevent future mass gun deaths by enacting meaningful gun control regulations when you would just be cutting off an effective method of financing your next campaign? With the frequency of mass shootings occurring in this country, Republican politicians can have a new revenue source available every few weeks if they use every murderous incident as an incentive to drain the pockets of their NRA-loving base.
Who knew that thoughts, prayers, and inaction could be so lucrative? One could call it shameful, but with a shameless president who doesn’t care about anything except winning, it won’t make a difference until the chances of his re-election are reduced to zero by his impeachment and imprisonment.
