Excerpt:

Hillary Clinton used to have a reputation for being more ruthless than her husband. Bill Clinton was often described as fundamentally conflict-averse, more eager to persuade his opponents than attack them. Hillary, by contrast, was known for identifying villains and going after them. In his book, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Carl Bernstein quotes former Clinton adviser Dick Morris saying that Hillary had “a quality of aggressiveness and strength about her that he doesn’t have. A killer instinct. Her genre of advocacy is always straight ahead—fight, battle, take the fight to the other side.” (Morris was speaking before he turned on the Clintons.

We hadn’t seen this Hillary in a while. She stayed under wraps during the Democratic primary, never seriously going after Bernie Sanders. But the killer in Hillary came out on Thursday, delivering a devastating indictment of Donald Trump’s associations with the far-right fringe, one meant to permanently delegitimize him among decent people. “A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” she said, daring Republican officials to disagree.

With Trump already trailing badly in most polls, Clinton could have tried to yoke him to the Republican Party so he would drag it down with him. Instead, she sought to isolate and personally destroy him.

By definitively linking him to the alt-right, she shredded any remaining legitimacy he had with sane Republicans. […]

– Michelle Goldberg, Slate writer

Some people are calling it "a shredding" But to me, it was the political equivalent of her busting him up-side the head with a 2-by-4 wooden plank.

It really was quite the sight to behold.

TPM Reader:
Not one prominent Republican has spoken up to defend him after she shredded him yesterday. "Crickets," as James Fallows pointed out.

If you ask me the triage phase began some time ago. Like in a crowded combat hospital, they've decided he's hopeless and wheeled him out into the hall, so they can get to work saving the ones who have a chance. He can keep lying and lying but people are making up their minds on the vast preponderance of evidence and the clownish, transparent manipulativeness he exudes like radioactivity. […]

"Let’s Remember The Cowardly Conservative Leaders Who Betrayed Us For Trump"

Excerpts:

Donald Trump has not been alone in his crusade to make a grotesque mockery of conservatism. He’s had a lot of help, and most of that help has come from the supposed “leaders” of the very movement he seeks to destroy.

A whole host of prominent figures made enormous amounts of money pretending to be spokesmen for the cause, only to sell it down the river when the sentient pile of driftwood known as Donald Trump came floating by. These past few months have been a horrific bloodbath, as many famous and once-respected conservatives have gutted their credibility for a chance to latch themselves to Trump like barnacles on the Titanic. Some of these ideological hustlers may have, at one point, truly believed in the principles of which they’ve so handsomely profited, but when the principles finally jeopardized the profits, they did not hesitate to choose the latter over the former.

Donald Trump was able to co-opt conservatism and slap his name across the front of it, like he’s done with so many hotels and casinos and dozens of other defunct companies, because those entrusted with defending and protecting it retreated at the first sign of resistance. They hid from the populist mob or grabbed their pitchforks and joined in. And when conservatism suffers the same fate as so many of Trump’s bankrupted ventures, we will have these cowards to blame.

As unpleasant a task as it may be, I think we need to identify the traitors and remember their names. We do this not out of spite, but in keeping with the Bible’s many warnings about false prophets. Scripture urges us to “expose the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11) and avoid becoming partners with those “who deceive with empty words” (Ephesians 5:6). Colossians implores us not to be “taken captive by deceit.” We’re warned in 2 Timothy that the time will come when people will not want to hear the truth, so they will surround themselves with frauds who tell them what their “itching ears want to hear.” I believe we have arrived at that moment, and it is now urgent that we specifically identify these frauds and false teachers. This is not a fun or polite process, but it is necessary, so we must get on with it.

Unfortunately, the list of prominent conservative “leaders” who abandoned every hint of conservatism the moment Donald Trump came knocking is far too lengthy to list here in full. All I can do is acknowledge a few who’ve gone to considerable lengths to flaunt their lack of integrity and moral courage: [….] The Blaze (Full Read)

– Matt Walsh, blogger and writer, speaker, "and professional truth sayer"

“Betraying his base and making clear that, a year after he launched his campaign, he still doesn’t know really what he wants to do on immigration, is really the last straw, it seems to me,” Mr. Krikorian added of Mr. Trump.

For Mr. Trump, the new, moderate talk on immigration could help convince some on-the-fence voters, particularly whites, that he has more compassion for Hispanics and other minorities than his previous, hard-line positions would suggest.

But whatever the possible gains, Mr. Trump risks offending millions of conservatives. A first-time candidate, he made himself a hero of the Republican right wing in large part by casting himself as more hard-core on the immigration issue than any of his rivals. He vowed to build a wall, called immigrants “rapists,” promised to establish a “deportation force” and said every immigrant in the country illegally would be forced out.

That fired up a part of the Republican base that had been frustrated with the party leadership in Washington, whom they saw as too willing to compromise and negotiate with President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats.

Mr. Trump’s most devoted supporters have ignored his many other inconsistencies. But if they perceive Mr. Trump to be backing away from what drew them to him in the first place, they could stay home.