title:  Republican Leaders Turn On Trump, Side With President Obama
text: Donald Trump is becoming a liability to the Republican Party, so GOP leaders are backing away from their nominee and aligning themselves with President Obama s condemnation of his Muslim ban.Ever since Trump became the nominee, Republicans have been torn between kissing his ass and distancing themselves from his hateful rhetoric. But ever since the Orlando mass shooting, Republicans have been finding themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.Trump renewed his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and expanded the idea by calling for banning anybody from a nation that has a history of terrorism against the United States. That could technically mean Japan and Germany as well as many other nations that are now our allies.Trump also claimed that President Obama is weak on terrorism because he hasn t used certain words to somehow make ISIS magically disappear.In response, President Obama took Trump to the woodshed. What exactly would using this language accomplish?  Obama angrily asked.  What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to try and kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. President Obama also strongly condemned Trump s proposed ban on Muslims. Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating them because of their faith? We ve heard these suggestions during the course of this campaign. Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that s not the America we want. It doesn t reflect our Democratic ideals. It will make us less safe. And in a stunning move, many Republicans have joined President Obama to condemn Trump. I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country s interest,  House Speaker Paul Ryan responded.  I do not think it is reflective of our principles, not just as a party but as a country. Traditionally, it is a time when people rally around our country, and it s obviously not what s occurred, and it s very disappointing,  said Senator Bob Corker.  It wasn t the type (of address) that one would expect a person who is wanting to lead the greatest nation in the world to make.Senator Lindsey Graham also expressed a lack of confidence in Trump s leadership qualifications. I don t think he has the judgment or the temperament, the experience to deal with what we are facing,  he said.GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger also condemned Trump perhaps more strongly than his GOP colleagues. I guess I appreciate Mr. Trump s fieriness in talking about it, but you don t do it by alienating the very people that we need, and those are moderate Muslims. We have to use the folks that frankly are not radicalized, which is the vast majority of Muslims, to win this war. Kinzinger would know since, unlike Trump, he served his country by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a pilot. He knows that it s important to have Muslim allies on the ground feeding intelligence and offering support to our troops.Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake also criticized Trump and pointed out that he has to do better if he wants to get enough votes in November. He s won 13 million votes total so far; he s got to get 65 million or so to win the general election, which includes a lot of independents and Republicans that don t feel as he does. He can t win the general election talking the way he is. And these reactions are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet somehow, many of these Republicans STILL support Trump as the nominee and standard-bearer of their party.But that doesn t change the fact that for the first time Republicans and President Obama have united in agreement on something. Donald Trump is dangerous and he is unqualified to be president. It s just up to Republicans whether or not he remains the nominee. But if they continue to support him, it will be up to the American electorate to make sure he never becomes president and that the Republicans who continue to support him are thrown out of office.Featured Image: Pete Souza