Commentators were almost speechless Wednesday evening as they tried to describe what can only be seen as a candidate coming unglued at the criticism he's endured since becoming the GOP’s presumptive nominee. On MSNBC, one guest called it “unhinged” while another called it a “rambling variety show.”
If you took Donald Trump's single worst moments over the last several weeks and wrapped them into a free-association grab bag of blunders, this is the speech you would get. And we use the word "speech" in the loosest sense of someone standing at a podium talking to people, because the only theme that seemed to connect the dots between Trump's audible synaptic misfires was that they came from a flame-throwing narcissist who's absolutely certain he doesn't suck as bigly as everyone says he does.
Amid the meltdown, Trump served up a meandering explanation of his Brexit gaffe (he was just responding to a reporter question), relitigated the Star of David controversy (it's just a “sheriff's star”), noted that his tangential Saddam Hussein references Tuesday were perfectly on point (he read from notes, by god!), assured us that he's putting on a "great convention" (his relatives are speaking), noted that "the women are liking me a lot lately" (all that terror talk really does it for ‘em) and really, just a lot, lot more. Let's tease out a few points below and add some video for your viewing pleasure.