Donald Trump had a rough time in last night’s debate. He rambled incoherently about his years-long promulgation of racist birther theories, lied repeatedly about opposing the Iraq war, and dodged questions on why he’s hiding his tax returns. In short, it was a disaster for the Republican nominee.

Never one to concede defeat, however, Connecticut Republican Party Chairman and staunch Trump apologist J.R. Romano blamed the debate’s moderator, according to the Hartford Courant.
 

J.R. Romano, chairman of the state Republican Party, chastised moderator Lester Holt for not asking pointed questions of Clinton about the private email server she used while secretary of state or ties between the State Department and donors to her family’s charitable foundation. Trump faced a number of questions about his business dealings, his failure to release his tax returns and doubts he had raised about whether Obama was born in the United States.

“I felt that it was disrespectful to the American public to make a bigger issue out of the Barack Obama birther issue than the Clinton Foundation,” Romano said. He accused Holt of having an agenda heading into the debate, but said that Trump handled himself well, despite being on the defensive for much of the 90 minutes.

That’s right: Romano actually tried to blame Donald Trump’s horrible performance on moderator and registered Republican Lester Holt, despite Trump himself saying Holt did “a very good job.”

“Donald Trump failed to deliver, plain and simple. He reinforced the central criticism used against him even by members of his own party: he’s temperamentally unfit to serve as president. I understand that Republicans want to change the subject, but J.R. Romano’s argument that Trump’s racist birtherism should have somehow been off-limits is ridiculous. Donald Trump spent five years pushing the discredited theory that our first African-American president was not born in this country. It fueled his political rise, and now the GOP chairman wants the media to pretend it didn’t happen? If Republicans want to be the party of personal responsibility, they should start by taking responsibility for their standard-bearer.” – Connecticut Democratic Party Executive Director Michael Mandell