[Hoot Gibson]

Once again, Trump takes the pressure off of Hillary and tries to call attention to himself. His record in Atlantic City is not one to boast about, but boast about it he does.

Trump Tries and Fails to Stay on Message

Will Donald Trump ever learn to stay on topic?

It's a question that left Republicans scratching their heads anew on Wednesday, after the presumptive Republican nominee spent the day talking about himself instead of FBI director James Comey's scathing report on how rival Hillary Clinton handled her email as secretary of state.

Given the biggest political gift yet of his troubled campaign, Trump muddled his message and diminished its impact. He spent the day variously defending his decade-old business record in Atlantic City, digging up past allegations about the Clinton Foundation, and boasting of his fundraising haul — leaving congressional Republicans to make the case against the former secretary of state.

Comey on Tuesday declined to recommend bringing criminal charges against Clinton, but left her opponents with more than enough material for a year's worth of attack ads: he called Clinton "extremely careless" and sharply criticized her judgement in using a private server and confirmed she did indeed send classified information on it. A meaty condemnation of her judgement by the FBI is the stuff most campaigns would have made a central tenet of the campaign, but Trump struggled to focus on it at all.

When Clinton hosted a campaign event at a bankrupted Trump casino in New Jersey — something Trump said Wednesday was simply an attempt to change the subject — the real estate mogul took the bait.