He's simply doing what every candidate does...at the behest of his party and his handlers...he's trying to make his opponent look weak, misguided, and incompetent.

They all do that.

Why would this be surprising to you? People like it when their guy does it, they don't like it when the other guy does it. This kind of phony shit has been going on ever since 1780 or thereabouts, and I take it with a grain of salt, I can tell you.

Politics is not about morality, goodness, justice, honor, or principle...politics is about power. Raw power. Winning by any means that works.

That is what politics is about. You can take the rhetoric and flush it down the toilet, because that is all it's good for.