Catastrophe star Rob Delaney raises more than $50,000 to unseat 'spineless' Republicans

The comedian and Clinton supporter was unimpressed by GOP candidates finally disavowing Donald Trump over his comments about groping women

Rob Delaney with Catastrophe co-writer and co-star Sharon Horgan (Channel 4)

Rob Delaney, the star of the hit sitcom Catastrophe, has raised more than $54,000 to help unseat Republican congressional candidates who have unendorsed Donald Trump in hopes of salvaging their own electoral chances.

Since the emergence on 7 October of a 2005 tape in which Mr Trump can be heard bragging about “grabbing” women “by the p****”, dozens of GOP figures have attempted to distance themselves from their party’s presidential nominee.

Unimpressed, Mr Delaney took to Tumblr, writing: “That’s what it took for you to disavow him? Since I’m not a total moron, I know that what really happened is that it finally became clear to anyone who knows how elections work that Trump was definitely going to lose.”

In his 9 October post, the comedian described the politicians in question as “turd balls”, whose “drive for self-preservation” was the only thing that induced them first to endorse Mr Trump, and then to disavow him.

“I’m talking about the real garbage, the people who want it both ways; the people who got on the train, and now want to get off,” he wrote. “F*** you baby, you’re on the train till it crashes into the American Electorate at full speed.”

Mr Delaney, who has a Twitter following of 1.3 million, urged his followers to donate to Democrats running against any of the down ballot GOP candidates he describes as “spineless s***-loaves” – ie, those who unendorsed Mr Trump on or after 7 October.

The comedian has partnered with fundraising site ActBlue to raise money to be shared equally among candidates running against “opportunistic” Republicans, such as Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat hoping to unseat GOP Senator John McCain in Arizona.

So far, the campaign has attracted around 1,500 donors.