“I will be phenomenal to the women.”
— Donald Trump, in an interview with CBS News.
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Interest in Trump Grows
Search traffic on Google for “Donald Trump” reached an all-time high this week.
Donald Trump Wasn’t the Only Story at RedState
Byron York: “A parade of Republican presidential candidates marched through — Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker — and not one of them bombed. Not one underwhelmed, disappointed, or mailed it in. Instead, the GOP hopefuls were sharp, fired-up, and focused, even as the embarrassments of the latest Trump controversy threatened to overshadow it all.”
“Why were they so good? Here’s a theory: The candidates prepared like crazy for the recent Cleveland debate, honing their arguments, finding the most effective way to express their positions. Most of that material was never used — there was no time, given the constraints of a big-field debate. Plus, they were terrified of making a mistake in front of the huge Fox News audience. So now, with all that preparation, and with more time — and without the crushing pressure and nerves of the debate — they’re letting go with their newly-polished best stuff.”
GOP Leaders Think Trump Surge Has Finally Stalled
Washington Post: “Republican leaders who have watched Donald Trump’s summer surge with alarm now believe that his presidential candidacy has been contained and may begin to collapse because of his repeated attacks on a Fox News Channel star and his refusal to pledge his loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.”
Politico: “Fallout from a crude attack on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and the departure of a top political adviser roiled Donald Trump’s campaign Saturday, leading Republicans to question whether the laws of political gravity have finally caught up with the real estate mogul.”
Meanwhile, Trump will appear on the Sunday morning talk shows on ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. He will not be appearing on FOX.
GOP Assault on Trump May Only Make Him Stronger
Matt Taibbi notes “there are plenty of Tea Party-type voters out there who hate the Republican Party establishment almost as much as they hate the Democrats. There are also plenty of right-wing voters who think George Will and Charles Krauthammer are smug media weasels only slightly less disgusting than the Rachel Maddows and Keith Olbermanns of the world. A know-it-all is a know-it-all.”
“Trump’s followers are a gang of pissed-off nativists who are tired of being laughed at, belittled, dismissed, and told who to vote for. So it seems incredible that the Republican establishment thinks it’s going to get rid of Trump by laughing at, belittling and dismissing him, and telling his voters who they should be picking.”
“These hysterical critics are making one of the world’s most irredeemable bullies look persecuted and like a victim, a difficult feat. The desperation to get rid of him may just feed more and more into the right wing base’s crazy victim complex, and in turn get Trump even more support.”
Dave Weigel: “If Trump himself does not survive the Republican primary, Trumpism might.”
Kasich Would Have Skipped ‘Bottom Seven’ Debate
Gov. John Kasich “would have boycotted the ‘kids’ table’ debate if he hadn’t made the prime-time top 10 in Thursday’s GOP presidential matchup in Cleveland,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.
Said adviser John Weaver: “If we were not in the (prime-time part of the) debate, we would’ve been in New Hampshire putting points on the board where people are actually going to vote.”
Quote of the Day
“Do we want to insult 53% of all voters? What Mr. Trump said is wrong. That is not how we win elections.”
— Jeb Bush, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, referring to Donald Trump’s suggestion that Megyn Kelly was menstruating during the GOP debate.
McConnell Plans to Avert a Government Shutdown
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is discretely laying the groundwork for the fall’s budget negotiations, which promise to be a major headache for the new Senate majority leader,” The Hill reports.
“The Kentucky Republican has three priorities for the year-end talks that will dominate Congress starting next month. He wants to keep the government open, avoid a federal default and avoid alienating his conservative base, which wants big concessions connected to legislation funding the government and raising the debt ceiling.”
“Government funding expires on Sept. 30 and the debt ceiling needs to be raised by year’s end, according to the administration.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It’s a false choice. There is always a better option out there.”
— Gov. Scott Walker (R), quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on the need to protect a woman’s life by ending her pregnancy.
Trump Says He Fired Top Political Adviser
Donald Trump’s campaign said it has fired top political adviser Roger Stone — who promptly said he had quit, CNN reports.
Said a spokesman: “Mr. Trump fired Roger Stone last night. We have a tremendously successful campaign and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity. He has had a number of articles about him recently and Mr. Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to Make America Great Again.”
Earlier in the day, Stone’s friends told Politico that he sent an email to Trump announcing his decision to leave the campaign.
Quote of the Day
“It’s just like driving by a car wreck without rendering aid. Donald Trump is an out of control car driving through a crowd of Republicans and somebody needs to get him out of the car. I just don’t see a pathway forward for us in 2016 to win the White House if we don’t decisively deal with this.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in an interview with the Washington Post.
Trump Again Threatens Third-Party Bid
Donald Trump gave the New York Times “conflicting signals about his intentions, saying he was irritated by the debate moderators’ questions about a third-party candidacy but reiterating his threat to mount one if he is unhappy with his treatment by Republican leaders.”
He acknowledged an independent candidacy would be complicated and costly, he said, but “if you’re rich, it’s doable.”
Trump Responds to Being Disinvited from Event
Donald Trump’s campaign released a statement in response to being disinvited from Erick Erickson’s RedState event over comments made by Trump about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly:
Mr. Trump made Megyn Kelly look really bad — she was a mess with her anger and totally caught off guard. Mr. Trump said “blood was coming out of her eyes and whatever” meaning nose, but wanted to move on to more important topics. Only a deviant would think anything else. This related to the debate, which because of Mr. Trump had 24 million viewers — the biggest in cable news history. According to TIME, Newsmax, Drudge Report, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hill and many others, Mr. Trump won the debate.
By the way, the guy (Erick Erickson) who made the decision about RedState called Supreme Court Justice David Souter a “goat [expletive] child molester” and First Lady Michelle Obama a “Marxist Harpy.” He was forced to make a humbling apology.
Also, not only is Erick a total loser, he has a history of supporting establishment losers in failed campaigns so it is an honor to be uninvited from his event. Mr. Trump is an outsider and does not fit his agenda.
Many of the 900 people that wanted to hear Mr. Trump speak tonight have been calling and emailing—they are very angry at Erickson and the others that are trying to be so politically correct. To them Mr. Trump says, “We will catch you at another time soon.”
That has to be one of the most remarkable statements ever issued by a presidential campaign.
Trump Steps Up Attacks on Megyn Kelly
Donald Trump took his attacks on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly “to the next level on Friday night, apparently insinuating that the moderator had been menstruating when she questioned him during Thursday’s first Republican debate,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever.”
“Unlike undocumented immigrants, John McCain or Rosie O’Donnell, the Fox News anchor enjoys a huge following among the network’s viewers, who happen to make up the core of the Republican primary electorate. So picking a fight with Kelly — as Trump did when he chided her during a tough debate question about insults he’s lobbed at women, dissed her in the spin room, and tweeted his complaints about her — carries risks that Trump’s other feuds do not.”
Republicans Think Carson Did the Best
A new Gravis Marketing poll finds more Republicans thought Ben Carson did the best at the first GOP debate this week with 22% saying he won, followed by Donald Trump at 19%, Marco Rubio at 13%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Mike Huckabee at 9%, John Kasich at 8%, Ted Cruz at 7%, Scott Walker at 7%, Rand Paul at 3% and Chris Christie at 2%.
Carly Fiorina Breaks Out of Lower Tier
Carly Fiorina “spent the day traveling, bouncing between television interviews, taking selfies, fielding calls from giddy supporters and trying to capitalize on her highly praised performance in a debate for lower-tier Republican presidential candidates Thursday night,” the Washington Post reports.
“The moment was months in the making for Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard who launched a long-shot bid that has yet to gain traction in early polls. She has pitched herself as the GOP’s lone woman who can mercilessly criticize Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton — and joke about hormones in the White House — without being accused of sexism. She has tied some of her campaign stops to Clinton’s schedule and, at times, has seemed to play up her femininity, picking sundresses over suits, pink over black.”
GOP Candidates Run Further to the Right
The Washington Post notes that “in the most wide-open Republican presidential field in memory, most of the contenders continued a rush to the right this week in the hope of capturing the attention of the GOP base. The strategy is clearly aimed at primary contests in states such as Iowa and South Carolina, which are dominated by large blocs of evangelicals and other conservative voters.”
“But it could also cause the eventual nominee problems in a general election with a more moderate electorate. On social issues ranging from abortion to same-sex marriage, much of the Republican field has now taken positions that are at odds with mainstream American opinion.”
Candidates Further Hurt GOP Image with Women
New York Times: “Republican Party leaders, whose presidential nominees have not won a majority of female voters since 1988, are setting their sights on making electoral gains among women in the 2016 presidential race and trying to close the gender gap in swing states like Florida and Colorado. But the remarks and tone about women at Thursday’s debate — and the sight of 10 male candidates owning the stage — may have only damaged the party’s standing among female voters in the 2016 general election, according to pollsters and some Republican leaders.”
“Democrats were gleeful at the tone of the debate, already imagining future campaign advertisements featuring debate cutaways with Mr. Rubio saying that future Americans will ‘call us barbarians for murdering millions of babies.'”
