Rick Klein: “He’s gone from thousands of cheering Muslims in New Jersey to hundreds of people now tell him he’s right. He had his chief rival say he saw the same thing on TV, only to say a few hours later that he actually didn’t. Donald Trump’s latest addition to his campaign highlight reel has the hallmarks of his political style. This was a tall tale with a purpose, calibrated to a moment of jitters and anti-Muslim fears and sentiments. Trump, naturally, isn’t apologizing or acknowledging that what he said he saw did not in fact occur as he describes it.”

“It now appears unlikely that any one comment or set of comments will unravel Trump. Even in this instance, his supporters grant him a general sense of being honest if not entirely truthful… As the anti-Trump forces gather, that’s a more formidable opponent than the mogul himself. Voters view him as speaking truth to power – and that means skepticism of anyone or anything seeking to stand in his way, even when he’s telling stories that are simply not accurate.”

“The front-runner is now acting invincible — he even told NBC News in a phone call that he has ‘the world’s greatest memory’ — despite intense push back on his latest claims, including that ‘thousands and thousands’ of U.S. Muslims were cheering in Jersey City, N.J., after the Twin Towers came down on 9/11.”

“If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, on his plans to bring back waterboarding.”

New York Times: “No one ever expected Mr. Trump to turn himself into the issues expert of the Republican presidential field. Yet the verbal shortcuts and salesmanlike stretches that he has relied on for months — generalities used to dodge questions, and questionable recollections — are tripping him up as the tenor of the campaign has grown more serious.”

“Mr. Trump’s avoidance of specifics is seen by some of his admirers as a refreshing contrast to musty politicians who play by the rules. And he has a knack for muddying the waters with catchall phrases that allow his supporters and detractors to read whatever they want into his statements.”

“But his refusal to be pinned down on the details of his positions has repeatedly prompted reporters and interviewers to engage in a guessing game as to what he means. And he tends to choose all of the above.”

“Republican elites are panicky about the durable dominance of Trump (and to a lesser extent Ben Carson) in the presidential race. They are right to worry, but I don’t feel much sympathy. Trump is a problem of their own creation,” Dana Millbank writes.

“Trump gets ever more base in his bigotry — and yet, with few and intermittent exceptions, rival candidates, party leaders and GOP lawmakers decline to call him out. So he continues to rise, benefiting from tacit acceptance of his intolerance.”

“For months — years, really — Republicans have averted their gaze from Trump’s attacks on women, Hispanics and immigrants. Now the racism becomes more overt — and still, he goes unchallenged.”

Gerald Seib: “A quick look back at American history also shows the phenomenon is neither unprecedented nor inexplicable.”

Donald Trump told GQ that it is extremely unlikely he would use nuclear weapons as president.

Said Trump: “I wouldn’t be nuking anybody. I will have a military that’s so strong and powerful, and so respected, we’re not gonna have to nuke anybody.”

He added: “It is highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely that I would ever be using them.”

Rick Klein: “At this point, it’s not simply a matter of Donald Trump defying political gravity. Even his opponents have to marvel at how good a politician he is, in his ability to adapt to moments and channel the (often unspoken) passions of his supporters. With the establishment turning up the heat – and the cash – on Trump, there’s a real possibility that he can’t be brought down in a substantial way. (What new information about Trump will do what all the reams of information haven’t done before?) His rivals have to count on Trump supporters not being serious about supporting Trump – or not being serious about caucusing or voting at all. That would count as hope, not strategy. But it may be hard to beat.”

Donald Trump “has, over the last few days, been road-testing a new criticism of Hillary Clinton — that she is too low-energy to be president,” the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “Somebody like Jeb, and others that are running against me — and by the way, Hillary is another one. I mean, Hillary is a person who doesn’t have the strength or the stamina, in my opinion, to be president. She doesn’t have strength or stamina. She’s not a strong enough person to be president.”

First Read: “We’ve been around the political block long enough to know that almost all presidential candidates exaggerate, dissemble, take statements out of context and, yes, lie. But from the start of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (remember Mexican rapists?), he has taken this to a level we haven’t seen before in American politics.”

“Consider just these two examples from the weekend. First, Trump said on Saturday in Alabama: ‘I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering.’ In fact, as the New York Times writes, ‘No news reports exist of people cheering in the streets, and both police officials and the mayor of Jersey City have said that it did not happen.’ But when ABC pressed Trump on his statement, he stood his ground. ‘It did happen. I saw it… It was on television. I saw it.’ Second, Trump retweeted a graphic claiming — falsely — that African American are responsible for the killing of most blacks and whites in America. ‘That is not true,’ the Washington Post notes.”

Benjy Sarlin: “Let’s not sugarcoat what’s going on. The GOP frontrunner is spreading hateful falsehoods about blacks and Muslims.”

“Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, on a black activist who was choked and thrown to the ground after trying to disrupt Trump’s rally.

“Well, we’ll see what happens. It will be very interesting. But I’m leading every poll by a lot. It’s not even a little bit anymore, it’s a lot.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, once again suggesting he would run for president as an independent if not “treated fairly.”

“Under assault from Democrats and Republicans alike, Donald Trump on Friday drew back from his call for a mandatory registry of Muslims in the United States, trying to quell one of the ugliest controversies yet in a presidential campaign like few others,” the New York Times reports.

“The daylong furor capped a week of one-upmanship among Republican presidential candidates as to who could sound toughest about preventing terrorism after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. Polls show the national mood has soured on accepting refugees from Syria amid concerns about potential terrorist attacks within the United States.”

Politico: Why the Muslim database won’t doom Trump

“A well-connected GOP operative alarmed by the enduring strength of Republican Donald Trump’s presidential bid is planning a ‘guerrilla campaign’ backed by secret donors to knock him out of the race,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Liz Mair, former online communications director of the Republican National Committee, recently created Trump Card LLC to ‘defeat and destroy’ the celebrity businessman’s candidacy… The anti-Trump crusade aims to unite contributors who are backing a variety of the Republican primary candidates… Opposition research, grass roots organizing and donor outreach has been going on for weeks, Ms. Mair said, while declining to name any supporters.”

Donald Trump “was repeatedly asked to explain the difference between requiring Muslims to enter their information into a database and making Jewish people register in Nazi Germany,” MSNBC reports.

He responded four times by saying, “You tell me.”