Donald Trump began his campaign by inflaming the debate about immigration and offending Hispanics with loose talk about criminals, rapists and drug dealers.
Donald Trump began his campaign by inflaming the debate about immigration and offending Hispanics with loose talk about criminals, rapists and drug dealers.
Republicans take hands-off approach and hope poll leader implodes.
Donald Trump's attacks on Fox News's Megyn Kelly have brought his Republican presidential rivals to another moment of truth. How long can they try to treat him as a sideshow before they and the party they seek to lead suffer the political effects of his excesses?
For Trump's rivals, the political calculus has seemed relatively straightforward. At this still-early stage in the nomination contest, they prefer to pursue their own campaign strategies, not react to his. As Florida Senator Marco Rubio told NBC: "If I comment on everything he said, my whole campaign will be consumed by it."
Because his rivals assume that Trump will either implode or eventually walk away in a fit of anger, they have generally tried to ignore him rather than seek a confrontation. Sometimes they've been forced to voice their displeasure, as has been the case in the past 48 hours.
They responded after Trump, in a CNN interview, escalated his criticism of Kelly, calling her a "lightweight" and accusing her of coming after him in last week's debate in Cleveland with "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever".
Carly Fiorina tweeted, "Mr. Trump: There. Is. No. Excuse." and "I stand with @megynkelly." Yesterday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tweeted: "I agree with @carlyfiorina, there's no excuse for Trump's comments. Stand with @megynkelly." Later he tweeted: ".@megynkelly is a tough interview. Being POTUS is tougher ... "
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush weighed in at the RedState gathering in Atlanta with his criticism.
Yesterday's flurry of statements criticising Trump had a sense of deja vu. Just three weeks ago, the same almost-ritualised performance played out after Trump had dissed Senator John McCain of Arizona as not being a hero. The candidates stepped up after Trump went after McCain - more quickly than in the case of Kelly - and then tried to step back. Neither Trump's remarks nor the criticism had much effect on his political momentum. If anything, he seemed strengthened by the incident.
Tentativeness has marked the candidates' strategy in dealing with the Trump phenomenon. But as Bush said, standing silent as the leader in the polls for the Republican nomination attacks someone who is part of the 53 per cent majority of the population is hardly a winning strategy.
There is another reason beyond the other candidates' wanting to run their own races or wishing not to be the object of Trump's ire. They all think that Trump's support reflects more than fascination with celebrity, that he has tapped into something visceral in the electorate: anger and insecurity, revulsion with Washington, and disgust with political elites. They hope Trump will sink of his own weight, and wish to avoid offending his voters because they want those voters to turn to them.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is near the bottom of the Republican field and has little to lose, has another view of all this. He says that it is time for party leaders and candidates to recognise the threat Trump poses. "I think we've crossed that Rubicon, where his behaviour becomes about us, not just him." He warned that Republicans risk blowing a chance to win the White House if they fail to take on Trump.
Trump began his campaign by inflaming the debate about immigration and offending Hispanics with loose talk about criminals, rapists and drug dealers and policy solutions that include charging the Mexican Government for the cost of building a wall on the southern border. Now he is in his own war against women with his post-debate comments about Kelly. Are there two more important constituencies for Republicans in 2016 than Hispanics and women? Mitt Romney got 27 per cent of the Hispanic vote and 44 per cent of the women's vote against President Barack Obama in 2012. Republicans know they must do better with each group of voters to have a chance to win in 2016.
Trump's megaphone is louder than the collective voice of the others in the Republican race. The nomination contest for now is Trump versus the rest of them. As long as he stands tallest in the polls and loudest on TV, his message will outweigh theirs. It's clear now what kind of campaign he will run and what kind of candidate he is. That's the reality that now confronts the rest of the party.
'Knockout' dishes KO questions
Megyn Kelly, the 44-year-old lawyer-turned-journalist at the centre of Donald Trump's latest controversial comment, has drawn widespread praise.
Megyn Kelly has acknowledged the sexism built into the TV news business. Photo / AP
Kelly, from Albany, New York, joined Fox News after a year with a local news station in Washington DC. Fox executive Brit Hume took notice. "Here is this woman who was strikingly attractive but has tremendous air presence and a very strong voice. We were knocked out."
Her legal training, Kelly said, helped her keep her cool in interviews. But her ability to confront the Republican debating panel with a direct question energised the event which drew the highest ratings, at 25 million viewers, of any presidential primary debate programme.
Good looks notwithstanding, Kelly has acknowledged the sexism built into the TV news business. "In the industry women have a hard time because there's an assumption maybe you've moved up for reasons other than your mind."
Working for a station known for taking partisan positions hasn't stopped her questioning senior figures of Republican Party orthodoxy. In 2012 when Fox predicted early President Barack Obama would win, Karl Rove, strategist for the Bush Administration, objected. Kelly shot back: "Is this just math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"
While still the most watched, and profitable, cable news station, Fox is failing to add younger viewers. New York magazine columnist Frank Rich says Kelly was brought in to turn around Fox's demographics predicament. Kelly, Rich wrote, "is the latest blonde star in [a] stable that seems to emulate Hitchcock's leading-lady predilections in looks and inchoate malevolence".
