Friday, November 13, 2015

First Read: Donald Trump Goes Off the Rails

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Trump Goes Off the Rails

It's easy to have become a little numb to Donald Trump's theatrics on the trail over the last five months, but his performance last night in Iowa shook them right back into perspective. NBC's Katy Tur reports that, during a 96-minute speech, Trump compared Ben Carson's self-described "pathological temper" to a "disease" like child molestation ("If you're a child molester, a sick puppy, a child molester, there's no cure for that - there's only one cure and we don't want to talk about that cure, that's the ultimate cure, no there's two, there's death and the other thing.") Personal attacks are one thing; baselessly comparing an opponent (who is almost universally popular with your own base!) to a child molester is jaw-dropping. Whether Trump was tired, frustrated, cranky, whatever - this off-the-rails attack may have been the best illustration yet of why so many folks believe Trump can't make it over the nomination finish line. While most of his other attacks on rivals -- "low energy," "puppets," etc. -- have played into narratives with some grain of truth to them, this one is just mean-spirited word association accusing a well-liked political figure of literally *the worst possible thing* a person can do. And this comes after plenty of reports that Trump was toning down his rhetoric, acting like a more mature candidate and thinking more strategically about his path. The question is: How and where could Trump's attacks on the field's most popular candidate hurt him? And is "child molester" finally the threshold for his bombastic language to start wearing on voters? 

Click here for the full article and video.

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