Is Donald Trump Self-Destructing?
Trump sought to deny the evidence provided by the video. Not only that, he defended Lewandowski’s actions, on the grounds that Fields might have represented a physical threat to him. “She had a pen in her hand which the Secret Service is not liking because they don’t know what it is, whether it’s a little bomb,” he said on CNN.
This reaction didn’t just make Trump look deluded, sexist, and cowardly—it provided his political enemies with more ammunition to use against him.
.. The irony in all of this is that, of all the Republican candidates, Trump is historically perhaps the least hostile to abortion rights. Cruz is so ardently opposed to abortion that he doesn’t favor exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Kasich does, but he has been pro-life for a long time, while Trump hasn’t. In 1999, Trump said that he was “very pro-choice.”
.. Brian Phillips, the rapid-response director for the Cruz campaign, said on Twitter, “Don’t overthink it: Trump doesn’t understand the pro-life position because he’s not pro-life.”
.. Trump doesn’t do details. He never has.
When there were ten, or six, candidates in the Republican field, and a televised debate was taking place every week, this didn’t matter much.