JULY 20, 2015
The talk of the political world on Monday was the escalating war between Arizona Sen. John McCain and Presidential candidate Donald Trump. McCain fired the first salvo late last week, referring to a Trump event in McCain’s home state which McCain reacted to regarding Trump’s immigration remarks:
“This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me. Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”
Uh-oh. Trump does not like to have his followers disparaged, especially by a man whom Trump has called “a loser,” and Trump wasted no time on Saturday in responding to McCain in an Iowa event moderated by Republican pollster Frank Luntz:
TRUMP: Frank, Frank, let me get to it. He hit me…
LUNTZ: He’s a war hero.
TRUMP: He’s not a war hero.
LUNTZ: He’s a war hero. 5 1/2 years…
TRUMP: He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, OK? You can have…and I believe perhaps he is a war hero. But right now he’s said a lot of very bad things about a lot of people.
Finally, the previously timid GOP Presidential field had an opening to safely attack Trump and pounce they finally did. All except Ted Cruz, who is following his game plan of not criticizing Trump, so that, when the bazillionaire inevitably implodes, ole Ted is there to pick up his disillusioned supporters.
McCain, who famously took the high road in his 2008 race against President Obama, when he publicly corrected a supporter who had called Obama “an Arab,” did so again today when asked whether he deserved an apology from Trump:
“No, I don’t think so, but I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country.”
The mainstream consensus is that this moment is where the GOP establishment takes action against Trump for attacking one of their own. In a normal campaign, this would likely be the end of Trump, as it was for another candidate in 2012 when the GOP establishment turned against Newt Gingrich when it began to look like he could become the nominee.
But, despite establishment support for McCain, there is a faction of the GOP that doesn’t trust the Arizona senator. They became suspect when McCain reached across the aisle to work with noted liberals Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold on major progressive legislation. And in 2008, after this group felt that McCain was being shoved down their throat as the party standard bearer only to come up short at the ballot box, these folks have no love lost for McCain and may even gravitate to Trump for this attack.
UPDATE: On Monday evening, the ABC/Washington Post national poll of Republican shows that Trump’s lead has grown to double digits, with 24% of GOP voters for Trump, as opposed to 13% for Scott Walker and 12% for Jeb Bush. The Post did note, however, that in polling on Sunday, the day after Trump’s incendiary remarks, Trump’s support declined sharply. Normally a dangerous sign. But this appears not to be a normal campaign.
