As Trumps wins, the GOP loses
Republican presidential candidates are running scared. And not from Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In North Carolina, the blustering billionaire Donald Trump is actually leading in the latest poll rating Republican primary contenders. He was at 16 percent, with Jeb Bush and Scott Walker each at 12 percent.
And all this after Trump announced his candidacy June 16 and, for good measure, added positively inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants. “You’re getting drug guys. You’re getting killers. You’re getting rapists.”
Oh, wait. That’s similar to what Trump said when he announced for president in New York on June 16, but actually that quote comes from comments he made to the North Carolina Republican convention on June 6. Those June 16 zingers eventually were repudiated by most other Republican presidential candidates (excepting, of course, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz) who recognized them as intemperate. And that’s putting it mildly.
But why haven’t North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who at least participated in the June 6 GOP convention where Trump appeared (it’s unclear whether both were there for his speech), repudiated these outrageous comments?
It’s distressing that Trump, who’s made it clear he intends to spend his own money in this campaign and toss verbal bombs every chance he gets, would find such favor in North Carolina. The poll number shows, perhaps, the divisions in the GOP’s crowded field, and it may also show a percentage of the public swayed by Trump’s fame entertained by his big mouth.
If North Carolina Republicans regrettably aren’t repudiating the real estate mogul and former TV star who punctuated his “Apprentice” show with “You’re fired!” the national Republican Party is very nervous.
From The Washington Post comes a report that Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, talked recently with Trump and asked him to tone things down. The GOP is especially worried about Trump alienating Latino voters the party needs to win the White House.
And although former Florida Gov. Bush, son and brother of presidents, is married to a woman born in Mexico, his rejection of Trump’s flammable comments didn’t seem strong enough, as if Bush were trying to cover his tracks to appear tough on illegal immigration. Trump had even shared a comment on a Twitter feed that said Bush “has to like Mexican illegals because of his wife.”
The better response for Bush would have been to invite Trump to step outside.
But Trump’s money and celebrity are apparently going to guarantee him poll numbers high enough to participate in the first GOP candidates’ debate next month.
Knowing that, the other candidates must feel like they’ll be marching into the O.K. Corral against the bad guys and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are sleeping in.
In a way, Republicans are getting exactly what they deserve. They’ve demagogued the issue of illegal immigration for years, and now changing demographics have made the Latino vote more important than ever. Mitt Romney, 2012 GOP nominee, got less than 30 percent of that vote.
How’d that work out?
This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 7:15 PM with the headline "As Trumps wins, the GOP loses."