Trump's turn-off
by digby
Just as I thought. Attacking Ted Cruz is like attacking them:
On Saturday, Trump drew boos from a grassroots conservative crowd during remarks at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention for his attack on Cruz's previously undisclosed loans.
"You give a campaign contribution to Ted Cruz, you get whatever the hell you want," he said, before boos erupted from the crowd.
Trump went on as the boos grew louder: "Say whatever you want, it's okay, he didn't report his bank loans. He's got bank loans from Goldman Sachs, he's got bank loans from Citibank, folks, and then he acts like Robin Hood?"
One man in the crowd, 71-year-old Air Force veteran Joe Bates, stood up and shouted angrily, wagging his finger at the candidate.
Trump continued: "You know, say whatever you want, but it doesn't work that way."
[...]
Some at Saturday's event said Trump's attacks on Cruz had turned them off from him.
Kathy Hughes, a 68-year-old retired teacher from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, said she was "so excited" to see Trump until he trained his fire on Cruz, and now she's sitting his speech out.
"He has degraded himself now to me," she said.
Hughes said she felt like Trump had done away with his commitment to telling it like it is in part because he took Cruz's attacks on New York personally.
"I was pleased that he has put issues forward that many of the candidates did not want to talk about and they've been forced to talk about. He has kicked political correctness to the curb — until Ted said something about New Yorkers — and then suddenly Mr. Trump became very sensitive," she said.
It is kind of hilarious watching the insult dog Trump get all delicate about New York being insulted. If anyone can get away with it, I suppose he can, but some people are noticing.
They all told the reporter that these attacks wouldn't necessarily make them not vote for Trump. But they're suddenly sick of all the insults coming from "everybody." It's one thing to insult Mexicans and Muslims and Democrats and African Americans and women and the media and well ... pretty much the whole world. That is until you insult a doctrinaire wingnut. Then "everyone" should stop all the insults.
One of the women quoted did say that she was going to go home and look into Trump's accusations about Cruz's loans though. One wonders if she'll "research" Trump's business dealings with equal vigor. I doubt it.
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