Noonan: Trump Took a Pounding, Mostly From His Own Mouth

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan acknowledged Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump had a bad week but had himself to blame.

Partial transcript as follows:

DICKERSON: Peggy, I want to start with you. What kind of a week was it for Donald Trump?

PEGGY NOONAN, CBS NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think he had a terrible week. I think he took a pounding, in part from the press, but mostly from his own mouth. I think he added to the aggregate of the strange or outrageous or not fully thought through comments that he makes. That — that at a certain point, I think this is the point, by the way, are starting to give pause even to his own supporters. He ought to be growing and instead my sense is he’s sort of stuck because of how he talks and how he does not bring forward a presidential dignity and so doesn’t show that there might be a plausible president inside.

I do think, however, we’re seeing an act two of Trump. Act one was the rise. Act two is try to survive. A, try to survive his own mouth, and, b, try to survive what is quietly happening around him, which is the race for delegates that people are quietly pulling like — like strands away from him.

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