Whatever you might think about how well Donald Trump did in Thursday night’s Republican Primary debate, there is no question the billionaire businessman is winning the most important part of the process: the post-debate spin. The Narrative on almost all the morning shows centered primarily around how Fox News was gunning to take out Trump. If anything, debate co-moderator Megyn Kelly is taking on the most damaging post-debate water.
The very first debate question, asked by Bret Baier, was obviously aimed directly at Trump. For weeks, Trump has refused to dismiss the idea of running as a third party candidate should he lose the GOP nomination. When Baier asked the field of ten to raise their hand if they would not agree here and now to support whoever won the nomination, regardless of what you might think of the question, the whole world knew a target was being placed on Trump’s back.
That was just the beginning.
Although all the initial questions to all 10 candidates focused like a laser on their primary weak spots, Kelly grilling Trump over tweets calling women “pigs” and “slobs” is being singled out Friday morning as a hatchet job. This spin is obviously going to work in Trump’s favor in a primary where voters are thoroughly and rightly disgusted with both the media and the Republican establishment.
Using the enormous power of his Twitter feed (3.52 million followers), Trump is not only hammering away at Kelly (one of his retweets referred to Kelly as a “bimbo”)already this morning, but also at Frank Luntz and his Fox News focus group. The focus group of GOP primary voters not only declared Trump the loser but a big loser who fatally damaged himself.
Using the words “low class slob,” Trump gave Luntz the now-famous Trump treatment and accused Luntz of stacking the focus group deck against him:
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Using data from online polls and headlines, Trump made his case:
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Megyn Kelly also got the full Trump treatment:
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Oddly enough, the mainstream media, including The New York Times, NBC News’s Chuck Todd, and this morning’s “Morning Joe” panelists, all gave Trump a passing grade or better.
Meanwhile, the conservative media is declaring him dead.
Fox News Opinion – Trump loses
Washington Examiner: Trump wreck
Weekly Standard – Trump the big loser
National Review’s Rick Lowry – A Fabulously Awful Night for Donald Trump
Trump is also performing some pretty impressive jujitsu. Kelly attacked Trump from the premise that he’s a sexist. The truth, though, is that Trump calls everyone names. Referring to Luntz as a “slob” makes it hard for anyone to claim he singles out women, which is the definition of a sexist.
Like him or not, Trump is playing political hardball by his own rules.
And so far, it’s taken him this far.
Charlie Spiering contribute to this report.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC