Columnist and Fox News Contributor Dr. Charles Krauthammer told Megyn Kelly that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s remarks about fellow GOP candidate Carly Fiorina demonstrates questions she asked Trump about his previous remarks towards women “were not just apt, but right on” on Thursday’s “Kelly File.”
Krauthammer began by breaking down recent poll results by stating, “we have the anti-establishment candidates way up at the top, led by Trump, and then you’ve got the rest. And if you look at the latest national poll, you’ve got Trump and Dr. Carson, just the two of them, were more than 50%, if you combine them. So, it’s the anti-establishments versus the rest of the field. And the question is, who’s going to distinguish themselves from the rest of the field. Because as long as the so-called establishment types number about 14 or so, they’re going to split the vote, they’re not going to figure.” And “I think it means the people who are not outsiders, and who are now languishing in the low single digits, or high single digits, with Jeb Bush, are going to have to step out and distinguish themselves. The field has to winnow. When it winnows down to two, or three, or four, 30% is not going to be enough to carry the vote. But as long as it remains splintered among the establishment, the former this, the former that, two-term governors and senators, then…there’s going to be Trump, obviously, and Carson leading the field. And I think the real story’s going to come from the lower tiers here to see who emerges.”
Krauthammer was then asked about Trump reportedly saying in a Rolling Stone profile “Look at that face!” “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” about Fiorina. He said, “I think it raises a more general issue. I mean, is this a general issue? Say for example, I don’t know, we have a national debate, and a female moderator asked Mr. Trump about previous effusions of this kind, and then afterwards, he gets a little bit agitated, and says — complains that the questions were illegitimate and unfair. I think what had just been shown by the Carly remark is that the questions were not just apt, but right on. But the irony is, I don’t think it’s going to hurt him at all. Every time there’s be a so-called gaffe, it has made no difference to his trajectory. It’s almost as if the Trump phenomenon lives outside the usual rules. There’s a kind of immunity to scrutiny of the kind you find, for example with Joe Biden.”
Krauthammer added that he doesn’t think Trump will hurt the GOP’s brand if he’s not the nominee, but if he is, “he’s going to have a lot of questions to answer. And I think it will be an issue.”
Krauthammer said of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, “Well there is a reason to panic because — and this speaks to the branding of the parties. The Democratic Party is so denuded of talent, has been so demolished, I think, by six years of Obama, is that, who are the alternatives? The panic is that there’s nobody else around. When you’re fishing for Al Gore, the proposed substitutes are all of a remarkable geritocracy, all white incidentally, and none of them particularly attractive. You compare that with the GOP, which has a very big bench. In fact, I would say, sometimes, too big a bench, and that’s the problem, they have so sort out who’s going to emerge. But who’s the alternative? and without an alternative, Hillary — and unless she’s indicted, Hillary’ll be the nominee.” And that when Gore is a possible candidate, “you’ve got a problem.”
(h/t Mediaite)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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