Donald Trump had only been in the presidential race for weeks,but when he famously accused Arizona Sen. John McCain , a prisonerof war during Vietnam, of not being heroic, commentators predictedhis time as a frontrunner would soon be over.
“Apologize for this pronto,â€Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol tweeted.“Otherwise beginning of end.â€
Likewise, Jonah Goldberg of National Review predicted“it’s nonetheless obvious thatwe will someday soon look back on this as the beginning of the endof Trumpmania.â€
But as we all know now, that didn’t happen:Trump is still the undisputed frontrunner for the Republicannomination with less than 70 days before voters in Iowa head to thecaucuses.
Since he entered the race in June, there have been numerousexamples of Trump provoking a media firestorm by saying somethingprovocative. Time and time again, despite the breathless coveragein the media of these remarks and predictions that he may have donesignificant damage to his campaign, Trump has survived.
Here are 15 examples:
On illegal immigrants (June):“When Mexico sends its people, they’re notsending the best. They’re not sending you, they’resending people that have lots of problems and they’rebringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs,they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, Iassume, are good people, but I speak to border guards andthey’re telling us what we’re getting.”
On illegal immigrants who are rapists (July):“Well, somebody’s doing the raping, Don! I meansomebody’s doing it! Who’s doing the raping?Who’s doing the raping?”
On John McCain’s war record(July): “He’s not awar hero…He’s a war hero because he wascaptured. I like people who weren’tcaptured.â€
On giving out Lindsey Graham ’s phonenumber (July): “Hedoesn’t seem like a very bright guy. He actuallyprobably seems to me not as bright as Rick Perry. I think RickPerry probably is smarter than Lindsey Graham.â€
On refusing to pledge to support the eventual Republicannominee, during first debate (August): “I will notmake the pledge at this time.â€
On Megyn Kelly as a debate moderator (August):“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Bloodcoming out of her wherever.”
On Carly Fiorina, in a Rolling Stone interview(September): “Look at that face! Would anyone votefor that? Can you imagine that, the face of ournext president?!”
On not challenging anti-Muslim questioner who said heneeds to get rid of Muslims (September):“We’re going to be looking at a lot of differentthings.â€
On blaming George W. Bush for 9-11 (October):“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, saywhat you want, the World Trade Center came down on histime.â€
On attacking Ben Carson’sfaith (October): “I mean,Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about, Ijust don’t know about.â€
On comparing Ben Carson to a child molester(November): “It’s in the book that he’sgot a pathological temper. That’s a big problem because youdon’t cure that … as an example: child molesting. Youdon’t cure these people. You don’t cure a childmolester. There’s no cure for it. Pathological, there’sno cure for that.”
On questioning voters in the first caucus state who weresupporting Ben Carson in the polls (November): “Howstupid are the people of Iowa?”
On falsely recalling“thousands†of people celebrating on9-11 (November): “I watched when the World TradeCenter came tumbling down, and I watched in Jersey City, New Jerseywhere thousands and thousands of people were cheering as thatbuilding was coming down.â€
On disruptive protestor at Birmingham, Ala. event(November): “Maybe he should have beenroughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And thiswas a very obnoxious guy who was a trouble-maker who was looking tomake trouble.â€
On not ruling out database of Muslims in America(November): “We’regoing to have to — we’regoing to have to look at a lot of things very closely.We’re going to have to look at the mosques.We’re going to have to look very, verycarefully.â€
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