Trump's remarks are talk of conservative summit
AMES, Ia. – Donald Trump's insults of U.S. Sen. John McCain at a presidential candidate forum here on Saturday drew sharp and immediate condemnation from across the Republican spectrum — including calls for him to quit the 2016 race.
The swift, nearly unanimous rebuke prompted by Trump's comments questioning McCain's war heroism may suggest a shift in the Republican presidential contest, as rivals seize an opportunity to marginalize a popular but divisive figure who some see as potentially destructive to the party's standing among Latino voters.
The comments that sparked the firestorm came after forum moderator Frank Luntz interrupted a Trump tirade against McCain to note the senator's heroism in the Vietnam War and the more than five
years he was held as a prisoner of war.
"He's a war hero because he was captured," Trump replied dismissively. "I like people that weren't captured, OK?"
Trump went on to insult McCain's academic achievements at the U.S. Naval Academy. At a subsequent news conference he said McCain "has not done enough for the veterans in this country."
Trump was one of 10 presidential candidates to appear at the Family Leadership Summit, the latest in a series of forums ahead of Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.
The businessman and reality TV star, who entered the GOP race last month, has dominated media coverage for weeks with controversial rhetoric on immigration and unflinching criticism of other candidates. More recently, he's begun to take the lead in national polls.
But by expanding his bombastic rhetoric to include criticism of a prisoner of war, Trump may have overplayed his hand, even with Republicans eager for a candidate at odds with the political establishment, said political scientist Kyle Kondik, managing editor of a political newsletter published by the University of Virginia.
"There's a constituency that supports the pretty stridently anti-illegal immigration comments which Trump has made," Kondik said. "But I don't think there's a constituency for comments that come off as anti-military or basically making fun of POWs, which is what Trump did."
Indeed, rival GOP candidates, party officials and others who may have been looking for an opportunity to distance themselves from Trump seized on the comments. Within an hour, at least a half-dozen fellow candidates tweeted to either criticize Trump or defend McCain, and a few did so on the very same stage at Stephens Auditorium later on Saturday.
Cary Gordon, an evangelical pastor from Sioux City, said that he has seen Trump surging in Iowa in recent weeks and that Trump has surprised many grass-roots conservative activists with his accessibility and thoughtfulness at campaign events.
But that momentum is almost certainly lost now, Gordon said.
"Donald Trump probably handed ammunition to his own firing squad today," he said.
MORE:
- Complete coverage: Family Leadership Summit
- Analysis: Speeches, scenes at the Family Leadership Summit
- Video: Donald Trump says John McCain is no war hero
- Video: Gov. Perry calls for apology after Trump's comments
The summit was a key forum for candidates seeking to win approval from the state's sizable bloc of socially conservative evangelical voters. Also appearing on Saturday were presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham and Scott Walker.
In a shift from several previous candidate forums, the summit was structured as a conversation between Luntz and each candidate individually, with more questions taken directly from the crowd. Luntz, who specializes in polling and conducting focus groups, succeeded in knocking many of the candidates off their talking points and eliciting revealing moments.
Those included Trump's comments about McCain and a tearful Graham describing what he would say to his deceased parents.
Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, won numerous standing ovations and some of the loudest cheers of the day with red-meat conservative rhetoric opposing same-sex marriage, Islamic extremism and abortion, including calling for criminal investigations into Planned Parenthood.
"Cruz has stood up and taken stands against what we call the mainstream political machine," said Jeanne Shattuck, an attendee from Dallas Center.
Jindal, the Louisiana governor, competed with Cruz on crowd response, hitting big applause lines when criticizing the media for failing to adequately scrutinize President Barack Obama and calling for federal employees to be jailed for malfeasance.
Similarly, Graham, a U.S. senator from South Carolina, received sustained, booming applause for criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's handling of the Benghazi, Libya, attack as secretary of state, an issue that has animated conservatives but had received relatively little mention Saturday.
Walker, the Wisconsin governor, has led Iowa caucus polls for the last several months. He met a relatively subdued crowd as the last speaker of an eight-and-a-half hour day, but won strong reviews afterward.
Susan Fulster of Ames said she came into the day supporting Cruz but was wowed by Walker.
"I just can't believe how calm he is, and he can actually get things done," Fulster said. She added, "Now I see why he's a front-runner."
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Summit attendee Bill Raine of New Hampton was similarly complimentary, calling Walker a "straight shooter."
Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, has been viewed with skepticism among many conservatives for his previous support of a comprehensive immigration reform package in the Senate. On Saturday, though, he appealed to many in the crowd with substantive answers on immigration, ISIS and entitlement reform.
Edward Wollner, a supporter of Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, said Rubio's performance made him "a little bit more viable."
"Honestly, I came in pretty close-minded on Rand," Wollner said. "Rubio I had kind of written off as a young, one-term senator, but he could actually be competitive in a general election."
Many attendees were complimentary of all the candidates who appeared on Saturday, and far from ready to commit to one with the caucuses still more than six months away.
"It's a no-lose situation, if you're a conservative, at this point," said Scott Schaefer, a pastor from Davenport who described himself not as a Republican but as a "Christian conservative compassionate capitalist constitutionalist." "This country needs a pastor, someone to shepherd this country."
The Iowa Democratic Party, meanwhile, issued a statement contrasting the summit with a fundraiser on Friday featuring all five declared Democratic candidates.
"What a difference a day makes," party spokesman Sam Lau said. "Last night in Cedar Rapids, Democrats focused on Iowa's working families and how we can build an inclusive economy that works for all. Today in Ames, from Rubio to Huckabee and Santorum to Walker, Iowans heard Republican candidates push divisive policies that move our country backward and ignore the concerns of middle-class Iowans."
Organizers said more than 2,900 tickets had been sold for the event, and most of the 2,700 seats at Stephens Auditorium remained filled through the day.
Among the crowd were more than 250 evangelical pastors from across the state, and another 200 national and international reporters. The entire event was broadcast on C-SPAN, the cable public-affairs network.