Why Donald Trump will get away with insulting John McCain

Donald Trump
(Image credit: Charlie Leight/Getty Images)

In the immediate aftermath of Trump-McCain-gate — in which Donald Trump dismissed Sen. John McCain's storied Vietnam War record by asserting he likes "people who weren't captured" — the consensus was that Trump was going down. The comment was so beyond the pale that it gave almost every single Republican candidate in the primary field an opportunity to dump on Trump, presenting something of a unified front against the reality television star and real estate magnate.

But not so fast, says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, who makes the argument that a certain segment of the GOP primary electorate really won't care:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.