Trump'd: How words became louder than actions in the 2016 race

Meet this election's defining feature: the utterance-umbrage cycle

Reporters interview a candidate.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This week is like almost every other week during a presidential campaign, in one particular way.

The biggest story concerns whether Donald Trump made a crack about Fox News host Megyn Kelly having her period. In his defense, Trump criticized Kelly for some things she has said, while also striking out at Jeb Bush for questioning the amount we spend on women's health. Speaking of women's health, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio are being forced to answer questions about what they said about abortion during last week's Republican debate. And President Obama is being criticized by Republicans for being mean in his comments about their opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran; he has even been charged with anti-Semitism because he said senators are under pressure to reject the deal (don't ask about the idiotic train of logic necessary to get to that place).

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
Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.