Fox News panel is baffled that Donald Trump continually 'pulverizes' his own message
Brett Baier's Special Report panel on Sunday examined Donald Trump's shot at winning the 2016 election, with Baier taking special care to explain why Fox News doesn't use the three national polls that show Donald Trump winning or tied. But mostly the panel discussed Trump's big speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, in which he laid out plans to reduce regulation and "drain the swamp" in Washington, D.C., if elected — and also promised to sue the 11 women accusing him of inappropriate sexual behavior.
"It's the trap he walks into knowingly," agreed Benson. Trump's Gettysburg proposals are "getting short shrift, and I just try to close my eyes and envision an alternate campaign where he gives this speech, without the other nonsense, in early September, after Labor Day, and then relentlessly focuses on it when the women come out, when the tape comes out." Donald Trump "doesn't step on his message, he pulverizes it," Stoddard said, "and the only time he ever did well, and built the momentum, and really had Clinton on her heels" was from his mid-August campaign shakeup until the first debate in late September, a period where he was "Teleprompter Trump, always on message, always with his notes, really restrained from Twitter, and not talking about his anger grievances."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
If Trump "really cared about this issue, it would have been part of his message a year ago," Stoddard added, and campaign manager "Kellyanne Conway can go on all the shows she wants and talk about what they're going to try and do, and keep it focused on the issues and its all the media's fault, but Donald Trump is destroying his campaign." That doesn't mean it's over for Trump, Hurt said. "This has been the wildest election of my lifetime, and if he were to come back, it wouldn't be the strangest thing that happened in this campaign."
-
Political cartoons for January 25Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include a hot economy, A.I. wisdom, and more
-
Le Pen back in the dock: the trial that’s shaking FranceIn the Spotlight Appealing her four-year conviction for embezzlement, the Rassemblement National leader faces an uncertain political future, whatever the result
-
The doctors’ strikesThe Explainer Resident doctors working for NHS England are currently voting on whether to go out on strike again this year
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youthSpeed Read The administration is making sweeping proposals that would eliminate gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
