Is Trump Losing Even Ann Coulter? ‘Our Candidate is Mental!’
Meanwhile, Trump lashes out at CNN and at the arrest of his campaign manager for battery.
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has been a fierce supporter of Donald Trump, ferocious to the point of attacking critics of the billionaire with an intensity that would make Trump look like Ben Carson. But even Coulter has grown frustrated with Donald Trump’s behavior.
“I’m a little testy with our man right now,” Coulter told fellow Trump-supporter Milo Yiannopoulous in an interview Monday. She said she was disturbed most recently by Trump’s retweet of an unflattering picture of Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi next to a glamour shot of his own wife, Melania. “Our candidate is mental. Do you realize our candidate is mental?” she said, “It’s like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison.”
Even as she tried to pivot to what she likes about the “lowbrow” Trump, specifically his position on illegal immigration, she sounded a note of caution. “He’s the only one who is going to build a wall,” she said, “But please stop testing our patience on the rest of this stuff.”
This stuff.
On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump threatened to pull out of a CNN town hall event complaining about the network’s “one-sided and unfair reporting.”
Wow, @CNN has nothing but my opponents on their shows. Really one-sided and unfair reporting. Maybe I shouldn't do their town-hall tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
Rival Ted Cruz jumped on the tweet, suggesting at a rally in Wisconsin that instead of the town hall the two debate head-to-head. “Any candidate running for president owes it to come in front of the state and actually debate,” said Cruz. Trump has refused any debates since the GOP field has narrowed to three. “Now our friend Donald finds debates very, very stressful,” Cruz teased, “They make his hair stand on end.” Instead, “Donald prefers to communicate in 140 characters or less.”
At the moment, Trump is “communicating” about the arrest this morning of his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for “simple battery” in connection with an incident where he was videotaped grabbing and shoving aside reporter Michelle Fields.
Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
Why aren't people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened, that is before she found out the episode was on tape?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
For the record, Field’s initial statement was: “Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.” At first, she didn’t know who had left her bruised. It was Washington Post reporter Ben Terris who witnessed the incident and identified Lewandowski. Video evidence would later confirm it was the campaign manager who grabbed her. In fact, the Juniper (Fla.) Police Department released this surveillance video this morning:
Recall Lewandowski’s initial tweet about the allegation:
@MichelleFields you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) March 11, 2016
For the Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza, Trump’s response to the Lewandowski affair says a lot about the candidate. He’s posted a column on their website titled, “Corey Lewandowski lied about Michelle Fields. That should matter to Donald Trump. It won’t.”
Will it matter to voters? Will it matter to supporters like Ann Coulter?