The blind squirrels at Fox found their nut of responsible journalism when it came to Trump.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Let's be very clear here:

Donald Trump was not ambushed or set up by the Fox moderators.

Donald Trump was questioned about things that he himself really did say and do, and he revealed his true colors in his response.

Mother Jones could have been hosting the debate and those same questions should have been asked.

[elias49]

1. Agreed. There was no 'ambush'. nt

[Johonny]

2. Well, RW radio was all anti-FOX this morning.

They think FOX let the candidates down by not hitting the real issues, death to America by Iran, Obamacare, the economy enough and working hard to push voters in directions. It's a good day for DU when FOX news is getting hit be RW radio.

[sharp_stick]

3. Any one of the assholes on that stage

could have been questioned about numerous idiotic things that they spout on a regular basis and they weren't.

The "moderators" consistently brought the yammering back to Trump and his idiotic responses.

I'm pretty sure that Roger told them that the Koch's weren't too happy with the walking hair piece making them all look like the racist hillbilly morons they and so they had to make a point of going after him.

I don't think it's going to work, the GOP base just eats up Trumps outright racism. They like the fact that he refuses to use the Frank Luntz approved codewords when discussing topics like women and immigrants.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Trump's deficiencies are so glaring, however, you cannot help but call him on it.

Yes, all of those guys on the stage over than maybe John Kasich are horrible people who say horrible things.

But Trump trumps them all. And he's the current leader in the polls, so why not go to him first?

[sharp_stick]

7. I have no problem on them

calling him on his many glaring failings.

The fact that he, laughingly, leads the polls consistently and with bigger and bigger margins is something that I think scares the shit out of the puke establishment and they want to beat him down as fast as possible. The longer he's ahead the faster the every shrinking "independent" constituency is going to realize that the GOP is nothing but a batch of crazy assholes.

I still think he's going to fade but he's not going down as fast as they want him to. Remember when Michelle Bachmann or Herman Cain were leading the polls? They burned out a lot more quickly than Trump. His refusal to play along and go quietly is giving people like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and Reince Priebus ulcers.

I didn't watch that much of the show, so maybe I missed them actually going to any of the other candidates for anything except their opinion on something Trump said.

[tblue37]

26. Kasich says horrible things, too. He is on video repeatedly calling a

a cop who pulled him over and ticketed him for speeding was an idiot--when the cop was just doing his job, from the way Kasich tells the story. He didn't say it to the cop's face, but repeatedly called the cop an idiot while speaking to an audience.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Yep. Roger Ailes changed the script for this theatrical production and ordered his minions to take down Trump.

Bill Clinton is more than brilliant...got his own mindless pit-bull billionaire to lock his jaws on the other billionaires.

[sub.theory]

8. Agreed

Fox tried to take out Trump. The tone and content of the questions directed to Trump were remarkably different than the others. Not to mention the "support the nominee" question which could only have been to single out Trump. Sure, Trump has an endless number of skeletons in his closet and he is a loudmouth who is on the record saying a tremendous number of stupid/racist/crazy things. We all remember his birther campaign. But none of the other candidates were asked about their crazy like Trump was.

[tblue37]

27. Now I hope he gets nominated, since they have ALL pledged to support the nominee! nt

[Rex]

4. Nonsense Foxnews tried to 'gotcha' Trump with if he will run third party etc..

and he made them look like idiots imo.

[JCMach1]

9. Exactly, whether you like him or not, no other candidate had to face the questions he did...

Where were the questions about the indictments of the Rand Paul aides? Jeb's dirty business dealings? Bridgegate? Walker saying he will go to war on day one? And so on...

The OP is dead wrong. It was a setup political hit job.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe he was singled out. But honestly at this point.....

....I don't care.

It transcends party politics at this point. Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible, horrible human being and deserves to be called out as just that.

Some people here want to see him take the role of the useful idiot and cause chaos in the GOP to make things easier for us. I get that, I understand that. But after seeing Trump in all his Trumpiness, I don't want to see him any more. I want him gone, his reputation in shambles. For no reason other than he's the complete opposite of what a decent, reasonable human being should be and those type of people don't deserve to go high places.

I'd rather fight the good fight against a Bush or Walker or Kasich than have to rely on a despicable vile piece of shit as a crutch in the hopes it might help us.

[Rex]

11. I don't want to see any of the GOP candidates, they are all repulsive.

They are all disgusting people in their own way, I don't think Trump is any better or worse.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Trump is worse only because he's noticably mentally unstable.

Most of the others being far more subtle. (Although Carson and Huckabee have said some crazy ass shit themselves)

The others I think can be opposed in the way we dealt with Bush or Reagan. We'd struggle through for another 4-8 years but we'd survive.

Trump would be America's Nero. We (and I mean Democrats, Republicans, Independents alike, all of us )would be in serious shit if that man takes one step in the White House.

[Rex]

13. I think Walker and Huckabee can give him a run for mentally unstable candidate.

And Cruz is just batshit off the deep end crazy. We would be FUCKED if any of them get into the WH. I think they would finish us off, however Trump scares the shit out of me. He literally would start a war on the first day, no idea who it would be with...just that someone would insult his tie and off we go.

I think he is that dangerous.

[JCMach1]

16. I also hold Walker at his word about starting a war on day one...

[Rex]

18. Me too, it would be a horse race between Walker and Trump to see who could fuck up the planet first.

Which one could get us all killed off the fastest.

[JCMach1]

15. The only two who I don't think are mental cases are Rubio and Kasich...

but that ain't exactly saying much as they let their ambitions cloud their reality.

[JCMach1]

14. It isn't the job of a debate moderator to attack... that should have been left up to the Rep.

candidates...

It crosses over a journalistic line (hell, maybe they are all crossed now) where I don't think we want to go.

[sub.theory]

21. Well, this was Fox News

Journalistic integrity was never in the cards from the start, but I was still shocked too at just how blatantly they were out to destroy Trump. Somebody sure wants him gone like yesterday. Panic in the Koch boardroom, I guess.

[JCMach1]

25. Yep, they did a political hit job on someone who isn't a politician...

He's a brand... remember, it's not about Coca Cola, but how you 'feel' about Coca Cola.


Oops, their mistake!

[melman]

17. Fox wants Trump gone

because they know he can't win. That's it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

19. And on first blush I'd agree with them.

Except I also thought there was no way a Medicare fraud like Rick Scott could be elected. Or re-elected.

Or novelty candidates like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jesse Ventura.

Given the possible repercussions on the country, I honestly don't want Donald Trump even remotely close to the position where he could win.

So yes, whoever is doing the questioning--Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc.--Donald Trump's Trumpiness should be fair game.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. He was asked personal attack questions

about why he called women names, about why he declared bankruptcy, about why he contributed to Democrats. And the opening question about who would not support the nominee was clearly carved around him. Yes he was ambushed. He was asked questions where it was impossible to expound on political positions. It was a hit job and virtually everyone on the Internet, republican, democrat, or in between sees through it. It was a cross examination of his personal life on the order of "are you still beating your wife?" This was a Fox manipulation.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

22. The problem is, the man has no redeeming qualities of his own.

And you can't just dance around that fact. It's better that it just be established for the record so everyone knows.

Like I said, it doesn't matter if it was Fox or anyone else doing the questions. They should have been asked.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

23. Agreed

But this was supposed to be a political debate and not an interview by the National Enquirer. Like you, I shudder to think of Turnip making even one decision as President. But I'm most outraged that Fox can get away with this kind of engineered, orchestrated attempt to brainwash. Trump won't be elected but Fox will still be there as an anti-democratic corrupting cancer.

[sub.theory]

24. Agreed

I agree that questions should be asked, but the fact that no other candidates were subject to the same makes it a hit job. So, I agree with you that Trump is a POS, but disagree that it wasn't an ambush. If everyone had been subject to the same, then I'd completely agree. Almost all of these guys have dirt of one sort or another.

[tularetom]

28. After 20 years of Fox dog whistling out racist sexist xenophobic crap

Trump turned it right back on them and they couldn't handle it.

They all wanted somebody who "tells it like it is". They all loved Palin because she refused to be "politically correct".

Now they actually have a candidate who tells it like it is and is as politically incorrect as a human can possibly be. And their listeners have been dumbed down to the point where they eat it up, but Fox doesn't know whether to shit or go blind.

And the monster is out of the cage and they have no clue WTF to do to put him back in. Whether you like Trump or not, he has Ailes & his minions scared. And that can't be bad.

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Fox wants to elect Republican, just not that "Republican" ...

... who is really an opportunist, not loyal to any party but the Trump Party.