Donald Trump, the reality TV star whose stranglehold over the race to become the Republican presidential candidate is spreading jitters through the party, has turned on his nearest rival.
With the second GOP debate only three days away, the billionaire businessman directed his typically blunt rhetoric on Sunday against Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon with no track record of elected office who is running an even more unconventional campaign than Trump’s own.
Carson’s understated appeal has gained traction over the past two weeks, propelling him into an unexpected second place in the polls.
“Ben Carson is a very, very nice man,” Trump told CBS, before sticking the knife in. He said a Carson presidency would “not be a good situation. He’s not a dealmaker. He’s not a negotiator. The president has to bring wealth back into our country – Ben can’t do that.”
The attack was just the latest in what is shaping up to be a historically vicious Republican primary season. As the next televised debate – to be held at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday night – approaches, brickbats are being hurled with increasing intensity, not least at Trump himself.
Two of the packed field of Republican candidates went out of their way to say they would not support Trump were he to win the party nomination next year. George Pataki, the former governor of New York state who has barely generated a ripple of interest so far, stated in a tweet that he would not vote for Trump, who he said was “unfit to be president”.
Let me be very plain, I'm not going to vote for @RealDonaldTrump ...He is unfit to be president @chucktodd @meetthepress @foxnewssunday #MTP
— George E. Pataki (@GovernorPataki) September 13, 2015
Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana who is also languishing on the margins of the contest, also said he would refuse to endorse Trump, who he has called a “narcissist” and “egomaniac”.
The sense of palpable unease that is gripping the Republican pack as Trump continues his tearaway success has been heightened by the departure from the field of Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, on Friday.
Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator who is also vying for the nomination, captured the mood when he compared the failed campaign of the longest-serving governor in Texas history with the success in the polls of “a reality star”.
What does it say about GOP when a 3 & half term Gov w/ a successful record of creating jobs bows out as a reality star leads in the polls?
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 11, 2015
With attacks between the remaining 16 candidates growing ever more personal and vitriolic, there is clearly anxiety within the party establishment about the fodder this will provide for Democratic attack adverts come the presidential election proper.
On Sunday the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, reminded the candidates that loose talk in the primary battle can cost votes on election day.
Appearing on CNN, he evoked the memory Mitt Romney’s disastrous comments in 2012 about “self-deportation” of immigrants and about the 47% of the people who Romney said would vote for Obama “no matter what”.
Priebus said: “Each candidate is going to be responsible for their own words and their own mouth, so they should proceed with caution.”
Trump’s put-down of Carson was perhaps to be anticipated, given the imminence of the Reagan library debate and the billionaire’s desire to get his shots in early. A new poll from CBS News conducted in the early primary and caucus states underlined the fact that, at least for now, Carson appears to be the only candidate who has found a way to pierce the Trump media noise and challenge him.
In the poll, Carson is captured snapping at Trump’s heels in Iowa, at 25% to Trump’s 29% support among Republican likely caucus voters. He also comes second to Trump in New Hampshire (40% Trump, 12% Carson) and South Carolina (36%, 21%).
One of the many baffling features of Carson’s sudden rise is that the more that Trump bellows, the quieter and more measured the neurosurgeon sounds. On Sunday, he refused to rise to the Trump bait.
Asked by ABC News for his response to Trump’s caustic remark over the weekend that he lacked energy, Carson said he was unbothered by it.
“I recognise I have plenty of energy,” he said. “You don’t have to be loud to be energetic.”
Eleven candidates will take to the Reagan library stage at 8pm on Wednesday. Trump and Carson will be joined by five current or past governors – Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Scott Walker – and three sitting US senators – Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.
The 11th candidate will be the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina. She has been attracting attention following the first TV debate in August, when she failed to make the cut for the main debate but excelled in the earlier dialogue between second-ranked candidates.
Fiorina has been locked in her own war of words with Trump. Trump was widely criticized for perceived sexist remarks about her contained in a Rolling Stone profile. That did not prevent the billionaire going on the attack again on Sunday.
He told CBS that whether from “bad luck” or a “bad job”, Fiorina’s reign at Hewlett-Packard had been a “disaster”.
“She hasn’t done a good job in the private sector,” he said.
