Donald Trump Drops 12 Points: Directly Related To Mockery Of Disabled Reporter?
Donald Trump isn’t known for his political correctness. The reality TV personality turned GOP presidential hopeful doesn’t seem to mind speaking whatever thoughts enter his head. Whether Trump is talking bad about Carly Fiorina’s face or insulting the entire Iowa voter base by calling them “stupid,” he’s seemingly now worried that his words will ruffle his voter base’s feathers. Up until recently, he’s been right. Even after a Black Lives Matter protester was viciously assaulted by Donald Trump supporters at his Birmingham campaign rally, Trump seemed to keep a handle on the support of his voter base.
It looks like his non-PC manner of speaking might have finally caught up to him, though.
On November 24, Donald Trump did the unconscionable. He publicly and blatantly mocked a physically disabled reporter at a South Carolina stump locale. It may have been the last straw.
The fallout was swift and almost universal. Only the most steadfast Donald Trump supporters came to the GOP presidential hopeful’s defense. Everyone else seemed to be understandably disgusted with Trump’s little performance.
Donald Trump mocks a physically disabled journalist and the moron is fighting for country's top post. Atleast our PM didn't mock an illness.
— Rofl Gandhi 2.0 ? (@RoflGandhi_) November 27, 2015
Donald Trump tried to do do damage control. Trump denied mocking the reporter. He denied knowing of the reporter’s physical disability, a claim that lacked credence given the similarity of Trump’s exaggerated movements and hand contortions to the reporter’s known disability. Then, The Chicago Tribune reported what most already suspected. The reporter, Serge Kovaleski of The New York Times, claimed that Donald Trump was lying about the nature of their relationship. Kovaleski told the media that not only did he know Trump, he knew Trump quite well and had for years.
“Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years.”
Jewish disability advocate blasts Donald Trump for mocking disabled reporter https://t.co/xeYPpmQeBa pic.twitter.com/UZslK2rztz
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) November 28, 2015
For the first time in his campaign, it seems like Donald Trump might be facing some repercussions for his socially unacceptable words and actions. Reuters reports that The Donald has dropped 12 percentage points in a recent poll. The double-digit loss of support came in the span of less than a week. The week that ended, coincidentally enough, on November 27. Just days after Donald Trump gave his controversial performance emulating a physically disabled reporter that he felt had wronged him.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll demonstrated that Donald Trump is currently the favorite Republican presidential hopeful of 31 percent of Republicans for during the five days leading up to and including November 27. The previous poll, which included the five days leading up to and including November 22 had Trump leading among 43 percent of his potential voter base.
Reuters seems to think that Trump lost voter support due to his response to the Paris terror attacks on November 13. In the days after the deadly attacks, which cost 130 lives and injured 350, Donald Trump told NBC News that he supported the idea of implementing a nation-wide “Muslim registration” database. In essence, regaling the status of Muslims in 2015 America to the something along the lines of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Oh, and then demanded that The New York Times issue him a public apology for calling him out on the public mockery of their employee’s physical disability, reports Time.
Is it possible that Donald Trump’s base has finally been exposed to words and behavior by their favorite candidate that they can’t possibly defend?
[Image Courtesy Of Willis Glassgow/AP Photos]
