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Trump Badgered The Wrong Crowd, Says Wisconsin: Donald’s Done

By Nancy Bailey
Published on: 04:31 PST, Apr 1, 2016

Donald Trump is learning that you don’t mess with Wisconsin.

Trump, following a slew of bad decisions over the past week, has been withering in the Badger State. A number of Wisconsin talk radio hosts called him out on his outrageous statements on abortion, his verbal attacks on women, and his bashing of Governor Scott Walker.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is preparing itself for potential chaos in the July convention in case no candidate emerges as the obvious winner. The group launched a new website on Thursday, which RNC Chairman Reince Priebus explained to the Washington Examiner.

“ConventionFacts.gop is a tool for voters to learn about convention delegates, rules, and how the overall process works in a simple, easy to understand format. Conventions are democracy in action and our Party’s gathering in Cleveland will be an exciting, transparent, and fair process.”

“If that is the case, we will have an open and transparent convention where delegates – empowered and selected by the grassroots – will elect the nominee for our party,” the website said.

Trump met with Priebus, sans press, on Thursday, the Boston Globe said.

Afterward, Trump tweeted, “looking forward to bringing the party together — and it will happen!”

Trump attacked Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Monday morning talk radio, blaming him for job losses within the Badger State and saying he should have hiked taxes.

“There’s a $2.2 billion deficit and the schools were going begging and everything was going begging because he didn’t want to raise taxes ’cause he was going to run for president. So instead of raising taxes, he cut back on schools, he cut back on highways, he cut back on a lot of things.”

The host of the show, Charlie Sykes, had given Trump fair warning, per Mother Jones.

“Before you called into my show, did you know that I’m a hashtag-NeverTrump guy?”

Sykes went on to play a clip about Trump’s misogynistic comments about women. He hit the real estate mogul up about his proposals to tax imports on the state and then brought up Trump’s attacks on his opponents. Specifically, he slammed Trump about the attack on the wife of Ted Cruz. Sykes expressed his disappointment on The Kelly File.

“He’s not making any pivot. He’s unwilling to apologize or admit he made a mistake. And he seems to be tone deaf about the way his conduct and his treatment of women is actually playing in a state like Wisconsin.”

Kelly pointed out that Trump’s supporters like that he is not a typical politician.

Sykes wasn’t buying it. He went on to say that it goes beyond politics and leeches into bad behavior, adding that this “is just boorishness [and] rudeness.”

Trump’s slams against Walker have backfired. Republican state representatives, who have staunchly defended Walker against liberal criticism, have rallied to his side. According to the Boston Globe, they are now supporting Ted Cruz. These include Wisconsin state representative Jim Steineke, the Republican majority leader.

“There’s no doubt he’s tanking pretty hard in Wisconsin. I think he’s finally been unmasked for who he really is, a fairly liberal politician.”

Sykes agreed.

“This is a Republican primary and he was attacking him for not raising taxes. These are battle-tested voters. To come into Wisconsin and basically attack Walker from the left is an extraordinarily bad decision by Trump. He seems almost tone deaf to the political culture and landscape of Wisconsin.”

While the heavily influential Wisconsin radio shows rallied around Cruz, Trump had a similar dialogue with Vicki McKenna, another host. McKenna challenged him over his attacks on Cruz’s wife.

“You are really naïve,” Trump said.

McKenna said that the violence at Trump rallies is an issue for voters. She cited Trump’s first Wisconsin rally, held in Janesville on Tuesday, where a 15-year-old girl was pepper sprayed.

“We’ve had recalls, protests, tens of thousands of people in our state nose to nose, and nobody wants to relive that. You see that kind of behavior at his rallies and you think, ‘nah, we’ve moved on beyond that here.'”

Wisconsin has the only Republican primary for a four-week stretch from mid-March to April 19. It has significant potential to set the score of the campaign.

The prognosticators at FiveThirtyEight now give Cruz a 94 percent chance of winning the state.

The Wisconsin state primary will be held on Tuesday, April 5.

[Image via A Katz/Shutterstock.com]

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