Gregory Krieg and Martin Savidge, and Meredith Edwards, CNN – March 29, 2016
“The Group,” as they call themselves, is a band of conservative Tucson area women who gather every month to discuss politics and government. They are highly educated, professional, observant Mormons — and all fierce backers of Donald J. Trump.
Roger Simon, Politico – March 29, 2016
It used to be called yellow journalism. Using sensationalism, scare headlines and lurid photography, newspapers in the late 19th century competed for circulation by exploiting public interest in the grisly and the shocking.
Sahil Kapur, Bloomberg Politics – March 29, 2016
The billionaire front-runner attempts to play down his degrading comments about women, saying they were made in jest.
Jennifer Weiner, New York Times – March 26, 2016
In this strangest of primary seasons, women exist primarily in terms of their relationships to the men they marry or question or critique. They can either be beauties or beasts or “the love of my life.” They can be “crazy” or “losers,” “fat pigs” or “dogs.” They can be mothers and daughters. They can be the currency with which you buy voters’ belief in your machismo and alpha-maleness, or they can be the sand you kick in the face of a “New York bully.” In every case, whether they are assets or liabilities, they are objects. In no case are they people.
Jose A. DelReal and Jenna Johnson, Washington Post – March 25, 2016
The altercation underscores the striking nastiness of the GOP primary race and the uncomfortable gender politics surrounding Trump, who has a long history of making incendiary remarks about women and their appearance.
Callum Borchers, Washington Post – March 25, 2016
CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, who’s had an eventful couple days on the air, shook her head in dismay as Adriana Cohen, a Trump enthusiast, hijacked a live interview that also included former Cruz spokeswoman Amanda Carpenter and steered it straight into the gutter.
Nicole Guadiano, USA Today – March 25, 2016
Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is accusing rival Donald Trump of being behind a National Enquirer story claiming private investigators are looking into allegations that Cruz had at least five extramarital affairs. “I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage,” Cruz wrote on his Facebook page. “For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go.
Terrence Dop, Bloomberg Politics – March 24, 2016
In the opening salvos of a two-week fight for Wisconsin, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz called Republican rival Donald Trump a coward after the billionaire threatened to “spill the beans” on the lawmaker’s wife. “It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often. But you mess with my kids, you mess with my wife—that’ll do it every time,” Cruz told reporters on Thursday before touring a metal-fabrication plant in Dane, Wisconsin. “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone.”
Emma Green, The Atlantic – March 24, 2016
The use of wives as proxies in the struggle between the two leading Republican contenders shows how much American conservatism has changed.
Jay Newton-Small, TIME – March 24, 2016
The latest exchange is just another example of Trump’s small hands tizzy, says Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. “Instead of responding to the attack on Melania from the anti-Trump PAC by calling it out for the misogyny it represents, Trump played into the same type of objectification of women by endorsing a response that placed his wife’s — and Heidi Cruz’s — value in appearance alone,” Dittmar said. “This back-and-forth is yet another display of both men seeking to reinforce their masculinity in different ways, whether by — in Trump’s case — competing to be the candidate with the hottest wife, or — in Cruz’s case — by embodying the role of protector and defender of his family.”