opportunism is. how obvious is this guy? he has no principles or political believes at all. he is just trying to appeal to whichever crowd is in front of him. he is a classic carnival barker. joining me now political reporter for the associated press, charles babbing ton. his new article gop voters in early states embrace trump. charles, looks like as reporting, the voters, the republican voters eating it up. what s going on at the state level, for example, south carolina, et cetera, in terms of reaction trump is getting? i was calling republican activists in south carolina and i, new hampshire, early voting states way, found there is a tremendous hunger on their part for somebody, almost anybody, go out there, go on television, really be forceful in attacking president obama on health care and spending and the debt and all those things. and what i found is that there s a void right now that seems to be a vacuum and to many of them, donald trump is filling that
and your listeners know is a very important member of congress, the average american probably has not heard of him. i think a lot is the celebrity factor. donald trump, the big name recognition goes on television and says these really takes these hits at the president and these seem to be firing up these republican activists who, again are very hungry for that type of comment. charles, based on your reporting of local leaders and the voters, et cetera, when the republican leadership overall attacks them, as they have over the last couple of days are they risking alienating their own voters? that s quite possible. i think these this information about trump s past that you have been going on very heavily in your show here is something that s really come to the surface, at least at this level, quite recently. so, when i was talking with these activists just a few days ago, they did not talk about these things. i m not even sure they were aware of them. so, now, i think a lot of th
vacuum and they were happy to have them. and is it about the birther issue or is it something else that s driving them to donald trump? you know, for quite a few of these activists, i found that they didn t much care about the birther issue, that wasn t very important to them. for some it was. but for the others, it was mortgage fact that trump would get out there and really forcefully take whacks at obama and the congressional democrats. that seemed to be the most important thing to them. but charles, you know, that s interesting, because, you know, all these republicans, all they ever doรง is take really forcef whacks at the president. i don t see any of them really taking it easy on the president. so, i m wondering what is it? is it just is there an extra level with trump, that he s just irrationally attacking the president at a whole new level? i can t figure it out. it seems like they all don t like him? a good question i think trump, you know, he is flamboyant, really