anything we heard after his immigration comments but donald trump is not conceding anything to them. he s only getting more defiant and more aggressive trying to throw it right back in their faces. the way these things usually work, key opinion shapers and the republican universe lack onto something like trump s comments and beat that drum and republican voters eventually follow them and that formula worked in the past and polls will shift and the bubble will burst. that s what usually happens. this is an unusual situation. we ve seen this play out before in terms of what the establishment is doing right now. is trying to do right now. in the past it s worked. it worked with newt gingrich four years ago. but they ve never really tried it on someone like donald trump. that s the key variable here. joining us now is former director of online communication for rnc. liz, thanks for being here tonight. thanks for having me. the republican establishment goes to war with donald trump.
what he said far more republican voices doing this far louder republican voices than anything we heard after his immigration comments. but donald trump is not conceding anything to them. he s only getting more defiant, more aggressive trying to throw it right back in their faces. the way these things usually work, key opinion shapers in the republican universe latch on to something like trump s comments. they start beating that drum and then republican voters eventually follow them. that formula has worked in the past and the polls will slowly start to shift. the bubble will burst. that s what usually happens. but this is an unusual situation. we have seen this play out before in terms of what the establishment is doing right now. is trying to do right now. in the past it worked. it worked with gingrich four years ago but they ve never tried it on someone like donald trump. that is the key variable here. joining us now is liz mayer, former director of online communication for the rnc.
veterans an apology. trump for his part took to the opinion pages of usa today to ratchet up his criticism of mccain and not to concede anything here saying he doesn t need to be lectured by mccain. donald trump is not backing down here. the republican establishment has been loudly condemning him for what he said far more republican voices doing this louder than anything we heard after his immigration comments but donald trump is not conceding anything to them. he s only getting more defiant and more aggressive trying to throw it right back in their faces. the way these things usually work key opinion shapers and the republican universe lack onto something like trump s comments and beat that drum and republican voters eventually follow them and that formula worked in the past and polls will shift and the bubble will burst. that s what usually happens. this is an unusual situation. we ve seen this play out before in terms of what the establishment is doing right now. is trying to do r
support donald trump after what he said about john mccain and crazy to support him before what he said of john mccain and i m trying to imagine the sorts of people that said this seems like a guy who should be president. are any of them going to be that offended by this? if the persona is being tacky, i don t know how you can commit a gaffe. well, i think what we re seeing is that donald trump is trying to appeal to the most conservative sect of the republican party and saw from the immigration comments. going after john mccain we have to remember in most of america, john mccain is seen as an establishment republican. he s often seen as a war hero at the same time by most of america but going after john mccain he is going after him not necessarily just on his record in the military but immigration. he was part of that gang of eight that came up with the bipartisan compromise for immigration reform and i think that s sort of what he is trying to get at with the people supporting him,
he had a lot of attention because of his announcement. he had a boom. he made some headway because of immigration comments. now, what you are seeing is the level of scrutiny that donald trump is going to get is starting to reveal questions about, i think, amongst voters about his character and temperment. when those questions come forward for a lot of voters you are going to see it comes after her. a couple things. you think it is beginning of the end. by trump s account, a standing occasion even after he said the jm thing. there s no poll to suggest this is the beginning of the end. not yet. all we have heard from pushback are fellow republican candidatings. this is what mitt romney tweeted out about this whole ker flufl. he says the difference between