CBS: Des Moines Register and GOP Rivals Blast ‘Feckless Blowhard’ Donald Trump

‘Des Moines Register says the billionaire cares more about promoting his brand than helping the country’

O’DONNELL: “This morning, an influential voice is calling on Donald Trump to quit the presidential race. Iowa's top newspaper, The Des Moines Register says the billionaire cares more about promoting his brand than helping the country. An editorial says, ‘If he were merely a self-absorbed, b-list celebrity, his unchecked ego could be tolerated as a source of mild amusement. But he now wants to become president.’ Nancy Cordes is in Bluffton, South Carolina where Trump will be speaking today. Nancy, good morning.”

CORDES: “Good morning. The Des Moines Register did not mince words. They are the paper of record in that key early caucus state. They said that antics are ‘polluting the political waters and drowning out more qualified candidates.’”

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TRUMP: "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."

CORDES (voice-over): “In its fiercely worded editorial, The Des Moines Register warns that Trump’s comments ‘threaten to derail not just his campaign but the manner in which we choose our nominees for president.’

TRUMP: "Jeb Bush, he is a joke on immigration."

CORDES (voice-over): “Trump's name-calling, the paper says, has turned him into ’the distraction with traction - a feckless blowhard who can generate headlines... not by provoking thought, but by provoking outrage.’ Translation?

GRAHAM: "He's a jackass."

CORDES (voice-over): “Trump’s opponents Lindsey Graham and Rick Perry, weighed in last night, about what Perry called ‘the cancer of Trump-ism.’

PERRY: "Being a disciplined candidate is really important and that is, I think, what his challenge is going to be."

CORDES (voice-over): “But Trump told Charlie Rose his opponents are only taking shots at him to get attention.”

TRUMP: "I'm leading the polls. And they've got zero. I mean, one has 1 percent. One has another 1 percent. One has zero.”

CORDES (voice-over): “A new national poll has Trump 11 points ahead of his nearest GOP opponent, though some respondents were surveyed before Trump made his comments about McCain.”

TRUMP: "He graduated last in his class at Annapolis.”

CORDES (voice-over): “Republican strategist Rick Davis ran McCain's campaign in 2008. He says there's no question Trump has singlehandedly changed the tone of this race.”

DAVIS: "The reality is up until this point in this campaign has been civil, smart... If not for Donald Trump, we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

CORDES (voice-over): “Trump did finally apologize to McCain last night. Sort of. After he was browbeaten into it by Fox News's Bill O'Reilly.”

O'REILLY: "I want you to say something to Senator McCain tonight, man to man, right to him right now."

TRUMP: "Certainly, if there was a misunderstanding, I would totally take that back, but hopefully, I said it correctly.”

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CORDES: “The question now is will other editorial boards begin to follow The Des Moines Register’s lead, and will any of it matter to Donald Trump? He is sure to have a thing or two to say about it when he speaks at this retirement community in South Carolina later this morning, Gayle.”

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