Heilemann: Trump ‘Immune’ to the ‘Mistakes’ that ‘Destroy’ Other Candidates

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
SCARBOROUGH: "So John Heilemann, much did I just hear before Jon Meacham puts out fire in people’s hair. Let’s start right now, though, with first of all we’ve been asking what can stop Donald Trump. If I could, I don’t know, put together something that could stop Donald Trump, it would look a hell of a lot like what happened on Saturday night. I would say make it sound like you’re not sure about planned Parenthood. Make it sound like — you know, you’re launching conspiracy theories about George W. Bush and 9/11. Make it sound like a lot of the things that happen the other night. The only thing that’s happened is he solidified his lead and now seems to be in a stronger position than ever before. What’s going on down there and what in the world are other campaigns trying to do to stop this freight train?"
HEILEMANN: "Well, look, Joe, I think that the first thing you can say about the debate on Saturday night and the aftermath of it is that it most vividly and dramatically underscored the thing that some of us have been saying about Donald Trump for months now, which is that Donald Trump is not going to bring Donald Trump down in south Carolina or any place else. He seems to be immune to all the kinds of mistakes and self-conflagrations that other candidates get into and that destroy them. Somebody, one of these other Republicans, is going to have to climb up and not just knock Donald Trump down off his horse but emerge as a stronger alternative and that’s what’s been lacking so far. But trump won’t self-imlate. That won’t happen and what we’re seeing down here right now, very quickly after the con tremendous tempts, Cruz has shifted his focus with mostly arguing with Marco Rubio again and trump after a day in which it looked like he was in real trouble to a lot of people’s eyes, now yesterday he was basically wandering around South Carolina pretty much unmolested and you have Cruz and Rubio beating each other up going back to the old dynamic where no one is taking trump on anymore and he is just as strong as ever. I can’t tell you what will stop him. I can’t come up with a good answer and neither can these Republican campaigns at this point."
SCARBOROUGH: "Well, nobody can."