WASHINGTON — A wave of criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike rose Thursday after GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump insulted the physical appearance of Carly Fiorina, his party’s only female White House contender.
It’s a new test for the candidacy of the brash-talking Trump, whose standing in opinion polls has surged despite a series of comments that might well have doomed a traditional politician.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called Trump “a madman,” while Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said the billionaire real-estate mogul “seems to delight in insulting women every chance he gets.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dismissed Trump’s latest comments as “small and inappropriate.” And Fiorina, the target of Trump’s latest insult, suggested she was “getting under his skin.”
In some ways, Thursday was a day no different from others in an unpredictable 2016 presidential primary campaign, a messy contest in which Trump has emerged as a dominant and divisive figure. But the day also featured an escalation of criticism from Trump’s detractors in both parties, who seem be multiplying.
The spark was an interview published Wednesday by Rolling Stone, in which Trump said Fiorina’s face would make her unelectable. The magazine quoted Trump as saying of the former technology executive: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”
The chorus of anti-Trump Republicans now includes Bush, Jindal, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who is running second to Trump in several early polls and challenged Trump’s Christian faith this week.