On the morning of the latest Republican presidential debate, ABC’s Good Morning America mocked Donald Trump as having “electile dysfunction” and of being in need of “polling Viagra.” The comment on Wednesday by political analyst Matthew Dowd prompted laughs from journalists George Stephanopoulos and Jon Karl.
Asked a question about Ben Carson, Dowd changed subjects and attacked, “I wanted to say about Donald Trump, he makes me smile in the course of this. Watching him yesterday was like a guy with Iowa electile dysfunction trying to give his folks polling Viagra to get his poll numbers up.”
After giggling, the co-host marveled, “You just wanted to get that Viagra line in there.”
Stephanopoulos opened the show by teasing, “And Donald Trump falling behind in the polls and proving he's not too proud to beg for votes. “
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On September 27, Dowd insisted that Republicans are “upset” that “America is now less white.”
A transcript of the October 28 GMA segment, which aired at 7:06am ET, is below:
7am tease
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And Donald Trump falling behind in the polls and proving he's not too proud to beg for votes.
DONALD TRUMP: Please do me a favor. Let me win Iowa.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Ben Carson surges as the candidates take center stage at tonight's big Republican debate. Is he about to deliver a knockout blow or will Donald come back?
...
7:06
STEPHANOPOULOS: Here with our political team, Jon Karl and Matthew Dowd and let’s start out with Donald Trump. Jon, a pretty good sense of humor and spirit last night. But he's going to be coming to this debate in a different position.
JON KARL: Yeah. This is the first time we’ll see Donald Trump come on to a debate stage as anything but the clear front-runner. The question now is you’ve had three polls in Iowa that have shown him trailing Carson, a poll nationally that shows him trailing Carson. Does he attack Ben Carson? Does he come in to this debate as somebody who looks like a front-runner or somebody who is worried that the lead is slipping away?
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Matthew Dowd, Ben Carson could be under pressure from the moderators as well because of inconsistency in his plans.
MATT DOWD: Yeah, first, I wanted to say about Donald Trump, he makes me smile in the course of this. Watching him yesterday was like a guy with Iowa electile dysfunction trying to give his folks polling Viagra to get his poll numbers up.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You just wanted to get that Viagra line in there.
DOWD: No. He makes me laugh. I think Ben Carson, you watched him with his gloves and with fists. I think what he really has to do is practice more with his vocal chords. He is going to be on the spot for the first time in this entire campaign. He’s now the frontrunner in some states, Iowa and nationally in the last polls that we saw about. But so, he's going to have to show up in a different way than ever before.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Ben Carson on the spot. But Jeb Bush may be under more pressure than anyone else on the stage.
KARL: He's moved further out. Now you have Marco Rubio will be standing next to Donald Trump and next to Jeb Bush. He really, finally needs a breakthrough performance. Jeb Bush has had two very disappointing debates and his own people at that family retreat they had down in Houston were acknowledging, he was acknowledging that he needs to do better.
DOWD: I think Jeb Bush's strategy reminds me of the story, all the guys gathered around and the bears chasing. And he said, “How you outrun the bear?” And he says, “I don't need to outrun the bear. I just need to outrun you.” I think Jeb Bush’s strategy is all he needs to do is outrun Marco Rubio and outrun the other establishment figures and not worry about Ben Carson and Donald Trump right now.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We will see if he does it tonight. Thank you folks very much.
