As part of CBS’s hour-long special on Super Tuesday, Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan took stock of what had transpired in the Republican presidential race and remarked that, sadly, she “believe[s] we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes” with the rise of Donald Trump.
Moments after fellow panelist Jamelle Bouie of Slate blamed the rise of Trump on “the fruit of a lot of backlash politics, a lot of resentment, racially and otherwise,” Face the Nation host John Dickerson touted the disarray in the GOP as in contrast to a Democratic Party that’s “moving towards the center.”
Longtime CBS News personality Bob Schieffer preceded Noonan by chuckling at the state of the GOP race with Marco Rubio telling CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose that Trump “will destroy the Republican Party” if he’s nominated while Lindsey Graham promised that his party “may be about to elect the most dishonest politician in America, Hillary Clinton.”
The well-known conservative writer then expressed her sorrow about what she’s seen transpire with the Party of Lincoln and Reagan:
I gotta tell you, Bob, more than ever now, after seeing just the past hour, hour and a half of TV, I believe we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes. What we have seen tonight is more dramatic, contentious, and almost violent in language than anything that happened in 1976 when Ronald Reagan took on an incumbent sitting Republican President, more dramatic than 1964 when a whole new ideological school of thought came in and knocked over the Republican establishment. This is something.
Pouring more fuel on the fire by hinting at racism being an undertone of many GOP primary voters, Bouie ruled that “what we are seeing is the fruit of a lot of backlash politics, a lot of resentment, racially and otherwise, that's sort of been taken up in the person of Donald Trump” even though: “[T]he majority of Americans who do not feel this way, who do not want to see this kind of racially reactionary movement lead the country and just after we elected our first black President, especially.”
A few minutes passed and when discussing the results of exit polls, Dickerson agreed with much of Noonan’s observations about the GOP, but had a bizarre take on a Democratic Party in which a socialist candidate is still alive and likely to win additional states:
And the Democratic Party we see, the establishment kind of coming together. The party is kind of gathering together. Bernie Sanders is still going to continue to fight, but it feels like the Democratic Party is moving towards the center.
The relevant portions of the transcript from CBS News: Campaign 2016 Super Tuesday on March 1 can be found below.
CBS News: Campaign 2016 Super Tuesday
March 1, 2016
10:46 p.m. EasternBOB SCHIEFFER [LAUGHING]: I'll tell you, Scott, I'm just trying to process what I just heard in the last few minutes. Let's think about this. Marco Rubio says that it will destroy the Republican Party if Donald Trump, who seems to be heading toward the nomination, is the nominee. You just heard Lindsey Graham say Republicans are about to elect the most dishonest politician in America, Hillary Clinton, because crazy always loses to dishonesty, saying that Donald Trump is crazy and, meanwhile, back at the ranch, while all this is going on, Donald Trump is holding a news conference and says, yes, he's going to try to get along with Congress and, yes, he's going to try to get along with Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, but if he can't, then Paul Ryan is going to pay a big price. I mean, that's a threat.
PEGGY NOONAN: Yes, it is. I gotta tell you, Bob, more than ever now, after seeing just the past hour, hour and a half of TV, I believe we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes. What we have seen tonight is more dramatic, contentious, and almost violent in language than anything that happened in 1976 when Ronald Reagan took on an incumbent sitting Republican President, more dramatic than 1964 when a whole new ideological school of thought came in and knocked over the Republican establishment. This is something.
SCHIEFFER: Jamelle.
JAMELLE BOUIE: I think what we are seeing is the fruit of a lot of backlash politics, a lot of resentment, racially and otherwise, that's sort of been taken up in the person of Donald Trump. Trump is running this campaign, and even though during his press conference/victory speech, he tried to sound a more moderate note, sound a more conciliatory note, the undercurrent there — I mean just yesterday, or even I think it was earlier today, you had black students ejected from one of his events simply for being black. You have continued rhetoric against immigrants, against Muslim Americans, so sort of this hyper-reactionary movement and this is part of what I look at Trump and for as much as I know a lot of people are worried that he could actually win a presidential election, this kind of thing counter-mobilizes, I think, the majority of Americans who do not feel this way, who do not want to see this kind of racially reactionary movement lead the country and just after we elected our first black President, especially.
SCHIEFFER: Well, I'm going to tell you, I'm still trying to figure this out. I don't know what happens after this, but let's go back, maybe Norah and John and Scott know what the answer is.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Thanks to Bob, Jamelle, and Peggy there.
(....)
10:50 p.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: But what we’ve seen in the exit poll numbers is, as you pointed out, four in 10 voters said they were angry. He won a majority of those voters. He won not only non-college educated, he won college educated, beyond the state of Virginia where he lost there. He has said I love the poorly educated., so he had a broader coalition than he had in the past.
JOHN DICKERSON: And the Democratic Party we see, the establishment kind of coming together. The party is kind of gathering together. Bernie Sanders is still going to continue to fight, but it feels like the Democratic Party is moving towards the center. In the Republican Party, the center is not holding. The party is molting before our eyes and now the question for a lot of Republicans is going to be which side are you on? And that has a short and a long-term element to it. The short term is are you going to go after Donald Trump as hard as possible, the way a lot of these establishment Republicans are talking about, lots of negative ads, lots of personal attacks, really go after him between now and the 15th of March or are you going to sign up in some fashion? And what does that mean for the future of the Republican Party? He's are big questions and sometimes on these nights, you have to hype the big question. Not tonight.
