Inside The Wild G.O.P. Primary

Trump, Carson, Cruz and more. We go inside the G.O.P.’s wild campaign season – and stakes – with BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins.

Now Donald Trump is calling for the U.S. to bar Muslims from entering the country. Jeb Bush has called him “unhinged.” Former Republican Governor of Virginia, Jim Gilmore has called his talk “”fascist.” Dick Cheney says it, quote, “goes against everything we stand for.” But Republicans on the campaign trail cheered wildly for Trump yesterday.  What’s going on with the G.O.P.? Top reporter McKay Coppins has gone deep on the tumultuous Republican primary campaign. He’s with us. This hour On Point, the G.O.P. wild campaign season, and the Trump bombshell.
-- Tom Ashbrook

McKay Coppins, senior political reporter for BuzzFeed News and author of the new book, "The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House." (@mckaycoppins)

Zeke Miller, national political reporter for TIME Magazine. (@ZekeJMiller)

Federico Finchelstein, professor of history and department chair at the New School for Social Research. Author of "The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War" and "Transatlantic Fascism." (@finchelsteinf)

BuzzFeed News: Whisper Campaigns and “Zipper Problems”: How Jeb Bush’s Allies Tried — and Failed — to Stop Marco Rubio — "It wasn’t until Rubio dazzled a roomful of donors at the Koch brothers summit in Rancho Mirage that Jeb and his tight-knit 2016 team decided the young senator needed to be neutralized. For their new mission, they adopted a code name: 'Homeland Security.' Few of Jeb’s lieutenants believed they would need to subject Rubio to too much browbeating in order to sideline him, and their commander agreed. All he needed was a gentle reminder of his place in the pecking order. And so the word went out to Jeb’s army of foot soldiers: Carry the message."

POLITICO: Trump treads on tradition in New Hampshire — "Instead of the traditional one-on-one conversations at parties and handshakes in diners, New Hampshire voters are getting mostly distant waves and occasional autographs from Trump at big rallies, and they’re rewarding him nonetheless."

Washington Post: Class war comes to the GOP — "Given the limits on Trump’s appeal outside his base, it can be said with near certainty that he will not be elected president. (My use of the weasel word 'near' reflects the reality that political predictions can run afoul of unknown unknowns.) But Trump’s enduring strength among the most disheartened members of his party — and the divided loyalties of upscale Republicans — suggests that it is wishful thinking for the Republican powers that be to say they are sure he will never be nominated."

https://www.scribd.com/doc/292020300/Excerpt-From-The-Wilderness-By-McKay-Coppins