Donald Trump needs to stop insulting his opponents and concentrate on the issues if he wants to keep rising in the GOP presidential polls, political consultant Dick Morris tells
Newsmax TV.
For now, Trump is at an all-time high, with 32 percent of the vote in a new
CNN/ORC poll — leaps and bounds ahead of Dr. Ben Carson, with 19 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with 9 percent.
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"It's a question of how Trumps attacks and who he attacks," Morris told J.D. Hayworth in an interview on Newsmax Prime.
"When he attacks the plan to bring Syrian refugees into the United States or when he attacks the Iran nuclear deal, he does great and that's impelling his upward movement.
"I'm not so much a fan of the criticism of Carson or [Carly] Fiorina or even Bush. Trump needs to keep his guns squarely aimed at the issues because it is his novel, refreshing and unusual positions on those issues that are impelling his rise."
But that rise could be in danger if the billionaire developer doesn't start toning it down, according to Morris, who was an adviser to President Bill Clinton.
Trump has been hammering Carson, and recently taunting, "And now, because he's a doctor and he hired one nurse, he's going to end up being president of the United States?"
"He's not running against Carson for the post of doctor. He's running against him for the job of president and his medial opinion on Carson's medical ability is neither here nor there," Morris said.
"On the other hand, if he attacked Carson, saying I would not send up a rookie to face Hillary Clinton in the World Series before he gets some seasoning, that's a fair point.
"If he said that Carson is not used to the media, not used to handling himself and we don't know how he'll do under pressure, that's a fair point."
He also took on Trump’s recent swipe at Fiorina’s looks. In a Rolling Stone interview, Trump said, "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?" — a
crack he has since said he made as an "entertainer."
"If he said with Fiorina that we don't want her whole corporate record and all the layoffs and everything used against us in the general election, that's a good point. But to throw adjectives at people is a mistake," Morris told Hayworth.
Morris, a Newsmax contributor, is author of
"Power Grab: Obama's Dangerous Plan for a One-Party Nation," written with Eileen McGann and published by Humanix Books.
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