The Note: Trump Gone Wild
— -- NOTABLES
--'HOW STUPID ARE THE PEOPLE OF IOWA TO BELIEVE THIS CRAP': On a contentious day in the GOP race, frontrunner Donald Trump didn't shy away from calling out his rival "in second place" Ben Carson, asking the 1,500 Iowans in the crowd today about Carson's "pathological stories" in his book and saying "How stupid are the people of Iowa to believe this crap?" Trump focused on a story from Carson's books where he writes about stabbing someone with a knife, ABC's JOHN SANTUCCI and JOSH HASKELL note. "It hit the belt. And the knife broke. Give me a break," Trump told the crowd at Iowa Central Community College. Trump then stepped away from the podium and demonstrated what Carson stabbing a friend in the belt would look like. "He hit the belt buckle? Anybody with a knife wanna try it on me? Believe me it ain't gonna work," Trump said. http://abcn.ws/1MMT4v9
--NOTED: After attacking the people of Iowa for supporting Carson, Trump said he loves the people here, noting, "I think I'm going to buy a farm and move here." http://abcn.ws/1MMT4v9
--CARSON SLAMS TRUMP ON DEPORTATIONS: In an interview with the Washington Examiner after his rally at Liberty University yesterday, Ben Carson slammed Trump's deportation plan saying the plan will "hurt" the candidate in the long run. "I think they hurt Donald Trump in the long run," Carson said of Trump's plan. "I think there are enough people who know that there are others in the race that are very reasonable. I don't think he necessarily is the representation of the Republican Party -- far from it." According to ABC's KATHERINE FAULDERS, Donald Trump fired back at Carson Thursday on Twitter, said Carson was weak on immigration and likes amnesty and a pathway to citizenship. @realDonaldTrump: Wow, pres. candidate Ben Carson, who is very weak on illegal Immigration, just said he likes amnesty and a pathway to citizenship.
--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: Donald Trump knows better than most, if not all, the value of performance art in the act of running for president. Which is just one of many reasons that Trump's Thursday night rant, aimed at all of his rivals and particularly Dr. Ben Carson, was memorable and remarkable. Trump has lamented his situation -- that people expect him to say something new, and maybe outrageous, every time he goes out there. There's no teleprompter technology yet known that would dictate the pantomime-stabbing, much less the incredulous facial expressions and the invitation for someone to get on the stage and try stabbing him. The Trump-Carson feud, now fully engaged, could get bloody, maybe even literally -- good news for the dozen or so candidates now fighting for only the half of the GOP electorate available to them. Trump's questions late Thursday were rhetorical and somehow still critical: "How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of this country to believe this crap?"
IN THE NOTE'S INBOX
CLINTON FLAUNTS CAMPAIGN SUPPORT FROM SANDERS' HOME STATE: On the eve of the second Democratic presidential debate, the Clinton campaign has launched two more of its State Leadership Councils: One in Missouri and one in Vermont -- the home state of Sen. Bernie Sanders, ABC's LIZ KREUTZ notes. Included in the Vermont council are 25 prominent local supporters such as Senator Patrick Leahy, Governor Peter Shumlin, former Governor Howard Dean and former Governor Madeleine Kunin. No doubt, a bit of a slap in the face for her opponent.
TODAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: It's a busy Florida day on the trail as most of all the GOP candidates are in Orlando for the Republican Party of Florida's Sunshine Summit. It's an all-day "cattle call" featuring Floridian Marco Rubio first kicking it off at 11:30AM followed by Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee (who will avail afterwards) Jeb Bush, and the day ends with rivals Donald Trump at 5:30pm and Ben Carson at 6:30pm. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina won't be at the summit in Orlando and are instead in Iowa. John Kasich and Rand Paul are also not in Orlando and are instead in New Hampshire.
NEW POLL -- CLINTON SWEEPS IN DEMOCRATIC POPULARITY BUT FACES CHALLENGES OUTSIDE THE PARTY. Hillary Clinton easily leads Bernie Sanders in basic popularity within their political party -- but among Americans overall, a bare majority in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll see the Democratic frontrunner unfavorably, ABC's GREGORY HOLYK notes. Clinton's viewed favorably by a vast 83 percent of Democrats. Outside of the embrace of her own party, though, she faces challenges, including more strongly negative than strongly positive views and weakness among whites. Her popularity also is marked by a broad gender gap. Fifty-one percent of Americans overall see her negatively, 46 percent positively -- the second time in three polls since August that she's been viewed unfavorably by more than half the public, and only the third time this has happened in nearly 50 ABC/Post polls back to 1992. Moreover, 38 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, view her "strongly" unfavorably, vs. 23 percent strongly favorably. And among registered voters, 53 percent see Clinton unfavorably. https://bitly.com/shorten/
THE BUZZ
with ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and PAOLA CHAVEZ
OBAMA SAYS DONALD TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION PLAN IS UNREALISTIC. Donald Trump's proposal to use a "deportation force" to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is unrealistic, President Obama said in an exclusive interview Thursday with ABC's GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS. "The notion that we're gonna deport 11, 12 million people from this country -- first of all, I have no idea where Mr. Trump thinks the money's gonna come from. It would cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to execute that," the president told Stephanopoulos in an interview at the White House. "Imagine the images on the screen flashed around the world as we were dragging parents away from their children, and putting them in what, detention centers, and then systematically sending them out," the president said. "Nobody thinks that that is realistic. But more importantly, that's not who we are as Americans." Asked why he thinks some Americans are attracted to Trump's mass deportation plan, the president said "there has always been a strain of anti-immigrant sentiment in America -- ironically from folks who themselves two generations back or even one generation back were immigrants themselves." ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ has more. http://abcn.ws/1lmdoNS
MARCO RUBIO, TED CRUZ SPAR OVER WHO'S TOUGHER ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. From Donald Trump's call for a "deportation force" to Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz sparring over their immigration records, the war over who is tougher on illegal immigration is raging in the GOP presidential field. At a campaign stop in Hilton Head, South Carolina, Thursday, Sen. Rubio responded to Trump's call that he would create a deportation force similar to what Dwight Eisenhower used in the 1950s to deport a million undocumented immigrants. "There are deportations in America now and there are people that are going to have to be deported. Criminals will be deported," Rubio said. "People that have not been here long enough will be deported. We're going to enforce our immigration laws. That being said, I don't think it's reasonable to say you're gonna round up and deport 11 million people." During his speech to the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, Rubio went further in discussing how he might handle the issue of illegal immigration. ABC's INES DE LA CUETARA and JESSICA HOPPER report Rubio also defended against claims that he is pro-amnesty and offered a jab at his rival in the presidential race, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. http://abcn.ws/1QyJcLp
DONALD TRUMP CALLS MIZZOU PROTESTERS 'DISGUSTING. Real estate mogul and presidential candidate Donald Trump weighed in Thursday on the protests at the University of Missouri over racial incidents. "I think it's disgusting," Trump said in an interview with the Fox Business Network. Some Mizzou students have complained for months of racial slurs. Earlier this week, University System President Tim Wolfe resigned and R. Bowen Loftin, chancellor of the main campus in Columbia, said he would step down at the end of the year, ABC's PAOLA CHAVEZ notes. "I think the two people that resigned are weak, ineffective people," Trump said. "I think that when they resigned, they set something in motion that's gonna be a disaster for the next long period of time." http://abcn.ws/1WPKZk4
CHRIS CHRISTIE EXPLAINS WHY GOP VOTERS ARE SUPPORTING TRUMP. Asked to explain the appeal of Donald Trump, Chris Christie gave an animated response Thursday by actually imitating the Donald and told the story of the last time Mary Pat and he went out to dinner with Trump, describing the experience as "exhausting." Before breaking into his mini-skit, Christie first offered a straightforward explanation for Trump's appeal: "Because people are angered and disgusted with government in Washington DC, that's why." ABC'S JORDYN PHELPS reports, he then added the disclaimer that he and Mary Pat have been friends with Trump for 15 years and described him as "a generous guy, and a nice guy." He then told the story of the last time he and Mary Pat went out to dinner with Trump and his wife, describing the experience as exhausting -- because Trump never stops talking, and about himself no less. http://abcn.ws/1iXQFWw
WHO'S TWEETING?
@jeneps: Obama critic Cornel West stumping for Sanders in Iowa just as candidate fights claims he wasn't supportive of potus http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-11-13/bernie-sanders-and-barack-obama-it-s-complicated ...
@ktumulty: Time for GOP panic? Establishment worried Carson or Trump might win http://wapo.st/1SoRJig @PhilipRucker @costareports
@sissenberg: For planning purposes only: the next three "Wash Post floats Mitt '16 trial balloon" news cycles are scheduled for Dec 21, Jan 19 and Feb 3.
@JillDLawrence: .@DMRegister wrote up Trump speech as if it were a normal speech. http://dmreg.co/1QAfRQL
@danmericaCNN: Sanders' arena packed summer has given way to a grind-it-out fall. My look at the state of Sanders w/ @tomlobianco http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/13/politics/bernie-sanders-mojo-democratic-debate/index.html ...
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