His backers, who polls indicate include many without a college degree, see his willingness to speak coarsely as yet another refreshing example of his resistance to political correctness.
His critics, many of them more affluent, view his language as a particularly vivid sign that he lacks basic decency and is ill suited to the nation’s highest office…
“Is anyone here worried about the front-running candidate shouting out obscenities in front of children?” Jeb Bush asked Friday in a forum at Bob Jones University, an evangelical institution in Greenville. Mr. Bush, who has often expressed disbelief at Mr. Trump’s behavior, conjured the unlikely prospect of his decorous father, the former president, behaving in such a fashion.
Mr. Rubio, who has four school-age children, described his discomfort at being asked by them about Mr. Trump’s vulgar remark when it was replayed on television, the offending word bleeped out.
And Mr. Cruz, the object of Mr. Trump’s outburst, sought to portray his opponent’s language as beneath the dignity of the White House. “I’m not sure a lot of voters are excited about having a president who, when he gets upset, begins cursing and yelling vulgarities,” he said in Fort Mill.
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