The establishment Republicans are beginning to say on the record what they had been whispering about in private for months: that Donald Trump at the top of the ticket could mean an electoral wipeout down the ballot.

I don't think there's any clever way for the establishment to take Donald Trump down. It's very simple. Another candidate is going to have to find a way either to out-maneuver him, or to just frankly beat him in the argument.

If you want to beat Donald Trump - then you need to be the candidate that is not the establishment in your thinking, in the way you're presenting yourself.

Folks in the media ask at the behest of Democrats, "isn't it insensitive for us to do a Second Amendment rally following this terror attack?" Let me tell you something. I really don't view our job as being sensitive to Islamic terrorists.

Muslims are the primary victims of ISIS. Muslims are the ones who want to do the most to defeat this ideology. It's important that we don't do their propaganda for them, by giving them the legitimacy that they crave.

You know, a meme is now circulating that's called the Ostrich Brigade. And it's used to describe all those people who are burying their heads in the sand. I call it the three D strategy. It's denial, deflection, and a demonization of those of us who want to speak honestly about these issues of extremism.

We don't know yet but so far the three candidates that have dealt with [Donald] Trump most adeptly are [Ted] Cruz, [Chris] Christie, and [Marco] Rubio. But they've all avoided him in one form or another.