Even Trump is 'baffled' as Ohio GOP candidates threaten each other over who deserves his endorsement: report

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that former President Donald Trump — who for months has delighted in candidates in the Ohio Republican Senate primary fighting each other for who deserves his endorsement the most — is finally starting to think they're taking things too far.

This comes after a recent FreedomWorks-sponsored candidate forum in which former state treasurer Josh Mandel and financier Mike Gibbons shouted at each other and resorted to threats.

"When an Ohio Senate debate devolved into a MAGA shouting match late last week — replete with apparent threats of violence and one candidate accusing the other of being a 'pussy' — the Audience of One each of the top-tier candidates has been thirstily trying to emulate for months was not amused," reported Asawin Suebsaeng. "One source described former President Donald Trump as 'baffled' by the exchange."

According to the report, two other sources slammed both Mandel and Gibbons for "acting like idiots."

"Tempers flared Friday night after Gibbons told Mandel he didn’t know 'squat' about working in the private sector. Mandel, who served as a Marine, leapt to his feet and confronted Gibbons for, what Mandel perceived as, minimizing his military service," said the report. "Three longtime GOP operatives working on this Ohio race each independently described the debate footage as a 'shitshow,' when asked by The Daily Beast. But the twice-impeached ex-president, aware of the constant Trump-cosplay in the race, remarked that he 'never' would have done what Mandel did that day."

Notably, Trump himself got into personal attack-laden arguments with his own primary opponents in 2016, at one point agreeing with a heckler that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is a "pussy".

Watch the original exchange below: