I also think that elite dismissal of those concerns has been helpful for him in remaining viable. Now that the elites are in step with the public on this issue, hard to see how he recovers.
I think the FOX attacks have helped him by lowering the impact of his actual debate performance on voters-it's hard to know what's true, because they push out nonsense daily, when he's out riding his bike
but it's up to him whether to let the NYT do to the country what they did to Harvard