Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the last two candidates who have backing within the Republican establishment, face sudden-death primaries in their home states on Tuesday – a pair of winner-take-all contests that could begin to put Trump’s lead out of reach.
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“Clearly John Kasich has a better chance of stopping Donald Trump in OH than I do”, Rubio said during an event Friday in West Palm Beach, Florida. Think trade, H1-B visas, social security, Common Core, the Islamic state, Israel, Tiananmen Square, climate change, Cuba policy, Iran, veterans affairs …
Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he and Donald Trump have “buried the hatchet” after months of political wrangling, and he is endorsing the GOP front-runner’s White House bid.
“If you’re one of the 65-70 percent of Republicans who recognizes that if we nominate Donald Trump, Hillary [Clinton] wins. then I want to invite you if you’ve supported other candidates, come and join us”, Cruz said. The Cruz campaign’s support would also be helpful to carrying out Conant’s plan, but that candidate has more to gain from Rubio and Kasich dropping out.
Nothing better demonstrates this depressing acquiescence than the failure of Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio to forthrightly and unequivocally condemn the violence and assaults against protesters at Trump rallies-thuggery Trump’s own nasty rhetoric encourages-when directly asked to do so. Kasich’s campaign didn’t return the favor to Rubio in Florida, for example, and a pro-Rubio super PAC would not agree to cease its attacks on the governor there.
Both Rubio and Kasich appear now to be angling for a seat at a contested convention, in which they block Trump from getting 1,237, and potentially emerge victorious by negotiating at the gathering in Cleveland in July.
Florida and OH are hyped up not only due to their favorite sons (for good reason), but also because they are the only “true” winner-take-all states: The Florida victor will claim 99 delegates, and the OH victor will claim 66 – no ifs, ands or buts.
At a news conference with Jewish leaders, Rubio stopped short of asking his OH supporters to vote for the governor.
“We really have no choice, we have to knock out ISIS”, Trump said.
On Friday, Rubio kept his assault on Trump focused on policy, as he did in Thursday night’s debate.
Trump has been forecasting a shift toward the general election, both in tone and in substance, and Thursday’s debate gave him an opportunity to keep up that evolution. “I love them. I love them”, he said at a debate in February.
But if Rubio’s campaign was hoping for a little quid pro quo from Kasich, it was out of luck. Cruz’s immediate goal is to let Trump winnow the field by winning Florida on March 15 and pushing Rubio from the race.
Earlier Thursday, Cruz showcased his first Senate endorsement, from Mike Lee of Utah, a Tea Party favorite.
The two-hour debate was shown on CNN and co-sponsored by the Salem Media Group and The Washington Times.
Kasich, for his part, said it wouldn’t be so bad to have a contested convention.
Many Rubio supporters fear it is too late for the young Cuban American senator to salvage his run. After the debate, Kasich told CNN he thought other candidates had taken on his approach in abandoning their squabbling from previous debates.
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Trump rambled on and insisted that he is just saying they are strong.
