– Marco Rubio indicated Friday he wouldn’t mind if his supporters in OH back John Kasich in Tuesday’s primary, if that’s what it takes to stop Donald Trump. Trump, denied the delegate-rich prizes of OH and Florida, would fall short of an absolute majority and thus have to fight for the nomination on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.
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Alex Conant told The Associated Press on Friday that the only way to stop Trump from sweeping next week’s basket of winner-take-all contests is to vote for Kasich in OH and Rubio in Florida.
“If a voter in OH is motivated by stopping Donald Trump and comes to the conclusion that John Kasich is the only one that can beat them there, then I expect that’s the decision they’ll make”, Rubio reiterated.
At Thursday’s Republican presidential debate, the Republican candidates grasped for the middle ground, drastically dialing back the vitriol and trying to instead politely poke holes in Trump’s policy proposals.
On the debate stage Thursday night in Miami, the four Republican presidential candidates calmly discussed their policies – a striking turnaround from the shouted insults of their previous few match-ups. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.
Cruz is running third in the polls in Florida behind Trump and Rubio, respectively, but he is in second place behind Trump when it comes to delegates won so far.
Needed to win the nomination: 1,237.
“I understand why people are backing Trump”, Cruz says.
Mr Trump, though, clearly was intent on projecting a less bombastic – and more presidential – image.
Trump has been very popular with Republican primary voters, but is feared unelectable in the November general election because of his off-colour language, his proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border, and his denigration of Hispanics, Muslims and women.
OH and Florida are two of five states that will hold primaries next Tuesday.
The only result of “the opening” , he said, was that the Cuban government had more sources of money.
Trump, meanwhile, repeated: “We would not do the deal unless it would be a very good deal for us”. “But we have to make a good deal here”.
But Cruz, looking to emerge as Trump’s central challenger and consolidate the party’s anti-Trump vote, said the NY billionaire’s tariff plan would only lead to higher prices for American consumers because companies from the exporting country would increase prices. “A lot of them” do, he said. “A tariff is a tax on you, the American people”, Cruz said.
He added of the program, “We should end it” and put a pause on green cards for foreign workers while government studies the issue.
Kasich emphasized the need to control the USA southern border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration. “There’s also great love for the country”. Standing at Trump’s side, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson endorsed his former GOP rival and warned that a failure to rally behind him would “fracture the party in an irreparable way”.
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United States president Barack Obama, offering political commentary from the sidelines, said earlier in the day the party was going through a “Republican crack-up” that had taken on the tone of a “circus ” .
