If Trump doesn’t enter that round with enough votes to win the nomination in the first round of voting, other candidates would be free to “horse-trade” for votes in order to unseat the frontrunner.
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Their pained commitments, at the end of the 11th GOP debate on Thursday, put into sharp focus the dilemma the Republican Party faces as Trump continues to dominate the race for delegates and the campaign conversation.
Trump said it was simply business.
Holding up both hands to the audience, the Republican said: “He (Rubio) referred to my hands, “if they’re small, something else must be small”. Lauer pressed him again (“Just slam the door on it”); the indignant response: “I’m not running for president, and I won’t run for president”.
Donald Trump responds at Thursday’s Republican debate to Marco Rubio’s criticism of his hands, and the inference. “He hit my hands”, Trump said.
At times, the insults seemed better-suited to the school playground than a presidential debate, with Trump drawing attention to an innuendo made by Rubio. The Washington Post said this isn’t true, reporting the list of general election match-ups maintained by Real Clear Politics.com says Clinton and Bernie Sanders nearly always consistently beat Trump.
Trump dismissed Romney as “a failed candidate” and an “embarrassment”. Trump has forty percent of the delegates and the other guys have thirty percent each, so in a case like that, you say that’s sixty percent that don’t want Trump. In one poll, Mr. Trump scored 79 per cent against Mr. Cruz’s five, Mr. Rubio’s three and Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 12 points.
He said he had changed his own mind to support admitting more highly skilled workers from overseas, adding matter-of-factly, “I’m changing”. Cruz asked viewers, arguing that Trump’s legal problems with his closed university and his financial contributions to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign would spell huge trouble.
“I have a very strong core”, he insisted, “but I’ve never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible”.
Trump, with 10 state victories, leads the field with 329 delegates.
No, no, the people who can save this party are Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or John Kasich.
However, on The Late Show’s latest “Road to the White House”, the host examined the not-so-secret weapon that could usurp the party’s presidential nomination away from Trump: Mitt Romney.
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Kasich is hoping to become Republicans’ choice for president, but admitted Thursday he likely can’t pick up enough delegates to win the nomination outright.
