Donald Trump needs to reach out to the Republican establishment if he expects to win the general election this fall, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Wednesday, but he still hasn't made that turn and instead on Tuesday night returned to taunting Fox News' Megyn Kelly on Twitter.
"The problem is, and we've been saying it for some time, he has to make the turn," Scarborough said on his
"Morning Joe" program.
"Last night after winning, he's tweeting negative attacks against Megyn Kelly. He needs to reach out to the Republican establishment that's been kicking him, to Megyn Kelly, who's been kicking him, instead of calling the media disgusting."
Trump's attacks on Kelly concerned her coverage of the Tuesday primaries, calling her crazy:
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, on the morning show's panel, agreed with Scarborough.
"He knows how people are feeling," said Steele. "You have the establishment types who have the 'Dump Trump' effort under way. They're having a meeting coming up this week to talk about how to do that.
"But the reality of it is he's in the best position and the only position to bring everybody closer to him, work those [Ted] Cruz voters out there, certainly work the voters for the other candidates who left the race."
Trump, appearing later on the show, said he's not particularly interested in making peace with Kelly, but he is with the party.
"I don't know what 'establishment' means," said Trump. "I guess I was a member of the establishment nine months ago, eight months ago. Whatever the establishment is, who can define establishment? I don't think there is such a thing."
Scarborough pointed out in the earlier segment that even with Trump winning the majority of the primaries, there are still a third of Republican voters who say they won't vote for him.
"He's got to make the turn or he will get swamped in the fall," Scarborough said.
Bloomberg Politics Managing Editor John Heilemann, also on the show's panel, said that if Trump pulls out the GOP nomination, he'll head into the November election as an underdog, and he needs the Republican Party behind him.
"The Democratic Party has won five of the last six popular votes," said Heilemann. "Hillary Clinton will be strong with Barack Obama's coalition. He's not going to be the favorite. He'll have to be the underdog and win fighting an uphill battle.
"He's already alienated a bunch of Hispanic voters, alienated a large swath of non-white voters. He's got real problems in a general election."
And if Trump wants to win, Heilemann continued, "the first thing he has to start to do is unify his own party because if a huge chunk of his own party isn't with him and the Democratic coalition is against him, he's done.
"He can't win a general election. First step, pull your party together and — because you won't win without your whole party behind you."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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