Bill Kristol has fired back at the Republican National Committee (RNC) for telling him to stop drumming up support for a third-party challenge to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
"They're doing their job, but I don't really work for the RNC — nor do most Republicans," Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"I guess their job is to support the official Republican candidate, but I don't support Donald Trump and I certainly hope we can deny him the Republican nomination. I want to explore the possibility of an independent Republican if Trump is the Republican nominee."
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Politico reported that the RNC is miffed that Kristol and other conservatives are attempting to recruit former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to challenge Trump in the general election this November.
And RNC spokesman Sean Spicer told
Breitbart News that "any effort to facilitate a third party ultimately is helping to elect Hillary Clinton."
Kristol, one of America’s leading conservative voices, doesn’t buy that argument.
"I think a Trump nomination makes Hillary's victory much more likely. That's certainly what all the polling suggests…. So I think it's unfortunate that Trump seems to be favored for the nomination," Kristol told Malzberg.
"I really think that's the single thing that's going to most help elect Hillary — if Trump is the nominee. I actually think an independent Republican could help Republicans … and in the event of a Trump collapse could end up helping elect a Republican, conceivably, who's not Trump."
Trump continues to be the top presidential candidate among Republican voters and a new
CNN/ORC poll shows little appetite for replacing the front-runner with another candidate at the convention or through a third party run, CNN reports.
According to the poll:
- 47 percent of Republican want to see Trump win;
- 31 percent of Republicans want to see Texas Sen. Ted Cruz win;
- 12 percent of Republicans want to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich win;
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