Donald Trump's call for a single-payer healthcare system may hint that the Republican front-runner is considering an independent run for the White House because he might not be able to beat back challengers Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina in the primary contest, political strategist Dick Morris told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"I scratched my head and said: 'Why would this guy — who's running for the Republican nomination, who's trying to put down rumors that he's too liberal, that he's not a real conservative — why would he embrace the most radical of liberal positions on the crucial question of healthcare?' " Morris told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "I don't know.
"The only thing I can think of is that maybe he is preparing the ground for an independent candidacy," he continued. "Maybe he sees Carson coming up and Fiorina coming up — and he's doubting his ability to contain them — and that's why he's trying to move to the left to lay the basis for a November candidacy, even though he has promised not to.
"I don't know, but give me another reason why he would, in effect, come out for socialized medicine."
Trump told "60 Minutes" on Sunday that he would repeal Obamacare, instead offering healthcare coverage to everyone at less than what they are paying now.
Morris is co-author of The New York Times best-selling book,
"Power Grab: Obama's Dangerous Plan for a One-Party Nation."
In another Newsmax TV interview, with hosts John Bachman and Miranda Khan of "Newsmax Now," Morris said that Trump's move "makes no political sense.
"Unless you assume that with the drop in the polls, with the increase of Carson and Fiorina, with his seemingly inability to put Carson down and behind him, that he might be considering a run as an independent and might be using the primary to articulate some policies that might hurt him in the primary, but might help him in the general," he told the hosts.
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A risky strategy for sure, Morris added, especially after Trump earlier this month signed a pledge with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to support the party's eventual nominee.
"I sure wouldn’t advise it," he said. "But otherwise, how do you account for his support of single-payer?
"You probably have in the Republican primary electorate about 2 percent that support single-payer, about 15 percent that support Obamacare, and about 85 percent that don't support either."
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