Donald Trump's seemingly unstoppable presidential bid will eventually run out of gas as Americans realize they want real solutions, not flashy sound bites, George Pataki, the former governor of New York and GOP presidential candidate, tells
Newsmax TV.
"If you turn on any TV show that's talking politics, it's Donald Trump all the time and he makes great theater because he says outrageous things," Pataki said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"But ultimately, I don't think the American people want a president who says someone like Sen. McCain is not a war hero because he was a POW. I don't think we want someone who said that Mexicans are thugs and rapists.
"I don't think we want someone who early on said we should have single-pair healthcare and raise the tax to have Obamacare on steroids. That's not who I want as president."
In a
new CBS poll conducted July 29-Aug. 2 of 1,252 adults, the billionaire developer has a whopping 24 percent support, ahead of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 13 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 10 percent.
Pataki said there is "no question about it" that Trump has tapped into a deep anger Americans have toward do-nothing politicians in Washington.
"Yes, he's flamboyant and yes, he's great theater but he's also struck a chord where Americans really distrust and dislike Washington and they distrust politicians. All they do is talk and they never actually solve the problems," Pataki said.
"I share that anger. I share that distrust. I share that need to get in the fight to change it and that's why I'm running because you do look at Washington and it seems like whichever party is in there, things don't change except the government grows bigger and more powerful and we've got to change that. I can do that."
Asked by Steve Malzberg about the sagging poll numbers of presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Pataki said:
"She is in danger of not being the nominee. I mean whenever you have a secretary of state who, in my view and all likelihood, broke the law by having an unsecure [web] server and then deletes 30,000 emails ...
"You know the Chinese probably have them, the Iranians probably have them but the American people and the American government don't. That is not just horribly wrong and disqualifying you to be president, it could well be a criminal act and violation of the State Department rules."
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