The Republican party has disconnected itself from its grassroots movement and is becoming "fraudulent," three-time presidential candidate Alan Keyes said.
Keyes appeared on
Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show" Monday and said the American people are fed up — hence the level of interest in Donald Trump.
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"I think the reports and all of other things that are going on are really meant to encourage people who take seriously the view that what is happening in the Republican Party involves some serious effort to reflect the feelings of grassroots people and I think that that's actually … kind of fraudulent, because the party is actually in no way connected any longer with its grassroots and hasn't been for some years, as you can see from the record of people in Congress," said Keyes, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1996, 2000, and 2008.
"But also I think from the disaffection. What Donald Trump is exploiting is the fact that a lot of people have grown angry and frustrated with a party that takes their votes and refuses to follow its own platform when it comes to legislation, rejecting the Obama administration's socialist approaches and other things, including immigration. And so I think it's just part of the show."
Keyes noted that he believes the GOP has become "more and more top heavy" since he entered national politics in 1996.
"But they don't any longer respond at all to the grassroots sentiment of their people as is shown on a whole range of issues in terms of what happens actually as a result," he said. "And I think that that's the problem right now."
Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, has
said many times the party is not supporting him as well as it would have if he were a more established politician. Trump's strategy of going against political correctness and taking on the establishment has thrust him to the top of the race for president.