GOP powerhouse Karl Rove says he'd like to see Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich booted in the race for the Republican presidential nomination so that a fresh face can emerge to help the fractured party win the White House.
"A fresh face might be the thing that could give us a chance to turn this election and win in November against Hillary," Rove told
Hugh Hewitt, the syndicated radio personality.
"If we have somebody who we think has been battle tested, and has strong conservative principles and the ability to articulate them, and they are nominated at this convention, there will be a lot of acrimony from the people who were seeking the nomination.
"But if it's somebody who has those convictions that they can express in a compelling way, we could come out of the convention in relatively strong position."
Rove, a Republican political consultant who served as senior advisor and deputy chief of staff in the George W. Bush administration, added:
"In terms of being able to match somebody head to head against Hillary Clinton, that's going to be difficult to do."
Rove said Trump — whose recent gaff about punishing women who have illegal abortions has hurt his campaign — must begin to act "in a presidential manner" if he hopes to win the nomination.
Cruz, he believes, is "somewhat" more electable than Trump, but like the billionaire developer the senator from Texas is behind Clinton in a number of polls.