People who want a third-party candidate should be careful, because "they just may get what they wish for," Donald Trump's national campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said Monday.
"People like Bill Kristol still don't get it," Pierson told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on the
"New Day" program. "Mr. Trump has broken the record in GOP primary turnout. Bill Kristol is actually trying to form a party against the Republican Party itself."
Trump on Sunday fired off a series of
tweets at Kristol, calling him a "dummy" and an "embarrassed loser" after the Weekly Standard editor, who has been fighting to add an independent candidate to the presidential election late, posted a Twitter message indicating that there will be an "impressive" person launching a campaign.
"He does talk about a third-party candidate getting in the race and essentially handing over the presidency to Hillary Clinton," Pierson said Monday. "That's nothing new. Bill Kristol knows this. So the intention is selfish for someone like Bill Kristol and the 'never Trump' movement to even try something like this."
And there are many in the country who are tired of the two-party system and want to support a third party, said Pierson, and Trump "has been able to captivate many of those people, because he was a political outsider, working inside as a Republican to bring on new voters."
Meanwhile, Trump has already attacked Libertarian Party vice-presidential nominee
William Weld, telling
The New York Times through a spokesman and later tweeting that he doesn't talk about Weld's "alcoholism, so why would he talk about my foolishly perceived fascism?"
Pierson, though, said Monday that "Libertarians vote for Libertarians and a lot of times the protest vote goes to Libertarians," but Trump will compete "the whole way through."
She also defended Trump's statements over the weekend about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over hearings against Trump University. Trump called Curiel a "hater" and said "we believe" the judge is a Mexican.
For one, Pierson said, the lawsuit filed by former students is "absurd," as "that's like saying if you graduated from Harvard and don't have the same outcome in your profession as everyone else, sue Harvard."
And with Curiel, Pierson said, the judge mentioned on his judicial questionnaire that he was part of the
La Raza lawyer's organization that has been "out there organizing anti-Trump protestors with the Mexican flags . . . Mr. Trump is stating the obvious."
But, Camerota pointed out, Curiel was born in the United States and is not Mexican.
"I'm not saying he's Mexican," said Pierson. 'I'm saying the reason he's pointing it out is because La Raza is tied to — he says, we believe."
She did concede that she doesn't know if Curiel is a Mexican, but it's important to get the news out about "these people" because "this is not a pro-American group who is out there wanting to get their voices heard. They are out there pushing to destroy, propose anarchy, to stop an American president from running for office."