Republican Donald Trump's unconventional presidential candidacy is putting his party rivals through the five stages of grief, ABC News' Jonathan Karl argues.
Some are in denial, the first stage, he said in a report on
ABC's "This Week."
"Donald Trump is not going to be the nominee," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said.
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Others, such as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, have moved on to the second stage, anger, Karl said.
"Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism," Perry has said in his attacks on the billionaire developer. "It must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded."
Others, such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham are in the third stage, bargaining that Trump won't win.
"I'm going to make a bet that you're not going to win the Republican nomination by slandering veterans," Graham told Karl.
"While it depresses (the fourth stage) some in the GOP, they'll have to accept it (fifth stage) for now that Donald is the GOP front-runner," Karl said,
noting that Trump is leading with double digits in the polls.
But the biggest fear of Republicans is that Trump has threatened to run as a third-party candidate if the GOP doesn't treat him with respect.
"For Republicans, that might be the kind of grief that's just too much to bear.
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