Republican insiders are warming to Donald Trump — especially after such mainstream candidates as Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush have failed to resonate with voters — and particularly because they see him as a viable alternative to Ted Cruz.
"If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question I'd vote for Trump," former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, told
The Washington Post.
He has not yet endorsed a candidate.
"As a party, we'd have a better chance of winning with him, and I think a lot of Republicans look at it that way," Giuliani said.
For Rep. Peter King, the choice is simple — though he, too, has made no official endorsement.
"Between Trump and Cruz, it's not even close," the New York congressman told the Post. "Cruz isn't a good guy, and he'd be impossible as president. People don't trust him.
"And regardless of what your concern is with Trump, he's pragmatic enough to get something done," King said. "I also don't see malice in Trump like I see with Cruz."
The about-face is a far cry from earlier comments from GOP establishment figures attacking Trump — even news reports that Republicans were planning a
"firewall" effort to stop Trump in the South Carolina primary later next month.
National Review also announced Thursday that it was devoting its Feb. 15 issue to essays by 22 prominent conservatives calling on voters to
"say no" to Trump at the polls.
Some longtime conservatives have recently been reaching out to Trump privately, the Post reports, and the developer called to talk with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky late last year.
Besides the fear that such the establishment candidates could not beat either Trump or Cruz, some Republicans fear that the senator could alienate swing voters if he's nominated or could isolate GOP moderates if he won the White House.
Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor and a 2012 presidential candidate, told the Post that "the light bulb has gone on for a lot of people, and it wasn't on a couple of months ago," that Trump could win the nomination.
"Even though he's a billionaire from New York, he sounds and looks like somebody you'd meet in the heartland who's ticked off about the economy and government, and he projects the strength that he'd actually do something about it," Pawlenty said.
"He doesn't look and sound like all the other politicians who yap and yap and don't get anything done."
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