If Donald Trump could show that he will have people in his administration that would be "competent, conservatives, proven professionals," that could give House Speaker Paul Ryan and and other skeptics more confidence to back him, former Louisiana governor and candidate Bobby Jindal said Friday.
"Paul Ryan is a good friend of mine," Jindal told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on the
"New Day" program. "I don't have a problem with conservatives still going through this process, who still aren't sure what they're going to do in this election. I understand this is a process."
And as part of the process, said Jindal, it would be a "great thing" if Trump would "tell us who his secretary of defense would be, who his secretary of state would be. If he would surround himself with proven Republican leaders, that might give more confidence to Paul Ryan and others out there."
Jindal said that he plans to vote for Trump, but that doesn't mean the New Yorker is his first choice, and it doesn't mean that he's retracting all the statements he made against him while they were both campaigning for the party's nomination.
However, he said he doesn't plan to attend the party's convention, as he doesn't believe he has reason to be there, not because he's boycotting Trump.
"[It's] not because I had an epiphany, not that I think he's a Ronald Reagan," said Jindal. "Nothing will convince me he is the next Reaganesque president. I'm voting for Donald Trump because I don't think we can afford four more years of liberal incompetence. I don't think Hillary Clinton is the right leader for our country."
And it's not only because he's backing the Republican nominee, Jindal said, because he doesn't think Trump, on many issues, is a conservative, even though he is more likely than Clinton to act as a conservative.
Eight months ago, Jindal dismissed Trump as a "carnival act" who has "no substance" and that he lacks "intellectual curiosity," and while the former governor said he said more harsh things than he's ever said about anyone in public or private life, "I'm not suddenly changing my views about Donald Trump."
But there are specific issues, said Jindal, as the next president will appoint a critical appointment in the Supreme Court, which is deadlocked on issues such as Second Amendment rights and the role of the federal government.
"There is a zero percent chance Hillary Clinton would appoint a constitutionalist, a conservative like Scalia to that court," said Jindal. "I'm not telling you it's 100 percent chance Donald Trump will do it but greater."
Also, he said that Clinton will not reverse Obamacare or reduce the role of dependence on the government.
"The Democratic Party today is not the Democratic Party of the '90s," said Jindal. "This president Clinton, unlike her husband, would not be doing things like the crime bill, like welfare reform, like NAFTA, deficit reduction packages."
Jindal said he also does not believe Trump's nomination will cause problems in the nation's congressional elections.
"I think the Republican Party's got a greater concern than Donald Trump," said Jindal. "What his nomination and election shows is that we as conservatives have not done a good job connecting with average voters."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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