Trump tells GOP to embrace bid
FORT MYERS, Fla. — His party in chaos, a surging Donald Trump called on mainstream Republicans to unify behind his candidacy Wednesday as his White House rivals seized on their last best opportunity to block the billionaire businessman from building an insurmountable delegate lead in two key states.
The often-brash Trump softened his tone, at least temporarily, hours after securing another three primary victories, praising House Speaker Paul Ryan as a man he respects and encouraging Mitt Romney to promote party unity. The comments marked a sharp reversal in tone, if not substance, from a week earlier when Trump hurled insults at his party’s 2012 presidential ticket.
“Instead of fighting it, they should embrace it,” Trump said of his candidacy in a Wednesday interview with Fox News Channel. “If we embrace what’s happening and if everybody came together … nobody could beat the Republican Party.”
He later said he’s going for a knockout in next week’s winner-take-all contests in Florida and Ohio: “I think if I win those two, I think it’s over,” he told CNN’s “Anderson Cooper’s 360.”
Amid the growing resistance to Trump’s insurgent campaign, a number of former GOP presidential hopefuls have re- emerged in support of his current rivals.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush planned to confer with all the candidates — save Trump — ahead of today’s GOP debate. He met privately with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday and will meet Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich today, said Kristy Campbell, Bush’s former campaign spokeswoman. She did not outline any details of the planned meetings.
Bush and Trump engaged in heated confrontations throughout Bush’s campaign, the two repeatedly referring to each other as “loser.”
Cruz intensified his own bid to blunt Trump’s momentum, unveiling on Wednesday an endorsement from former rival, retired business executive Carly Fiorina, who offers Cruz an immediate dose of credibility with his party’s skeptical donor class.
Acknowledging many mainstream Republicans fear Cruz is too conservative, Fiorina told a Miami crowd she’s “horrified” by Trump.
“The truth is that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin,” she charged. “It is time now to unite behind the one man who can beat Donald Trump, who can beat Hillary Clinton.”