Last night CNN held three separate back-to-back Town Hall with Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the next big state to hold a primary come Tuesday. There was only one thing that the trio of GOP presidential hopefuls could really agree on and that was backed off the supporting the candidate who emerges as the Republican standard-bearer in November’s election.
While both Cruz and Kasich danced around the question by host Anderson Cooper, saying they would have to withhold their support until they know who the nominee is. Meanwhile, Trump said that he did not care if Cruz or Kasich supported him, and that he was not going to support any other candidate until he sees who represents the party.
In the first GOP debate held last fall all of the candidates the pledge was introduced amid fears that Trump could bolt the Republican Party if he failed to win the nomination and mount an independent bid if he believed that he wasn’t treated well by party leaders. GOP leaders feared that such a move would automatically hand the general election to Democrats.
“I have been treated very unfairly,” Trump said, hitting out at the “RNC, the Republican Party, the establishment.” He also said that he is not looking for chief rival Cruz’s support either.
“He does not have to support me,” he said. “I am not asking for his support. I want the support of the voters.”
Cruz, who preceded Trump at the town hall, hedged when asked whether he would support Trump if he became the Republican nominee.
“Donald is not going to be the GOP nominee. We are going to beat him,” Cruz said, though he did not categorically refuse to back the frontrunner.
“I have got to see what happens,” Kasich said. “If the nominee is somebody I think is really hurting the country and dividing the country, I can’t stand behind them.”
But Kasich would not spell out whether he thought of Trump as somebody that was hurting the country.
