Republican candidate Donald Trump is firing back after neoconservative operative Bill Kristol announced that he expects an independent candidate to enter the race to split the Republican vote.
Kristol’s effort to get a candidate to run on his anti-Trump “Latter-Day Republicans” ticket – already condemned by the Republican National Committee – has apparently come to fruition.
Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate–an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 29, 2016
Trump did not take the announcement lying down. The presumptive Republican nominee slammed Kristol and implored Republicans to keep the “Weekly Standard” editor in line.
Bill Kristol has been wrong for 2yrs-an embarrassed loser, but if the GOP can't control their own, then they are not a party. Be tough, R's!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016
The Republican Party has to be smart & strong if it wants to win in November. Can't allow lightweights to set up a spoiler Indie candidate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016
If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an Independent, say good bye to the Supreme Court!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016
Kristol recently met with #NeverTrump champion Mitt Romney to discuss a third-party campaign, but Kristol has hinted that Romney will not be the independent “White Knight.” Kristol tweeted Saturday, “If Mitt decides he can’t, someone will step forward to run” then quoted William Gladstone to declare, “The resources of civilization are not yet exhausted.”
This is not the first time Trump and Kristol have sparred on Twitter. When Trump asked last week why networks continue to employ Kristol’s punditry services, Kristol admitted that he had been wrong to have underestimated Trump’s political appeal:
.@realDonaldTrump Let me hasten to admit: I underestimated your skills as a demagogue and the credulity of some of the American public.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 22, 2016
Kristol’s neoconservative inner circle has reason to fear the threat posed by a populist outsider, especially one who could gain anti-Establishment traction by attacking the legacy of the Kristol-supported Iraq War. Kristol’s “Weekly Standard” magazine and his son-in-law Matt Continetti’s blog “Free Beacon” hammered Trump throughout the Republican primaries to little avail. The “Beacon” blog’s writers and editors flogged the “small hands” insult that infamously made it into Marco Rubio’s campaign stump speech in Rubio’s desperate final days.
Trump’s steadfast support from paleoconservative icon and Kristol arch-nemesis Pat Buchanan clearly terrified the neoconservative wing of the party, which still remembers how Buchanan drummed up three million votes against George Bush in the 1992 Republican primary by blasting globalist trade policy.
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