Thursday on “CBS This Morning” while discussing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hinting at a third-party run, Peggy Noonan, a former speech writer for President Ronald Reagan and weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal, said the Republican Party is in a “delicate” position because they can’t afford to ostracize Trump’s supporters.
Noonan said, “I think it’s very interesting to me that Donald Trump really strategically reminds the Republican party through his tweets, et cetera, my numbers are great. I could come at you. I could go third-party. I think we should all just remember that. It is, in its way, a form of blackmail. It’s treat me well no matter what I do, or I’ll buck against you guys and you’re not going to like it.”
She continued, “You know, I think it’s delicate in a few ways. I know Republican leaders and stalwarts and state people feel two things. One is that they cannot win the presidency with Donald Trump. the other is that they cannot win the presidency without the support of Trump’s followers. So it’s a delicate little thing. You oppose Trump seriously and with respect along the way when you disagree with him, but I don’t think it would be very smart for them to do what they were talking about a few weeks ago, which is let’s raise a lot of money and attack this guy and slam him. The voters will figure it out.”
She added, “I think when you evoke in a positive way Japanese internment camps during World War II, not seeming to know that that is an American embarrassment and shame, not an American achievement, you are — you are going over not just lines but you’re crossing a kind of lovely cultural test that we all try to keep going in America.”
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