Kristol: ‘Half the Country Is Open To An Alternative’ To Hillary and Trump

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol continued his push for a third-party candidate to face presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Partial transcript as follows:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, and I want to bring that to Bill Kristol, because obviously you’ve been — made no secret that you’re against Donald Trump; you’re part of the Never Trump movement, trying to get a third-party candidate into this race. But that whole movement seems to be dwindling right now.

KRISTOL: No, I don’t think so. I think the Republican National Committee and the Trump and Clinton campaigns are trying to sort of strangle it in its infancy because they’re scared of this. I mean, look at that poll. When you throw Mitt Romney and someone who hasn’t run in four years, probably isn’t the ideal, in a way, third-party candidate that would impressive man and I think would be a good alternative to vote to Clinton and Trump, he right is a 20-20 —

(CROSSTALK)

KRISTOL: — 37, 35, 22, he hasn’t — I mean, he hasn’t done anything. In other polls, the independent generic independent candidates are around 20-21. And those other — Cokie was saying it; Matthew, too — I mean, half of the Clinton voters and half of the Trump voters don’t want to be for Clinton or Trump. They’re against the other person — they have no third — the way the country — the way the country is really set up, a quarter of the country’s for Trump; a quarter of the country’s for Clinton. And half the country is open to an alternative. The ABC poll shows half — basically half, 45 percent saying we’d like to have a third choice.

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