CNN’s Jim Sciutto Puts the $64,000 Question to Democratic Strategist: Is Your Party ‘Silently Hoping’ Trump Wins the Primary?
The first GOP presidential primary debate takes place this week, and since former President Donald Trump has announced that he’s sitting it out, all eyes are on the other nominees who will be taking the stage. Some are calling it a bad move, and it’s already a bad week for Trump, who needs to appear at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia for charges in a fourth indictment. But CNN’s Jim Sciutto wondered out loud to his guests if Democrats secretly want Trump to be the Republican nominee.
In a panel with Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and Republican strategist Alice Stewart, Sciutto was treated to a lot of each party’s talking points, but was able to sneak in a question that many are asking:
Sciutto: I wonder, Maria Cardona, are Democrats silently hoping for Trump to be the nominee?
Cardona: You know, that’s a good question. And I’ve heard both things. Both, yes, because clearly he is somebody that [President] Joe Biden already beat. And I believe that if Trump is the nominee, as well as other Republican strategists believe this, too, which is why they are trying to find somebody else desperately, that Joe Biden will beat him again. It will by no means be easy. But I also believe that no matter who is the nominee, if it’s not Donald Trump and that’s a big if, I believe that Joe Biden will beat that person as well.
Cardona added that by nominating Trump, the entire GOP will have to support the extremist MAGA agenda that most Americans aren’t really on board with. That got Stewart itching to present her side of the argument:
Sciutto: I get the sense you want to pipe in.
Stewart: If I can just clarify one point that my good friend Maria made, it is not the extreme MAGA agenda in an electorate that would be taking on Joe Biden. Part of what this Republican Party is doing and what we’re seeing with the RNC and this debate, asking all of those participating in this debate to sign the loyalty pledge. This is not just a loyalty pledge to support the nominee, but it is a Beat Biden pledge. The Republican Party is going to galvanize together as we get a nominee to beat Biden and beat these policies that are causing the economy to be the way it is…
Sciutto: We should note that the current frontrunner has not signed that pledge. The guy by the name Donald J. Trump.
Watch the video above via CNN.
