House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) dismissed Donald Trump as a potential Republican presidential candidate on Wednesday, saying he would not support him in 2012: “No, I don’t think he is really serious when we see a campaign launch on the birther issue.”
Speaking on CNN, Cantor was asked if he gets nervous that Trump is doing so well in the polls, in reference to a poll released on Tuesday that put Trump tied for the lead with Mike Huckabee among potential GOP primary contenders. When asked whether “The Donald” is the GOP’s best hope, Cantor replied: “No I don’t think so.”
“It’s very early on in the political season,” he added.
Video below. The Trump comments come in around 5:00:
Trump has been making the media rounds lately, drumming up support from the birther movement by repeatedly flogging long debunked conspiracy theories about President Obama’s birthplace. He recently went so far as to speculate that Obama’s grandparents put a birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper as a ruse so he could get benefits like hospitalization and welfare.
