Following the Thursday night Republican presidential debate, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), a supporter of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), repeatedly tried to avoid answering whether he would back Donald Trump if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee.
As Mitt Romney has launched an effort to do anything and everything to prevent Trump’s nomination, Gardner could not commit to opposing Trump if his party selects Trump as its nominee. The Colorado senator eventually relented and said he would support the Republican candidate — though he insisted it would not be Trump.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gardner was asked seven times whether he would back Trump.
Gardner tried out a few different ways to dodge answering the question.
He said it would be “defeatist” to support anyone but Rubio. He then declined to engage in “hypotheticals” about the eventual Republican presidential nominee.
Gardner also responded by saying that Trump will not become the Republican nominee, and he followed that response with an answer saying that any Republican nominee can defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election.
“The Republican nominee will do better than Hillary Clinton any day, and I’ll support the Republican nominee,” Gardner told the Wall Street Journal about halfway through the interview. “But here’s the bottom line, I don’t believe Donald Trump will be the nominee. To say that we should engage in some hypothetical about ‘will I vote for Trump’ that’s defeatist. I’m not going to be a defeatist.”
The Wall Street Journal finally asked Gardner, “Is there a reason you won’t say, ‘I will support Donald Trump if he’s the nominee?’ Your candidate said that tonight.”
“What I know is, I will support the Republican nominee,” Gardner replied. “If you’re concerned that Donald Trump is not going to be the Republican nominee because he runs as a third party, I think you’ve gotten your answer.”
