No Country For #NeverTrump: Anti-Trump Pundits Dig In Their Heels

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump smiles during a campaign stop, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, in Bluffton, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

It’s been a bleak day for team #NeverTrump.

The movement’s namesake nemesis, Donald Trump, finally shoved Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) out of the race Tuesday night with a double-digit primary win in Indiana, cementing himself as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a long-shot challenger, was expected to leave the race Wednesday afternoon.

Now, the pundits who have for months railed against the billionaire are left with a hard pill to swallow: fall in line and vote Trump, stay home on Election Day or cast a protest vote for the Democratic nominee.

Here are some of the most prominent #NeverTrump faces still holding the line.

Erick Erickson

Erickson, the RedState founder who now blogs at The Resurgent, vowed to leave the Republican Party if Trump becomes its nominee.

He also said if the party refuses to denounce Trump, they’re opening the door for “another David Duke” to rise under the GOP’s banner.

Steve Deace

The influential talk radio host, who endorsed and campaigned with Cruz in Iowa, posted a photo of paperwork changing his party affiliation alongside George Michael lyrics.

Bill Kristol

After amending his hard-line stance on Trump to “never say never” earlier this week, Kristol was right back at it early Wednesday morning.

Glenn Beck

A surrogate for the Cruz campaign, Beck called on supporters to “weather the storm” and accept their personal responsibilities in the battle for liberty in a blog post published Tuesday night.

Beck also ended his fast, which he launched ahead of Cruz’s last-ditch battle at the polls in Indiana.

John Podhoretz

Left with a choice between two “devils we know,” Podhoretz said he would rather stay home in November.

“Because the GOP has become unfit, we will not be able to avoid the choice between them, except by literal avoidance—by staying home. Many, many millions of us will surely do so,” he wrote in Commentary.

Dan McLaughlin

The RedState editor and Baseball Crank himself said he won’t vote Republican in the general.

Philip Klein

Klein, managing editor of the conservative Washington Examiner, tweeted that he de-registered as a Republican the night of the Indiana primary.

Guy Benson

Benson, a Fox News contributor, also said he’s jumping ship on backing his party’s nominee.

Mark Salter

“I’m with her,” the former speechwriter for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tweeted Tuesday morning in a reference to Clinton.

Ben Howe

Howe, a conservative activist and RedState editor, plans to actively fight Trump as the Republican general election candidate, which he acknowledged means he’s helping the Democrats.

#ImWithHer

— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) May 3, 2016

Leon Wolf

After Cruz left the race, Wolf, the editor of RedState, said Tuesday night that he’s considering voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“If it’s a competitive election, I probably will be compelled to vote for Hillary,” he told the Daily Beast. “I do feel pretty confident that she would actually be a better president than Trump. I wouldn’t go to bed every night worrying about a mushroom cloud opening up somewhere in the world because of some insane thing Trump had done.”

Lachlan Markay

Markay, a Washington Free Beacon staffer, tweeted a photo that appeared to show his DC voter registration card (party affiliation: Republican) going up in flames.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: