WaPo’s Cillizza: It’s Too Late to Stop Donald Trump

Scarborough: ‘Chris Cillizza, it wasn’t so long ago you were a Trump denier’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BRZEZINSKI: "Chris Cillizza, you write in the “Washington Post” “Dear Republican establishment, it’s too late to stop Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. Not only has the time for the establishment — whoever that is — to stop trump or Cruz almost certainly passed, so, too, has the idea that the establish can’t stop either man. Don’t think that if they could have stopped trump’s rise as he offended large swathes of voters the party needs not just this November but in future elections they would have, the answer is yes. Simply put, all of the hand wringing and alarm-sounding within the Republican establishment is sound and fury signifying nothing. The train has left the station. The boat has left the dock. The genie is out of the bottle. Pandora’s box is open."
SCARBOROUGH: "Chris Cillizza, it wasn’t so long ago you were a Trump denier."
BRZEZINSKI: "You were."
SCARBOROUGH: "Now I want you to know you have assured with this column the nomination of Marco Rubio."
CILLIZZA: "Well, I’m glad I have that much influence. I think this idea — and I hear it time and time again when I talk to folks — there’s this weird faith, especially in Washington, that they will fix it. Well, they’re not going to let Donald Trump be nom the knee. Well, they’re not going to let Ted Cruz being the nominee. I keep coming back to if it could have not been the case that Donald Trump would be either tied or ahead in Iowa, way ahead in New Hampshire, ahead in South Carolina, ahead in every state and getting stronger, the establishment would have already stopped that train. The issue is they can’t. They lack the ability to do so, they are very disconnected, frankly, from the base more so than ever before. There’s always some disconnect between the establishment or the leaders of the party and the base of the party. Never more so than right now. He embodies all that and, frankly, look, I’m with John Heilemann. I probably — I tend to think that one of two things happen, either Trump gets a lot of attention that he’s buck the establishment again by not going to the debate or he pulls the world wrestling-like move and, you know, that’s Donald Trump’s music and two minutes before the debate he strolls into the debate. Either way he gets a massive amount of press attention."

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