CNN Panel: ‘The Question Now Is Can We Live with Trump?’
KING: “Let's begin with the Republicans. A big Trump win, Marco Rubio claimed second place in South Carolina. Ted Cruz runs a disappointing third, but listen here. Ted Cruz, he wants you to think otherwise.”
[clip starts]
CRUZ: “Friends, once again, we have made history. You, the good people of South Carolina and our incredible volunteers all over the country, continue to defy the pundits and to produce extraordinary results.”
[clip ends]
KING: “In a moment we'll get to this third is the new first dynamic in American politics. But let's start with first. Donald Trump, after a big win in New Hampshire, has a big win in South Carolina. Now, this is the year where just about every rule is being broken, so this one may be broken as well, but nobody has ever won New Hampshire and then South Carolina and not been the Republican nominee. So, the Republican Party has to be thinking, as it wakes up this morning, can we stop Donald Trump?”
HENDERSON: “That's right. I mean, if you look at how he did it, he won by 70,000 votes. In second place and third place, they're kind of quibbling over 1,000 votes separating them. I mean, this was a massive win and it was all across the spectrum of the party. He did well with veterans, he did well with evangelicals, he did well with moderates. He did well with, you know, higher educated people, lower educated people. So, in some ways, he's becoming this consensus candidate. And you have Rubio still making this argument that, listen, once folks drop out, if this happens, then this, you carry the one, and then he could be more of a force in this. But so far, I mean, Trump set himself up to do really well, I think Nevada as well as the SEC primary. I think those states are really key for him.”
KING: “And he did this -- 70,000 votes you mentioned. Let's call him Teflon Trump. He did this in a state that has a brand as the conservative state, that picks presidents, that essentially sets the Republican party back on its course after a week in which he came into town and said, George W. Bush lied, George W. Bush was wrong about Iraq. He said at the town hall, he liked the individual mandate, the central premise of ObamaCare. I kind of think that Republican Party is against ObamaCare. But last time I checked, they didn't like ObamaCare, especially the mandate. The fight with the pope, which maybe that helped him, but it's another week where Donald Trump was the dust ball in the race, stirring it all up and he wins.
KUCINICH: “But, you know, the interesting thing, even this fight with the pope, he won the most Catholic county in South Carolina. – (laughter) -- And you can't -- you can't make this up. Nia is absolutely right -- he pulled from other people's bases. Ted Cruz has been courting the evangelicals more than any -- than the rest of the candidates, arguably, and yet they voted for Donald Trump.
MONTANARO: “I mean, you don't have to call him the Teflon Trump, he's the Teflon Don, right? I mean, the fact is anyone else who had won New Hampshire in such a big fashion, won South Carolina by double digits, is favored to win Nevada, we'd be saying this race is over, pretty much. We're talking about the man who dropped out of the race with Jeb Bush. If Donald Trump name was Bush, a lot of people would be saying this thing is basically wrapped up.”
KING: “So, why aren't we, is the question, I guess. Because we know the Republican establishment, they despise Ted Cruz, and they're very suspicious and don't like Donald Trump. We may be a week or so away from the establishment, thinking, well, we've got to start making friends with Donald Trump. But why is it, why is it that the establishment just -- I mean, we understand, he's a new convert to Republicanism. He gave money to Reid and Pelosi. He said Hillary was great, he said the economy does better under Democrats. But at some point, in the business, don't you realize the customer is always right? And if the customers are voting for Donald Trump, maybe they ought to think about this?”
BAKER: “Yes, I think they're having a hard time coming to terms with it because it's basically the merger of the reality show America with national politics and the people who spent a lifetime in politics are just, you know, flabbergasted at that. But, increasingly, the question isn't, can Trump be stopped? Can we live with Trump? I hear more and more people -- I never would have heard three months ago, say, I can live with Trump. I think he's going to be OK. He'll come to the center during the campaign and he'll actually be more responsible in office than he has been on the campaign trail, and he says all these crazy things I don't agree with, but I don't think he means it. That may be self-justifying but I think you're seeing the Republican Party come to grips with the idea that basically their nominee may not be somebody on their screen a year ago.”
