Former Pennsylvania Senator and two-time Republican presidential candidate (2012, 2016) Rick Santorum is making predictions regarding the first Republican presidential debate — which will notably not include the current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
Santorum sees the first debate as “a tremendous opportunity” for the Republican candidates on stage, who all trail Trump by double digits, since both Trump and President Joe Biden “are not particularly popular” among American voters. (A recent survey showed that despite Trump’s MAGA allegiances, more than half of voters said they won’t support him in the general election.)
Santorum says that means “it’s an opportunity for them to take their shots.” But to do so, he insists, they “have to go after the top guy.”
Santorum says “the only way this race changes is if all the candidates hold hands and jump into the pool together,” meaning the anti-Trump pool, though he admits it’s an unlikely leap. “I doubt that’s going to happen,” he says.
Yet there is precedent for knocking Trump out of the race — beyond the now familiar attacks launched by candidates Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson.
Santorum mentions U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has publicly called for Trump to drop out of the race. Cassidy contends that Trump “will lose to Joe Biden if you look at the current polls.” Cassidy also thinks Trump is headed for trouble in a Florida courtroom, calling the documents case against the former President nearly a “slam dunk.”
(Cassidy is hardly going Democrat, saying: “I think any Republican on that stage in Milwaukee will do a better job than Joe Biden, and so I want one of them to win.”)
“One of them,” not him. Santorum says: “You say, well, [Cassidy’s] a one-off, an anomaly, well, that’s how things start.”
But Santorum didn’t want to jump on the bus that Cassidy had gassed up. When asked directly on the Newsmax show ‘Wake Up America’ if he thinks Trump should drop out, Santorum wouldn’t commit. He said: “I’m not, I’m not saying Trump should drop out of the race. I’ve never said if he should get in or drop out.”
[Note: When Santorum ended his second presidential race in 2016, he endorsed Florida senator Marco Rubio; when Rubio ended his campaign, Santorum endorsed Trump.]
