Thursday, January 21, 2016

First Read: The GOP Establishment's Risky Bet on Trump

 
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
 
The GOP establishment's risky bet on Trump

Former Sen. and GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole made a pretty stunning admission yesterday: If forced to choose between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, he'd pick Trump. "I question his allegiance to the party," Dole said of Cruz, per the New York Times. But Dole added that Trump could "probably work with Congress, because he's, you know, he's got the right personality and he's kind of a deal-maker." (Dole told NBC's Andrea Mitchell last month that he "might oversleep" on Election Day if Cruz is the GOP nominee.) New York magazine's Jonathan Chait lists other parts of the GOP establishment that have warmed up to Trump -- including the Wall Street Journal's editorial page and Rupert Murdoch. And Cruz, not surprisingly, has fired back at the establishment. "We see the Washington establishment abandoning Marco Rubio and unifying around Donald Trump," he said yesterday, according to NBC's Vaughn Hillyard. But when you look at the feeling thermometer in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, the GOP establishment might be making a risky bet here on Trump:

Trump's overall positive/negative score: 29% positive, 58% negative (-29) 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBC News

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