David French followed up his Sunday announcement that he would not run for president by telling CNN Monday that a Republican governor ought to be the one to run as a third-party candidate.
“I think this is an excellent moment for one of the many GOP governors to step up, to say they have experience uniting people instead of dividing people,” French told CNN host Jake Tapper Monday afternoon.
The National Review columnist, attorney and Iraq War veteran said following Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol’s petition that French run as an independent candidate, he looked into it to see if winning was remotely possible.
“There is a path to defeat Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” French explained. “That much was made apparent to me in eight days of extensive study. I mean, it was 65 percent of Americans who are willing to consider someone else.”
That man or woman would have to come with an “independent constituency,” according to French, hinting that his background as a constitutional conservative would not muster enough support to win in November.
