Donald Trump called on Republicans to embrace the “millions” of newly-registered members of the party and bring together the party around him in a closing pitch in Thursday’s GOP debate ahead of Tuesday’s primary contests.
Speaking directly to longtime Republicans, Trump said that the onslaught of newcomers “love” the Republican Party before calling on them to “be smart and unify,” adding that the party should “seize that opportunity” that the new voters present.
“The Republican Party has a great chance to embrace millions of people they’ve never known before. They’re coming by the millions,” Trump said in his closing statement. “We should seize that opportunity. These are great people. These are fantastic people. These are people that love our country. These are people that want America to be great again.”
“These are people that will win us the election and win it easily,” Trump continued. “These are people that once the election is won, we’ll be able to put Supreme Court justices up that will do a fabulous job, because let me tell you — if we lose this election, you’re going to have three, four or maybe even five justices and this country will never ever recover. It will take centuries to recover.”
“I just say embrace these millions of people that now, for the first time ever, love the Republican Party and unify,” Trump said. “Be smart and unify.”
Trump’s remarks come only five days before Republicans take to the polls in five states — including winner-take-all contests in Florida and Ohio, which will prove crucial one way or another in his quest to win the GOP nomination. Despite the relatively tame debate, Trump continues to lock horns with home-state candidates Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. John Kasich, while trying to get the race down to a head-to-head matchup he hopes for with Sen. Ted Cruz, who sits second in the delegate count.
Up until now, Trump has benefited from frequently harsh attacks on other members of the Republican Party. He has called Rubio “Little Marco,” Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” and he was a thorn in Jeb Bush’s side.
But now that Trump has a delegate lead and a plausible path to the nomination, he benefits from party unity. He needs his opponents to begin to rally around him and see him as the front-runner.
As part of his effort to coalesce the party, Trump confirmed during Thursday’s debate that he will be winning the endorsement of Dr. Ben Carson on Friday. A one-time rival of Trump’s, Carson is set to make it official in what is Trump’s highest profile endorsement since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie threw his support behind him ahead of Super Tuesday.
Amid continued chatter of a possible contested convention, Trump tried pouring cold water on the idea during the debate. The real estate tycoon opined that the leader of the delegate race come July should win the party’s nomination outright despite needing to hit the 1,237 delegate benchmark, calling it “random.”
Trump also said he would try to reach that benchmark, however, hoping to win outright the nomination that so many party leaders would still like to deny him.
