Page 3 - ATODAY
P. 3
U.S. NEWS A3
Friday 4 March 2016
Romney urges Republicans to shun Donald Trump
Continued from Front nomination, just not many
good ones. They include
Romney was relentless in a contested convention
and even the long-shot
his criticism, saying Trump prospect of a third party
option.
“is not the temperament Also Thursday, dozens of
conservative national se-
of a stable, thoughtful curity experts warned that
Trump is unfit to be com-
leader. His imagination mander in chief.
Former Homeland Security
must not be married to Secretary Michael Chertoff
and more than 70 others
real power.” called Trump’s “embrace
of the expansive use of
In response at a campaign torture” inexcusable. They
also object to what they
speech in Maine, Trump say is Trump’s “hateful,
anti-Muslim rhetoric” and
made much of his own en- his advocacy for waging
trade wars.
dorsement of the former Despite Trump’s strong
showing on Tuesday, he
Massachusetts governor was not yet on track to
claim the nomination be-
in his failed race to unseat fore the party’s national
gathering, according to
President Barack Obama an Associated Press dele-
gate count. He has won 46
in the 2012 contest. percent of the delegates
awarded so far, and he
Trump said Romney would have to increase
that to 51 percent in the
begged for his backing remaining primaries.
Trump has 316 delegates
and he could have “said, so far, Texas Sen. Cruz 226
and Florida Sen. Rubio, 106.
‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ It takes 1,237 delegates to
win the party nomination.
He would have dropped Party strategists cast March
15 as the last opportunity to
to his knees.” stop Trump through the nor- Maine Gov. Paul LePage speaks before introducing Republican presidential candidate Donald
mal path of winning states Trump at campaign stop, Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Portland, Maine.
Earlier in the day, Trump and collecting delegates.
A win for Rubio in his home (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
dismissed Romney as “a state of Florida would raise
questions about Trump’s
stiff” who “didn’t know strength, as could a win for
Kasich, Ohio’s governor,
what he was doing” as the on his home turf.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben
party’s candidate in 2012. Carson all but ended his
bid Wednesday, saying he
“People are energized by would skip the debate and
declaring he did “not see
what I’m saying” and turn- a political path forward.”
On the Democratic side,
ing out in remarkable num- Clinton was drawing broad
support from voters and
bers to vote, Trump told her party’s leaders. Rival
Bernie Sanders vowed to
NBC. keep up the fight, though
his path to the nomina-
The back-and-forth comes tion has narrowed. So far,
Clinton has at least 1,005
as Republican candidates delegates, Sanders 373.
It takes 2,383 Democratic
prepared for the first post- delegates to win.q
Super Tuesday debate,
scheduled for Thursday
night. Trump is coming
under increasing pressure
from his party as he fights
for the majority of dele-
gates needed to win the
nomination.
Romney said a Trump
nomination at the party’s
convention in July would
enable Democrat Hillary
Clinton to win the presi-
dency.
Romney also criticized
Clinton, accusing her and
her husband, former Presi-
dent Bill Clinton, of person-
ally profiting from their po-
sitions of power.
Arizona Sen. John McCain,
the losing Republican
nominee in 2008, issued
a statement endorsing
Romney’s remarks. Trump
had dismissed McCain’s
war-hero status for his long
imprisonment during the
Vietnam war.
Panicked Republican
leaders say they still have
options for preventing
Trump from winning the
