WASHINGTON ― The Republican National Convention is set to kick off next week, but many party members still seem to be in disbelief that Donald Trump is indeed their presumptive nominee. They’re just not sure what to make of him.
“I don’t really have an answer for that,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said this week when asked to describe a Trump presidency in one word.
“Honestly, I can’t do that,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) added.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) declined to comment, and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) laughed and said, “I’m not going there.” Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) remained silent and left.
All of these lawmakers have seemed hesitant about Trump in the past ― their relationship with the candidate is very different from the one Republicans had with Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee who was popular with the establishment.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who dropped out of the Republican primary in March, wasn’t in the mood to answer the question either.
“I’m not playing games,” he said. “This is not a game show, man.”
A few Republicans, however, obliged.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called Trump “innovative.” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) replied with the word “change.”
Democrats were more vocal about the idea of Trump in the Oval Office.
President Trump would be a “terror,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said the candidate winning the White House would be “unacceptable.”
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said Trump shows a “lack of qualification.”
Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) refused to even entertain the possibility of the businessman winning in November.
Trump hasn’t exactly been kind to the Senate. He famously attacked McCain’s military service, saying the former Navy pilot didn’t deserve to be known as a war hero because he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Trump met with senators on Capitol Hill earlier this month, for what was widely seen as a disastrous meeting. He criticized Kirk ― who has refused to endorse Trump and was not at the gathering ― as a loser, and predicted that Flake ― another senator critical of Trump ― would lose his re-election bid this year. Flake, however, is not up for re-election this year.
Trump has been giving some other Republican heartburn as well. Most notably, the past two Republican presidents ― George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush ― have refused to endorse Trump, as has Romney. Trump has also had trouble getting GOP luminaries to speak at the party’s convention in Cleveland.
Grace Sparks and Samantha Neal contributed reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misattributed a quote to Sen. Lisa Murkowski. It has been removed.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
