Trump is Republican bet; Sanders still alive

By: 9 years ago

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a primary night news conference, Tuesday, May 3, 2016, in New York. AP

WASHINGTON鈥擠onald Trump seized the mantle of Republican standard-bearer for the 2016 presidential election late Tuesday, sending his only serious challenger, Ted Cruz, crashing out of the White House race.

After charging to victory in Indiana, the unorthodox, antiestablishment candidate embraced the role of de facto nominee and trained his sights on the Democrat most likely to face him in the battle for the White House.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going after Hillary Clinton,鈥� the billionaire real estate mogul told jubilant supporters gathered at Trump Tower in New York to celebrate the victory. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to win in November, and we鈥檙e going to win big.鈥�

Clinton suffered a shock upset in Indiana as her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders mounted a come-from-behind victory, denying the former US secretary of state a feather in her cap as she seeks to claim her party鈥檚 nomination.

Tuesday鈥檚 contest in the midwestern state was the final firewall thrown up by Republican heavyweights to keep their brash, name-calling antagonist from locking in the party鈥檚 nomination.

But as the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump鈥檚 favor, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forward.

Denouement

鈥淲e left it all on the field in Indiana,鈥� Cruz said as he announced he was suspending his campaign. 鈥淲e gave it everything we鈥檝e got, but the voters chose another path.鈥�

It was a stunning denouement for the archconservative Texas senator who had insisted he would press on to the final day of the Republican race.

His departure leaves the low-polling Ohio Gov. John Kasich as Trump鈥檚 only other challenger for the nomination鈥攎aking it a virtual certainty that Trump will go head to head in a general election matchup with Clinton.

The top echelon of the Republican establishment said as much minutes after Cruz capitulated, with Republican Party chief Reince Priebus declaring Trump the 鈥減resumptive鈥� nominee.

鈥淒onald Trump will be presumptive GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating Hillary Clinton,鈥� Priebus said, in an extraordinary embrace of a candidate the party establishment had fought tooth and nail to stop.

Shot in the arm

Sanders, the self-declared democratic socialist, beat Clinton 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent, providing a shot in the arm to his campaign and further justification for staying in a race that team Clinton and many pundits have said is all but finished.

鈥淭he Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They鈥檙e wrong,鈥� Sanders said in a statement.

鈥淲e are in this campaign to win and we鈥檙e going to fight until the last vote is cast,鈥� he added.

鈥淭here is nothing I would like more than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country.鈥�

Though Sanders claimed momentum, he has conceded his strategy hinges on persuading superdelegates to back him over Clinton. Superdelegates are Democratic Party insiders who can support the candidate of their choice, regardless of how their states vote. And they favor Clinton by a nearly 18-1 margin.

With Sanders鈥� narrow victory on Tuesday, he picked up at least 43 of Indiana鈥檚 83 delegates. Clinton now has 2,202 delegates to Sanders鈥� 1,400. That includes pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates.

Trump now has at least 1,047 delegates. Cruz exits the race with 565, while Kasich has 152.

Focused on November听听听听

Cruz had been hoping to use the midwestern state to block Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination ahead of the Republican convention in Cleveland in July.

But the bombastic tycoon鈥攚ho has thus far defied all political logic to lead the Republican race鈥攕wept Cruz aside.

Trump thumped Cruz by about 53.3 percent to 36.6, with Kasich an Indiana footnote at 7.6 percent.

With 1,047 delegates to his name, Trump was already in a favorable position to reach the magic number needed to avoid a contested party convention. With Cruz out of the race, crossing the threshold is a foregone conclusion for Trump.

Even before the Indiana results, Trump and Clinton had pivoted toward one another.

鈥淚鈥檓 really focused on moving into the general election,鈥� Clinton said confidently on Tuesday in West Virginia.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we have to be because we are going to have a tough campaign against a candidate who鈥檒l literally say or do anything,鈥� she said of Trump. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to take him on at every turn.鈥�

Too divisive

Ignoring Clinton鈥檚 surprise loss in Indiana, her campaign chair John Podesta said Trump鈥檚 propensity to 鈥渂ully and divide Americans鈥� could backfire with an electorate looking for economic opportunities and to be kept safe.

鈥淭hroughout this campaign, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he鈥檚 too divisive and lacks the temperament to lead our nation and the free world,鈥� Podesta said in a statement. 鈥淲ith so much at stake, Donald Trump is simply too big of a risk.鈥�

Cruz鈥檚 exit comes after the primary battle took a nasty turn on Tuesday when Trump cited a tabloid report linking Cruz鈥檚 father, Rafael Cruz, to John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Pathological liar

Trump raised the recent National Enquirer story in his interview with Fox 黑料社, prompting an irate Cruz to brand him a 鈥減athological liar.鈥�

鈥淭he man is utterly amoral,鈥� Cruz said, adding that 鈥渨e are staring at the abyss鈥� if Trump wins the White House.

The Enquirer, which has published previous stories deeply critical of Cruz, said an Aug. 16, 1963, photograph of Oswald in New Orleans handing out leaflets in support of Fidel Castro shows a young Rafael Cruz nearby.

Oswald was killed Nov. 24, 1963, two days after Kennedy鈥檚 assassination.

Rafael Cruz was once a supporter of rebel leader Castro, but he admits in his biography 鈥淎 Time for Action鈥� that he was unaware that Castro was a communist, according to the Miami Herald.

The paper said there was no corroborating evidence that Cruz, who is now fervently anticommunist, was affiliated with Oswald, and that the Cruz campaign said the candidate鈥檚 father is not in the photograph. Reports from AFP and AP/TVJ

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