Speaker 1: Republicans plan to force candidates who want to debate in the 2024 primary to
sign a loyalty pledge clearly here geared at getting Donald Trump to say he will support
whoever the eventual.
Speaker 2: Nominee is going to be.
Speaker 1: And this is the latest in an ill conceived and potentially completely self-destructive
idea from the Republican National Committee.
Speaker 2: I will explain why.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about these loyalty pledges.
The Associated Press reports Republican primary candidates will be blocked from the debate
stage this summer if they do not sign a pledge to support the GOP's ultimate presidential
nominee, according to draft language set to be adopted when the RNC.
Speaker 2: Meets next week.
Speaker 1: The proposal sets up a potential clash with former President Trump, who has
raised the possibility of leaving the Republican Party and launching an independent candidacy.
Speaker 2: If he doesn't win the nomination.
Speaker 1: While RNC officials and Trump aides downplayed that possibility, such a move could
destroy the Republican Party's White House aspirations in 2024 and raise existential.
Speaker 2: Questions about the party's future.
Speaker 1: This is so potentially disastrous for.
Speaker 2: The Republican Party, and I love it.
Speaker 1: Now, interestingly, a senior Trump aide could not say whether Trump would sign
the pledge to support the.
Speaker 2: Eventual nominee.
Speaker 1: But suggested privately that he plans to participate.
Speaker 2: In the debates.
Speaker 1: Campaign spokesman Steven Chung declined to answer the question.
Speaker 2: Directly as while.
Speaker 1: Chung said President Trump is the undisputed leader of the.
Speaker 2: Republican Party and will be the nominee.
Speaker 1: There is nobody who can outmatch President Trump's energy or the enthusiasm
he received from Americans.
Speaker 2: Of all backgrounds.
Speaker 1: So listen, I don't think Trump can do this.
I don't think Trump can sign that loyalty pledge.
Speaker 2: And there's a couple different reasons why.
Speaker 1: First of all, existentially, Trump may not win the nomination.
We just don't know yet.
If you put him head to head up against the Santas, it's not that good.
If you put him in a multi-way race, he has a plurality.
But that could change.
And what if he gets indicted or whatever the case may be?
There's all these different scenarios.
So Trump, in order to maintain leverage in power, really can't sign this pledge because
he kneecaps his own power.
Part of the power of Trump right now is that if he chooses to go and run third party, he
ends Republican.
Speaker 2: Chances in 2024.
Speaker 1: The math of it is relatively simple.
We've talked about it before.
You think about all of these states which are swing states or they're Republican states
by but only by a few points.
If you take a state that Republicans usually win by three, Trump saying, I'm running third
party.
If he pulls even just ten or 12% of the vote in those states, it'll mostly come off of
the Republican.
Speaker 2: Nominee and the Democrat ends up.
Speaker 1: Winning.
Trump running third party is a gift to Democrats if it happens.
I would love to see it.
He would he would have the chance at being one of the most successful third party candidates
in history.
I mean, in the modern era, you've got Ross Perot is the one that mostly comes to mind.
Trump would really have a shot at being one of the more successful third party candidates
in the modern era, and it would destroy Republicans.
Speaker 2: Possibility of winning.
So that would be absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1: But there's another sort of aspect to this, which is much of Trump's campaign,
like in 2016, is going to be based on attacking his fellow.
Speaker 2: Republicans and making fun of them and talking about how terrible they are and
all these different things.
Speaker 1: How can Trump seriously attack Ron DeSantis in the way he's been attacking
him if he has also signed on to support to Santos no matter what, if DeSantis is the
nominee?
It fundamentally doesn't work.
And so the loyalty pledge actually risks pushing Trump towards.
Speaker 2: That third party run in the following way.
Speaker 1: If Republicans if the Republican Party really holds firm and says Trump.
Speaker 2: If you don't sign this thing, you can't debate.
By the way, not allowing a former president to debate would be unbelievable.
And many people are writing to me saying, David, they would just buckle.
They would just say, oh, no, no, no, you're allowed to debate.
Speaker 1: But imagine that the Republican Party says you've got to sign this loyalty
pledge in order to debate.
Trump doesn't sign it.
Speaker 2: They say, we're not letting you debate.
Speaker 1: That pushes Trump to go and say, you won't let me debate.
I'm no longer running in your primary.
Speaker 2: I'm now running third party.
That's it.
Democrat wins in 2024.
Speaker 1: So Trump really does have a very powerful tool in his pocket.
And he can.
And use it like a cudgel.
He genuinely can.
It'll be fascinating to.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: If it happens.