You can't blame Donald Trump for the rash of violence at his presidential campaign rallies over the past few days as other GOP candidates have done, Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, tells
Newsmax TV.
"I'm always happy to blame Trump for many things … but in this event I agree that the protesters were to blame and they should be blamed first and foremost," Kristol said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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That doesn't mean it's not legitimate for other candidates to raise questions about the tone of Trump's campaign and particular statements he's made. I do think if you step back of the whole thing it's not good. We are looking more and more like a banana republic."
Kristol said the Ohio rally which was shut down after a protester rushed on stage to try to grab his microphone cannot be lumped on the Republican presidential front-runner, no matter how inflammatory some of his speeches have become.
"I have to blame Donald Trump for some of his rhetoric, which I do think has been incendiary and irresponsible. That doesn't justify the protester shutting down the presidential rally," Kristol said.
Trump has blamed some of the unrest at his rallies on far-left Bernie Sanders supporters. Kristol also told Malzberg that Republicans shouldn't be forced to support Trump despite the loyalty pledges they signed.
"I think that pledge is always foolish. People should do what they think is right … The establishment people have no right to say that somebody who's disillusioned, 'oh you have to vote Republican,' That's ridiculous,'' Kristol said.
"The Trump people don't have any particular claim to say that someone who thinks he wouldn't be a good president 'oh you have to vote for him.' That's one thing if you're an elected official — it's is a little different obviously. Then you're part of a party organization that has a higher bar to hurdle.
"It would be a perfectly legitimate thing it seems to me for someone, an ordinary citizen all the way to Marco Rubio, a presidential candidate, to say you know what, I'm not going to tell you right now on March 14 what I'm going to do in November. I want to see what these candidates have to say."
Kristol believes Trump could not beat Hillary Clinton in the general election.
"That's one reason I'm so averse to voting for Trump in the primary. It's that I think it gives Hillary Clinton a huge leg up in what is a very, very important election in the general election," he said.
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