The tea party will more likely focus its attention on candidates with more political experience, rather than novices like Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, Sal Russo, co-founder of the Tea Party Express, tells
Newsmax TV.
"There are a lot of good tea party candidates running. It's really the three senators that we have supported vigorously: Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz have strong support. We have a lot of support for [Wisconsin Gov.] Scott Walker," Russo said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"Then there's some favorites that haven't been involved in politics like Ben Carson or Donald Trump. Today, the tea party is evaluating a lot of the candidates but certainly the favorites are the ones that they tended to work with more in the last few election cycles."
Russo said both Trump, who is shaking up the Republican Party with his no-holds-barred style, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, are "beneficiaries of the frustration people feel that nothing ever changes in Washington."
"It's a feeling that's both a problem on the left and the right and both Trump and Sanders have tapped into that," he said.
Russo said he was jolted by Trump's comments about Sen. John McCain's war record.
"Certainly, I grimaced.... I have known [McCain] for a long, long time and think he's a terrific person," he said.
"He's certainly an American hero. That was an unfortunate thing that Trump said but he's tried to back away from it. But Trump isn't somebody that backs up very readily. He's probably as good at backing up as he's ever going to be."
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