Republican presidential candidate George Pataki told
Newsmax TV Wednesday that he is not worried about missing the cut for next month's debate in Cleveland.
The former New York governor told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth that, instead, he would "continue to speak out on issues, provide leadership, and I'm just very optimistic.
"When I ran for governor the first time, I wasn't this well off in the polls," Pataki added, referring to his 1 percent showing
in the latest poll by The Washington Post and ABC News. "So, you work hard, make the case."
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But longtime political strategist Dick Morris told Pataki that he needed to be concerned about getting into that Aug. 6 debate.
"Whatever you need to do, come up with $2 million and run ads … and hit the Republican electorate," he said. "Choose a theme that others are not talking about or choose something nobody's advertising on, like Iran, and push it and get yourself up to 10th place.
"If you're not in those debates, you're not running," Morris said.
Still, Pataki reiterated that he would most likely end up in future debates.
"Whether I'm in the top 10 on the fifth for this debate or not really doesn't bother me because I honestly think there are going to be a lot more debates," he told Hayworth. "It is a marathon — and you fight the fight, make the case.
"I'm not worried about where I am today. I'm just very optimistic that I'll have the opportunity to lead."
Morris then suggested that Pataki build on his pro-choice beliefs, though the former governor expressed reservations about that move in light of the Planned Parenthood undercover videos that have surfaced on selling aborted fetal tissue.
"I am not in favor of the federal government funding Planned Parenthood," Pataki told Hayworth. "I have never been in favor of it. I'm not in favor of it today.
"But I do want to make the case that if we focus on national security, growing the economy, reducing the size and the power and the intrusiveness of Washington — we can win the election," he added. "If I get the nomination, I will beat Hillary Clinton, I will beat the Democratic nominee and have the chance to lead this country."
Pataki doesn't believe that billionaire businessman Donald Trump is going to win the nomination, despite his topping of the Post-ABC survey at 24 percent.
"I would bet my right arm he's not going to be the Republican nominee," he told Hayworth. "Ultimately, the American people are going to want someone who inspires us, brings us together, has the ability to lead across party lines as I did in New York state, to run this country and to get us out of the morass we're in today.
"And when that moment happens — and it will happen during the course of this campaign — I'm ready."
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