Donald Trump's biggest virtue is that he's running against Washington and Congress, but that's also a problem when it comes to keeping the Republican Party unified, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said Tuesday.
"That includes people in both parties," Schlapp told MSNBC about Trump's stance against Washington's insiders. "He is an outsider, someone who will disrupt Washington. When you do that people even in your own party are uneasy."
Matters got worse with the release of a tape recording of Trump using explicit language while talking about women, resulting in several Republicans stepping back from their party's nominee, which Schlapp called "unfortunate."
"It's unfortunate that the Republican Party, a party I'm proud to be a member of, isn't unified now," Schlapp said. "When a party isn't unified, it is hard to win national elections. I would like to see this kind of acrimony recede and try to win this election."
Schlapp said he would encourage Trump to "love these folks" back to his cause, and he thinks Trump's fight, including a Twitter rampage against House Speaker Paul Ryan, was done in reaction to Republicans distancing themselves from his campaign.
"He is simply reacting to what they did," said Schlapp. "I don't think he's picking the fight. I think it would be better if we moved beyond this type of conversation and talk about issues that matter to voters. Economy, Islamic terrorism and a broken Washington. I think we'll win if we focus on those issues."
However, Schlapp thinks the party will move beyond its fights, but at the same time, he admitted he would "be okay with that" if someone would "take away his iPhone for a short while."
Schlapp said he is concerned about the race being lost, but there is unification when it comes to wanting to defeat Hillary Clinton, as her first decision will be filling the vacant ninth Supreme Court justice seat.
"She'll fulfill a radical Obama agenda," said Schlapp."Conservatives are unified on this. I think that's what this election hopefully comes down to. The sideshows are less interesting to me."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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