Live from Mitch McConnell's Self-Made Gehenna: He's "comfortable" supporting a candidate for president who "doesn't know a lot about the issues" and who "ought to change direction". He hopes that "if [Trump] is in the White House he'll have to respond to the right-of-center world which elected him, and the things that we believe in..."
: McConnell: "Donald Trump needs someone highly experienced and very knowledgeable because it's pretty obvious he doesn't know a lot about the issues...
...You see that in the debates in which he's participated. It's why I have argued to him publicly and privately that he ought to use a script more often—there is nothing wrong with having prepared texts.... For all of his obvious shortcomings, Donald Trump is certainly a different direction, and I think if he is in the White House he'll have to respond to the right-of-center world which elected him, and the things that we believe in. So I'm comfortable supporting him....
I object to a whole series of things that he's said—vehemently object to them. I think all of that needs to stop. Both the shots at people he defeated in the primary and these attacks on various ethnic groups in the country....
I think he'd have a much better chance of winning if he would quit making so many unfortunate public utterances and stick to the script.... I said, ‘Hey Donald, you got a script?’ and he pulled it out of his pocket. He said, ‘You know I hate scripts, they're so boring.’ And I said:
Put me down in favor of boring. You've demonstrated that you have a lot of Twitter followers and you're good at turning on a big audience. Now you need to demonstrate you have the seriousness of purpose that is required to be president of the United States, and most candidates on frequent occasions use a script.
So we'll see whether that's something he's capable of doing....
Our nominee is not going to redefine what being a Republican is. I think the platform will remain largely the same. In all of the primaries this year for lesser office than president, the so-called establishment figures have won almost every single race. These are people who believe in the basic core principles of the Republican Party....
I think the choice for many Americans is not a happy choice. You look at both these candidates, both of them have very high disapproval ratings. I think a lot of Americans are not going be thrilled at the choice. But this is the choice, and I think, for me, and I hope for a lot of others, the question to be dealt with is this: Do we want four more years just like the last eight, or do we want to go in a different direction?....
I'm not going to speculate about what [Trump] might say, or what I might do. But I think it's pretty clear and I've been pretty clear publicly about how I think he ought to change direction and I hope that's what we are going to see....
Senate races are big enough to rise or fall on their own. We've got a number of Senators who will have the resources and the record to paint their own picture.... You generally have coattails when people not only want to elect you but they want you to do anything you can do.... I think this is going to be a ticket-splitting year no matter which candidate gets elected president....
The kind of women voters that Republicans need to appeal to. Minorities, women. We are not going to be competitive in presidential elections appealing only to white voters and particularly writing off white women. So beyond the unfortunate part of the various things that our nominee has said—it's not smart politically...
