Conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt is back to supporting Donald Trump less than a week after he urged the Republican National Committee to amend its rules to keep Trump from becoming the nominee unless he undergoes a makeover.
“Although there’s been talk in recent weeks of implementing new rules at the Republican convention in Cleveland that would allow party leaders to replace Trump — talk that I’ve entertained — the appetite for that sort of drastic measure is gone,” Hewitt declared on Thursday in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
Hewitt claimed Trump’s recent speech at a gathering of Christian conservatives and his remarks on Monday about the Orlando terror attack swayed him back to the belief that presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is the “real risk.”
“With his undisciplined comments about federal district Judge Gonzalo Curiel the week before the attack in Orlando, Trump was losing ground and the confidence of many Republicans who have reluctantly backed him,” he wrote. “But if he sticks with the tone and the focus of Monday’s speech, Republicans will stay with him.”
While no longer floating the idea of a revolt at the GOP convention, Hewitt maintained that Trump needs to “abandon his off-the-cuff remarks” and focus solely on Clinton between now and November.
“He needs to develop this argument, detail it and drive it home,” he said, referring to Republicans’ claims that Clinton has “consistently displayed a disqualifying lack of judgement” throughout her career in public service.
“The prospect of another President Clinton, especially a Clinton who is so mired in scandal, compromised on national security and is the author of so many foreign-policy meltdowns, has a way of concentrating the mind,” Hewitt claimed.
Despite Hewitt’s original suggestion, the idea of manipulating existing party rules to deny Trump the nomination at next month’s Republican National Convention has not taken off since he secured 1,237 delegates.
“I tend not to believe that that’s a viable expectation that any Republican could have right now,” Andy Card, the former White House Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush, told MSNBC Thursday morning.
