Donald Trump has the guts to say what other Republican presidential candidates can't or won't say — and that gives the billionaire developer an edge in the race to capture the 2016 GOP nomination, veteran political consultant Dick Morris said.
"Telling the truth should not be a rare commodity in politics, but in fact, it's a totally rare commodity and to have someone who actually does tell the truth like that is extraordinary," Morris said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"For example, I love when [George] Stephanopoulos asked him a question about Hillary [Clinton] and he said, you don't have the right to ask me that question with your conflicts of interest," said Morris, referring to the ABC news anchor's controversial donations to the Clinton Foundation.
"Now every Republican candidate who's ever been interviewed by George wants to say that, but nobody will but the Donald."
Dick Morris — a Newsmax contributor, former adviser to President Bill Clinton, and author of
"Power Grab: Obama's Dangerous Plan for a One Party Nation," written with Eileen McGann and published by Humanix — said there are now too many GOP presidential candidates in the mix.
"Who's not running? Give me a press conference where a guy stands up and says, 'I'm out of it.' That's worth covering," Morris said.
"You have a bunch of candidates who are coming into this really without any concrete expectation that the forces in the Republican Party will come behind them … but in the hope they can pull what Mike Huckabee did in 2008 … a spectacular performance in a bunch of debates, find people who they really turn on and then develop a sort of instant constituency."
He said other than that scenario, the "main power centers in the party" are already spoken for.
"The establishment's going to be for [former Florida Gov. Jeb] Bush, not [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie," Morris said.
"The tea party types are going to be for [Wisconsin Gov. Scott] Walker and [Sen. Ted] Cruz [of Texas] and a little bit of [former Arkansas Gov. Mike] Huckabee and maybe some [Dr. Ben] Carson. The evangelicals will be for Huckabee and a little bit of Cruz.
"Everybody's kind of spoken for. Candidates who are outside that group of six, really, are basically just running hoping that they can say something on TV that turns people on and the only one that has a realistic chance of that happening with is the Donald."
Among the provocative statements Trump made during a speech announcing his candidacy:
- "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I will bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I'll bring back our jobs and I'll bring back our money."
- "I don't need anybody's money ... I'm using my own money, I'm not using the lobbyists, I'm not using donors, I don't care. I'm really rich."
- "Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump. Nobody."
- "When Mexico sends its people they're not sending their best ... They're sending people that have lots of problems ... They are bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists."
- "Sadly the American dream is dead. But if I get elected president, I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again."
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