Kristol: McConnell's 'Get on Script' Comments 'Fuel Support' for Trump

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's call for Donald Trump to "get on script" illustrates the reason Americans are sick enough of Washington's insiders to favor an outsider candidate like the presumptive GOP nominee, Weekly Standard Bill Kristol said Wednesday.

"You know, when Mitch McConnell is home alone at night and [House Speaker] Paul Ryan is and [Arizona Sen.] John McCain is, they are thinking, 'What have we gotten into?'" Kristol told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on the "Andrea Mitchell Reports" program, naming just three prominent lawmakers who are backing Trump as the party nominee. "And I think, unfortunately, they're too fatalistic and think they can't get out of it."

And McConnell, by saying Trump should "get on script," is a "funny thing for a political leader to say," said Kristol.

"As if someone who has said horrible things and has no commitment to the rule of law or other things, if he would just, quote, 'get on script,' everything would be fine," said Kristol. "That's what fuels some of the support for Donald Trump among Republicans, with the disgust with the 'get on script' type of leaders."

But that said, Kristol, whose push for a third-party candidate to enter the race has made headlines in recent weeks, believes Trump's criticisms of US District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel are different from other comments he has made, as conservatives stand for the rule of law.

"We think President Barack Obama has eroded that with executive orders, we think we dislike identity politics, that it's been bad for race, class and ethnicity," said Kristol. "He's undercut the conservative claim to stand for the rule of law, the conservative claim to ask Americans to be Americans, not part of a particular ethnic group first or a race or gender."

And, said Kristol, if Ryan or McCain would stand up and ask for an independent candidate, and say if the "right candidate steps up, we will support him," a third-party candidate could still enter the race.

Kristol said he also wonders what it will be like to have Trump as the nominee for five months.

"The presidential candidate is the party, and you can dislike some of the previous candidates, think some of their policies were mistaken, but none has been an embarrassment," said Kristol. "Bob Dole, John McCain, the Reagans, they represented policies, some better, some more awkwardly at times. None of them was an embarrassment the way Trump is."

Kristol also fired back at Ryan's statements on Tuesday that having Trump as president would help House Republicans achieve a wide-ranging list of agenda items better than Clinton would.

"I think they have a pretty good anti-poverty agenda," said Kristol. "There are a lot of policies out there. They won't get a hearing as long as Donald Trump is the face of the Republican Party."

Related stories:
Trump: My Judge Remarks Have Been Misconstrued
Sen. Corker: Trump Recognized Mistake in Judge Comments