Sen. [crscore]John McCain[/crscore] poured cold water on the possibility of the third party candidate running against Donald Trump arguing that “the people have spoken.”
Appearing on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Wednesday, McCain used the illustration of former Arizona congressman Morris Udall who challenged Jimmy Carter and when he lost, said, “The people have spoken, the bastards.”
Hewitt asked McCain about the report in Politico’s Playbook that, “Members of the conservative intelligentsia aching for a Republican to run independent against Trump have concluded that there is “a difficult but viable path” for an independent, based largely on the unusual unpopularity of the two nominees. A well-known conservative told us the final three possibilities are Sen. Ben Sasse, age 44, of Nebraska; Sen. Tom Coburn, 68, of Wyoming; and Mitt Romney, 69. This conservative told us to expect renewed buzz around this possibility over the next week, and sees “a 50-50 chance that one of the three will do it.”
McCain replied, “Well Hugh, I just think that the people have spoken. By the way, I had a beloved friend named Congressman Morris Udall, we called him ‘Mo,’ he was a Democrat. One of the most amusing guys that ever lived. He ran against Jimmy Carter for the nomination in 1976 and after he had finally had lost the last primary… he came out and said, ‘The people have spoken, the bastards.'”
“So I kind of feel like Mo Udall,” McCain claimed, laughing, “The fact is, the Republicans have spoken and honestly, I just don’t see the scenario… I just don’t see it happening.”