Many people feel he did cross a line in a way he hadn't even done before and also that Republicans had to speak out because they believe Trump poses a danger to the party. Mara Liasson More Quotes by Mara Liasson More Quotes From Mara Liasson There's a lot of anxiety about terrorism among the country at large. There's also a feeling the country has stagnated. Mara Liasson anxiety feelings country The enthusiasm for [Donald] Trump had gone up. The net result was it made people more supportive of him. Mara Liasson supportive gone people Ted Cruz is a small-government conservative. Mara Liasson cruz conservative government The GOP establishment, in particular, is facing a pick-your-poison kind of decision. Many establishment Republicans dislike [Ted] Cruz personally. He has no Senate endorsements. Mara Liasson poison kind decision Republicans like Trent Lott, saying [Donald] Trump would be more flexible [then Ted Cruz]. Mara Liasson trump republican would-be The establishment is divorcing itself from its base - from voters who are choosing a candidate who says he stands for things that are anathema to the establishment. Mara Liasson anathema voters establishment Well, it's possible that the new infusion of ad money against Donald Trump kept his margins in Kentucky and Louisiana down a bit. But we're also seeing something that we've never seen in 100 years, which is we are seeing the crackup of a major American political party. Mara Liasson kentucky party years The base has chosen or is choosing a candidate that the establishment says is absolutely unacceptable. And what that means is this marriage of an elite, big business-backed establishment and a blue-collar, downwardly mobile base has really come to a divorce. Mara Liasson divorce blue mean The lesson is that voters in both parties are in a very anti-establishment, populist mood. Hillary Clinton is the establishment candidate. Mara Liasson voters lessons party You have [Donald] Trump and [Ted] Cruz battling it out, and the moderate establishment candidates like Chris Christie or Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich - they have formed a circular firing squad. Mara Liasson trump squad establishment The Republican Party, right now, is a conservative populist party. Mara Liasson conservative republican party Jeb Bush was supposed to be the establishment candidate, but he didn't catch on. And the extraordinary thing about this Republican primary is that the establishment, moderate wing of the party has sidelined itself. They're not coalescing around one candidate as they have in the past. Mara Liasson party wings past The country wants the president and the Congress focused on jobs and the economy. Any regulation that the president promulgates that isn't focused on, I think, is a risk for him, and the same is true for Congress. Mara Liasson jobs country thinking On the other side, you have the conservative intelligentsia - magazines like National Review, which has a big anti-Trump issue; Weekly Standard editor, conservative talk show hosts - they're mounting a big anti-Trump effort, pro-Cruz effort because they think [Donald] Trump is dangerous and he's not qualified to be commander in chief. Mara Liasson issues editors thinking Republicans think that [Ted] Cruz would be like Barry Goldwater. He'd lose in a landslide and pull the party down with him. They'd lose Senate and House seats. Mara Liasson party house thinking If the Congress is going to spend its whole time hauling up regulators and bureaucrats and looking like they're focusing on tiny, trivial things, instead of jobs and the economy, it could be a problem for them. Mara Liasson tiny problem jobs Hillary Clinton is also not a very exciting, inspiring candidate to a lot of the left-leaning Democratic base, especially in Iowa. Mara Liasson iowa democratic clinton [Mike] Bloomberg aides says he's more likely to run if it's [Donald]Trump or [Ted] Cruz versus Sanders, then there would, presumably, be space in the middle for him. But he's less likely to go if Hillary Clinton is the nominee. Mara Liasson clinton space running Well, we had a bunch of primaries and caucuses on the Democratic side. Bernie Sanders won the Nebraska and Kansas caucuses. That keeps his campaign alive. But Hillary Clinton won Louisiana, which was the big prize of the night, so she ended up winning more delegates than he did yesterday. Mara Liasson kansas winning night
![Republicans like Trent Lott, saying [Donald] Trump would be more... by Mara Liasson](https://whatsmyquote.com/images/quote-medium-quote-336b02c8b4b41961ab96df72ae30e113.jpg)
