Lewandowski slams Collins: Trump ‘will be’ 2020 nominee

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski insisted on Tuesday that the president will win his party’s nomination for a second White House term, contradicting a GOP senator who is a reliable Trump detractor and expressed doubts a day earlier.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins had said Monday that it was ‘too difficult to say’ whether the GOP would make Trump its choice in the next quadrennial election.

‘I don’t [put] any weight in the fact of what Senator Collins said about Donald Trump being the nominee in 2020,’ Lewandowski said Tuesday on the Fox Business Network. 

‘If Donald Trump runs, he will be the Republican nominee. There’s no question about that.’

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told the Fox Business Network ‘Varney & Company’ show on Tuesday that the president will be renominated for a second term

Moderate Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine said Monday on MSNBC that it's 'too difficult to say' if the GOP would make Trump its standard-bearer in 2020

Moderate Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine said Monday on MSNBC that it’s ‘too difficult to say’ if the GOP would make Trump its standard-bearer in 2020

Just seven months into his term in office, Trump has attracted intransigent enemies on both his left and right flanks, and some from the moderate wing of his own party

Just seven months into his term in office, Trump has attracted intransigent enemies on both his left and right flanks, and some from the moderate wing of his own party

Collins is a moderate Republican who has been one of Trump’s most consistent GOP critics. She refused to endorse him in 2016 and was one of three holdouts who doomed an effort to repeal the Obamacare law in July. 

Hallie Jackson, a reporter for the Democrat-friendly MSNBC, seemingly baited Collins on Monday into describing a scenario in which the Republican Party could cut Trump loose.

‘At what point, if any, do you not support his renomination?’ Jackson asked.

‘Well, I didn’t support the president when he was our party’s nominee,’ Collins replied.

Jackson pressed her again: ‘He is running for re-election … Do you think he will end up the party’s nominee in 2020?’

‘It’s too difficult to say,’ Collins said.

On Tuesday Lewandowski put the shoe on the other foot, saying that if Trump’s legislative agenda fails to gain traction on Capitol Hill it’s the recalcitrant senators – not the president – who should be replaced.

Collins has never been a Trump backer: She didn't endorse him and wrote in House Speaker Paul Ryan's name when she voted

Collins has never been a Trump backer: She didn’t endorse him and wrote in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s name when she voted

Trump has been beset with GOP critics after he said last week that 'both sides' of a race riot in Charlottesville, VA deserved blame after neo-Nazis started fights and one killed a woman

Trump has been beset with GOP critics after he said last week that ‘both sides’ of a race riot in Charlottesville, VA deserved blame after neo-Nazis started fights and one killed a woman

‘We’ve missed the opportunity now to repeal and replace Obamacare. With a 52-seat Republican majority in the Senate they couldn’t get that done after voting on it for seven years in a row,’ he complained.

After reiterating the need for tax reform, a new budget and transportation infrastructure legislation, he pursed his lips and glared into the TV camera.

‘We haven’t seen any of these things get done, and there should be accountability at the ballot box,’ said Lewandowski. 

‘If that means the Republicans don’t follow on the president’s agenda, which the American people voted for, they should be voted out of office.’

Collins’ latest complaints about Trump stem from remarks he made last week in the wake of a neo-Nazi murder in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the left-wing counter-protesters who opposed the white supremacists. Trump said that some ‘very fine people’ were among the racist marchers, and that ‘both sides’ deserved some blame.

‘The president had an obligation, a moral obligation, to speak with absolute clarity from the very beginning, and stick with that, not shift back and forth, to denounce the neo-nazis, the white supremacist the anti-semitism that we heard, and unfortunately he wavered back and forth,’ Collins said Monday on MSNBC.

‘I think the president failed to meet the standard that we would have expected a president to do in a time like that,’ she added.

It’s rare for a major party candidate to challenge an incumbent president for a re-nomination. Republican Pat Buchanan tried most recently, in 1992, when George H.W. Bush ran for a second term.

Trump’s campaign organization has pushed hard to maintain its momentum since Election Day, holding rallies that generate national attention for his agenda.

Jackson pressed her again: ‘He is running for re-election … Do you think he will end up the party’s nominee in 2020?’

‘It’s too difficult to say,’ Collins replied.

It’s rare for a major party candidate to challenge an incumbent president for a re-nomination. Republican Pat Buchanan tried most recently, in 1992, when George H.W. Bush ran for a second term.

Trump’s campaign organization has pushed hard to maintain its momentum since Election Day, holding rallies that generate national attention for his agenda.

The drumbeat of a Russia investigation, however, combined with a lack of success passing major legislation and heart-stoppingly low approval ratings in major national polls, could encourage other Republicans to try their luck.

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