Donald Trump on uniting the GOP: 'I can unite much of it - some of it I don't want'
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Fresh off his decisive win in Indiana, the newly presumptive Republican presidential nominee told NBC's "Today" on Wednesday that he didn't want the support of Republican leaders who have vigorously opposed his nomination.
"I am confident I can unite much of it. Some of it I don't want," Trump said.
He continued: "There were statements made about me, and those people can go away and come back after eight years after we serve two terms. Honestly, there are some people I really don't want."
With Sen. Ted Cruz's decision to suspend his campaign on Tuesday, Trump is the all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee, needing less than 200 delegates to formally secure the nomination.
Still, his controversial rhetoric on the campaign trail - including personal attacks on rivals and inflammatory statements about minority groups - has jeopardized his relationships with former presidential opponents and Republican Party leaders.
During the "Today" interview on Wednesday, hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie pressed the real-estate mogul to answer whether he believed it was possible for Cruz to support Trump. Over the past few months, Trump has lobbed constant rhetorical and social-media attacks at the senator and several immediate family members - including Cruz's father, Rafael, and his wife, Heidi.
"I really don't know. And that goes for other people too, I don't know. I hope so. In Ted's case, it'd be nice. In other cases, I don't care," Trump said.
Guthrie pressed Trump to explain why he publicly suggested Tuesday that Rafael Cruz was somehow involved with President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, despite the fact that there is "no evidence" of any relationship between the two.
"Why in the world would you do that?" Guthrie asked.
"This was just in response to some very, very nasty remarks made about me," Trump responded, saying that he had "no idea" that he would win Indiana by a large margin.
A handful of prominent Republicans on Tuesday maintained that they would not support Trump's nomination. A former top aide to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign tweeted out his reluctant support for Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Frequent Trump critic Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina indicated at a conference that Clinton had the presidency all but wrapped up.
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, another prominent intraparty Trump critic, asserted that neither Trump nor Clinton deserved the presidency.
Overwhelming majority of Americans think both the D and R frontrunners are dishonest.
The people are right.
It matters.#WeCanDoBetter
- Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) May 4, 2016
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