New York’s top Republican predicted Sunday that Donald Trump won’t be his party’s presidential nominee because of his refusal to rule out a third-party run — as he defended Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly against Trump’s “completely inappropriate’’ attacks.
“For Trump to be up on that stage and out of personal pique suggest that if he’s not the nominee, he’ll run an independent campaign that will cause a Democrat to win next year was anathema to the whole audience, many of whom will be very instrumental in deciding who the nominee will be,’’ state GOP Chairman Ed Cox told The Post.
“If you want to be the Republican nominee, you have to say you will accept the results of the primary process and not run as a third-party candidate.
“Donald Trump is his own brand, and it’s not the Republican brand,’’ said Cox, just returned from a Republican National Committee meeting in Cleveland, where he attended the debate.
Cox castigated Trump for his jaw-dropping attacks on Kelly, one of the hosts of Fox’s Thursday night debate that saw Trump scrambling to defend his past use of insulting language in describing women and left him the odd man out as he refused to pledge his support for the eventual GOP primary winner.
“Those were fair and well-researched questions that Megyn Kelly asked Trump, and any candidate who is running for president should be prepared to answer them,’’ Cox said.
He called Trump’s widely criticized “blood’’ crack, which could be interpreted as saying that Kelly had aggressively questioned him because she was having her period, “completely inappropriate.”
Cox claimed Trump’s other attacks on Kelly via Twitter were “a huge mistake for which he’s paying a price.’’
Sen. Charles Schumer’s stunning decision to oppose President Obama’s nuclear pact with Iran came just hours after a comprehensive private poll found New York voters strongly opposed the deal once they were told details about it.
The poll, conducted by Democrat Patrick Caddell and Republican John McLaughlin, showed New Yorkers opposing the deal 58 to 34 percent, with 7 percent undecided, after they were told that Iran would have up to 24 days’ advance warning for any inspections of its nuclear sites — a key reason for Schumer’s opposition — and that some secret “side deals’’ involving inspections haven’t been publicly disclosed.
Without being told of those provisions, the poll, conducted for Secure America Now, a nonpartisan group opposing the pact, found state voters much more closely divided, with 41 percent opposed and 35 percent in favor.
