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George Will Might Be Done With the GOP, But Never-Trumper Bill Kristol Still Has Hope
(Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC BY 3.0)

George Will Might Be Done With the GOP, But Never-Trumper Bill Kristol Still Has Hope

"Now, after November, who knows."

Over the weekend conservative writer George Will divorced the Republican Party, but interestingly, fellow conservative pundit Bill Kristol said Monday he isn't quite ready to kiss the Grand Old Party goodbye.

"I like the Republican party," Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, told Newsmax TV host Steve Malzberg. "I’m comfortable with a party of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Joni Ernest and Tom Cotton and Ben Sasse and a whole bunch of pretty good governors."

Kristol, who is adamantly opposed to Donald Trump and seeking to recruit a third-party alternative, even said he remains "totally" hopeful the presumptive GOP nominee will not secure the party's nomination at the Cleveland convention in July.

"I'm a keep hope alive kinda guy, Steve," he said. "I'm not giving up 'til the last drop, the last, you know, balloon falls there at Cleveland. I don't know, I mean, we'll see."

In fact, after attending a fundraiser of Arizona Sen. John McCain's re-election campaign Monday, Kristol nudged the 2008 Republican presidential nominee to launch a third-party candidacy in a tweet.

Regardless, he insisted to Malzberg that — at least at this point — he's "comfortable" with the GOP.

"Now, after November, who knows," Kristol, who has voted Republican his entire life, remarked. "Maybe the whole thing'll fall apart and maybe Trump'll win and people like me will have to see how he governs, but no, I'm not leaving any party."

Kristol, a Virginia resident, said he plans to support several Republicans aside from Trump, such as the Republican candidates for governor and state legislature in his home state next year.

As for Will, he said he determined to leave the Republican party for the "same reason" he joined it in 1964, when he voted for Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater.

"I joined because I was a conservative and I leave for the same reason, that I’m a conservative," he said this weekend in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."

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