Rupert Murdoch: Republican Party 'Would Be Mad Not To Unify' Behind Donald Trump If He Is Nominee
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Rupert Murdoch believes the Republican Party needs to unify behind Donald Trump if it becomes a foregone conclusion that he will be the GOP presidential nominee.
"As predicted, Trump reaching out to make peace with Republican 'establishment,'" the News Corp chairman tweeted Wednesday. "If he becomes inevitable party would be mad not to unify."
The billionaire trumped his competition on Super Tuesday, winning seven states. Sen. Cruz won two, which included his home state of Texas. Sen. Marco Rubio took home only one – Minnesota.
Trump has now won 11 Republican presidential contests and is up to 326 delegates.
"We are going to be a much finer party, we're going to be a unified party, and we are going to be a much bigger party -- our party is expanding," Trump said during a news conference Tuesday night. "I think we're going to be more inclusive, more unified, and I think we're going to be a much bigger party in November."
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Murdoch's tweet comes as Trump will be taking part in Thursday's Republican presidential debate on Fox News.
A spokeswoman for the Republican presidential front runner confirms that Trump will participate in Thursday's debate sponsored by the news channel, even though his sometime nemesis, Megyn Kelly, will be one of the moderators. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks says the billionaire developer "looks forward to participating."
Kelly, who is moderating Thursday's debate with colleagues Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, said Trump was more in her head before the GOP debate prior to the Iowa caucuses, which he ultimately boycotted.
"I think he's much more focused on securing the nomination now and not on me, and that's how it should be," Kelly said. Thursday's debate, the 11th among Republicans, will be held at Detroit's Fox Theater from 9 to 11 p.m. EST.
In what might be "too little, too late," an outside group is rushing to raise millions of dollars to stop Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee.
Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu and Meg Whitman, the chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard, are among the Republican leaders now with Our Principles. The super political action committee had limited fundraising success in earlier weeks, drawing almost all of its funding from the billionaire Ricketts family. The group has spent about $1.5 million on paid television and radio media, most of it ahead of Iowa's primary caucuses.
"Donors feel guilty they didn't get active earlier," Sununu tells The Associated Press.
The plan for Republicans who want to stop Trump is to deny him enough delegates to win the nomination outright, he says.
"Frankly, at this point we want anyone but Trump," Sununu says of who should become the nominee. "The goal is this: Let's get to the convention in Cleveland and figure it out there."
Rubio has said that Trump will not get to the magic number of 1,237 delegates for the Republican nomination.
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