Donald Trump, now presumed to be the GOP nominee for the 2016 presidential race, has spoken out about who he’d prefer as an opponent. Trump has been claiming that the Republican primary system is rigged in a way that is unfair to him. Now, he says that the Democratic party’s primary system is also biased, and that it favors Clinton over Sanders.
However, that’s no problem for Trump, because he says he’d rather run against Clinton anyway.
Both Trump and Sanders have been viewed as outlier candidates, who have motivated voters and shaken up the election process. On Wednesday, Trump expressed another commonality between the two: according to him, both have suffered under what he calls a “dysfunctional system.”
What a great evening we had. So interesting that Sanders beat Crooked Hillary. The dysfunctional system is totally rigged against him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2016
According to Salon , superdelegates are part of the reason many of Sanders’ supporters agree with Trump on this. Superdelegates, delegates whose allegiance doesn’t have to align with the popular vote, allow party leaders to influence the direction of the primary race. The fact that over 500 superdelegates have already expressed support for Clinton, and fewer than 40 for Sanders, according to Washington Post , has Sanders’ supporters contacting these delegates and calling for them to change allegiance — something they can do right up until the convention.
Trump suggests that the DNC’s processes benefit him, though, because he’d prefer to run against Hillary Clinton.
I would rather run against Crooked Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders and that will happen because the books are cooked against Bernie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2016
The GOP frontrunner has expressed confidence in his ability to beat Clinton in the general election all along. He told Breitbart News back in July that he could do so — and that he believed he was the only GOP candidate who could do so.
“And I don’t think she will win the race. If I win, I will beat Hillary. And I believe I’m the only candidate that will be able to beat Hillary.”
Trump may have good reason for that preference: Real Clear Politicssays that polls show Sanders beating Trump in the general election by an average of 13.4 percentage points, and Clinton beating Trump by only an average of 6.5 percentage points.
The most recent of these polls, however, completed data collection before Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out of the race, so they don’t take into account any allegiance shifts that may have occurred with Trump becoming the only campaigning candidate for the Republican party nomination.
Secretary Clinton isn’t afraid of going up against Donald Trump, though. She spoke to Jimmy Fallon in January, and when asked if she’s intimidated by Trump, she gave a firm no.
Elaborating, Clinton says,
“If I am so fortunate to be the Democratic nominee, obviously I’ll run against whoever they nominate. But if it’s Donald Trump, it’ll be quite the showdown.”
Her opponent for the Democratic nomination says he’d also be happy to take on the GOP’s presumptive nominee.
There is nothing I would like more than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 4, 2016
There’s also another factor that the GOP frontrunner appears to be taking into account: the possibility that if Hillary Clinton receives the nomination, the Democratic vote will split — if Bernie Sanders runs as an independent, as Trump says he should do.
Bernie Sanders has been treated terribly by the Democrats—both with delegates & otherwise. He should show them, & run as an Independent.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016
A split in the Democratic vote would almost guarantee a Donald Trump presidency.
[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
