Trump: Republicans who broke pledge should 'never be allowed to run for public office again'

Former presidential candidates who reneged on the Republican National Committee's pledge last September to support the GOP nominee regardless of the individual candidate should "never be allowed to run for public office again," Donald Trump said Wednesday.

"It's amazing what can happen when you lose," Trump told supporters in Bangor, Maine. "It's amazing."


Recalling that others had insisted that he sign the pledge for fear of Trump deciding to pursue an independent run, the now-presumptive nominee acknowledged that it was a "rough campaign" and "I wasn't nice, but they weren't nice either."

Even so, Trump insisted that he would have stuck by the pledge, despite having on multiple occasions publicly flirted with the notion of pursuing a third-party bid throughout the primary season.

"I mean, Jeb [Bush] spent what? $15, $18 million on negative ads. Am I supposed to say I like him?" Trump asked, referring to the former Florida governor who signed the pledge and later said he could not support Trump.

Both Bush and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have publicly stated that they will not support Trump in November. (Trump only mentioned Bush by name.)

"But they signed a pledge. I'll tell you one thing," he said, gesturing to Maine Gov. Paul LePage, "if Paul signed a pledge, he'd honor it. And there were, there were people that honored it that would have loved to have not honored it. We got great backing from guys like Ben Carson, who came not because of that, but because we have a great relationship, and [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie, Rick Santorum just signed on. We have great people. We have great people. We have amazing people. We have amazing endorsers. But when you sign a pledge, and this isn't a pledge that's subject to changing my mind. This is a pledge, really, l even think it's like legally binding, you want to know the truth."

Trump added, "I don't care. I don't think it matters. I don't think I'll get two more votes. But you sign a pledge and you're supposed to honor the pledge."

"I have guys out there, and they're really sore losers. If you think about it. It was a rough campaign. They say it was the roughest campaign ever. Might be superseded by this, but we'll see," Trump said. "They say it was the roughest campaign ever in the history of Republican politics and maybe in politics."

The campaign was "rough," he repeated, but "what you do is you go to sleep for a couple of days, you wake up and you say, I honor the pledge. All right? I would have honored it. There are people I don't like and there are people I love on that stage. But there are people I don't particularly like or particularly respect."

"But I signed a pledge. I would have honored that pledge. I wouldn't have gone crazy, I wouldn't have had, you know, let's yell it from the loudest building, but you know what, I would have honored the pledge. But we have people that have not honored the pledge. And that's a terrible thing. I don't care who you are, what your position. You can say what you want. They all signed so that I'd sign because I was the one that was negotiating a little bit. I'll always negotiate for you people. I love to negotiate," Trump said to applause and cheers. "Just remember this: They signed a pledge saying they will abide, saying they will back the candidate of the party. And now they sit back and the pledge is out there and the press doesn't even go after him on that. They broke their word, in my opinion. They should never be allowed to run for public office again because what they did is disgraceful."