In denial...

GOP senators in denial about Trump

Republican lawmakers refuse to acknowledge the business baron as their standard bearer even as he closes in on the nomination.

By Burgess Everett

Donald Trump declared himself the presumptive Republican nominee after his romp across the Northeast Tuesday night.

Republican senators trying to save their majority this fall apparently didn’t get the message.

Fully aware that the GOP nominee could make all the difference in whether they keep or lose their slim, 54-seat Senate majority this fall, Republicans of all ideological stripes clearly aren’t ready to accept the bombastic TV reality star as their standard-bearer. A dozen GOP senators interviewed on Wednesday acknowledged only that Trump is doing well — quite the understatement after his clean sweep and mathematical elimination of Ted Cruz from winning the nomination without the help of a contested convention.

Some said they’ll wait until the July convention to weigh in on Trump, let alone decide on an endorsement.

“He’s very close to wrapping it up. … I think it is likely that he is going to be the nominee,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. “I’ve always supported the Republican nominee, and I don’t think this year will be different. But I’m going to wait and see what happens at the convention.”

Blocking out the business mogul is, of course, a lot easier said than done. Vulnerable senators will have to run parallel campaigns that try to leverage Trump’s positives — his popularity with crossover voters drawn to his devil-may-care campaign style – without being dragged down by some serious negatives. For starters, how to distance themselves from Trump’s rhetoric on women and Latinos, and the controversies he’s stirred on issues ranging from immigration to abortion.

It’s a headache that has plenty of Republicans who are not up for reelection this fall breathing a sigh of relief.

“I’m just glad I’m not on the ballot,” said Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who outperformed Mitt Romney in his swing state in 2012.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado on Wednesday became the third GOP senator to endorse Cruz, who just a few weeks ago was seen as the party’s best bet of blocking Trump from the nomination. But otherwise, the movement to stop Trump has slowed to a crawl on Capitol Hill. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) touted his vote for Cruz in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, only to watch his pick lose to Trump by 35 points in the Keystone State a few hours later.

“Republicans will vote for a Republican and that will be somebody other than Donald Trump,” Gardner insisted on Wednesday.

Any shift among Republican senators in welcoming Trump as the likely head of their party are subtle at best. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) praised Trump’s “very good foreign policy speech” on Wednesday, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is bullish that Trump would run a different campaign for the general election than he has in the primary race.

“He’s going to have revamp things he’s doing, and I think he’ll be able to,” Hatch said in an interview. “He hasn’t won it yet, but if he does, I’m going to support him.”

Many Republicans still want to stop Trump but acknowledge they are powerless to do so. After all, these are the folks who backed Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.

Endorsements barely move the needle, and Cruz is running out of opportunities to stop the New Yorker. His pact with John Kasich to block Trump’s path sputtered out of the gate, and Republicans aren’t exactly convinced that Cruz’s choice of Carly Fiorina as his running mate will transform the race.

“That alliance with Kasich sure did wonders,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said sarcastically. He views the increasingly likely nomination of Trump with “fear and dread.”

The head of the Senate GOP campaign arm wouldn’t even touch Trump.

“In a year-and-a-half, I’ve not answered any questions about the presidential race. Trying to think of why I should start today,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi when asked whether Trump is the presumptive nominee. “I’m going to decline.”

Democrats have made it clear they’ll spend every day until the election hanging Trump around the neck of every vulnerable Republican incumbent if he’s the nominee. In response, Republicans are doing all they can to stake out their independence.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has been on the floor all month whacking the House for not taking up his opioid prevention bill. And back home, he’s touting his ability to forge consensus with Democrats.

“I’m not Donald Trump. And nobody perceives me as Donald Trump,” Portman said Wednesday. “You won’t hear me giving a lot of red meat speeches. I never have. That’s not my thing. You will hear me talking about how we work together to solve problems.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to distinguish himself by leaning on his national reputation as a two-time presidential hopeful himself. His opponent, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), is working diligently to tie the 2008 GOP nominee with the favorite for the 2016 nomination.

“My name ID is 100 percent. They know me, so they’ll be making their judgment on me rather than anybody else,” McCain said of Arizona voters.

Not everyone is eager to show their hand about how they intend run alongside, or against, Trump. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who quipped about a campaign of “The Ronald and the Donald” last month, declined to discuss the matter on Wednesday. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) similarly rebuffed questions about how he’d run with Trump at the top of the ticket and said he had “stopped analyzing” the unpredictable presidential race.

Even senators who are shoo-ins for reelection want to wait until the die is cast before speaking of Trump as the presumptive nominee.

“People are still deciding that,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) “I’ve really not gotten into the race. Obviously, I’ve got one vote like everyone else does in my state. I voted in our primary.”

So who’d he vote for?

“Nice try,” Lankford responded.