3rd candidate?

Trump slams Kristol, who floats National Review writer for president

By Hadas Gold

Donald Trump attacked Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol on Tuesday, the same day a new report suggested Kristol is floating a third-party candidate who is also a National Review staff writer.

"Bill Kristol is a loser," Trump said during his news conference Tuesday. "His magazine is failing, as you know. It's going to be down — I don't think it even survives. He's getting some free publicity, but Bill Kristol, I've been watching this for two years."

Over the weekend, Kristol tweeted that "There will be an independent candidate--an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance."

Trump echoed the statements in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, which will air Tuesday night, saying he didn't think Kristol's idea for a third-party candidate would pan out.

"I don't think he has anybody because now he's saying ‘it will come someday, it will come, you know, in the future.’ Well, if you read his tweet, his tweet was almost like it was imminent, like it's going to be announced this morning. And then all of the sudden he announced ‘well, maybe not so fast.’ Who would do it? Look, it's a guaranteed loss. You can't even get on in Texas because they missed their deadline, and now they're missing other deadlines. And all he's doing, I guess, is trying to get publicity for his failing magazine, I imagine."

But Kristol does have someone in mind, according to a new report from Bloomberg Politics: National Review staff writer David French, who is also a veteran, constitutional lawyer and author.

Just last week, though, French wrote a column for National Review urging Mitt Romney to run for president on a third-party bid.

"You're the only man who can save us from future calamity," French wrote.