WASHINGTON – Key Senate Republicans voiced optimism Tuesday about Donald Trump’s presidential prospects in November, the clearest signal yet to the GOP rank and file to unite behind him and turn their energy against Democrat Hillary Clinton. But it was uncertain whether the doubters could be quieted.
Trump added two more primaries to his column, taking West Virginia and Nebraska. Clinton lost West Virginia to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who refuses to bow out as Trump’s GOP foes have, but that hardly dented her huge Democratic delegate lead. Clinton won in Nebraska, but those delegates had already been allocated in an earlier caucus won by Sanders.
The presidential race was on lawmakers’ minds on Capitol Hill, too.
“We have a nominee, it looks like he may well be very competitive, and we want to win the White House,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. He also said, “We know that Hillary Clinton will be four more years of Barack Obama. I think that’s going to in the end be enough to unify Republicans across the country.”
Still, doubt and angst over Trump remained palpable as GOP lawmakers returned from a weeklong recess that saw him effectively clinch the presidential nomination. For some, the question of whether they were backing their party’s standard-bearer – a no-brainer in a normal election year – proved too much to answer.