Jim Gilmore in GOP debate, bashes Trump, ‘no time for sideshow’
Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore heads back to the debate stage, all be it, the under card debate, and now gets a chance to speak out and promise that he will defeat his GOP rivals and become the next president of the United States.
“I should be the president of the United States,” Gilmore said. “I’m going to be the president of the United States.”
Gilmore told MSNBC that he would not participate in the Donald Trump rally competing with the main stage Fox News debate Thursday. “Certainly not,” Gilmore said. “I don’t have time for the sideshows.”
Gilmore explained that his campaign is not mounting an effort in Iowa, and instead he will seek the nomination by doing well in New Hampshire and later states.
“Iowa isn’t where I have chosen to stake my stand. I love the people in Iowa, I am participating in New Hampshire. Then South Carolina and then on into the nomination. That the best place, strategically, to make the decision to go, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Fellow GOP candidates Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee vowed to join Trump at his alternate rally, but Gilmore says he’s not interested.
“…My job is to run the campaign for the president of the united States, I should be the president of the United States. I don’t have time for side shows. I have to get the opportunity to speak for the American people about what matters. Take the economy for example, the economy is not good in this country. People are not getting opportunities they need to get. We can do something about it but this is my chance to speak it that. I don’t care if Donald Trump SP out doing something somewhere else. It doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is what is needed for the help to help the American people.”
When asked if he’ll support Trump as the Republican nominee.
“I have not said anything like that. I’ve been a life-long Republican. I’ve always supported the Republican candidate. But I do not approve of Donald Trump’s scapegoating of groups. Hispanics, Muslims, women, Asians, African-American, so I don’t intend for him to be the nominee and guide this party, I intend to be the nominee and move this party in direction that is governing for all the people of the United States.”