On this week’s "Meet the Press," Donald Trump called out two former foes for failing to stick to a pledge that they'd support the Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is.
"Jeb Bush signed a pledge, a binding pledge," Trump told "Meet the Press" host, Chuck Todd. "Lindsey Graham signed a binding pledge that they would support and endorse. That's what it says. Now they're breaking."
Have the former candidates back-pedaled on that pledge?
In a sense, yes.
It all goes back to the first GOP debate in August.
At that debate, it was Trump who refused to pledge his support for the eventual party nominee.
In response, the Republican National Committee coordinated a pledge signed by all the then-17 Republican presidential hopefuls, according to Politico.
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Bush, Graham and even Trump signed the pledge.
The document states, “If I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States, I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is.”
Individual copies were signed by each of the candidates and witnessed by RNC chair, Reince Priebus.
Trump paraded his signed copy on Twitter.
Recently, however, Bush and Graham have changed tunes.
“I think Donald Trump's a con man,” Graham told NBC News last week. “ I'm not going to support somebody I don't believe is a reliable Republican conservative.”
In a Facebook post, Bush said Trump was not a “consistent conservative” and lacked the “strength of character” required for the job.
They’re not the only ones to renege on the pledge.
Even Trump flirted with the same decision during a CNN town hall in March.
When asked by moderator Anderson Cooper if he would continue to pledge to support regardless of who Republican nominee might be, Trump said simply, “No. We’ll see who it is.”
The topic of endorsing Trump has been a great debate within the Republican Party as House Speaker Paul Ryan toils over whether or not to pledge his support for the candidate.
