A Republican strategy from September to stop Trump is backfiring in a major way

The pledge that Republican candidates signed early in the presidential primary season, promising to support the eventual nominee if they lose, looks increasingly likes a suicide pact.

The three remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination who are not named Donald Trump have inched up to the line suggesting that the mercurial billionaire is so wildly unsuited to be president that they would not support him in a general election.

But so far, none has been willing to step over. Instead, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have all condemned Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and the violence on display at his rallies. They’ve called on Trump to dial back his language and said that his call for supporters to pledge allegiance to him with a gesture reminiscent of the Nazi salute is “troubling.”

But over the weekend, even as stories of violence between protesters and Trump supporters were everywhere, even as Trump said he was considering paying the legal costs of a supporter who assaulted a protester, all three stuck to their pledge — reiterated in the most recent GOP debate last week — that they would reluctantly support the billionaire against whomever the Democrats nominate.

Cruz, speaking to reporters on Monday, reiterated that he would support Trump in the general election, though he qualified it by saying, “I can give you one example where I would no longer support Donald Trump. If for example, he were to go out on 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, I would not be willing to support Donald Trump.”

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