GOP lawmaker stumbles on Trump question

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) had difficulty Thursday voicing his opinion of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

“I like every other … uh, what’s the word I’m looking for, well anyway?” Sanford said during a live interview on MSNBC, appearing to stumble saying the word “prognosticator.”

Sanford recovered when asked directly if he could ever support Trump.

{mosads}“I don’t think so,” Sanford said. “I’m going to leave it to the voters to decide. I’m staying out of this race.”

The congressman had previously criticized Trump for his comments on Megyn Kelly, suggesting they ruled him out as the GOP standard-bearer.

In the interview Thursday, Sanford, though, said that the real estate mogul is connecting with voters unhappy with Washington.

“He has broken every single mold, every single political convention out there,” he said.

“He’s tapping into a sentiment — whether in South Carolina, or in other states across the country — that is all about profound frustration with the status quo.”

Sanford suggested that Trump’s commanding lead heading toward South Carolina’s GOP primary might not last.

“I think that you’re going to see a three-way jump ball at the end of the day in South Carolina, not the lead that you see right now with Trump,” he told host Steve Kornacki. “[Ted] Cruz and Trump are going after the same real estate in the upstate, [and then] you’re going to have outsider versus insider.”

He sidestepped a question about choosing between Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) for the establishment pick.

“I don’t know who gets the insider lane, whether it’s Rubio or Jeb. This is the Battle of the Bulge, this is Antietam and it is Gettysburg. It’s all those things wrapped into one because it’s make or break for one of those two campaigns in South Carolina.”

Trump has a 16-point lead in South Carolina, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls. Cruz ranks second in the Palmetto State, but both Rubio and Bush are less than 10 points within his spot there.