Sen. Hatch: Trump or Cruz Would Have 'Rough Time' Against Either Dem

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the second ranking Republican in the Senate, said both GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would have a “rough time” against the Democratic nominee in the general election.

If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, Hatch, president pro tempore of the Senate, said she would have most of the media in her corner.

“Either of them will have a rough time debating whoever the Democrat is. I’m not sure the Democrat is going to be Hillary Clinton, but if it is Hillary Clinton she is going to have a lot of the media in this country on her side and a lot of women who will vote for her just because she is a woman, which is ridiculous but that’s the way it is and we understand that,” he told PJM during an interview after a Federalist Society event in Washington.

Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told PJM there the GOP race could go all the way to convention for “resolution” considering Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s win in his home state, which “kind of sends a message … that people haven’t made up their minds yet.”

“I don’t know that anybody really wants to do that, but the fact is that may be what happens — and at that point it’s a brand new game in a lot of ways. I mean, the people who have run should certainly be able to make their case that there may be others who would be in the game too,” he added.

Hatch, the former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, was asked if he trusts Cruz and Trump to make solid nominations to the Supreme Court.

“They both know how important it is – probably the single most important set of issues in this race ­ – and I think they both know if they get there and they appoint bad people they are not going to last long. Because we are tired of having the court packed with people who don’t care what the law is, who want to manipulate the laws to meet their own socioeconomic and political preferences,” he said.

“We are just sick of it, and we would like to get back to when judges are judges and live within the laws and interpret the laws they were intended to be interpreted by the Founding Fathers.”