All eyes on Trump as crucial Tuesday primaries approach

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders continued to agonize Thursday over how to stop Donald Trump's outsider drive for the presidential nomination ahead of Tuesday's crucial primary elections in Florida and Ohio, while even Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders mocked the brash billionaire in their latest debate.

Tuesday's outcome could seal Clinton's overwhelming lead in delegates who choose the party nominee this summer. For Trump, the Florida and Ohio votes likely would strengthen his front-runner status but would not secure his nomination.

Trump has been very popular with Republican primary voters but is feared unelectable in the November general election because of his off-color language, his proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border and his denigration of Hispanics, Muslims and women.

In his latest blast, Trump on Wednesday night told CNN that "I think Islam hates us."

"There's a tremendous hatred," he added. "We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us."

Trump has said he would temporarily ban non-citizen Muslims from entering the country.

Trump's candidacy has left Republican officials with the uncomfortable idea that their second least favorite presidential candidate, ultra-conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, may be the party's best last chance to stop him.

Possible Cruz supporters include reluctant Senate colleagues and former presidential rivals with strong ties to major donors, who have feared Cruz's purist ideology but dread a Trump nomination even more.

Cruz on Wednesday announced the backing of one former primary opponent, Carly Fiorina, and is seeking the backing of another, Jeb Bush, on Thursday.

"It's an outsider year, and the most logical person to take on Trump based on past performance is Ted Cruz," said another former presidential opponent, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Earlier in the year, Graham likened the choice between Cruz and Trump to "being shot or poisoned."

"He's not my preference," Graham said of Cruz. "But we are where we are. And if Trump wins Florida and Ohio, I don't know if we can stop him."

In the latest Democratic debate on Wednesday night, Clinton faulted Sanders for repeatedly voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill. He criticized her for opposing a 2007 effort to allow people who were in the country illegally to obtain driver's licenses.

Had the immigration package passed back then, Clinton said, "a lot of the issues we are still discussing today would be in the rearview mirror."

Sanders retorted that he opposed the legislation because it included a guest worker program "akin to slavery."

Florida is home to nearly 1.8 million Hispanics, including about 15 percent of the state's Democrats. Clinton has been getting about two-thirds of Hispanic votes so far.

Both Clinton and Sanders found agreement in seeing Trump as worse on immigration than either of them. "We do not, as Donald Trump and others have done, resort to racism and xenophobia and bigotry," Sanders said.

Sanders's long-shot candidacy remained very much alive after he pulled off an upset this week in the industrial state of Michigan, where polls had showed him trailing by as much as 20 percentage points.

Clinton has won 762 pledged delegates compared to 549 for Sanders, with 10 delegates from recent primaries still to be allocated. When superdelegates are included, Clinton leads 1,223 to 574, more than halfway to the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination. Superdelegates are party and elected officials who can vote for any candidate.

In the Republican race for delegates, Trump has 458 and Cruz has 359. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 151 delegates and Kasich has 54. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

Rubio, the favorite of the party mainstream, has faded after he briefly adopted Trump's insulting debate style. He trails Trump in his home state, Florida.