GOP in a 'hostage video' with Trump: ex-president's biographer

Donald Trump is holding the Republican Party "hostage," forcing GOPers to stick with him when they don't want to, the former president's biographer said Saturday.

During an appearance on MSNBC's Ayman on Saturday night, Trump biographer and Bloomberg Opinion executive editor Timothy O'Brien was asked about Trump's rivals in the primary race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Specifically, O'Brien was asked if anyone would be taking the fight directly to Trump.

"Chris Christie is already taking the gloves off. I think nobody else in the field stands a chance right now, displacing the front runner," he said. "I think he owns the GOP, the GOP is essentially a hostage video with him right now. It cannot escape them. They don't want to be with him, and they are stuck together."

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O'Brien added:

"DeSantis tried to be Trump light, he wore Trumpism on his sleeve. The reality is that Donald Trump is an unusually charismatic person, and other people in the GOP can't emulate that, even if they try to emulate all of his dark arts."

The host chimed in: "I was gonna say, hostage video is exactly the best way to describe it."

O'Brien said earlier in the day that the former president is entering new legal territory as he faces federal charges in a D.C. courtroom and has no idea how to conduct himself.

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