The Washington Free Beacon's Elizabeth Harrington discussed Donald Trump's presidential path to the nomination on Varney and Co. Friday, saying as the potential Republican standard-bearer Trump would give Hillary Clinton a far tougher race than people expect.
Much has been made about Trump's attempts to look more "presidential," and host Stuart Varney asked Harrington about whether such a shift would hurt him with people who prefer his unorthodox approach.
"If he calmed down and is more presidential maybe we will be bored with him, maybe he'll lose some support," Varney said. "What say you?"
"Trump is heading in to the home stretch here and he wants the establishment to get behind him," Harrington said. "In order to do that he needs to act presidential and be taken seriously, but at the same time, I think you're still going to see the Donald Trump we've grown accustomed to on the campaign trail."
Varney then asked about the general election.
"If it's Trump versus Hillary in November, who wins?" he asked.
Harrington would not discount Trump in a general election against Clinton, the almost surefire nominee after she soundly defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in New York's primary Tuesday. Both Clinton and Trump sport low favorability numbers with the public.
"I think it would be a lot closer than a lot of people are saying. I think Trump puts a lot of states on the map that Republicans haven't seen in years and really, when you look at the polls now, until asking the voters about November, it's purely a hypothetical thing," Harrington said. "I don't think the polls really carry much influence so, yeah, I think it would be pretty close, but I think Trump would have a shot and a lot of people are writing him off right now."