Top Republicans who have backed Donald Trump’s presidential bid are planning to meet with the GOP nominee to urge a reset of his campaign after a tumultuous few days.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has endorsed Trump and was being considered as his vice presidential pick, said Wednesday that the business mogul’s behavior over the past week has been "very self-destructive."
"Trump is still behaving like as though it was the primaries and there were 17 candidates. He has not made the transition to being the potential president of the United States, which is a much tougher league," Gingrich said in an interview on Fox Business, Politico reported.
"People are going to watch you every single day. They’re going to take everything they can out of context, and he is not yet performing at the level that you need to," he added.
Gingrich told the Washington Post in a phone interview that this presidential election is a contest between "which of these two [candidates] is the more unacceptable, because right now neither of them is acceptable."
"Trump is helping [Hillary Clinton] to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is," he added. "He cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. She can’t be bad enough to elect him if he’s determined to make this many mistakes."
During the past week, Trump has come under fire from key Republicans for attacking the family of a Muslim American soldier who died in combat, refusing to back reelection bids of party leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), and booting a mother with a crying baby out of his rally.
Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have also disclosed plans to speak with Trump about the direction of his campaign, NBC reported Wednesday.
The two are hoping to recruit Trump’s family members to help the GOP nominee put his bid for the White House back on track.
Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort pushed back against reports that the presidential nominee had lost control.
"The candidate’s in control of his own campaign," Manafort told Fox News on Wednesday.
He said reports detailing otherwise were part of a media push by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
An unnamed source familiar with the planned meeting by top Republicans told NBC News that the "intervention is real, and overdue."