Hutchinson makes Republican debate – and says he ‘doesn’t expect Trump to be nominee’

Ex-Arkansas says he will sign nominee pledge and insists former president, with more than 50% support, will not take nomination

The former Arkansas governor turned Trump critic Asa Hutchinson said on Sunday he had qualified for the first Republican presidential debate, in Milwaukee on Wednesday, and would sign a required pledge to support the eventual nominee.

Insisting that nominee would not be Donald Trump – who will not participate in the debate, conducting an interview with Tucker Carlson instead – Hutchinson refused to say what he would do if it was.