“Some of it’s pretty bad, obviously: physical abuse and pulling a gun on his wife, if that’s true,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee who is close to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “I want to win that race. And to the extent that he’s handicapped by some of these things that would make that unlikely, I’d prefer to have somebody else.”…

As Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) put it: “He’s got the wow factor, the celebrity factor … But some of these issues he’s going to have to figure out how to answer.”

“As a candidate you have to be able to respond to hard questions. And your background becomes an issue, your experience becomes an issue,” Thune said. “Sometimes people who have success in one area of life and translate it to politics, it’s not as easy as it looks.”