In a group interview on Friday, Republican Sens. John McCain, Joni Ernst, Cory Gardner, and Dan Sullivan shared their thoughts on what Donald Trump would need to do in order to unite the party around him.
The four senators appeared on KFYI's Mike Broomhead Show as part of McCain's re-election efforts.
"I think there needs to be a great effort on the part of Donald Trump as well as the Republican Party to come together and start talking about what goals they would have in his administration and it has to be a cohesive message," said Ernst. "What do we want to accomplish? How can we counter the past eight years of a horrible, horrible Obama administration where we have overregulation and burdensome rules?"
"Our nation is hungering for leadership and so Donald Trump will have to provide that type of leadership," added Ernst. "So there have to be some great discussions out there and we hope all of us can be a part of finding solutions, not being divisive."
Sen. Sullivan added Trump would need to unite the party around conservative principles.
"There's obligations all around. We certainly want to win, but I think Mr. Trump has the opportunity, but also the obligation to unite the party around our goals," said Sullivan. "Let me give you three that I think are critical: less government, more freedom, strong national defense. And the critical one, critical one which has been a failure of the Obama administration is to grow this economy."
Sen. Cory Gardner chimed in that Trump needs to show a distinction between himself and Hillary Clinton.
"If you want to achieve the dream that you've been long fighting for, that's the distinction that he'll need to show," said the Colorado senator of Trump.
McCain chimed in to say Clinton will continue Obamacare, which he called "one of the greatest disasters of modern times."
Earlier, McCain responded to audio leaked to Politico of him saying he'd be in for the race of his life with Trump on the top of the ticket in a state with a large Hispanic population.
"What was I saying was this is the most turbulent time, obviously," said McCain saying he needed take his re-election fight as serious as past races. "I said look, anybody now with all this turbulence out there is crazy if they take anything for granted."
"I really think we have to, all of us, who are seeking re-election as Republicans have to really understand that this a tough time, but it's not so much Trump as the turbulence out there. Look, Bernie Sanders still continues to hang in," said McCain added he would work as hard as he could to win.