Trump, Cruz and Kasich take back vow to support Republican nominee

Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump participates in a CNN town 

hall with Anderson Cooper in the historic Riverside Theatre

It turns out loyalty oaths were made to broken.

All three remaining Republican presidential contenders retracted their pledges to support whomever becomes the eventual Republican nominee during a CNN town hall Tuesday.

This was obviously a rude awakening for those who imagined Donald Trump would quietly accept the GOP handing the party's nomination to someone else.

The Republican front-runner told CNN's Anderson Cooper he no longer promises to support a non-Trump nominee.

"Do you continue to pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee is?" Cooper asked.

"No, I don't anymore," Trump replied.

Back in September the mercurial mogul signed a pledge promising to back the eventual Republican nominee, even if it wasn't someone he sees in the mirror every morning.

At the time Trump said, "I have no intention of changing my mind," and "I see no circumstances under which I would tear up that pledge."

That position has now, um, evolved and Trump's new view is that his support is conditional on who ends up being the eventual nominee.

"I'll see who it is," Trump said. "I'm not looking to hurt anybody. I love the Republican party."

Trump explained he was rescinding his vow because he feels he has been "treated very unfairly" by "the RNC, the Republican party, the establishment."

The billionaire businessman said a lot of people would be upset if he was deprived of the nomination.

"When somebody goes in and wins the election and gets less delegates than the guy that lost, I don't think that's right," he added.

Ted Cruz was quite clear that he would not support Trump for president. "I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and my family," Cruz said. "I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute trainwreck. I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton."

John Kasich said he wants to "see how this thing finishes out" before promising to back anyone. Kasich said he still hopes his campaign, "the little engine that can," keeps going and he becomes the one the other candidates rally to support.

"Frankly, all of us shouldn't have even answered that question," Kasich said of the loyalty oath. "I've got to see what happens. If the nominee is somebody that I think is really hurting the country, and dividing the country, I can't stand behind him."