Ryan, who as House speaker will preside over the GOP convention in July, repeatedly cites his role in the party as the reason he will remain neutral in the 2016 presidential race.
Advertisement
Republican congressional leaders sharply rebuked GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday and demanded that he denounce racism after he stumbled on questions about the Ku Klux Klan and former grand wizard David Duke. Lindsey Graham of SC, who also sought the Republican nomination for president before dropping out. If you only had all day to read it! It’s not getting easier; it’s getting more hard….
At a large campaign rally in Oklahoma City, Trump supporters drew the candidate’s attention to a man wearing a tee-shirt that said “KKK endorses Trump”. “It’s a litmus test for character”.
“Mr. Trump stands head and shoulders above the other candidate”, Kobach said. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as the alternative to Trump. “Some Republican leaders, however, are making far different calculations”. But directly associating himself with Trump has been problematic for Christie.
“To blame it on a faulty earpiece-people know, I mean, KKK is pretty easy to hear”, Flake said. In a phone interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America”, he was asked whether he categorically rejects the support of all white supremacists.
Trump’s comments coming so close to Super Tuesday, a primary day littered with contests across the deep South, rang alarm bells for some Republicans who saw them as an intentional dog whistle. Trump would probably be a prohibitive underdog in the general election, but in the event that he closed in on victory, the onus would properly fall on #NeverTrump conservatives to deny him the presidency and hand it to Hillary Clinton.
“The only reason we were given was that Mr. Trump did not want us there”, 22-year-old senior Brooke Gladney told the newspaper. At another point, he asked a protester, “Are you from Mexico?” after he was interrupted during remarks about immigration. “No!” thousands shouted back. While some Republicans have declared they would not support Trump, others aren’t willing to say that yet. Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s consistent wins in the polls have demonstrated that he’s more than just hype and hot air, or at least voters perceive him to be more.
“Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK?” And that’s something we don’t want to see happen.
The argument that the Republican Party itself is to blame for the rise of Trump is a damning indictment of the consequences of Republican obstruction. “We’re not angry people, but we’re angry at the way this country’s being run”. Roger Stone, a Republican consultant and longtime Trump associate who does not work for the campaign, said Sunday that he has been reaching out to fellow alumni of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign about volunteering on Trump’s behalf at the convention.
A spokeswoman for Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican up for reelection in New Hampshire, released a statement saying the Senator “intends to support the Republican nominee, however she would like to see how the process plays out”. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, the celebrity business mogul who holds a commanding lead in the fast-dwindling Republican field. “I think Ted Cruz represents a form of conservatives that might be hard to sell to the general public but I do believe he is a Republican conservative”.
Advertisement
The fissure could have major implications beyond the primaries, exposing the looming challenges in uniting the party after the election, no matter who wins. Sean Spicer, the committee’s chief strategist, said the prospect of a Clinton presidency would serve as a unifying force. “My love for our country eclipses my loyalty to our party, and to live with a clear conscience I will not support a nominee so lacking in the (judgment), temperament and character needed to be our nation’s commander-in-chief”, Rigell wrote in a letter, according to WAVY. “In fact, they’ve spent the last eight years convincing themselves that rebelling against non-conservative Republican candidates is among the noblest of fights”. The ads were created to “expose the truth about Donald Trump’s long liberal record of support for higher taxes, national health care, and government bailouts”, said David McIntosh, the group’s president and a former Congressman from Indiana. Ryan reiterated his past stated commitment to support the nominee.
