Trump responded Thursday in a statement released by his campaign that he was “not ready to support” Ryan’s agenda as the party’s leader in the U.S. House. “I thought, actually, this thing was going to go to June 7 at the very least – probably to a convention – and so this is all pretty new for us”, he said. Right now, by RealClearPolitics’ average, Clinton’s net favorability (that is, the share who see her favorably minus the share who see her unfavorably) right now is negative 16.5 points. Last year, Graham described Trump as a “race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot”.
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Trump hit back as well.
Meanwhile, media reports said Trump’s opponents inside the party are trying to launch a third-party candidate now that they have failed to prevent the real estate tycoon from becoming the party’s nominee.
March 1, 2016: At his weekly news conference with reporters, Ryan criticized Trump for equivocating about receiving support from white supremacists, but said: “I plan to support the nominee. If I got beaten as badly as I beat him, and all the other candidates he endorsed, I would not be able to give my support either”, he said in a statement.
Trump also called Graham a “poor representative” and an “embarrassment” to SC.
So, has Ryan – the chairman of the convention and the highest-ranking member of his party to explicitly withhold his support from Trump – flip-flopped? “I think Sen. Sanders has done an extraordinary job raising a whole range of issues that’s important to Democratic voters as well as the American people generally”.
“Well I want to be clear, I’ve not all of the sudden changed my views on Donald Trump”, he said.
The prospect of the brash former reality TV star appearing on the Republican ticket with senators and members of Congress seeking re-election has alarmed party veterans.
Almost half of all supporters of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump reported that they are only supporting the brash NY billionaire in the presidential race because they “don’t want Hillary Clinton to win”, according to the results of a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday.
“Oh, I’m definitely voting”.
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“We don’t discuss our internal conversations with candidates”, she said. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who previous year described Trump as a “cancer on conservatism” while running against him for the Republican nomination, told CNN he now supported him as well. “I may write somebody in. I don’t know. But I’m going to be enthusiastically behind the South Carolina Republican team”.
