Presumptive Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan emerged from a meeting on Thursday declaring they had taken steps toward healing fissures in the party but that differences remained.
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“This was our first meeting, but it was a very positive step toward unification”, they said in a joint statement.
In a private meeting in his office Wednesday, Ryan told his colleagues who support Trump that his high-profile sit-down with the billionaire businessman would be the start of a continual dialogue between the speaker’s office and the presidential campaign, sources said. The statement by the two suggested both are invested in tamping down Republican infighting as they try to pull the GOP together for the fight against Hillary Clinton and Democrats in the fall.
The meeting unfolded Thursday morning as more Republicans have begun urging the party to put the extraordinary discord behind.
Their comments echoed those of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who ripped Republicans for playing coy with Trump. Trump’s campaign hoped that Thursday’s full slate of meetings with Ryan and other GOP leaders would be the first step in trying to do just that. You can see the circus out here.
“It was a good day for our party, I think it was a great day for Donald Trump”, Priebus said during an interview with on Fox News’ “Hannity”. Some GOP members fear a Trump loss in November that could also cost the party its control of the House and Senate.
“Since Sen. McConnell is so enthusiastically embracing Trump, you can only assume he agrees with Trump’s view that women are dogs and pigs”, he said.
Bob Corker, a Republican senator from Tennessee who has been mentioned as a possible Trump vice presidential choice, told reporters he would back the billionaire, but added, “I have no reason to believe that I’ve been considered for vice president”.
“We know that Hillary Clinton will be four more years of Barack Obama”. “I’m glad Paul Ryan has pushed back so far, certainly it’s better if we’re unified but I think it’s more important that we push back on some of these issues because these last more than one campaign, one presidency”.
Trump, in a black SUV, slipped from one GOP power center to another on his fence-mending mission made necessary by his outsider status in a city that embodies insiders. Yet Trump is also a “change agent”, Cole said. Hatch, who endorsed Jeb Bush, and later Marco Rubio, during the Republican primary cycle, said that he vowed all along to support the eventual nominee.
He then met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the GOP Senate leadership team.
“Donald Trump is everything the Republican leader and his party could ever want in a nomination”, said the Nevada Democrat, who is retiring after this year, speaking on the Senate floor Thursday.
Ultimately, it may well need something more than just good campaigning for Mr Trump to prevail in November, said James Madison University political science professor Marty Cohen. Trump said Wednesday night that the goal of the meeting with Ryan is “unity”, striking a conciliatory tone after the public spat and adding that the two are looking to get to know each other.
Over half of Trump supporters, 52 percent believe that illegal immigrants should not be allowed to stay in the United States, however only 42 percent support a national effort to deport them.
A small group of protesters gathered in front of the RNC, several carrying yellow and black signs reading: “GOP + Trump, Dangerous, Divisive, Deceitful”.
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I was included in the slate of approved delegates that the Louisiana Republican State Convention selected that were allocated to the Texas US Senator based upon his statewide results in the Louisiana presidential primary.
