“There’s no question that Donald Trump is making it very hard for House and Senate candidates who are running on the ballot in November”, said Brian Walsh, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
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“It’s nearly a taboo thing to not only be a Republican on a college campus, but to support Trump”, he said.
Those who have worked with Trump say that in private meetings, he can often appear amenable to putting a controversy aside. Trump has responded by insisting he had made sacrifices and questioning why Ghazala Khan did not speak on stage, which she later said was because she was too bereaved.
Trump managed to top this with his tactless response to the Muslim American father whose son, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in the Iraq war and who charged at the Democratic convention that Trump has “sacrificed nothing and no one” for his country.
But they also say it’s business as usual for Trump, who belittled his competitors for the Republican presidential nomination, challenged the impartiality of a federal judge in a fraud case against him based on his Mexican heritage, called Sen. Obama asked during a White House news conference. John McCain’s military record, saying he wasn’t a war hero because the former Vietnam-era prisoner of war had been captured, strategists – and more than a few reporters – questioned whether Trump had crossed a line.
Khizr Khan delivered an emotional address at last week’s Democratic convention, with his wife standing by his side. “Someone with the temperament to be president would understand and respect that”. The Pakistan-born Khan told the story of his son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart after his death in 2004. He also questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution. He said that while he disagreed with his Republican opponents in the 2008 and 2012 elections, he never thought they were unfit to do the job.
Trump’s unwillingness to let the matter subside sparked outrage Monday from a chorus of Republicans.
“Donald Trump belittled a woman who gave birth to a son who died fighting for the United States”.
“I’m glad that the candidates have been spending a lot of time in OH”, he said.
“No matter what Trump has said or done – from shameful personal attacks to racist outbursts – John McCain has blindly pledged to ‘support the nominee”, said Max Croes, campaign manager for McCain’s Democratic opponent, Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, in one typical response from a Democratic Senate campaign. I hear more and more that the election on November 8, can you believe, we’re nearly there.
Trump criticized the family in an interview Sunday and again in a pair of tweets Monday morning. Which at a Trump rally is a genuine concern. They’ve been asking me to go on for months.
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Clinton’s odds for winning the race are at 75% compared to Trump’s at 25%, according to the market, an online game administered by the company Pivit, which functions like an online market and allows Internet users to predict the outcome of the 2016 election.
