Donald Trump’s campaign chairman said Thursday that the Republican nominee’s refusal to endorse House Speaker Paul D. Ryan in the Wisconsin Republican primary is not unusual or newsworthy.
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“This is the first I’m hearing of that”, Manafort said on Fox News.
Trump refused for another day to endorse the Republican speaker, though he said Ryan is “a good guy, actually”.
Mike Pence went out and offered a strong endorsement of Ryan yesterday, claiming that Trump had privately endorsed Pence’s endorsement. He said Ryan’s primary rival “is not going to win”, but noted he has supported Trump. “And I’m pleased to do it”. Though he eventually decided that he was committed to working with Trump, Ryan has spent his summer criticizing many of Trump’s statements as divisive. John McCain by saying he has “not done a good job for the vets”, lashed out at other Republicans who haven’t supported his campaign, and raised new questions about his attention span after interrupting a one-on-one interview with the Washington Post five times to watch TV coverage of his campaign.
The early days of the general election campaign have been a contortionist act for Pence, who has remained loyal to Trump while trying to maintain his reputation as a principled, down-to-earth Midwesterner with the primary mission of acting as an emissary to the conservative and evangelical wings of the Republican Party.
Walker says he’ll be visiting northern Wisconsin then, meeting with residents and local officials recovering from flash flooding last month.
Karl said the Republican Party could not force Trump out of the race now that he’s their nominee, but he might solve their problem by dropping out.
The speaker said it is his duty to speak up against Trump on issues like the Khan family or his criticism of an American-born judge of Mexican descent whom Trump had also attacked.
Trump’s actions and statements are drawing fire from other prominent members of his party. But he simply could not back a nominee who “throws all these Republican principles on their head”.
Trump, meanwhile, insisted Wednesday that all was well with the GOP.
Jan Halper-Hayes, vice-president of Republicans Overseas, says “there is an element of him that truly is psychologically unbalanced”.
In an interview later Wednesday with Florida’s WPEC-TV, Trump was asked if he was being “baited into battles”.
Halper-Hayes, author of Quiet Desperation: The Truth About Successful Men, told the BBC on Wednesday that “Donald is out of control right now and he’s not listening to anyone”.
“Everything he’s made he’s made somewhere else”, Clinton said as she toured a Las Vegas electric manufacturer Thursday afternoon.
More likely, however, is the idea that Pence was just doing damage control.
“I believe we need Paul Ryan in leadership in the Congress of the United States to rebuild our military, to strengthen our economy and to ensure that we have the kind of leadership in this country that will make America great again”, he said. “You would think we ought to be focusing on Hillary Clinton on all of her deficiencies”.
The Republican Party is reportedly scrambling to prepare for what many see as a likely Donald Trump drop out of the presidential race.
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The numbers mark a significant upswing since May, when Trump was badly outraised by Clinton. He began August with $37 million in his campaign account.
