In a bid to bridge party divisions, Donald Trump formally endorsed prominent elected Republican leaders during a campaign rally on Friday, in Green Bay, Wis.
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Trump told the Washington Post earlier this week he likes Ryan, “But these are disgusting times for our country”.
Many Republicans, including Ryan, were critical of Trump’s insistent attacks on the parents. The rally was held on a Friday night opposite the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
After offering that olive branch, Trump also endorsed Sen. John McCain and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, two Republican leaders with whom he’s feuded.
“We will have disagreements but we will disagree as friends and never stop working together toward victory”.
“He’s going to support Paul Ryan”, Manafort said.
Ryan’s opponent, Wisconsin businessman and inventor Paul Nehlen, issued a statement Friday suggesting that Trump’s endorsement Friday is out of party obligation, not a true preference of Ryan over him.
None of the state’s top Republicans attended Trump’s rally, as Speaker Ryan, Gov. Scott Walker and Sen.
“I fully expected it”, said Nehlen, who added that he did not speak with or meet with Trump in recent days beyond their public exchange on Twitter.
The refusal to back Ryan had been seen by many as a final straw.
The Midwest mayhem underscored Trump’s mounting challenges during one of the most tumultuous weeks of his unorthodox campaign. He has skipped from one misstep to the next, sparking a fresh wave of Republican defections among longtime party loyalists who refuse to support their presidential nominee -some even publicly support Clinton.
Eager to change their minds, Trump unleashed a torrent of insults at Clinton throughout the day. “You would think that we want to be focusing on Hillary Clinton, on all of her deficiencies”. “She’s really pretty close to unhinged, and you’ve seen, you’ve seen it a couple times”. Justine Pochel, carrying a sign that read, “Respect existence or expect resistance”, said Trump’s “long history of racism” would keep her from voting for him.
Clinton sought to take advantage of Trump’s dip in the polls at a conference of minority journalists in Washington, where she pledged an all-out fight for comprehensive immigration reform.
Clinton conceded that she had “short-circuited” earlier in the week in interviews when she had asserted that Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey had concluded that she had been truthful in her statements about use of the private server. “The people in the background know it, the people who know her know it and she’s like an unbalanced person”. “I like people that weren’t captured”.
Yet Trump’s own gaffes have largely overshadowed Clinton’s problems as the Democrats work to recover from a bruising primary election season.
Clinton had repeatedly said she never sent emails containing classified material, a finding that Comey contradicted at the conclusion of the FBI’s probe in July, when he rebuked her for “extremely careless” handling of classified information while recommending that no criminal charges be filed.
The Labor Department reported Friday that USA employers added a healthy 255,000 jobs in July, a sign of confidence that could point to a resilient economy.
Trump, whose candidacy has been marked by frequent attacks on Republican leadership, changed his tune from just days earlier.
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Morell, outlining his views in The New York Times, also questioned Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
