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United States election 2016: Fresh divisions grow in the Republican party over Trump

Hillary Clinton is a “founder of ISIS”, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has alleged as he stepped up his attack against the Democratic candidate. Khan held up a copy of the Constitution, questioned whether Trump had even read it and asserted the billionaire had sacrificed nothing.

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Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus backs Trump, but on Wednesday Priebus was being described as “incredibly upset” that the NY real estate mogul refused to endorse Ryan’s congressional re-election campaign.

“After all the hand-wringing about whether Bernie Sanders supporters would end up supporting Hillary Clinton, she’s now getting 86 percent of the Democratic vote”, said Steve Koczela, the president of the MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the survey.

“Those people that knocked down the World Trade Center most likely, under the Trump policy, wouldn’t have been here to knock down the World Trade Center”, Trump said, referring to his contentious “Muslim Ban”.

The most powerful Republicans in Washington and New York’s Trump Tower concede things will not change unless Trump wants them to. He said Trump needs to talk about it constantly. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell look feeble and vacillating when they try to distance themselves from Trump outrages while maintaining their support for his election. A problem for Trump is that almost half of Republicans (49%) would rather have a different nominee, while 56% of Democrats are satisfied with Clinton. A 2014 study by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, who now heads the Justice Department’s voting rights unit, found 31 possible instances out of 1 billion votes cast over more than 14 years. He says Clinton will focus on bringing jobs to urban areas and investing in infrastructure. Another person said Trump is irritated that general election planning in battleground states isn’t further along with less than 100 days until Election Day.

Trump on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that the GOP frustration was hurting his campaign.

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It’s not all bad news for Donald Trump. He strongly encouraged me to endorse Paul Ryan in next Tuesday’s primary. Just a month ago that figure stood at six points, Fox News said.

Clinton extends lead over Trump to 8 percentage points: Reuters/Ipsos