Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill to reach out to Republican lawmakers Thursday but ended up criticizing several instead, saving his sharpest comments for Arizona Sen.
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Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said that he thought Trump’s pointed comments about Kirk and Flake had been little more than an attempt to grow party unity.
Trump huddled with Cruz and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, around noon, according to two people familiar with the matter, after meetings with House and Senate members that were organized to quell lingering concerns within the party about its presumptive nominee. He has previously blasted Trump’s comments about Mexican ‘rapists’.
Flake responded in kind, tweaking Trump for his attack on Sen.
When Flake stood up to introduce himself at Thursday’s meeting, that’s when Trump noted that the senator had been a critic. He isn’t up for reelection until 2016. According to the Post, Trump called Kirk a “loser” and predicted he would carry IL, which has not voted for a Republican for president since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
The survey found that 51% of registered voters polled would vote for Clinton, while 42% would support Trump.
He has not publicly endorsed Trump and will not attend the GOP convention.
In fact, a senior Trump campaign official told CNN that the two have agreed to stop working against each other, and to work together on those policy issues in which they share common ground.
Trump also promised to seek Cruz’s “counsel on future judicial nominations, and Cruz responded he would continue to do everything he can to help ensure principled constitutionalists on the courts”, the statement said. I’ve never been defeated’.
“It was an important opportunity for our members to get additional information about Mr Trump’s campaign and ask questions about the issues that matter to Americans”, Ryan’s statement said. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania also made a decision to skip the convention, despite originally planning to be there. Ted Cruz, his former rival for the presidential nomination, in a whirl through Washington meant to mend fissures within a Republican Party that remains deeply skeptical about his candidacy.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort called the reports of strife, “attributed to unnamed sources” as ‘wholly inaccurate’.
Donald Trump is paying his first visit to rank-and-file congressional Republicans, appearing Thursday morning at closed-door meetings of the House and Senate GOP caucuses.
Rep. Cresent Hardy of Nevada – who is in a contentious battle to retain his seat, which is one of the most diverse districts held by a Republican in the country – said he asked Trump what he plans to do to make sure “his appeal doesn’t do anything to detract from us winning the state”.
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“My position remains I want to support the nomination”.
