They addressed a couple hundred Republican National Committee members and state chairpeople, all of whom have votes at the party’s convention in July, in a narrow room at the beachfront resort where the GOP is holding its spring meeting.
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But Trump declared to the crowd that he had no intention of reversing any of his provocative policy plans, including building a wall along the length of the nation’s Southern border with Mexico. He stressed that the candidate had had some “very good” conversations with Priebus and said the campaign hoped to work closely with state leaders to build its general election campaign. He said the majority threshold is “as American as apple pie and opening day”.
Cruz’s strategy is to force a contested convention by denying Trump the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright on the first ballot at the convention. “I think it’s safe to say that he’s going to need a real strong showing in Pennsylvania”. Another delegate candidate, Cruz supporter Aldridk Gessa, told CNN the Trump campaign had called to see if she would be willing to support him on a later ballot.
Clinton said Trump wants to “go after every one of the rights we have”. Ever the entertainer, he said that acting more presidential would leave his audiences “bored”, and that instead of drawing thousands, “I’ll have 150 people”. “It is nearly embarrassing”, she said.
On the Today show, Trump said he didn’t know if he has transgender employees – “I probably do” – and said yes when asked if he would allow Caitlyn Jenner to use any bathroom she wanted in Trump Tower.
The Republican front-runner is campaigning in CT ahead of Tuesday’s quintet of primaries in the Northeast that includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and CT.
“You know I think we’ll do some of that, I think that’s natural”, Trump Jr. said. It says that during voting to select a final nominee, the votes of delegates required by their states to support a specific candidate must be tallied for that person. He said in interviews Thursday that Trump has been “lying to us” and is “pretending” to be a conservative in order to fool voters. Some point to poll after poll showing Trump lagging Clinton and say he can not win the White House and will drag Republicans in other elected offices down with him.
Trump remains the favorite to win the GOP nomination, although his path to winning a majority of delegates through primary elections remains narrow.
The free-agent status of some RNC members, and the possibility of having the convention decided exclusively by delegates’ opinions, meant each campaign made its own pitch at the spring meeting.
However, there’s other polling to suggest that #TolerateTrump Republicans could be persuaded by counterarguments to Trump’s plurality-rules doctrine, if only they were hearing them. The results found that a Democrat president would likely triumph, with both Clinton and Sanders defeating Trump and Cruz.
“Equal pay – we shouldn’t be talking about it in 2016”.
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South Carolina GOP chairman Matt Moore attended Manafort’s presentation in Florida, and emerged confident that Trump was prepared to make necessary changes. Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont and Steve Peoples in Hollywood, Florida, Will Weissert in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and Jonathan Lemire in Harrington, Delaware, contributed.
