Donald Trump’s White House campaign was in turmoil on Wednesday (Thursday NZ Time), with a senior Republican Party official furious over his criticism of a dead soldier’s family and his refusal to back the re-election campaign of House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.
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While a new candidate might pull some of the elite GOP dissenters back into the fold, at the same time it would likely keep Trump’s loyal supporters away from the polls altogether.
Party chair Reince Priebus, a close friend of Ryan, was deeply irritated by Trump’s recent actions and his unwillingness to listen to the advice of senior advisers.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort appeared on Fox News Wednesday and blamed the media and the Clinton campaign.
His comments at Wednesday’s press briefing came in response to questions about Republican Donald Trump’s suggestion that the November election “is going to be rigged” against him. He wrote on Twitter: “There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before”.
One Republican, Reagan administration official Doug Elmets, went so far as to announce his support for Hillary Clinton at last week’s Democratic National Convention, where he told enthralled delegates: “I knew Ronald Reagan, I worked for Ronald Reagan”.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton sees those GOP concerns about Trump as an opportunity to reach out to party moderates – particularly women – who may be so upset by the nominee that they’re willing to look past policy differences and questions about Clinton’s character.
Trump, who made his comments about Ryan and McCain in an interview with The Washington Post, shrugged off the backlash.
Mike Pence was chosen as Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee in part because of his ability to stay on message and maintain his relationships with fellow Republicans – even under political pressure. Khizr and Ghazala Khan cited the sacrifice of their son, who was killed by a auto bomb, and criticised Trump’s proposal to combat terrorism by temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States.
Trump has been in a public fight with Khan’s parents after Khan’s father criticized the Republican nominee at last week’s Democratic convention. “It’s absolutely the right thing to do to reject him and I’m not sitting out this election”, Hanna said. In just the first eight months of 2016, the President has more than doubled the number of commutations granted in all of 2015, said Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, in a statement on Wednesday. Trump’s campaign release doesn’t break down exactly how much the campaign itself brought in. “The alternative is that the entire party, the Republican Party effectively endorses and validates the positions that are being articulated by Mr. Trump”.
Trump also reignited his long-simmering feud with Sen.
Trump stands to have more financial independence than he did a month ago, when nearly half of the $51 million he raised went to the Republican National Committee, not his campaign.
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The GOP source insisted that there was no real movement yet to prepare for Trump exiting the race – a step that would be unprecedented in modern politics. Trump, Pence said, “strongly encouraged me to endorse Paul Ryan in next Tuesday’s primary and I’m pleased to do it”. And on Monday, Blunt said the Khan family should be “respected” and that Trump should turn his attention elsewhere. John McCain of Arizona in their GOP primaries. ‘You seemed to be blaming President Obama and secretary of state then Hillary Clinton for Captain Humayun Khan’s death… and of course he was killed in 2004, that was when President George W. Bush was president, ‘ the journalist noted.
