“I want to support the nominee”.
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The meetings come as two potential vice presidential picks – Sens.
Cruz’s speech could go a long way towards easing some of that tension and helping heal that rift, as many of his supporters remain deeply skeptical of Trump.
Trump met separately with House and Senate Republicans two weeks before the NY businessman is scheduled to accept the presidential nomination at the Republican convention in Cleveland. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who has refused to support Trump and has emerged as perhaps the most vocal advocate for a third-party candidate.
Donald Trump paid his first visit to rank-and-file congressional Republicans, appearing Thursday morning at closed-door meetings of the House and Senate GOP caucuses.
But Flake apparently also told Trump that he’s not firmly #NeverTrump, despite his reservations.
Flake said he wanted to talk to Trump about those statements.
“The room was fun and I thought it was a great mood”, Huelskamp said.
“I think Trump is going to get a vote like Alan Keyes got, which is about 28 percent”, Kirk said, referring to the Republican who ran unsuccessfully for senator against Barack Obama in IL in 2004.
In fact, Flake and Trump were involved in a particularly tense and awkward exchange during the meeting, according to the Post.
“The more times we have conversations with Mr. Trump, the more comfortable everyone becomes”, Fischer said during a telephone conference call with Nebraska news media. “I’m not planning on attending the convention”, Dent told reporters.
“I’m going to make you proud”, Representative Bill Flores quoted Trump as saying. He said that his concerns about Trump are “Tone and tenor”.
When Flake said he wasn’t “part of the Never Trump movement” but wasn’t comfortable supporting him and needed to be convinced, Trump responded by threatening to attack him harder by name going forward, according to the Post. So in a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, there should be no mystery. Trump is about 5 points behind Hillary Clinton in the average of two-way polls and three-way polls which include Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson. Mr. Sasse continues to believe that our country is in a bad place and, with these two candidates, this election remains a dumpster fire.
“So you know, I just think we need to also look at the positive, which is for the most part we’re breaking records when it comes to Republicans participating but we have a few voices out there, and it’s their right to speak, that are making it more hard than it needs to be”, he said.
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But some Republicans left the meeting still feeling unsure about Trump.
