“The bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee”, Ryan said.
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“We will need a standard-bearer that can unify all Republicans, all conservatives, all wings of our party, and then go to the country with an appealing agenda”, Ryan said.
Moreover, removing status quo GOP stalwarts and their globalist cronies from power has been the driving force behind Trump’s candidacy.
Paul Ryan is giving Donald Trump a lesson here – you have to unify the party, you’ve got to tone it down – and inviting him to do so in whatever way he can.
Ryan’s comments are all the more notable given that he is set to be the permanent chairman of the GOP convention in Cleveland in July. “I think it’s possible”, Ryan said, “Don’t think this is about me”.
Just before Ryan’s stunning statement, Trump attempted to make that kind of appeal – in his own eyebrow-raising way.
Prominent Republican donor Sheldon Adelson on Thursday said he would support Donald Trump for the USA presidency. Think of that, David, the two most powerful republicans in America saying they’re not ready to support each other.
To be sure, Trump’s enthusiastic support from Republican primary voters – they skew whiter and older – is rooted in part in his willingness to cross lines of political correctness and flout traditional campaign decorum.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush said they won’t endorse Trump, the last two GOP presidential nominees, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, said they won’t attend the convention this summer.
“I mean, he talks about unity, but what is this about unity?” he said.
In most U.S. election cycles, party insiders quickly rally round their standard bearer to focus their firepower on their rival in the opposing party. “The time has come for the Republican Party to unite to defeat Hillary Clinton, and I will be voting for Donald Trump in November”.
Still, Trump faces an uphill climb to bring the party together. “And people are sending a message to Washington that we need to learn from and listen to”.
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Trump and Ryan have publicly clashed in the past. Ben Sasse and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will, have made it clear they will not support Trump and that indeed they believe it is the duty of principled conservatives to oppose him. If he wins the general, he can expect a Senate majority under Mitch McConnell and a House one under Ryan – but from the looks of things, cooperation with the latter could prove very hard.
