Reeling from missteps that have alarmed many fellow Republicans, Donald Trump endorsed House Speaker Paul D. Ryan for re-election on Friday in a grudging move to unite the badly fractured party.
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“I strongly support Paul Ryan, strongly endorse his re-election”, Pence told Fox News.
“By the time we get to November, I think it’s a really hard argument to make to people that ‘I hope you’ll just ignore our presidential race and come out and vote for me, ‘” said Martha McKenna, a Democratic media consultant and former political director with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
It was an unusual gesture for Trump, who is known for his refusal to admit mistakes and his tendency to double down when he’s under attack. Needless to say, “Trump has a steep hill” to climb, Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino said.
The potential switch to a Ryan endorsement didn’t please Ron and Michelle Lovelien, small business owners who drove three hours from Eau Claire to Green Bay to see Trump Friday. Ryan’s republican primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, did attend, according to a spokesman. Secretary of State John Kerry denied any such video exists, and Trump later said the video he was hyping was actually news footage from Geneva.
“The legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, chaos and weakness”, Trump said.
Trump also endorsed Arizona Sen.
The Republican shot back on ABC News that he has made “a lot of sacrifices”, then raised the stakes by tweeting: “Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC”.
Since his endorsement, Ryan has called out Trump numerous times.
House Speaker Paul Ryan cited a scheduling conflict, while Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he’d attend an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner instead of appearing with his party’s standard bearer.
Donald Trump faced an all-too-clear sign of GOP divisions Friday in Midwestern battlegrounds, embraced by party leaders in one state but ignored in another.
So if Donald Trump is the president, I’ll stand up to him.
On Friday, Michael Morell, a 33-year veteran of the CIA, who served presidents of both parties and headed the agency in 2011, announced his support for the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Following the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, in which Sanders made his plea to delegates to cast their votes in favor of Clinton, 78 percent said they would abide by his wishes. “I’m not quite there yet”, Trump said. “In another way, she’s a weak person”.
At the event Ms Clinton did what she has rarely done during the presidential campaign: take questions from reporters. “Considering the Supreme Court appointments coming up and rebuilding the military, I’m supporting Donald Trump”, says King.
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She maintained that “I never sent or received anything marked classified”, while acknowledging that some material she sent may retroactively have been considered classified by other government agencies. “I like people that weren’t captured”.
