Paul Ryan declines to support Donald Trump as Republican standard-bearer
Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
@SabrinaSiddiqui
Thursday 5 May 2016 22.57 BST
House speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican official in the US, has said he does not yet support Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Marking the latest defection in a brewing civil war that threatens to tear apart the GOP before the general election in November, Ryan, who will chair the party convention in Cleveland in July, said Trump had yet to prove he shared the conservative values and principles necessary to be the party’s standard-bearer.
“I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee, told CNN in an interview on Thursday when asked if he was backing Trump. “I’m not there right now.”
Trump responded to Ryan on Thursday evening, with a statement that was relatively tame by the standards he has shown when criticized in the past.
“I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda,” Trump said. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!”
Republicans remain torn on whether to embrace Trump, who became the presumptive nominee following his victory in the Indiana primary this week and the withdrawals of Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
Ryan has rebuked several of Trump’s controversial statements over the past few months, including his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US and a refusal to disavow an expression of support from a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
“The bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee,” Ryan said. “I don’t want to underplay what he accomplished … but he also inherits something very special, that’s very special to a lot of us.
“This is the party of Lincoln and Reagan and [former congressman and champion of supply side economics] Jack Kemp. And we don’t always nominate a Lincoln or a Reagan every four years, but we hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln- or Reagan-esque, that that person advances the principles of our party and appeals to a wide, vast majority of Americans.”
Ryan’s comments came a day after his counterpart in the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell, offered a tepid endorsement of Trump in a statement. On Thursday, McConnell’s office said he was notified of Ryan’s interview in advance.
Ryan emphasized that he did not believe Republicans should vote for Hillary Clinton, who is on course to be the Democratic nominee. But he added that Trump must work to unite the Republican party and run a campaign that Americans can be “proud to support and proud to be a part of”.
“And we’ve got a ways to go from here to there,” Ryan said.
Trump is poised to accept the nomination at the Republican convention. Several prominent figures have said they will not attend, including former presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush, who also confirmed through a family spokesman that they will sit out the remainder of the presidential election.
Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who dropped out of the 2016 race in February, will also skip the convention.
The 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, who in March delivered a scathing takedown of Trump’s candidacy, has said he will neither vote for Trump nor attend the convention. Senator John McCain, the 2008 nominee, will sit out the convention but has wrestled with the question of whether he will support Trump in the general election.
McCain is one of several Republican senators who face a tough re-election battle this November – races that will now be all the more hard-fought as Democrats seek to define them as belonging to the “Party of Trump”.
According to an audio recording obtained by Politico, at a private fundraiser last month McCain offered his candid assessment of how a Trump nomination would affect his chances of holding on to his Senate seat.
“If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30% of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” he said.
Trump, who launched his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “killers”, has shown little indication that he would transform into an effective courter of the Hispanic vote, although he did win the Republican caucuses in Nevada.
On Thursday the bombastic billionaire used Twitter to share a photo taken at Trump Tower in Manhattan, in which he marked the Cinco de Mayo anniversary with a taco bowl and the caption: “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”
The cracks extend even to some who are not defending seats. Ben Sasse, a first-term senator from Nebraska, shared on Facebook an open letter stating his opposition to Trump. In the letter, Sasse wrote that his voicemail was full of “party bosses and politicos” urging him to unite behind Trump because he was better than Clinton.
“This open letter aims simply to ask ‘WHY is that the only choice?’” Sasse wrote. “I signed up for the party of Abraham Lincoln – and I will work to reform and restore the GOP – but let’s tell the plain truth that right now both parties lack vision.”
In an op-ed published on Thursday, the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal added its voice to the intra-party anguish.
“Mr Trump may be able to improve his image if he controls his perpetual insult machine, but there is little evidence that he can or will do so,” the board wrote.
“The essence of his politics is personal, and it’s not obvious he knows any other way.”
Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
@SabrinaSiddiqui
Thursday 5 May 2016 22.57 BST
House speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican official in the US, has said he does not yet support Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Marking the latest defection in a brewing civil war that threatens to tear apart the GOP before the general election in November, Ryan, who will chair the party convention in Cleveland in July, said Trump had yet to prove he shared the conservative values and principles necessary to be the party’s standard-bearer.
“I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee, told CNN in an interview on Thursday when asked if he was backing Trump. “I’m not there right now.”
Trump responded to Ryan on Thursday evening, with a statement that was relatively tame by the standards he has shown when criticized in the past.
“I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda,” Trump said. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!”
Republicans remain torn on whether to embrace Trump, who became the presumptive nominee following his victory in the Indiana primary this week and the withdrawals of Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
Ryan has rebuked several of Trump’s controversial statements over the past few months, including his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US and a refusal to disavow an expression of support from a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
“The bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee,” Ryan said. “I don’t want to underplay what he accomplished … but he also inherits something very special, that’s very special to a lot of us.
“This is the party of Lincoln and Reagan and [former congressman and champion of supply side economics] Jack Kemp. And we don’t always nominate a Lincoln or a Reagan every four years, but we hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln- or Reagan-esque, that that person advances the principles of our party and appeals to a wide, vast majority of Americans.”
Ryan’s comments came a day after his counterpart in the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell, offered a tepid endorsement of Trump in a statement. On Thursday, McConnell’s office said he was notified of Ryan’s interview in advance.
Ryan emphasized that he did not believe Republicans should vote for Hillary Clinton, who is on course to be the Democratic nominee. But he added that Trump must work to unite the Republican party and run a campaign that Americans can be “proud to support and proud to be a part of”.
“And we’ve got a ways to go from here to there,” Ryan said.
Trump is poised to accept the nomination at the Republican convention. Several prominent figures have said they will not attend, including former presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush, who also confirmed through a family spokesman that they will sit out the remainder of the presidential election.
Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who dropped out of the 2016 race in February, will also skip the convention.
The 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, who in March delivered a scathing takedown of Trump’s candidacy, has said he will neither vote for Trump nor attend the convention. Senator John McCain, the 2008 nominee, will sit out the convention but has wrestled with the question of whether he will support Trump in the general election.
McCain is one of several Republican senators who face a tough re-election battle this November – races that will now be all the more hard-fought as Democrats seek to define them as belonging to the “Party of Trump”.
According to an audio recording obtained by Politico, at a private fundraiser last month McCain offered his candid assessment of how a Trump nomination would affect his chances of holding on to his Senate seat.
“If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30% of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” he said.
Trump, who launched his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “killers”, has shown little indication that he would transform into an effective courter of the Hispanic vote, although he did win the Republican caucuses in Nevada.
On Thursday the bombastic billionaire used Twitter to share a photo taken at Trump Tower in Manhattan, in which he marked the Cinco de Mayo anniversary with a taco bowl and the caption: “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”
The cracks extend even to some who are not defending seats. Ben Sasse, a first-term senator from Nebraska, shared on Facebook an open letter stating his opposition to Trump. In the letter, Sasse wrote that his voicemail was full of “party bosses and politicos” urging him to unite behind Trump because he was better than Clinton.
“This open letter aims simply to ask ‘WHY is that the only choice?’” Sasse wrote. “I signed up for the party of Abraham Lincoln – and I will work to reform and restore the GOP – but let’s tell the plain truth that right now both parties lack vision.”
In an op-ed published on Thursday, the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal added its voice to the intra-party anguish.
“Mr Trump may be able to improve his image if he controls his perpetual insult machine, but there is little evidence that he can or will do so,” the board wrote.
“The essence of his politics is personal, and it’s not obvious he knows any other way.”
[h=1]Neither George W nor George HW Bush will endorse Donald Trump[/h]Ben Jacobs in Washington
@Bencjacobs
Thursday 5 May 2016 07.41 BST
Non-endorsements come as Trump becomes presumptive nominee and many have tried to come to terms with fact that he will be party’s standard-bearer
Neither George HW nor George W Bush, the only two living former Republican presidents of the United States, will endorse Donald Trump.
In statements released to the Guardian on Wednesday evening, spokesmen for both former presidents said they would be sitting out the 2016 election. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for George W Bush, told the Guardian: “President George W Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign.”
The statement by the 43rd president was echoed in one released by his father. Jim McGrath, a spokesman for George HW Bush, told the Guardian: “At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics. He naturally did a few things to help Jeb, but those were the ‘exceptions that proved the rule’.”
The non-endorsements come as Trump becomes the presumptive nominee and many party figures have tried to come to terms with the fact that the demagogic reality television star will be their party’s standard-bearer in November.
While some such as senators Dean Heller of Nevada and Ben Sasse of Nebraska have made clear they will not vote for Trump in November, others such as senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio have said they will vote for the party’s nominee but not endorse him.
The decision by both former presidents is particularly personal because of the unsuccessful candidacy of Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor, who is George HW’s son and George W’s brother, was repeatedly attacked during his campaign by Trump. The presumptive nominee tarred the two-term governor as “low-energy” and mocked him as “an embarrassment to his family”.
Trump also has repeatedly attacked George W Bush on the stump. In particular, Trump accused Bush of lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the 2003 Iraq war. “They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction – there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction,” Trump said in a February debate in Greenville, South Carolina.
The presumptive nominee has also repeatedly called the Iraq war “a mistake” and has falsely claimed he was against the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime at the time.
The non-endorsements mark the continued difficulty that Trump will have reuniting a party that has divided with rancor as a result of candidacy.
The Clinton campaign released a video on Thursday that showed former Republican candidates attacking him and released a compilation of prominent conservatives ranging from elected officials, party leaders and talk radio hosts who are all refusing to back Trump in November. A recent poll released by CNNshows the likely Democratic nominee, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, leading Trump by a margin of 54-41 in the general election.
@Bencjacobs
Thursday 5 May 2016 07.41 BST
Non-endorsements come as Trump becomes presumptive nominee and many have tried to come to terms with fact that he will be party’s standard-bearer
Neither George HW nor George W Bush, the only two living former Republican presidents of the United States, will endorse Donald Trump.
In statements released to the Guardian on Wednesday evening, spokesmen for both former presidents said they would be sitting out the 2016 election. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for George W Bush, told the Guardian: “President George W Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign.”
The statement by the 43rd president was echoed in one released by his father. Jim McGrath, a spokesman for George HW Bush, told the Guardian: “At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics. He naturally did a few things to help Jeb, but those were the ‘exceptions that proved the rule’.”
The non-endorsements come as Trump becomes the presumptive nominee and many party figures have tried to come to terms with the fact that the demagogic reality television star will be their party’s standard-bearer in November.
While some such as senators Dean Heller of Nevada and Ben Sasse of Nebraska have made clear they will not vote for Trump in November, others such as senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio have said they will vote for the party’s nominee but not endorse him.
The decision by both former presidents is particularly personal because of the unsuccessful candidacy of Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor, who is George HW’s son and George W’s brother, was repeatedly attacked during his campaign by Trump. The presumptive nominee tarred the two-term governor as “low-energy” and mocked him as “an embarrassment to his family”.
Trump also has repeatedly attacked George W Bush on the stump. In particular, Trump accused Bush of lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the 2003 Iraq war. “They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction – there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction,” Trump said in a February debate in Greenville, South Carolina.
The presumptive nominee has also repeatedly called the Iraq war “a mistake” and has falsely claimed he was against the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime at the time.
The non-endorsements mark the continued difficulty that Trump will have reuniting a party that has divided with rancor as a result of candidacy.
The Clinton campaign released a video on Thursday that showed former Republican candidates attacking him and released a compilation of prominent conservatives ranging from elected officials, party leaders and talk radio hosts who are all refusing to back Trump in November. A recent poll released by CNNshows the likely Democratic nominee, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, leading Trump by a margin of 54-41 in the general election.
[h=1]Republican race is not over yet as Trump nomination faces further bumps in road[/h]
Ben Jacobs in Charleston, West Virginia
@Bencjacobs
Thursday 5 May 2016 20.25 BST
Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, his victory in Indiana on Tuesday having pushed Ted Cruz and John Kasich from the race. But that doesn’t mean the remaining primaries are canceled.
Over the next month, Republican voters will go to the polls in 10 states where Cruz and Kasich are still on the ballot.
If a candidate drops out, their name is not automatically removed. In California, for example, Kasich, Cruz, Ben Carson and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore will all be on the ballot. This means there is ample opportunity for the casting of protest votes.
The Trump campaign, however, has bigger worries.
In many states the delegate selection process is still going on. Trump must still ensure that delegates chosen to attend the convention in Cleveland in July will be amenable to his cause.
The former senator Bob Dole will attend, as the only former presidential nominee to do so. On Thursday a representative for the 92-year-old would not say he would support Trump.
This was not surprising – Trump has generated significant rancor within the party. If such rancor continues, there are still viable if highly unlikely ways to prevent him from receiving the nomination.
If, for example, Trump opponents controlled the Republican rules committee, they could pass changes to allow delegates to follow their conscience on the first ballot, potentially making it difficult for Trump to reach the 1,237-delegate threshold needed to secure the nomination.
Furthermore, even if Republicans come to terms with Trump, the party’s platform committee could cause considerable problems.
To most Republicans Trump’s views are heterodox, to say the least – the platform would need significant massaging to appease both Trump and longtime conservative activists. Any conflicts could cause considerable drama and create even more issues between Trump and party loyalists.
After all, even Mitt Romney had difficulties with the party’s platform in 2012, over politically sensitive language on abortion. In 2016, there is significantly greater tension between the nominee and the base.
Republican voters have still to cast ballots in 10 states and delegates’ loyalty, convention rules and the party platform could still cause Trump problems
Ben Jacobs in Charleston, West Virginia
@Bencjacobs
Thursday 5 May 2016 20.25 BST
Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, his victory in Indiana on Tuesday having pushed Ted Cruz and John Kasich from the race. But that doesn’t mean the remaining primaries are canceled.
Over the next month, Republican voters will go to the polls in 10 states where Cruz and Kasich are still on the ballot.
If a candidate drops out, their name is not automatically removed. In California, for example, Kasich, Cruz, Ben Carson and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore will all be on the ballot. This means there is ample opportunity for the casting of protest votes.
The Trump campaign, however, has bigger worries.
In many states the delegate selection process is still going on. Trump must still ensure that delegates chosen to attend the convention in Cleveland in July will be amenable to his cause.
The former senator Bob Dole will attend, as the only former presidential nominee to do so. On Thursday a representative for the 92-year-old would not say he would support Trump.
This was not surprising – Trump has generated significant rancor within the party. If such rancor continues, there are still viable if highly unlikely ways to prevent him from receiving the nomination.
If, for example, Trump opponents controlled the Republican rules committee, they could pass changes to allow delegates to follow their conscience on the first ballot, potentially making it difficult for Trump to reach the 1,237-delegate threshold needed to secure the nomination.
Furthermore, even if Republicans come to terms with Trump, the party’s platform committee could cause considerable problems.
To most Republicans Trump’s views are heterodox, to say the least – the platform would need significant massaging to appease both Trump and longtime conservative activists. Any conflicts could cause considerable drama and create even more issues between Trump and party loyalists.
After all, even Mitt Romney had difficulties with the party’s platform in 2012, over politically sensitive language on abortion. In 2016, there is significantly greater tension between the nominee and the base.
Republican voters have still to cast ballots in 10 states and delegates’ loyalty, convention rules and the party platform could still cause Trump problems
[h=1]Tensions Rise Over Republican VP Options[/h][h=2]Adviser Ben Carson says GOP front-runner Donald Trump could pick a Democrat or an independent[/h]
By REID J. EPSTEIN and
BETH REINHARD
Updated May 5, 2016 8:25 p.m. ET311 COMMENTS
Just days after his last two rivals quit the presidential race, Donald Trump’s effort to choose a vice president is beginning to take shape and it could provoke the ire of conservatives in the party.
While rank-and-file conservatives are searching for a signal that Mr. Trump shares their values, Ben Carson, a former GOP rival now helping the presumptive Republican presidential nominee pick a running mate, said Thursday Democrats may be among those considered.
Asked if Democrats and independents may be on the target list, Mr. Carson said “Yes,” then added, “We would consider people who are Americans and who put America first.”
Mr. Carson is the public face on the search process, while top campaign aide Paul Manafort is maintaining overall tight control, according to people familiar with the campaign.
A spokesman for Mr. Carson later said he “fully expects Mr. Trump to choose a Republican as his running mate.”
In the interview, the former surgeon took himself out of the mix. “I’m not interested in doing that for a number of reasons,” he said. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”
For Mr. Trump, his running-mate choice could be the most important signal that he is seeking to unify the GOP. House Speaker Paul Ryan raised the stakes on the process Thursday when he said he’s “not ready” to support Mr. Trump until he’s seen more evidence of his fealty to conservative doctrine. “I’m not there right now,” he said. Mr. Trump quickly shot back with a statement that he doesn’t support Mr. Ryan’s agenda, either.
Given that Republican National Convention delegates aren’t bound to abide by his choice, Mr. Trump could face an arena of delegates rebelling against his running mate choice if he sends the wrong signal. “He could get to Cleveland and designate someone as his vice president and have the convention lose its mind,” said Erick Erickson, an anti-Trump conservative activist.
“Three weeks ago, I was on a call with some conservative activists and this topic came up,” Mr. Erickson said. “The consensus was that if you couldn’t get Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio on the ticket, that they would give a Shermanesque refusal to Trump’s pick,” he added in a reference to two of Mr. Trump’s former presidential rivals.
Such a plan would almost certainly have to be led, publicly, by Mr. Cruz, who has so far shown no inclination to do so. His campaign aides didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said it is implausible that Mr. Trump’s selection won’t be nominated as his running mate. “I can’t imagine any scenario where the GOP nominee doesn’t have the opportunity to pick his own vice presidential candidate,” he said. But such a scenario nearly did play out in 2008, when then-GOP nominee John McCain was considering tapping Sen. Joe Lieberman, a pro-choice former Democrat, to be his running mate. The campaign reached out to people influential with convention delegates and concluded such a pick would tear the party apart, McCain aides said.
“We could have gotten Joe through the convention but we would have had a split party afterward,” said former McCain aide Charlie Black.
For now, Trump aides are assembling a broad roster of candidates, said Mr. Lewandowski, adding that the businessman will “in the near future” reveal who is on the campaign’s vice-presidential search committee beyond Mr. Carson.
Mr. Trump on Thursday said there is “probably a 40% chance” he would pick one of his 16 dispatched GOP presidential rivals but that he was “unlikely” to choose the last man standing, Ohio Gov. John Kasich who suspended his campaign Wednesday, a day after Mr. Cruz dropped out of the primary.
“I’ve gotten to be friends with a lot of those people, and I guess perhaps enemies with a couple,” he said in an interview on CNBC.
Mr. Trump said he was looking for someone with political experience because he already knows the business world. He also said rapport was “awfully important,” noting the affable relationship between President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
“I think having somebody that can get legislation through and help me with that would be good,” Mr. Trump told CNBC. “Of course, always the first reason is if something should happen, somebody that can serve and serve well and be a great president. And that’s always—you always start with that. And after that, it’s really a question of rapport. I think rapport is very important.”
Choosing a running mate is one item on a long to-do list Mr. Trump’s campaign is tackling as he transitions from a primary to a general-election campaign.
Among the issues discussed at a Capitol Hill meeting Thursday between three Trump campaign aides and chiefs of staff for members of Congress backing Mr. Trump: rolling out a series of policy speeches on topics including the economy, trade and the Veterans Administration, and expanding the small pool of members who have endorsed the party’s presumptive nominee.
Just as important as securing new endorsements is urging Trump critics to tone down their criticism. The campaign is also trying to schedule a visit by Mr. Trump to Capitol Hill.
“A lot of the fence-sitters and naysayers have underestimated Trump’s popularity in their districts,” said Joe Kasper, chief of staff for California Rep. Duncan Hunter, one of the earliest Trump supporters on Capitol Hill.
Messrs. Carson and Lewandowski declined to suggest details of the campaign’s vetting process or suggest names of potential running mates for Mr. Trump. Some potential candidates have been quick to rule themselves out.
On Thursday a top aide to Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said he won’t submit to being vetted for consideration. “It’s not happening, period,” Mr. Portman’s campaign manager said. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she won’t be in the running either.
But in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage said Wednesday he is considering a 2018 Senate run “if I’m not into the Trump administration.” And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said by email Thursday that he “might” be willing to serve as Mr. Trump’s running mate, though he otherwise declined to discuss his interest.
On the Democratic side, likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s search for a running mate is being led by John Podesta, her campaign’s chairman. Mrs. Clinton hasn’t revealed details about specific people or attributes she will consider.
“The most important quality is that this person could become president literally on a moment’s notice,” Mrs. Clinton told CNN Wednesday. “There is no more important quality than that.”
By REID J. EPSTEIN and
BETH REINHARD
Updated May 5, 2016 8:25 p.m. ET311 COMMENTS
Just days after his last two rivals quit the presidential race, Donald Trump’s effort to choose a vice president is beginning to take shape and it could provoke the ire of conservatives in the party.
While rank-and-file conservatives are searching for a signal that Mr. Trump shares their values, Ben Carson, a former GOP rival now helping the presumptive Republican presidential nominee pick a running mate, said Thursday Democrats may be among those considered.
Asked if Democrats and independents may be on the target list, Mr. Carson said “Yes,” then added, “We would consider people who are Americans and who put America first.”
Mr. Carson is the public face on the search process, while top campaign aide Paul Manafort is maintaining overall tight control, according to people familiar with the campaign.
A spokesman for Mr. Carson later said he “fully expects Mr. Trump to choose a Republican as his running mate.”
In the interview, the former surgeon took himself out of the mix. “I’m not interested in doing that for a number of reasons,” he said. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”
For Mr. Trump, his running-mate choice could be the most important signal that he is seeking to unify the GOP. House Speaker Paul Ryan raised the stakes on the process Thursday when he said he’s “not ready” to support Mr. Trump until he’s seen more evidence of his fealty to conservative doctrine. “I’m not there right now,” he said. Mr. Trump quickly shot back with a statement that he doesn’t support Mr. Ryan’s agenda, either.
Given that Republican National Convention delegates aren’t bound to abide by his choice, Mr. Trump could face an arena of delegates rebelling against his running mate choice if he sends the wrong signal. “He could get to Cleveland and designate someone as his vice president and have the convention lose its mind,” said Erick Erickson, an anti-Trump conservative activist.
“Three weeks ago, I was on a call with some conservative activists and this topic came up,” Mr. Erickson said. “The consensus was that if you couldn’t get Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio on the ticket, that they would give a Shermanesque refusal to Trump’s pick,” he added in a reference to two of Mr. Trump’s former presidential rivals.
Such a plan would almost certainly have to be led, publicly, by Mr. Cruz, who has so far shown no inclination to do so. His campaign aides didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said it is implausible that Mr. Trump’s selection won’t be nominated as his running mate. “I can’t imagine any scenario where the GOP nominee doesn’t have the opportunity to pick his own vice presidential candidate,” he said. But such a scenario nearly did play out in 2008, when then-GOP nominee John McCain was considering tapping Sen. Joe Lieberman, a pro-choice former Democrat, to be his running mate. The campaign reached out to people influential with convention delegates and concluded such a pick would tear the party apart, McCain aides said.
“We could have gotten Joe through the convention but we would have had a split party afterward,” said former McCain aide Charlie Black.
For now, Trump aides are assembling a broad roster of candidates, said Mr. Lewandowski, adding that the businessman will “in the near future” reveal who is on the campaign’s vice-presidential search committee beyond Mr. Carson.
Mr. Trump on Thursday said there is “probably a 40% chance” he would pick one of his 16 dispatched GOP presidential rivals but that he was “unlikely” to choose the last man standing, Ohio Gov. John Kasich who suspended his campaign Wednesday, a day after Mr. Cruz dropped out of the primary.
“I’ve gotten to be friends with a lot of those people, and I guess perhaps enemies with a couple,” he said in an interview on CNBC.
Mr. Trump said he was looking for someone with political experience because he already knows the business world. He also said rapport was “awfully important,” noting the affable relationship between President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
“I think having somebody that can get legislation through and help me with that would be good,” Mr. Trump told CNBC. “Of course, always the first reason is if something should happen, somebody that can serve and serve well and be a great president. And that’s always—you always start with that. And after that, it’s really a question of rapport. I think rapport is very important.”
Choosing a running mate is one item on a long to-do list Mr. Trump’s campaign is tackling as he transitions from a primary to a general-election campaign.
Among the issues discussed at a Capitol Hill meeting Thursday between three Trump campaign aides and chiefs of staff for members of Congress backing Mr. Trump: rolling out a series of policy speeches on topics including the economy, trade and the Veterans Administration, and expanding the small pool of members who have endorsed the party’s presumptive nominee.
Just as important as securing new endorsements is urging Trump critics to tone down their criticism. The campaign is also trying to schedule a visit by Mr. Trump to Capitol Hill.
“A lot of the fence-sitters and naysayers have underestimated Trump’s popularity in their districts,” said Joe Kasper, chief of staff for California Rep. Duncan Hunter, one of the earliest Trump supporters on Capitol Hill.
Messrs. Carson and Lewandowski declined to suggest details of the campaign’s vetting process or suggest names of potential running mates for Mr. Trump. Some potential candidates have been quick to rule themselves out.
On Thursday a top aide to Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said he won’t submit to being vetted for consideration. “It’s not happening, period,” Mr. Portman’s campaign manager said. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she won’t be in the running either.
But in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage said Wednesday he is considering a 2018 Senate run “if I’m not into the Trump administration.” And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said by email Thursday that he “might” be willing to serve as Mr. Trump’s running mate, though he otherwise declined to discuss his interest.
On the Democratic side, likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s search for a running mate is being led by John Podesta, her campaign’s chairman. Mrs. Clinton hasn’t revealed details about specific people or attributes she will consider.
“The most important quality is that this person could become president literally on a moment’s notice,” Mrs. Clinton told CNN Wednesday. “There is no more important quality than that.”
[h=1]Republicans plunged into five stages of grief over Trump's unstoppable rise[/h]
Reactions from GOP leaders to Trump’s elevation as presumptive nominee have run the gamut of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance
Dan Roberts in Washington and Ben Jacobs in West Virginia
Thursday 5 May 2016 17.25 BS
Anguished Republicans began cycling through the five stages of grief on Thursday in the wake of what one leading voice of the establishment called Donald Trump’s “hostile takeover” of their party.
The last two party leaders to occupy the White House, George W Bush and George HW Bush, remained in isolation and denial on Thursday after issuing statements suggesting they would not even acknowledge its next nominee for president, let alone lend him their support.
“President George W Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign,” read a blunt statement from his office that appears to go far beyond mere pique at Trump’s treatment of brother Jeb.
Nebraska GOP senator Ben Sasse, meanwhile, moved on to the next stage, voicing the anger felt by many grassroots conservatives outside Washington and calling for a third candidate to emerge as an alternative to Trump and Hillary Clinton.
“Why are we confined to these two terrible choices? This is America. If both choices stink, we reject them and go bigger. That’s what we do,” wrote Sasse in an impassioned open letter that went viral on Twitter and Facebook.
Others in Congress appear ready for bargaining, a phase of seeking to regain control that psychologists describe as a normal reaction to feelings of helplessness after a loss.
“As the presumptive nominee, [Trump] now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals,” wrote the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, in language that made clear his desire to make the best of a bad situation.
But Trump has won landslide after landslide among Republican voters by positioning himself as the ultimate political outsider. There is little evidence he plans to tinker with a winning formula to make congressional leaders feel better.
Realisation of this fact is leading many figures in the party to sink into depression, particularly as they ponder Trump’s historically high negative poll ratings among the general electorate.
“Mr Trump may be able to improve his image if he controls his perpetual insult machine, but there is little evidence that he can or will do so,” lamented the Wall Street Journal in an editorial that captured the anguish of the establishment on Thursday. “The essence of his politics is personal, and it’s not obvious he knows any other way.”
The newspaper’s “silver lining” scenario in the unlikely case of him winning the general election involves him leaving domestic policy to the grownups, but it describes his foreign policy instincts as “far more troubling”.
“His trade policies are reckless and would either be rebuffed by the world or lead to a global recession,” warned the editorial board of the paper, a conservative bellwether known to stay close to the views of its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch’s wider business empire might now be willing to dance with Trump on Fox News, but his previous flirtations with Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Bush belie frustration with their failure to inspire voters. “Mr Trump wasn’t our first choice, or even the 15th,” added the Journal. “Dozens of miscalculations made his hostile takeover possible, not least decisions by other candidates in the early primary states to attack each other instead of Mr Trump.”
After denial, anger, bargaining and depression ought to come a final stage of grief known as acceptance, but psychologists warn that “reaching this stage of mourning is a gift not afforded to everyone”.
The price of acceptance, according to moderate Republican figurehead Susan Collins, is for Trump to recognise that all his bluster will come to nought if he cannot win over women like her.
“If he’s going to build that wall that he keeps talking about, he’s going to have to mend a lot of fences. He’s going to have to stop with the gratuitous, personal insults,” the Maine senator said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
“He’s going to have to go beyond saying he wants to make America great again,” she added. “He’s going to have to articulate what a Trump presidency would look like.”
The former senator Bob Dole will be listening. On Thursday a representative of the 92-year-old 1996 nominee told the Guardian: “Senator Dole is planning to briefly attend the convention in Cleveland.”
The representative would not say if the only former nominee set to travel to Ohio in July would support Trump in his run for the White House.
“We’ll have to wait and see how the convention plays out,” the representative said.
It is not the first time the party has risked a split. Republican political activists known as Mugwumps supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in 1884, whose centre-right supporters were also known as Gold Democrats in 1896. The Republican party split again into a so-called Bull Moose wing in 1912.
But rarely have both the establishment wing of the party and its ideologically conservative base looked as uncomfortable as they do at the prospect of uniting behind the notion of presidential candidate Trump, something most acknowledge they will have to do, but few are relishing.
Reactions from GOP leaders to Trump’s elevation as presumptive nominee have run the gamut of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance
Dan Roberts in Washington and Ben Jacobs in West Virginia
Thursday 5 May 2016 17.25 BS
Anguished Republicans began cycling through the five stages of grief on Thursday in the wake of what one leading voice of the establishment called Donald Trump’s “hostile takeover” of their party.
The last two party leaders to occupy the White House, George W Bush and George HW Bush, remained in isolation and denial on Thursday after issuing statements suggesting they would not even acknowledge its next nominee for president, let alone lend him their support.
“President George W Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign,” read a blunt statement from his office that appears to go far beyond mere pique at Trump’s treatment of brother Jeb.
Nebraska GOP senator Ben Sasse, meanwhile, moved on to the next stage, voicing the anger felt by many grassroots conservatives outside Washington and calling for a third candidate to emerge as an alternative to Trump and Hillary Clinton.
“Why are we confined to these two terrible choices? This is America. If both choices stink, we reject them and go bigger. That’s what we do,” wrote Sasse in an impassioned open letter that went viral on Twitter and Facebook.
Others in Congress appear ready for bargaining, a phase of seeking to regain control that psychologists describe as a normal reaction to feelings of helplessness after a loss.
“As the presumptive nominee, [Trump] now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals,” wrote the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, in language that made clear his desire to make the best of a bad situation.
But Trump has won landslide after landslide among Republican voters by positioning himself as the ultimate political outsider. There is little evidence he plans to tinker with a winning formula to make congressional leaders feel better.
Realisation of this fact is leading many figures in the party to sink into depression, particularly as they ponder Trump’s historically high negative poll ratings among the general electorate.
“Mr Trump may be able to improve his image if he controls his perpetual insult machine, but there is little evidence that he can or will do so,” lamented the Wall Street Journal in an editorial that captured the anguish of the establishment on Thursday. “The essence of his politics is personal, and it’s not obvious he knows any other way.”
The newspaper’s “silver lining” scenario in the unlikely case of him winning the general election involves him leaving domestic policy to the grownups, but it describes his foreign policy instincts as “far more troubling”.
“His trade policies are reckless and would either be rebuffed by the world or lead to a global recession,” warned the editorial board of the paper, a conservative bellwether known to stay close to the views of its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch’s wider business empire might now be willing to dance with Trump on Fox News, but his previous flirtations with Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Bush belie frustration with their failure to inspire voters. “Mr Trump wasn’t our first choice, or even the 15th,” added the Journal. “Dozens of miscalculations made his hostile takeover possible, not least decisions by other candidates in the early primary states to attack each other instead of Mr Trump.”
After denial, anger, bargaining and depression ought to come a final stage of grief known as acceptance, but psychologists warn that “reaching this stage of mourning is a gift not afforded to everyone”.
The price of acceptance, according to moderate Republican figurehead Susan Collins, is for Trump to recognise that all his bluster will come to nought if he cannot win over women like her.
“If he’s going to build that wall that he keeps talking about, he’s going to have to mend a lot of fences. He’s going to have to stop with the gratuitous, personal insults,” the Maine senator said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
“He’s going to have to go beyond saying he wants to make America great again,” she added. “He’s going to have to articulate what a Trump presidency would look like.”
The former senator Bob Dole will be listening. On Thursday a representative of the 92-year-old 1996 nominee told the Guardian: “Senator Dole is planning to briefly attend the convention in Cleveland.”
The representative would not say if the only former nominee set to travel to Ohio in July would support Trump in his run for the White House.
“We’ll have to wait and see how the convention plays out,” the representative said.
It is not the first time the party has risked a split. Republican political activists known as Mugwumps supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in 1884, whose centre-right supporters were also known as Gold Democrats in 1896. The Republican party split again into a so-called Bull Moose wing in 1912.
But rarely have both the establishment wing of the party and its ideologically conservative base looked as uncomfortable as they do at the prospect of uniting behind the notion of presidential candidate Trump, something most acknowledge they will have to do, but few are relishing.
Whoop-de-damn-do! I guess it would be better if Paul Ruan came aboard but he's the same guy that
that Uncle Joe Biden toyed with in the Vice Presidential debate of 2012. Biden mocked and interupted
Ryan time after time and it looked like Ryan wasn't even the same caliber politician Biden was & now
he's questioning the voice of the people. If they meet Trump isn't going to give one inch to Ryan's
globalist agenda nor Ryan's comprehensive immigration notions, you can bet on it.
Ryan’s declaration that he will not support the presumptive GOP nominee at this time is perhaps not
entirely surprising given that on the seminal issues of this election, Speaker Ryan holds functionally
the same positions as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton: namely, Ryan supports more foreign
migration, more foreign trade, and more foreign military engagements.
More Foreign Migration
As Breitbart News has previously reported, Speaker Ryan is perhaps Congress’s greatest advocate
for open borders. Dating back to his time as a Capitol Hill staffer in the mid-90s, Ryan was part of the
effort to derail the bipartisan immigration curbs inspired by Civil Rights leader and late-Democratic
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. In 2013, Ryan actively campaigned on behalf of Marco Rubio and
Barack Obama’s amnesty and immigration expansion plan. As House Speaker, Ryan passed an omnibus
spending bill which included a massive increase in the number of low-skilled foreign workers to fill U.S. jobs.
Ryan’s omnibus spending bill also funded visas for nearly 300,000 Muslim migrants for this year alone.
'Benedict Arnold' Ryan better come to his senses quickly or just admit his policies are closer to Hillary Clinton than
those of the new head of his party.
[h=1]Ryan and Trump set for crisis meeting amid 'unprecedented' stand off[/h]The meeting comes after Mr Ryan said he was 'not ready' to endorse the GOP presumptive nominee
Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are set to have a one-on-one crisis meeting after the most senior elected Republican said he was not yet able to endorse the party’s presumptive presidential candidate.
Reports said that Republican officials were trying to broker a meeting for next Wednesday, after Mr Ryan stunned political observers, and perhaps Mr Trump, with his comment that he needed the tycoon to display true “conservative principles” before he could throw his full support behind him.
“I want to see verification that our conservative principles will be championed. We’re not there yet,” he added.
Mr Ryan’s comments, and his refusal to support the candidate, were were unprecedented in modern times.
In 1896, Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed ran against William McKinley and said he would not serve as vice president, but ended up backing the nominee.
Mr Trump, who on Thursday evening had issued a statement saying that he was not ready to adopt Mr Ryan’s agenda, appeared on Friday to be open to some sort of compromise.
At the same time he made clear he was not pleased with Mr Ryan’s comments, that revealed a deep wariness within the Republican establishment about Mr Trump’s candidacy. The New York tycoon said the refusal to offer an endorsement was not a good thing and the party should resolve it.
“I mean, he talks about unity, but what is this about unity?” he toldFox News. “With millions of people coming into the party, obviously I’m saying the right thing.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, said be believed “it’s going to work out” in the end.
“In some cases people are not going to be instantly on board, and I know that can be frustrating for some people. But I think everyone has to allow a little bit of the steam to get out and get everybody settled down. And I think this is going to come together,” he said.
Mr Trump has sparked unease within sections of his of the Republican party with his abrasive manner, derogatory comments about women and immigrants as well as several of his opinions, which do not match Republican orthodoxy. Mr Trump and Mr Ryan are particularly at odds over the issue of free trade, with the real estate mogul supporting some tariffs.
A number of senior Republicans, including the two last Republican presidents, have made clear they will not be attending the party’s July convention in Cleveland.
One thing Mr Trump sought to tidy up was speculation that he might look outside the party and choose a Democrat for a running mate. He said he would not do that.
“We want to have a great ticket. The Democrats have been in there for a long time, the economy is terrible,” Mr Trump said. “I’m going to pick a great Republican, and we’re going to have a tremendous victory.”
Last year, the Republicans went to great lengths to keep Mr Trump from leaving the party when he repeatedly threatened to run as an independent. The party’s chairman asked all candidates to sign a unity pledge promising to support the eventual nominee. But by the end of the brutal nominating contest, all of the three remaining candidates broke that pledge.
Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are set to have a one-on-one crisis meeting after the most senior elected Republican said he was not yet able to endorse the party’s presumptive presidential candidate.
Reports said that Republican officials were trying to broker a meeting for next Wednesday, after Mr Ryan stunned political observers, and perhaps Mr Trump, with his comment that he needed the tycoon to display true “conservative principles” before he could throw his full support behind him.
“I want to see verification that our conservative principles will be championed. We’re not there yet,” he added.
Mr Ryan’s comments, and his refusal to support the candidate, were were unprecedented in modern times.
In 1896, Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed ran against William McKinley and said he would not serve as vice president, but ended up backing the nominee.
Mr Trump, who on Thursday evening had issued a statement saying that he was not ready to adopt Mr Ryan’s agenda, appeared on Friday to be open to some sort of compromise.
At the same time he made clear he was not pleased with Mr Ryan’s comments, that revealed a deep wariness within the Republican establishment about Mr Trump’s candidacy. The New York tycoon said the refusal to offer an endorsement was not a good thing and the party should resolve it.
“I mean, he talks about unity, but what is this about unity?” he toldFox News. “With millions of people coming into the party, obviously I’m saying the right thing.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, said be believed “it’s going to work out” in the end.
“In some cases people are not going to be instantly on board, and I know that can be frustrating for some people. But I think everyone has to allow a little bit of the steam to get out and get everybody settled down. And I think this is going to come together,” he said.
Mr Trump has sparked unease within sections of his of the Republican party with his abrasive manner, derogatory comments about women and immigrants as well as several of his opinions, which do not match Republican orthodoxy. Mr Trump and Mr Ryan are particularly at odds over the issue of free trade, with the real estate mogul supporting some tariffs.
A number of senior Republicans, including the two last Republican presidents, have made clear they will not be attending the party’s July convention in Cleveland.
One thing Mr Trump sought to tidy up was speculation that he might look outside the party and choose a Democrat for a running mate. He said he would not do that.
“We want to have a great ticket. The Democrats have been in there for a long time, the economy is terrible,” Mr Trump said. “I’m going to pick a great Republican, and we’re going to have a tremendous victory.”
Last year, the Republicans went to great lengths to keep Mr Trump from leaving the party when he repeatedly threatened to run as an independent. The party’s chairman asked all candidates to sign a unity pledge promising to support the eventual nominee. But by the end of the brutal nominating contest, all of the three remaining candidates broke that pledge.
Trump Spokeswoman: Ryan Isn’t Fit to Be Speaker If He Won't Support Trump - Breitbart
Trump Spokeswoman: Ryan Isn’t Fit to Be Speaker If He Won't Support Trump
BREITBART.COM
