Ryan’s break from Trump prompts talk of GOP rebellion
Party strategists fear voters fleeing Trump will also fail to support Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, possibly costing the party control of Congress.
Their decision was only made harder when, on the heels of the “Access Hollywood” scandal, Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he would focus his time on re-electing congressional Republicans, not on electing Donald Trump. That call came after the revelation of a 2005 video showing Trump making vulgar remarks about forcing himself physically on women. At least, that’s what Ryan heard on a roughly hour-long conference call on Monday.
“The brand has already been irrevocably damaged”. In a stunning admission, right wing radio host and Tea Party promoter Glenn Beck has said he can no longer recommend voting for Trump - not even if that means Clinton will be in the White House instead.
Trump is “surrounded by people who have been obsessed with bringing down the Clintons based on pseudo-scandals for years”, said David Brock, an ally of Hillary Clinton who as a former Republican operative spent much of the 1990s hunting down dirt on the Clintons.
The raging civil war between the pro-Trump nativist faction and anti-Trump pluralist wing has left some Republicans wondering if they will ever be able to reconcile, or if the party is on the cusp of a cataclysmic fracture.”I think there’s a Trump party and there’s a Republican Party”.
“If you’ve got friends in Utah or Arizona, make sure they vote, too”, Clinton told a raucous crowd in Pueblo. Increasingly, Trump’s campaign feels like an opportunity for longtime Clinton opponents to air decades worth of grievances about the Democratic power couple on the biggest stage in American politics.
What is the Republican Party?
For his part, Trump has lashed out at the speaker for telling his members Monday morning that he’s done defending the real estate mogul, criticizing him at his rallies and suggesting in an interview on Fox News he won’t be speaker next year. For one, he could revert back to the liberal positions he held before calling himself a Republican.
Still the GOP seems determined to come up short - because of Trump’s own volatility and the party’s bitter infighting. One-quarter of Republicans said Trump should drop out of the presidential race as a result of the recording, and the poll showed Clinton’s lead expanded from 7 points in late September largely because of a collapse in Trump’s support, rather than a surge for her. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), for instance, tweeted Wednesday that, “if Paul Ryan isn’t for Trump, then I’m not for Paul Ryan”. On Thursday, the advocacy group American Bridge highlighted Trump’s praise of Rubio on local Florida television, even as Rubio has avoided appearing at any Trump events in the state. Trump denied it all, labeling his accusers liars and blaming a corrupt media establishment and criminal Clinton campaign.
“I think we’ll have a very strong election of Secretary Hillary Clinton and her success”, Pelosi said Tuesday in Texas, reiterating her forecast that “If she wins by seven points, I think we can win state houses, state legislators, the Congress, House and Senate”.
Pence excited some conservative voters with his debate performance.
On matters of trust, the gap between the two had narrowed to the point that both were now viewed by only a third of voters as trustworthy. Ted Cruz, while others will want a Trump-resisting figure like Sens.
Unlike the case with the past four elections, there are perceptible differences between the Republican presidential nominee and most party officeholders.
They shook hands but Trump would not let go, Crooks said, and he began kissing her cheeks and then kissed her on the mouth.
A trio of state polls released this week show Hillary Clinton’s northern “blue wall” holding, as she carries commanding leads across a series of key Rust Belt states.