Giving up on Trump? Ryan focusing on saving GOP majority

[webfact]

Giving up on Trump? Ryan focusing on saving GOP majority

By JULIE PACE, ERICA WERNER and STEVE PEOPLES

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan, the nation's top elected Republican, effectively abandoned Donald Trump Monday, telling anxious fellow lawmakers he will not campaign for or defend the floundering businessman in the election's closing weeks. Pro-Trump members rebelled in anger, accusing Ryan of conceding the election to Hillary Clinton.

 

Indeed, Ryan said he would devote his energy to ensuring Clinton doesn't get a "blank check" as president with a Democratic-controlled Congress, according to people on his private conference call with GOP House members. While the Wisconsin Republican did not formally rescind his own tepid endorsement of Trump, he told lawmakers they were free to do just that and fight for their own re-election.

 

Trump fired back on Twitter, saying Ryan "should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee."

 

Trump retained the backing of the Republican National Committee, which has overseen crucial field efforts for the candidate in battleground states. On a conference call with RNC members, chairman Reince Priebus said the party remains in full coordination with Trump.

 

"Everything is on course," Priebus said, according to a participant in the call.

 

Still, Ryan's announcement underscored the perilous predicament Republicans find themselves in one month from Election Day. Recent revelations of Trump's predatory sexual comments about women deepened the worries among GOP officials who fear he'll drag down their own electoral prospects in November. But others look at Trump's loyal bands of supporters and see no way for Republicans in other races to win without their support.

 

Trump himself made no reference to Ryan and the GOP defections at a Pennsylvania rally, except perhaps one line that could apply to fleeing Republicans as well as the Democrats.

 

"The last 72 hours has framed what this election is all about. It's about the American people fighting back against corrupt politicians who don't care about anything except for staying in power," he said.

 

Running mate Mike Pence said he was staying with Trump. "I'm honored to be standing with him," Pence said.

 

Trump's candidacy long ago laid bare the turmoil roiling the GOP. Some party leaders had hoped to push off a reckoning until after the election, but with Ryan and other lawmakers publicly distancing themselves from Trump — and in some cases even calling for the real estate mogul to drop out of the race — that now appears impossible.

 

For Ryan, the most pressing goal through the next four weeks is preventing Republicans from losing control of the House, a scenario that seemed remote as recently as a week ago. Although Republicans are not yet panicking given their wide 246-186 seat majority, Ryan and Greg Walden, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, both acknowledged on Monday's conference call that the majority was more in peril in light of Trump's problems.

 

Walden told lawmakers they still could win their seats, but that it would require delicate maneuvering akin to landing an airplane in a hurricane in a fog, several participants said.

 

On the other side of the Capitol, there were also signs that more Republican Senate candidates were moving to distance themselves from Trump. Two Republicans said they expected to see ads urging voters to back GOP Senate candidates as a check on Clinton's power in the White House.

 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even acknowledge Trump, telling business leaders in his home state of Kentucky that if they expected to hear him discuss the presidential race they "might as well go ahead and leave."

 

Clinton's campaign hammered Republicans for recoiling from Trump at this late date and urged voters to hold GOP candidates accountable for standing by their nominee for months.

 

"Donald Trump didn't become the nominee of his party on his own," said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director.

 

Seeking to pad her lead in battleground states, Clinton was making a direct appeal for moderate Republican voters turned off by Trump. The Clinton campaign released new ads featuring Republican voters crossing party lines to cast their ballots for the former secretary of state.

 

"I don't always agree with her but she's reasonable and she's smart," Republican Jennifer Kohn says in one spot.

 

Trump supporters are furious at the notion that Republican leaders are abandoning the nominee selected by their party. In the conference call with Ryan, California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher called GOP leaders cowards," according to one participant, who like others, insisted on anonymity in order to describe the private discussions.

 

Corey Stewart, the chairman of Trump's Virginia campaign, said Ryan and other party elite didn't understand that "the grass roots took control of this party when we nominated Donald Trump." Stewart said he was leading a group of Republicans to protest outside party headquarters near the Capitol Monday afternoon.

 

Stewart was fired immediately after the protest, which drew dozens of angry Trump supporters to the front step of the Republican National Committee headquarters. Said Deputy Campaign Manager Dave Bossie: "Corey made this decision when he staged a stunt in front of the RNC without the knowledge or the approval of the Trump campaign."

 

Trump had hoped to stop the exodus of Republicans running away from his campaign with a solid performance in Sunday's presidential debate. He did energize his core supporters by hurling insults at Clinton — he called her the "devil" and promised to put her in jail if he's president — but he appeared to do little to win over new voters. He insisted his aggressively vulgar remarks on the videotape were mere "locker room" talk and tried to turn the attention to Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs.

___

AP writers Alan Fram, Bradley Klapper, Lisa Lerer, Jonathan Lemire, Matthew Barakat and Adam Beam contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-10-11

[Merzik]

Ryan is an open-borders, crony-capitalist, ENDLESS WAR  NeoCon. These globalist republicans against Trump such as Ryan and McCain were never with really with him in the first place and are natural allies of the clintons anyway. They are financed from the same lobbies. Trump is bringing back working class Americans and independents to the Republican Party as these NeoCon rats scurry away.

[Pinot]

1 hour ago, Merzik said:

Ryan is an open-borders, crony-capitalist, ENDLESS WAR  NeoCon. These globalist republicans against Trump such as Ryan and McCain were never with really with him in the first place and are natural allies of the clintons anyway. They are financed from the same lobbies. Trump is bringing back working class Americans and independents to the Republican Party as these NeoCon rats scurry away.

 

Trump is cementing the wingnut base to him. There is no lower depth for him to go. Defecating on the stage? Oh yeah, he already done that. 

 

Mark the moment. A major-party presidential nominee is officially promising to lock up his political opponent, despite the fact that an impartial federal investigation concluded that no fair prosecutor would have charged Ms. Clinton in the matter of her emails.

 

Bringing back working class Americans? That's an insult to working class Americans. 

 

Trump's campaign is sinking and Republican office holders are urging him to withdraw. Trump, the genius, decided that his best response was to snarl and double down on old falsehoods. Boom goes the dynamite. An unbelievable performance in front of all of America. 

 

The only people that were energized by his performance were the Hannity types, who delusionally viewed Trump's performance as a crushing defeat for Hillary Clinton. 

 

You almost, kinda, feel a tincy wincy bit sorry for the Republican party. HA! I'm only kidding. Som nom na. 

 

 

[Silurian]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Running mate Mike Pence said he was staying with Trump. "I'm honored to be standing with him," Pence said.

 

Pence is royally forked. If he stays with Trump, he risks looking like he allies himself with a sexist playboy and is okay with Trump's mannerisms. This will most likely hurt him for any future elections. If he leaves Trump, then it looks like he is abandoning his running mate and Pence's loyalty will be questioned.

 

Either way, it looks to be a Dancing With The Stars future for Pence. He better start brushing up on his Waltz and Foxtrot dances.

[Silurian]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Ryan said he would devote his energy to ensuring Clinton doesn't get a "blank check" as president with a Democratic-controlled Congress

 

Yeah, I think a lot of us predicted that the Republican party will stop supporting Trump's candidacy and look towards the House and Senate races. This is the best bet for the GOP. It was a matter of time. If the GOP wants to hold onto any semblance of power and respect, they need to turn their backs on Trump and move forward in other areas.

[Merzik]

1 hour ago, Pinot said:

 

Trump is cementing the wingnut base to him. There is no lower depth for him to go. Defecating on the stage? Oh yeah, he already done that. 

 

Mark the moment. A major-party presidential nominee is officially promising to lock up his political opponent, despite the fact that an impartial federal investigation concluded that no fair prosecutor would have charged Ms. Clinton in the matter of her emails.

 

Bringing back working class Americans? That's an insult to working class Americans. 

 

Trump's campaign is sinking and Republican office holders are urging him to withdraw. Trump, the genius, decided that his best response was to snarl and double down on old falsehoods. Boom goes the dynamite. An unbelievable performance in front of all of America. 

 

The only people that were energized by his performance were the Hannity types, who delusionally viewed Trump's performance as a crushing defeat for Hillary Clinton. 

 

You almost, kinda, feel a tincy wincy bit sorry for the Republican party. HA! I'm only kidding. Som nom na. 

 

 

The clintons have been breaking US and international law for decades. Financial crimes and war crimes. A corrupted judicial department and worthless MSM have kept them both out of the slammer. People like Holder, Lynch and Colmy are a disgrace and not doing their job. Not that the clintons are alone. Their family friends the bushes are just as bad. They all need to face justice.

 

The American working class has been sold out by this republican/ democratic establishment for decades. Tbe FED just anounced that 7 out of 10 Americans no longer have $1,000 in savings. $1,000 !!!!. It is the Clintons, Bushes, Obamas ....who have sold them out. Bad trade deals, crony capitalism, endless empire wars, bankster crimes gone unpunished....we have had enough. There is no substance in your post.You are defending a corrupt oligarchy.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Merzik

[Merzik]

1 hour ago, Silurian said:

 

Yeah, I think a lot of us predicted that the Republican party will stop supporting Trump's candidacy and look towards the House and Senate races. This is the best bet for the GOP. It was a matter of time. If the GOP wants to hold onto any semblance of power and respect, they need to turn their backs on Trump and move forward in other areas.

Nobody respects the crony-capitalist ,war-mongering, republican NeoCon establishment. America is hated all over the world for their wars and financial crimes. Only the olichary's MSM and the small group of people benefiting from this system consider the Ryans, Bushes, Mc Cains...as respectable people . Same same for the clintons, obamas and the rest of the democratic wing of the oligarchy

[Thailand]

More to come?

 

A Howard Stern Trump interview with more of the same  on the net, link did not work here so searching again.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Thailand

[StevieH]

4 minutes ago, Thailand said:

More to come?

 

A Howard Stern Trump interview with more of the same  on the net, link did not work here so searching again.

 

the howard stern show one is pretty old isn't it? if the one you mean is where trump said it was ok for stern to refer to ivanka as "a piece of ass".

[elgordo38]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

"Everything is on course," Priebus said, according to a participant in the call.

 

Sounds like a quotation from the captain of the Titanic. Yes Ryan is running to save the bacon of congressman in trouble trying to salvage something out of this political fiasco. Ye good ship Titanic sorry Trump has hit the iceberg sorry been given the cold shoulder by Ryan a self serving type of chap but one who still has a modem of decency left rare for any politician. Run Ryan run strike the flag on this fiasco and raise it another day. 

[dunroaming]

Yes I couldn't understand why some much emphasis was put on Ryan endorsing Trump in the first place.  It was a big deal for the Trump supporters at the time!. 

[kamahele]

8 hours ago, Merzik said:

Ryan is an open-borders, crony-capitalist, ENDLESS WAR  NeoCon. These globalist republicans against Trump such as Ryan and McCain were never with really with him in the first place and are natural allies of the clintons anyway. They are financed from the same lobbies. Trump is bringing back working class Americans and independents to the Republican Party as these NeoCon rats scurry away.

 

4 hours ago, Merzik said:

The clintons have been breaking US and international law for decades. Financial crimes and war crimes. A corrupted judicial department and worthless MSM have kept them both out of the slammer. People like Holder, Lynch and Colmy are a disgrace and not doing their job. Not that the clintons are alone. Their family friends the bushes are just as bad. They all need to face justice.

 

The American working class has been sold out by this republican/ democratic establishment for decades. Tbe FED just anounced that 7 out of 10 Americans no longer have $1,000 in savings. $1,000 !!!!. It is the Clintons, Bushes, Obamas ....who have sold them out. Bad trade deals, crony capitalism, endless empire wars, bankster crimes gone unpunished....we have had enough. There is no substance in your post.You are defending a corrupt oligarchy.

Trump is the corrupt oligarchy you are talking about, don't you get it? He isn't planning on helping the working class. He has a documented history of ripping off working class Americans in business and what little of his economic plan he has revealed benefits the rich by adding trillions in dollars of debt. His campaign is hoodwinking the stupid and attracting every racist, sexist, homophobic, woman hating nut case in America.

[Jingthing]

Don't like Ryan or trump as they're both horrible in different ways. But Ryan is sensible to give up on trump. He's an existential danger to the USA and the world. 

[Merzik]

7 hours ago, Pinot said:

 

 

Mark the moment. A major-party presidential nominee is officially promising to lock up his political opponent, despite the fact that an impartial federal investigation concluded that no fair prosecutor would have charged Ms. Clinton in the matter.

 

 

When libs lock up political opposition it is ok I guess ?

 

Retweeted Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo):

Oh you mean like Francis Biddle, FDR Attorney General, who prosecuted 33 opponents of WWII for "sedition" on President's orders? https://t.co/D8i5HyNHBM

 

Trump wants to put her on trial for crimes...not her beliefs. Rudolph Giuliani is one former federal proscuter who agrees she is guilty of many obvious crimes and can lead a successful case against her. 

7 hours ago, Pinot said:

 

 

[Merzik]

1 hour ago, kamahele said:

 

Trump is the corrupt oligarchy you are talking about, don't you get it? He isn't planning on helping the working class. He has a documented history of ripping off working class Americans in business and what little of his economic plan he has revealed benefits the rich by adding trillions in dollars of debt. His campaign is hoodwinking the stupid and attracting every racist, sexist, homophobic, woman hating nut case in America.

Rubbish. Trump supports the free enterprise system...not the globalist crony capitalism of sweetheart deals for insider banks and corporations such as NAFTA. 

 

"Racist, sexist, homophobic...."

 

Nonsence and the reflexive mantra of every liberal to anyone who dares not to cower to them. 

[dunroaming]

1 minute ago, Merzik said:

Rubbish. Trump supports the free enterprise system...not the globalist crony capitalism of sweetheart deals for insider banks and corporations such as NAFTA. 

 

"Racist, sexist, homophobic...."

 

Nonsence and the reflexive mantra of every liberal to anyone who dares not to cower to them. 

 

Nothing wrong with racist, sexist homophobes!  There is a place in this world for everyone and thank goodness most of them are in the gutter where they belong.

[Pinot]

52 minutes ago, Merzik said:

 

 

When libs lock up political opposition it is ok I guess ?

 

Retweeted Justin Raimondo (@JustinRaimondo):

Oh you mean like Francis Biddle, FDR Attorney General, who prosecuted 33 opponents of WWII for "sedition" on President's orders? https://t.co/D8i5HyNHBM

 

Trump wants to put her on trial for crimes...not her beliefs. Rudolph Giuliani is one former federal proscuter who agrees she is guilty of many obvious crimes and can lead a successful case against her. 

 

 

They've locked it up because there is no competition. Republicans have no coherent message. They're a dumpster fire. 

 

Confused, pointless, incoherent and rambling like your posts. The party of no has become the party of no make sense. 

[MZurf]

1 hour ago, Merzik said:

Rubbish. Trump supports the free enterprise system...not the globalist crony capitalism of sweetheart deals for insider banks and corporations such as NAFTA. 

 

"Racist, sexist, homophobic...."

 

Nonsence and the reflexive mantra of every liberal to anyone who dares not to cower to them. 

Oh boy! You rail against the system but at the same time you support Trump - the man who would be a less than successful used car salesman without the system???

Again, oh boy!

[Jingthing]

Don't confuse trumpist with logic. It's about how he makes them feel. Big white hands ..

[up-country_sinclair]

Make no mistake about it, Trump has lost the White House for Republicans and most likely the Senate.  The House will be much harder to flip, but Speaker Ryan is right to be concerned.  If Democrats could somehow also take back the House you can guarantee that the next two years will be like President Obama's first two years, but on steroids.

 

 

[Merzik]

26 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Don't confuse trumpist with logic. It's about how he makes them feel. Big white hands ..

All I get from libs are fact-free rants and insults.

[Merzik]

58 minutes ago, MZurf said:

Oh boy! You rail against the system but at the same time you support Trump - the man who would be a less than successful used car salesman without the system???

Again, oh boy!

 

No. Trump wants to return us to the old system ....the constitution. Like all of us he has had to adapt to the current crony-capitalist system he does not like while trying to make  changes. In the Reform Party and now Republican Party that the NeoCons took over. 

[keemapoot]

2 minutes ago, Merzik said:

 

No. Trump wants to return us to the old system ....the constitution. Like all of us he has had to adapt to the current crony-capitalist system he does not like while trying to make  changes. In the Reform Party and now Republican Party that the NeoCons took over. 

 

Haha. That would be nice if Trump had ever taken the time to study the Constitution, not that it would have done him much good given his attention deficit disorder. He has got to be the thickest politician to ever reach the national and global stage. His misstatements on most issues make most Americans cringe with embarrassment every time he opens his mouth. 

[Merzik]

27 minutes ago, up-country_sinclair said:

Make no mistake about it, Trump has lost the White House for Republicans and most likely the Senate.  The House will be much harder to flip, but Speaker Ryan is right to be concerned.  If Democrats could somehow also take back the House you can guarantee that the next two years will be like President Obama's first two years, but on steroids.

 

 

The Republican Party is finished if clinton gets in and legalizes the millions of illegal aliens in the countyincreases immigration as promised and gives us the "open borders" that Wikileaks just revealed she wants. Not that this is a surprise. NeoCon republicans are traitors who will take their golden parachutes as the country quickly becomes just another neo-feudal authoratarian one-party state Orwell and others warned us about. 

[ilostmypassword]

2 hours ago, Merzik said:

Rubbish. Trump supports the free enterprise system...not the globalist crony capitalism of sweetheart deals for insider banks and corporations such as NAFTA. 

 

"Racist, sexist, homophobic...."

 

Nonsence and the reflexive mantra of every liberal to anyone who dares not to cower to them. 

Completely and utterly false. He supports getting rid of restrictions on hedge funds and banks so they can crash the world economy once again.  He supports huge tax cuts for the super wealthy. And he wants to create a new loophole so real estate developers can pay even less in taxes. Hmm...I wonder who would benefit from that.

[Publicus]

 

NBC News/WSJ poll has Democrats nationally at plus-7 in likely voter preference to control the House and the Senate. Politico Morning Consult poll has the D's at plus-5% in voter preference to control the House and the Senate. 

 

It's been said since the 2014 mid-term election that in 2016 the D for Potus would need to win by 7% for the Democrats to win majority control of the Senate and to have a realistic possibility to put the heavily Republican gerrymandered House in play. The trends now are for the D's in the Senate and looking approachable for the D's in the House. Witness Speaker Paul Ryan telling Republican House members yesterday to nevermind Trump because it's now every man for himself....

 

 

“The Republican Party tumbled toward anarchy Monday over its presidential nominee, as House Speaker Paul Ryan cut Donald Trump loose in an emergency maneuver to preserve the party’s endangered congressional majorities,” the Washington Post reports.

 

“With Republicans at war amongst themselves, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton moved swiftly Monday to pry away moderate Republican-leaning voters who are turned off by Trump. Her campaign launched an advertising blitz featuring testimonials from ordinary Republicans explaining why they were voting for Clinton.”

 

 

 

Wall Street Journal: “That darkening picture for Republicans has some in the party concerned that they won’t be able to maintain their majorities in the Senate and even in the House.”

 

 

 

Priorities USA, the leading super PAC trying to elect Hillary Clinton, “is preparing to expand beyond the presidential race and potentially run television ads focused on a handful of competitive Senate races,” CNN reports.

 

“According to a source familiar with the plans, Priorities USA is currently producing television ads to potentially air in Senate contests in North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all competitive races that are also battleground states for the presidential race.”

 

 

 

Nobody -- as in nobody -- expected the North Carolina Senate race to be competitive never mind close with the two-term incumbent Republican Richard Burr (who voted for gays in the military) showing up behind his D opponent Deborah Ross or only statistically even with her. This race could decide whether the Democratic Senate gain is or isn't the minimum of four D's need to get control.

 

Updated October 4, 2016 - Democrat Deborah Ross is proving to be a very formidable challenger. Recent polls show incumbent Republican Richard Burr in a major fight to keep this seat in Republican hands. Ross leads the three latest surveys and four of seven polls released over the last two weeks. Her aggregate 1.2% edge moves this race to Weak DEM Gain. Without Burr's seat, the GOP will be hard-pressed to maintain a majority in the Senate.

 

http://www.electionprojection.com/north-carolina-senate-election.php

 

 

The key point to recognising a wave election affecting the U.S. House is that the incumbent in each instance loses by 1% or even 0.7%. The incumbent in a wave election -- in instance after instance, decade after decade -- doesn't lose by 5% or even 7%. In 1994 when Newt Gingrich led a 42-seat Republican gain to win the first Republican House majority since 1954, the average margin of victory for the 42 new winner Republicans was 0.9%. Not 9%. Don't need a huge margin of victory to realise a wave election.

 

And the key to a wave election is not that massive numbers of one party turn out, although sometimes that does happen. The key to a wave election is that a bunch of voters in the losing party decided to stay home. For instance, the challenger gets 5000 more votes than his party got for the particular House seat in the previous election. The incumbent gets 9000 fewer votes than the incumbent got in the previous election. The bottom line becomes that the challenger wins by 1500 votes -- or fewer, but the challenger wins a close one and the incumbent gets crowbarred out. This occurs in House district after House district, Senate race after Senate race. The total number of new Representatives or Senators is huge but the bottom line of each victory is that the win was very narrow in the vote count and final percentage.

 

Go figure but it is the basic rule of the typical blowout -- or wave election. If that is what's coming, this is how it will occur. 

[Merzik]

46 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Don't confuse trumpist with logic. It's about how he makes them feel. Big white hands ..

Logic ? I have given dozens of examples and facts to support my positions on this thread. In return the libs have just ranted calling Trump and his supporters  stupid, racist, homophobic....as usual . 

[Publicus]

5 minutes ago, Merzik said:

Logic ? I have given dozens of examples and facts to support my positions on this thread. In return the libs have just ranted calling Trump and his supporters  stupid, racist, homophobic....as usual . 

 

Harry Truman in his successful 1948 election campaign heard somebody shout out during one of his train whistlestop speeches "Give 'em hell Harry!" To which Truman laughed and said, "All I do is tell the truth and the Republicans think it's hell"!

 

Hot down there izzit?

[dunroaming]

1 hour ago, Merzik said:

No. Trump wants to return us to the old system

 

My feelings are that the republicans in general (though not all of them) want to revert back to the traditional republican values and that is very much part of the problem.  The world and the USA have moved on and it is no good trying to turn the clock back.  The days of grandma's apple pie and hot milk have been replaced by a McDonalds and a skinny latte.  You may hanker back to those times but that is not the world we live in.

[dunroaming]

"The Trump campaign knows they are going to lose and are consolidating his base to create a lucrative post-election anti-Hillary organization," Tyler said. "That same organization will blame the establishment for the loss and attempt to take over the GOP from the RNC (Republican National Committee) down."

 

Poor Donald really has got his knickers in a twist over the GOP boys disowning him and he has been tweeting like a maniac spitting blood.  Funny though!