https://goo.gl/5CZCF8
For those whose eyes were trained on the Republican party headquarters south of the Capitol this morning, a different kind of summit was occurring today a few miles west of there…
Honored to be at @WhiteHouse with @MTV to talk to @POTUS about opioid addiction. Really excited for this project. pic.twitter.com/feb7AfoHqn
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 12, 2016
Exquisitely named conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer rejected Republican talk of “unity” between warring factions of the party’s leadership after a meeting this morning between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan, dismissing the supposed bonhomie between the two as “a sham marriage.”
“I’m not among the many who thought it smoothed over the divide,” Krauthammer said on Fox News this evening, comparing the meeting to false-start talk of peace in the Middle East. “This is a sham marriage and the reason is simple: Goodwill on both sides, but Paul Ryan is a conservative, has been all his life, and committed to serving conservative principles. Trump has made it clear he’s not a conservative, he’s a nationalist populist.”
“Those are differences you never bridge,” Krauthammer continued. Whatever “perfunctory endorsement” Ryan might eventually offer to Trump, he predicted, would be little more than window dressing ahead of the general election.
Donald Trump’s campaign has replaced five potential members of its California delegation to the Republican National Convention, including a white nationalist, an anti-Muslim pastor, and the Mexican-American mayor of a southern California city who says that he takes offense at the presidential candidate’s anti-Mexican rhetoric.
Robert Pacheco, a former state assemblyman and current mayor of Walnut, a small city east of Los Angeles, said that he informed the Trump campaign in April that he did not support Trump, so he was surprised to receive an email on Monday night congratulating him on his selection.
He again informed the campaign that he did not support Trump and has now been removed from their list of potential delegates.
“I am having difficulty with the way that [Trump] approaches a lot of issues, in particular the Hispanic issues,” Pacheco said. “My father is from Mexico; my mother was born in the United States. It doesn’t matter if we are touched directly; it can be an uncle, a grandma, a cousin. When things are said that are so insensitive and derogatory, it touches us in our hearts, and it bothers me.”
Pacheco, a Republican, says that he was initially open to supporting Trump, but was alienated by the candidate’s anti-Mexican statements, which have included broadly referring to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.
“When I heard the rhetoric, the further it went, and the louder it got, the less likely I was to support him,” he said. “It’s painting with a broad rush. Not everyone fits the category that you see with the picture of people running across the border. There’s a lot of people that immigrated here properly and that have worked hard to raise a family.”
Pacheco is one of five delegates for Trump who were initially named on the California secretary of state’s official list but were replaced on a new list, posted on Wednesday on the website of the California Republican party.
White House: President Obama will not strip North Carolina of federal funding over ‘bathroom bill’
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today that the Obama administration does not plan to strip North Carolina of federal funding as a result of the state’s legal battle over the passage of a controversial anti-LGBT bill recently signed into law.
The White House and the Department of Justice had been conducting a joint review of federal funding for highways, higher education and other programs as mandated by a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which allows the federal government to withhold education and other funds if a state violates the civil rights of its citizens.
“What has been concluded as a result of that effort is that the administration will not take action to withhold funding while this enforcement action is playing out in the courts,” Earnest said. “All that has been separate from the Department of Justice conclusion that they needed to take action to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These are two separate actions that the government is taking.”
Updated
Utah senator Orrin Hatch, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, has endorsed Donald Trump for president after the presumptive nominee’s meeting this morning with Hatch and other Republican leaders.
“I totally endorse him,” Hatch told Reuters today. Ahead of the meeting, hatch already seemed to be leaning in the direction of endorsing – or at least, supporting – the candidate.
“This election is perhaps the most important of my lifetime,” Hatch said in that statement. “With such critical issues as the future of the Supreme Court hanging in the balance, it is vital that we defeat Hillary Clinton and elect a Republican to the White House.”
“During the primary process, I endorsed Jeb Bush and later Marco Rubio. But throughout I said I would support the eventual nominee. Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee, I will do what I can to help him run a successful campaign.”
Following news that the federal government will conduct a month-long series of raids on undocumented Central American immigrants in a bid to deport those fleeing gang violence in the region, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has issued a statement warning that such actions “do not reflect who we are as a county.”
“I’m against large scale raids that tear families apart and sow fear in communities,” Clinton said in a statement provided by her campaign. “I am concerned about recent news reports, and believe we should not be taking kids and families from their homes in the middle of the night. Families fleeing violence in Central America must be given a full opportunity to seek relief.”
Clinton continued, emphasizing that when children are involved, the federal government must take extra steps to ensure that their human and civil rights are being respected, “which is why I’ve laid out a plan to guarantee all unaccompanied minors are provided access to counsel.”
“We must fix our asylum and refugee systems, and work with regional partners to strengthen conditions in Central America,” Clinton continued. “We need a comprehensive plan to stop the root causes of the violence in Central America and expand orderly resettlement programs. Large scale raids are not productive and do not reflect who we are as a county.”
Alabama’s Republican governor, Robert Bentley, signed a bill into law on Thursday that will regulate abortion clinics like sex offenders.
The bill, SB 205, could shut down two clinics in which the vast majority of the state’s abortions occur. One of the clinics, Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, was temporarily closed in June 2014 as a result of Trap (targeted restriction on abortion provider) laws in the state when it was determined that the facility could not be retrofitted to comply with the laws’ building code regulations. Its new building, however, sits across the street from Huntsville’s Academy for Academics and Arts, a K-8 school, making it vulnerable once again to shutdown under the newly signed law.
SB 205 mandates that abortion clinics be more than 2,000ft (600 meters) from any public school serving children elementary through middle school age, the same kind of restriction required of registered sex offenders.
I’ve seen some weird stuff during this campaign, but this scene outside the RNC may take the cake: pic.twitter.com/Bg3xIoSKMv
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 12, 2016
When delegates to the Democratic national convention gather in Philadelphia at the end of July to – almost certainly – nominate Hillary Clinton as their presidential candidate, they may be in for a bit of a surprise. The night before the opening ceremonies, a film will be premiered in the city that portrays her in a very different light from the official biography.
Clinton Cash is an hour-long cinematic version of the book of the same name that caused quite a stir when it was published a year ago. In lurid images of blood-splattered dollars fluttering down over warlords in conflict zones, accompanied by a menacing soundtrack worthy of a horror classic, the film seeks to distill in punchy form the central message of the book: that Hillary and Bill Clinton, since leaving the White House famously “dead broke” in 2001, have amassed a vast fortune of more than $200m by blurring the lines between public office, their philanthropic foundation, lucrative speaker fees and friendships with dubious characters around the world.
As the book’s author, and main narrator of the film, Peter Schweizer, puts it on camera: “The elites of these countries are getting rich, the Clintons are getting rich, and the money is not trickling down to the people.” Along the way, he alleges, the Clintons “have betrayed their own principles”.
It’s a powerful message, one that is clearly designed to stir up trouble at the convention at just the moment when Clinton should be revelling in her victory in the Democratic race. For the Clinton campaign it will have an air of deja vu, as they had to deal with the turbulence caused by the book in May 2015.
Bernie Sanders: Immigrant roundup ‘inhumane’
Democratic presidential candidate bernie Sanders has come out strongly against a 30-day “surge” of raids to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children found to have entered the country illegally.
“I oppose the painful and inhumane business of locking up and deporting families who have fled horrendous violence in Central America and other countries,” Sanders said in a statement. “Sending these people back into harm’s way is wrong.”
Earlier today, Reuters reported that US immigration authorities were planning on conducting the raids for the next four weeks with the goal of deporting hundreds of Central American immigrants, primarily mothers and their children who have previously been warned to leave the country. The operation would also cover minors who have entered the country without a guardian and since turned 18.
“I recently met a young Salvadoran woman who came to the United States on her own at the age of 15 to flee gangs trying to recruit her,” Sanders said. “I’ve also spoken with many children who have told me with tears streaming down their faces that they live in daily fear that their parents will be taken away.”
“I urge President Obama to use his executive authority to protect families by extending Temporary Protective Status for those who fled from Central America.”
Hillary Clinton held a roundtable discussion with a coalition of HIV/Aids activists at the Hillary for America headquarters in Brooklyn Heights this afternoon, an apparent countermove to opponent Bernie Sanders, who cancelled a long-scheduled meeting with HIV/Aids activists earlier this week.
Peter Staley, and AIDS activist, opened the meeting with some brief remakes. “Aids is not over,” Staley said. “37 million affected worldwide, two million affected in the US, 1.2 million who die.” He explained that he and the 19 other leaders present represented a coalition who intend to push the candidates on the issue of ending once and for all the Aids epidemic. He ended his remarks by joking that Clinton wanted to say a few words before the conversation turned “wonkish”.
“Of course, you know, Peter, ‘wonkish’ is a term of endearment,” Clinton said, joking about her reputation for being a policy wonk. Clinton thanked them for coming, and commended them for being frontline leaders in the fight to stop the Aids epidemic.
“You represent the diversity of the HIV movement today,” she told them. She then remarked that the Aids fight has spanned generations, which she noted was represented in the room. “I couldn’t believe it when you said some weren’t born,” she said. “I’m looking around and,” she laughed and looked at the young man at the end of the table. He waved playfully at her and everyone laughed.
“HIV and Aids are still with us they,” Clinton said. “They disproportionately impact gay and bisexual men, communities of color, transgender people and young people.” She continued: “We do have the tools to end this epidemic once and for all but we need to re-dedicate ourselves to fighting HIV/Aids and to leaving no one behind.” She said the US needed to to continue increase funding for research, expand the use of medications like Prep, cap out-of-pocket costs for those infected with HIV/Aids and expand on President Obama’s HIV/Aids strategy.
She also pledged to continue to work with the community to do everything she could to ending the epidemic. “This issue matters to me deeply. I know many of us have lost friends and loved one to Aids. We owe it to them and to the countless people whose names we will never know to continue this fight together,” she said.
Clinton concluded: “I’m looking forward to our discussion about what more we need to do to eradicate the disease for good. I hope this is the beginning of a productive conversation that lasts through the campaign and on into the White House.”
Donald Trump’s campaign has released a statement regarding Facebook posts made by the candidate’s butler, in which Anthony Senecal called for the hanging of Barack Obama and called Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton a term for female anatomy.
“He does not work at Mar-a-Lago and hasn’t in many years,” the statement reads. “We totally disavow and condemn these horrible statements.”
US immigration officials are planning a month-long series of raids in May and June to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children found to have entered the country illegally.
The operation would likely be the largest deportation sweep targeting immigrant families by the administration of Barack Obama this year after a similar drive over two days in January that focused on Georgia, Texas and North Carolina.
Those raids, which resulted in the detention of 121 people, mostly women and children, sparked an outcry from immigration advocates and criticism from some Democrats, including the party’s presidential election frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has now told field offices nationwide to launch a 30-day “surge” of arrests focused on mothers and children who have already been told to leave the United States, the document seen by Reuters said. The operation would also cover minors who have entered the country without a guardian and since turned 18 years of age, the document said. Two sources confirmed the details of the plan.
The exact dates of the latest series of raids were not known and the details of the operation could change.
Secret Service statement, on Donald Trump’s butler:
The US Secret Service is aware of this matter and will conduct the appropriate investigation.
Eric Trump has promised Republican voters worried about his father’s anti-immigrant platform getting in the way of widening the party’s voter base that Latino voters “can’t wait” for his father to be elected president.
“People often talk about Hispanics,” the younger Trump told Irish radio’s RTE Radio1’s Drivetime, as reported by Buzzfeed News. “You know, I have more Hispanics come up to me telling me, ‘Listen, I can’t wait for your father to be president. He’s gonna bring jobs back to the United States. He’s gonna end the nonsense. He’s gonna create good trade deals. He’s gonna create better education. He’s gonna create a better family structure.’ ”
“I see so little of the divisiveness, which is interesting,” Trump continued. “You watch it on TV, but you see so little of it out in the field.”
Data collated by Latino Decisions, a leading Latino political opinion research organization, indicates the eventual Republican nominee will need to win over as many as 47% of Latino voters in 2016 – nearly double what Mitt Romney was able to muster in 2012.
Graham: ‘cordial, pleasant phone conversation with Mr Trump’
Here’s a statement from Lindsey Graham, perhaps Trump’s sharpest critic in the senate, on the “pleasant” chat he had today with the presumptive nominee.
Graham’s not endorsing, but he does credit Trump’s effort to “reach out to many people”:
I had a cordial, pleasant phone conversation with Mr. Trump. I congratulated him on winning the Republican nomination for President. I know Mr. Trump is reaching out to many people, throughout the party and the country, to solicit their advice and opinions. I believe this is a wise move on his part.
We had a good fifteen minute discussion centered on the national security threats facing the United States. Many of these threats are the result of President Obama’s failed policies.
I gave him my assessment about where we stand in the fight against ISIL and the long-term danger posed by the Iranian nuclear deal. He asked good questions.
Finally, my position remains the same regarding both candidates running for President. I will do what I can in the Senate to help the next president. The next president will inherit a mess.”
George Clooney doesn’t think so.
Your next President of the United States, #MAGA pic.twitter.com/BGwalYnkcL
— Texas for Trump (@BigStick2013) May 12, 2016
Trump to hold fundraiser
Donald Trump is getting started on what he has promised will be a “world-class finance organization” with a fundraiser later this month in Los Angeles, the Washington Post reports:
The dinner fundraiser is set to be the first of as many as 50 finance events that the campaign and party are racing to set up… The Trump campaign, which has no apparatus to solicit contributions, is now finalizing plans with the RNC to participate in a joint fundraising committee that can accept large contributions.
Read the full piece here.
George Clooney has said that Donald Trump will not win the US presidential election as the American public will not be ruled by fear, writes the Guardian’s Henry Barnes.
Take it from George Clooney:
“There’s not going to be a President Donald Trump,” he said. “Fear is not going to drive our country. We’re not afraid of Muslims or immigrants or women. We’re not going to be afraid of anything.”
Does George Clooney know what he’s talking about?
Et tu, Graham?
Lindsey Graham tells reporters he had a call with Trump yesterday. He says Trump wanted to pick his brain on national security
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) May 12, 2016
Update: Apparently Trump called Graham for foreign policy advice on the same day he blamed Graham for Isis “winning”:
Trump *yesterday* on Lindsey Graham:
“His thinking is so far off… that’s why ISIS is essentially winning” https://t.co/21g0rCVYWj
— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) May 12, 2016
Updated
Trump on unity project: ‘things working out really well!’
Indeed they seem to be, for him, with majority leader Mitch McConnell already on board, the chairman of the Republican congressional conference on board and House speaker Paul Ryan quickly coming around.
Great day in D.C. with @SpeakerRyan and Republican leadership. Things working out really well! #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/hfHY9MdAc7
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2016
Trump’s plan if tax returns leak: ‘say they aren’t mine’ – report
Donald Trump told a friend warning him to release his tax returns or else they could be leaked in advance of the election as an “October surprise” that if that happened he would just deny they were his, the National Review reports:
Hard to be shocked by any Trump story these days, but this was pretty amazing. https://t.co/aSCHRDoDHR pic.twitter.com/b8FVuycyAb
— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) May 12, 2016
Hillary Clinton attacked Donald Trump Wednesday for his refusal to release his tax returns, writes the Guardian’s Amber Jamieson:
“You have to ask yourself, why doesn’t he want to release them?” asked Clinton at a crowd at a community college gymnasium in Blackwood, New Jersey, on Wednesday, according to the New York Times.
“Because when you’re running for president and you become the nominee, that’s kind of expected,” she said.
And the Wall Street Journal breaks down today what we might be able to learn from Trump’s returns:
The returns would show how the real-estate developer, golf course owner and branded-products celebrity structures his businesses and how aggressively he uses the tax code.
The Journal piece notes that the returns would reveal Trump’s annual income; how much he claims in charitable giving; and his business ties to countries around the world.
Shy Donald would be first presidential candidate in 40 years not to release his tax returns. Sad! https://t.co/Z6VjphFAX9 @GlennKesslerWP
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) May 12, 2016
Trump’s longtime butler calls for Obama’s death
Donald Trump’s longtime butler – apparently Trump has a longtime butler, Anthony Senecal, currently stationed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida – has posted on Facebook that the president “should have been taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent”, reports Mother Jones.
Mother Jones confirmed with Senecal, 84, that the post was his. “I wrote that. I believe that,” he told the magazine.
Here’s the text of the post:
To all my friends on FB, just a short note to you on our pus headed “president” !!!! This character who I refer to as zero (0) should have been taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent in his first term !!!!! Instead he still remains in office doing every thing he can to gut the America we all know and love !!!!! Now comes Donald J Trump to put an end to the corruption in government !!!! The so called elite, who are nothing but common dog turds from your front lawn are shaking in their boots because there is a new Sheriff coming to town, and the end to their corruption of the American people (YOU) is at hand !!!! I cannot believe that a common murder is even allowed to run (killery clinton) OR that a commie like bernie is a also allowed to also run !!!! Come on America put your big boy pants on—this election you have a choice—GET YOUR ASS OUT AND VOTE !!!! Thank you !!!!
In earlier posts, Senecal wrote of Obama, “this prick needs to be hung for treason!!!” and called for “dragging that ball less dick head from the white mosque and hanging his scrawny ass from the portico.”
Read the full Mother Jones piece here.
Activists are delivering taco salads to Republican congress members in protest of Trump’s presence in Washington and the Republican cascade of support behind him.
The salads refer to this patronizing tweet by Trump last week.
VIDEO: Protesters delivering taco salads in opposition to Trump now at office of @RepDavidValadao (R-Calif.) pic.twitter.com/Oqw9fkiH19
— Ed O’Keefe (@edatpost) May 12, 2016
Trailed by Spanish TV cameras, @americasvoice is delivering taco salads today to Senate Republicans backing Trump. pic.twitter.com/HFWkaqwy53
— Teddy Davis (@TeddyDavisCNN) May 12, 2016
Meanwhile, Tom Perez, the Labor secretary, tells reporters that Trump would be “a train wreck” for Latinos:
On press call, Clinton surrogate @LaborSec says a Donald Trump presidency would be “a train wreck for Latinos”
— Monica Alba (@albamonica) May 12, 2016
On Clinton press call @danmericaCNN asks the question on everyone’s minds: On VP buzz, Tom Perez says “I’ve had no conversations about that”
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 12, 2016
Updated
What are the Republican senators cheering about at luncheon? Is it meatloaf Thursday?
Cheers coming from the Senate Republican luncheon.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) May 12, 2016
Applause from senate GOP lunch. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) May 12, 2016
Senate majority whip John Cornyn today, with the man who he warned in February could be “an albatross around the down-ballot races”:
Good, constructive meeting with Senate leadership and @realDonaldTrump today pic.twitter.com/zijuu8F3FN
— JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 12, 2016
Thumbs up!
Updated
Minority leader Harry Reid said the meetings served as “the latest sign that the Republican leaders in both houses are marching lockstep with Donald Trump”, write the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui and David Smith:
The Nevada senator aimed his fire in particular at Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who threw his support behind Trump last week when it became all but certain that the real estate mogul had clinched the nomination.
Harry Reid on Senate floor: Trump owes his candidacy to Mitch McConnell https://t.co/dhkVUSy4J3
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) May 12, 2016
“Donald Trump is everything that the Republican leader and his party could ever want in a nominee. His policy positions are identical to the Republican Party platform,” Reid said in remarks on the Senate floor.
He then proceeded to tie the GOP to Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric toward immigrants and women, pointing out that Republicans in Congress have blocked action on immigration reform and policies such as equal pay for women and paid family leave.
“Trump owes his candidacy to the Republican leader and to the policies that he’s led,” Reid said. “It was an obstructionist, anti-woman, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-middle class, anti-environment, and anti-Obama and anti-everything Republican Party of the last eight years that made Donald Trump a reality.”
Read more:
Video: Ryan calls Trump ‘warm and genuine’
McConnell: Trump meeting ‘constructive’
Politico catches McConnell:
McConnell back at Capitol, calls meeting “constructive” discussed “variety of issues”
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) May 12, 2016
Trump meanwhile makes another stop – at his lawyer’s:
Trump arrives at Jones Day, the law firm where campaign lawyer Don McGahn works. pic.twitter.com/ymukG53iNQ
— Candace Smith (@CandaceSmith_) May 12, 2016
Donald Trump has left the senators and is headed to the airport.
We’re hoping to have statements from the meeting participants shortly.
“My most important meeting of the day,” he says. Rich.
My most important meeting of the day. pic.twitter.com/pnhIRkLPq6
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) May 12, 2016
A report that Donald Trump is considering Newt Gingrich as vice president prompts musing as to whether and how two noted non-monogamists could use Bill Clinton’s sex scandals against Hillary Clinton (Trump has called Hillary Clinton an “enabler” of Bill Clinton whom he called an “abuser”):
The chutzpah index would explode if these guys tried to hang Bill’s dalliances around Hillary. https://t.co/Q2O38wc1Mq
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) May 12, 2016
How are things going with Trump and the senators, meeting now at the National Republican senatorial committee?
Will Mitch McConnell share Ryan’s stated reservations about endorsing Trump – or will the majority leader and the nominee engage in a faster-moving courtship?
The scene outside the NRSC more than an hour into Trump’s meeting with GOP senators. pic.twitter.com/jciN6XDiDI
— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) May 12, 2016
What about those minor “policy disputes” (trade, immigration, taxes, entitlements, a religious test for migrants) that separate Donald Trump and Paul Ryan in spite of their agreement on “core principles” (beat Hillary Clinton)?
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post has a suggestion:
To win over Paul Ryan, Trump simply needs to learn GOP-policy-speak, which should be a snap: https://t.co/jkFglCFT2c
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 12, 2016
1) Stop saying “deportations” and instead say “enforce the law”
2) Agree to “reform and strengthen” entitlements https://t.co/r2KsBWekub
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 12, 2016
Updated
Reactions to Ryan: people are not scanning Ryan’s statement just then on Trump as a profile in courage, anyhow:
Ryan desperately wants to have his cake & eat it, too. Wants to back Trump w/out tarnishing reform conservatism. Will it work? Up to Trump.
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) May 12, 2016
Ryan is a Trump guy now! Also, for the record, a policy guy; a budget guy; a Wisconsin guy; a hunting guy; a regular order guy!
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 12, 2016
“Trump believes in limited government.” Not a parody.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 12, 2016
Irony: Ryan’s endorsement, having been “earned,” will do more to promote Trump than McConnell’s perfunctory insta-cave
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) May 12, 2016
Trump & Ryan are those guys who can’t stand each other who get handcuffed together, and have to spend the rest of the movie cooperating.
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) May 12, 2016
(Paul Ryan looks pensively out his office window, mutters to himself) “I must find out where the people are going so I can lead them.”
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 12, 2016
Yes, folks, Paul Ryan is going to endorse Donald Trump. Not today but he’s going to endorse.
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) May 12, 2016
Updated
As Paul Ryan in Washington talks about Donald Trump’s “very good personality,” Bernie Sanders in South Dakota ignores him and buys donuts.
As @BernieSanders picks out donuts at a South Dakota gas station, @SpeakerRyan‘s press conference plays behind him. pic.twitter.com/0weCr324S5
— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) May 12, 2016
Ryan describes agreement with Trump on ‘core principles’
Ryan said he sounded Trump out on his views on abortion, “limited government”, “the constitution”, and “executive power” and he found broad agreement.
The conversation was “personal,” Ryan said, suggesting that he probed for Trump’s heartfelt views on issues such as opposing reproductive choice, a position to which Trump is a relatively recent arrival.
“We talked about life, the supreme court,” Ryan said. “I was very encouraged with what I heard from Donald Trump today.
“We are planting the seed to get ourselves unified to bridge the gaps and differences,” he said.
“It was our first meeting. I was very encouraged, but this is a process, it takes a little time.
“There are policy disputes that we will have. There’s no two ways about it. But on core principles, those are the kinds of things that we discussed.
“In 45 minutes, you don’t litigate all of the issues and all of the processes and the principles.”
Ryan on Trump’s Muslim ban: ‘I’m not interested in litigating the past’
Ryan is asked whether he can get behind Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim migrants and the deportation of undocumented migrants.
Ryan downplays the importance of any differences the two may have on the issue.
“We will have policy disputes,” Ryan says. “I’m not interested in litigating the past. I’m interested in going forward.”
“I represent a wing of the conservative party – he’s bringing a whole new wing. That’s a positive thing.”
Ryan says that the two shared a “positive vision based on core principles.”
The principles include that a Clinton presidency “would be a disaster.”
When Ryan agrees with Trump that Obama guilty of overreach, it’s a “core principle”. Disagreement on Muslim ban is a “policy dispute”
— Tom McCarthy (@TeeMcSee) May 12, 2016
Updated
Ryan: ‘happy to serve as chair’ of convention
Ryan says that after meeting Trump he is happy to serve as chairman of the national convention if Trump wanted him to.
Earlier Ryan had said he was willing to step down in the role if Trump wanted.
“I thought he was a very good personality. He was a very warm… gentleman. .. I actually had a very pleasant exchange with him.”
Ryan: ‘I was very encouraged’
Ryan says “it’s no secret that Donald Trump and I have had our differences, and we talked about those differences today” but “I was very encouraged” by the meeting.
“It’s very important that we don’t fake unifying… so that we are full strength in the fall,” he says.
Updated
Paul Ryan is speaking. He’s talking about legislation to fight the opioid addiction epidemic. Expected to take questions about Trump. Watch live here:
Priebus: meeting ‘went as well as I’d hoped’
Reince Priebus, the RNC chair, is talking with CNN about the Trump-Ryan meeting, which he said was “positive, it was give-and-take” and “it went as well as I’d hoped.” He said the two shared great chemistry.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked him whether he felt like a couple’s therapist. He said she wouldn’t have asked that if she’d been in the room because the participants did not feel like a couple in a spat.
Bash asked him whether a Paul Ryan endorsement of Donald Trump is in the offing. He said it was “a good first step.”
The Republican dominoes are falling for Trump. The party is coalescing behind the nominee.
Representative Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, releases a statement of support for Trump simultaneous to the Trump-Ryan statement of “common ground”.
It’s looking like Trump came to DC less to negotiate than to tour town a bit, pick up some political chits, nod his chin at the Washington Monument and jet the heck out of there.
“While I may disagree with the rhetoric Mr Trump uses and some policy positions, he is the better option than Hillary Clinton,” Walden says.
NRCC Chairman Greg Walden’s Statement on Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/1Fn5rW3u3n
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) May 12, 2016
Here’s the Ryan-Trump statement in bigger font:
Joint statement from Paul Ryan and Donald Trump after their meeting this morning pic.twitter.com/lbICLKVQil
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) May 12, 2016
And reactions:
I don’t see any way to read that statement without concluding that Paul Ryan will spend the rest of 2016 on Team Trump.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) May 12, 2016
“I disagree with our nominee on his disparaging remarks about every demographic and can’t fathom what his positions are. But I support him.”
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) May 12, 2016
We’re not sure the statement evinces such a tone of strained harmony as this analogy implies:
This is like a post-summit statement from U.S.-Soviet Union during the Cold War. For the good of world peace, we will get along.
— John Bresnahan (@BresPolitico) May 12, 2016
Ryan downgraded from #NotYetTrump to #ProbablyTrump
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) May 12, 2016
No mention of “making America great again” in Trump-Ryan statement ….
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 12, 2016
Is “totally committed” to working to unify the party the same as a “full and frank exchange of views”? Or something more?
— Michael Tackett (@tackettdc) May 12, 2016
Updated
Ryan-Trump statement: ‘we are totally committed to working together’
The Ryan-Trump statement does not go so far as to say that Ryan now endorses Trump, and alludes to a remaining “few differences” between the two.
But they are “totally committed to working together” to winning the presidential election – which would seem rather hard if Ryan did not support Trump in a manner distinguishable from an endorsement in no meaningful way?
Ryan-Trump statement hails ‘very positive step’
A joint statement from Paul Ryan and Donald Trump hails a “very positive step toward unification” after their meeting.
“We had a great conversation this morning,” the statement says. While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground.”
We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there’s a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal. ….
This was our first meeting, but it was a very positive step toward unification.
NEW: Joint statement from Paul Ryan and Donald Trump call meeting “a very positive step toward unification” pic.twitter.com/oExZIMl5PQ
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 12, 2016
Updated
Trump’s on his way to meet the Senate.
Trump motorcade heading to the Senate side pic.twitter.com/g2ZzXBGHz9
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) May 12, 2016
Minority leader Harry Reid took the senate floor this morning and tweaked the Republican leadership for embracing Trump, reported Niels Lesniewski of Roll Call:
“When they get together, they can talk about their policies about being anti-woman,” the Nevada Democrat said on the Senate floor. “Since senator McConnell has so enthusiastically embraced Trump, we can only assume he agrees with Trump’s view that women are dogs and pigs.”
Reid says “We can only assume” that McConnell agrees with Trump that “women are dogs”
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) May 12, 2016
Priebus: ‘the meeting was great’
Trump has finished his meeting with House leaders and is now en route to meet the senators, CNN reports.
RNC chair Reince Priebus says “the meeting” – it appears he’s talking about the meeting including Paul Ryan – “was great”:
The meeting was great. It was a very positive step toward party unity.
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) May 12, 2016
Sarah Palin made the transition from politician to reality star. Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t quite be said to be following in her footsteps, owing to the movie career that predated his entry to politics, but he’s now making a similar transition, to run Celebrity Apprentice in its post-Donald Trump incarnation. Trump has become the first reality star to transition successfully to politics (sorry, Clay Aiken). And around goes the merry-go-round.
You’re welcome, America. https://t.co/UA4Sof7U4Z pic.twitter.com/zXYe8vBLKL
— Alex Weprin (@alexweprin) May 12, 2016
What does Ryan have against Trump?
After an early reluctance to back Donald Trump in the presidential nominating race despite the candidate’s string of authoritative state victories, most Republican members of Congress have come around to supporting the nominee (if not by name) in the week since his resounding victory in Indiana.
The main exception, notable because he is the top Republican elected official in the country, has been House speaker Paul Ryan. “I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee, told CNN in an interview last Thursday when asked if he was backing Trump. “I’m not there right now.”
What were Ryan’s objections? Unnamed sources close to the speaker said that Ryan – whose political biography has him as the forthright son of small-town Wisconsin raised on the Midwestern values of personal moral hygiene and interpersonal respect, and whose political mentor was Jack Kemp, the embodiment of a sunnier politics and a more compassionate conservatism – particularly balked at Trump’s call for a “total and complete shutdown” of travel by Muslims to the United States and at Trump’s slowness to reject support from the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist elements.
Ryan’s apparent revulsion at Trump surfaced in a couple news conference the speaker called in March to tut-tut about the nastiness playing out on the campaign trail. “It didn’t used to be this bad,” he said at one. “This party does not prey on people’s prejudices,” he said at another.
But the divisions between the two go beyond stylistic differences, or their separate manuals of political manners. Central to Ryan’s political identity have been his hawkishness on the budget, which extends to cutting spending on Medicare and Social Security, and his support for immigration reform, which includes legal status for DREAMers and “legal probation” for other undocumented migrants. Trump has said he won’t touch people’s Social Security checks and wants to deport all undocumented migrants.
Ryan is scheduled to address the media in about an hour, and to indicate whether he can overcome his objections to Trump, just one week after he last voiced them. On Monday Ryan began indicating he might, saying that his problem with Trump was rooted in the fact that the two were effectively strangers. “We just need to get to know each other,” he said.
Whatever Ryan’s objections to Trump – whatever the Republican party’s objections to Trump – can their differences be resolved – can they “get to know each other” – sufficiently in a morning meeting in the capital for them to be able to emerge and declare a truce, if not full-on unity? We’ll know more shortly.
It’d be pretty funny if Paul Ryan came out of the meeting and said “you know what, fuck that guy.”
— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) May 12, 2016
Updated
Protesters taunt Trump summit
Protesters gathered outside RNC headquarters as the Republican congressional leadership arrived for the Trump summit.
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. The battle-hardened and triumphant Donald Trump today will present his victories in the halls of power, where rival leader Paul Ryan must decide whether he is to be greeted as an ally or expelled as a traitor, to the peril, perhaps, of the entire Republican kingdom.
To say that the Grand Old Party has arrived at a fraught juncture in its 160-year history is to risk understating the stakes of meetings today on in Washington between the presumptive presidential nominee and congressional leaders including Ryan, the speaker of the House.
The conclusion may already have been written. Ryan on Wednesday signaled a new willingness to work with Trump, whose promise to exclude Muslims from the US and seeming lack of discomfort with the KKK reportedly fed Ryan’s reluctance, stated just last week, to back him.
“I want to be a part of that unifying process,” Ryan decided yesterday morning, calling the GOP a “big-tent party”.
Trump made sounds of compromise, too, telling Fox News Channel’s Brian Kilmeade that his plan to ban all foreign Muslims from entering the US was “only a suggestion”.
“It hasn’t been called for yet,” Trump said on Kilmeade & Friends, when asked about criticism from the newly elected mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital. “Nobody’s done it.
“It’s a temporary ban, it hasn’t been called for yet, nobody’s done it, this is just a suggestion until we find out what’s going on,” Trump said.
In December, Trump proposed a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslim travel to the US.
Thanks for reading and as always, please join us in the comments.
Updated
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Trump and Ryan: meeting was a 'very positive step' toward GOP unity – live
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment