Tag: GOP

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Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan: “I Do Not Want, Nor Will I Accept The Republican Nomination”

Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan held a press conference today to attempt to quell rumors that he’s running a “shadow campaign” to be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in the event of a “contested convention” this summer.

From NPR:

“I want to put this to rest once and for all,” Ryan said of speculation that he could be chosen as the Republican presidential nominee this summer in a multiballot convention.

“Let me be clear: I do not want, nor will I accept the Republican nomination. So let me speak directly to the delegates on this: If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only choose a person who actually participated in the primary. Count me out.”

“I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee — to be the president — you should actually run for it,” said Ryan, who ran in 2012 on the losing Republican ticket as the vice presidential nominee. “I chose not to. Therefore, I should not be considered. Period. End of story. I just think it would be wrong to go any other way. So, let me say again, I’m not going to be our party’s nominee.”

Folks continue to doubt Ryan’s pronouncement’s about not running for president in great part because similar protestations preceded his taking on the position of Speaker of the House.

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Has Paul Ryan Released A Pre-Presidential Campaign Ad?

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has released a new video that has many wondering if it’s a prologue to a possible Republican presidential campaign.

Ryan has repeatedly said he has no interest in being the 2016 Republican presidential candidate should their be no current candidate arrive in Cleveland for the GOP convention without the requisite 1,237 delegates. But many have pointed to Ryan as someone the party could rally to in 2nd or 3rd ballot votes for a candidate.

And this video definitely has a “campaign flavor” to it.

In the video – titled “Politics These Days” – Ryan calls for uniting, not dividing the country.

“What really bothers me the most about politics these days is this notion of identity politics: that we’re going to win an election by dividing people, rather than inspiring people.

“So let’s have a battle of ideas. Let’s have a contest of whose ideas are better and why our ideas are better.”

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Jeb Bush To Endorse Sen. Ted Cruz For Antidote To Donald Trump’s ‘Divisiveness’

Jeb Bush

As Sen. Ted Cruz slowly emerges as the Republican’s only possible “anti-Trump” candidate, word comes that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will endorse Cruz today citing the “divisiveness and vulgarity” of current front-runner Donald Trump.

Via Politico:

Cruz, in New York City on Wednesday, planned to celebrate with a victory lap of three network morning shows. The endorsement comes 32 days after a beaten Bush dropped out of the GOP presidential race, and eight days since Sen. Marco Rubio abandoned his own quest after being rebuffed by Bush, his fellow Floridian and one-time mentor.

Bush says in a statement to be released by the Cruz campaign: “Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests.”

“For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena, or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama’s failed policies,” the statement continues.

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Donald Trump Senior Adviser: Riots Aren’t Violence

Team Trump is now writing the definitions of words in the English language.

On Friday morning’s New Day, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked Trump senior campaign adviser SamClovis to respond to Speaker Paul Ryan‘s scolding of Trump for the riots remark, and Clovis decided up was down, and down was up.

Camerota: “What do you think about the idea that he was suggesting that there would be violence? Threatening that there would be violence?”

Clovis: “I don’t think he said violence, he said riots.”

Camerota:”Riots are violence, by definition.”

Clovis: “I don’t accept that.”

Clovis went on to say if Donald Trump isn’t named the Republican nominee at the party convention in July, he will leave the GOP forever.

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Donald Trump Will Not Attend Fox News Republican Debate

GOP front-runner Donald Trump surprised the folks over at Fox News this morning during a call-in interview where he informed the Fox & Friends hosts he will not be attending the upcoming Fox News Republican debate.

From Mediaite:

“Nobody told me about the debate,” said Trump during his phone interview, revealing that a longstanding commitment — a speech to what he estimates is “eight or nine thousand people” on the night of March 21 — is preventing him from attending.

The trio of Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade tried to negotiate with the master negotiator a bit, with Earhardt offering, “The voters love them though!”

“No, you know who loves them? The networks,” clarified Trump. “Haven’t we had enough?” he asked at one point.

The debate, announced this past Monday, is set to take place in Salt Lake City on March 21st.

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NBC News Poll Shows Gov. John Kasich Leading In Ohio GOP Primary

Good on Ohio Gov. John Kasich – looks like he has a solid chance to win his home state of Ohio this coming Tuesday in the Republican primary, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls.

Unfortunately for Sen. Marco Rubio, it doesn’t look like his home state of Florida will be doing him the same favor as GOP front-runner Donald Trump has an almost 20 point lead over Rubio.

Illinois looks to follow Donald Trump’s pattern of dominating the GOP primary season as well.

While there was no NBC News poll done in North Carolina, also holding that state’s primary on Tuesday, Real Clear Politics shows Trump ahead there by an average of almost 12 points.

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Donald Trump Doubles Down On Asking Supporters To “Pledge” Themselves To Him

Over the weekend I posted about a “pledge” Republican front-runner Donald Trump has begun asking his supporters at rallies to speak aloud while raising their right hands.

Despite comments that this all looks eerily like a “Heil Hitler” salute, Trump continued this at campaign stops today.

Abe Foxman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League, gave a statement to the Times of Israel explaining why he found this “pledge of allegiance” to Trump is so disturbing:

“As a Jew who survived the Holocaust, to see an audience of thousands of people raising their hands in what looks like the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute is about as offensive, obnoxious and disgusting as anything I thought I would ever witness in the United States of America,” he told The Times of Israel.

“We’ve seen this sort of thing at rallies of neo-Nazis. We’ve seen it at rallies of white supremacists. But to see it at a rally for a legitimate candidate for the presidency of the United States is outrageous.”

“It is a fascist gesture,” Foxman said. “He is smart enough — he always tells us how smart he is — to know the images that this evokes. Instead of asking his audience to pledge allegiance to the United States of America, which in itself would be a little bizarre, he’s asking them to swear allegiance to him.”

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Florida: Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board Can’t Endorse ANY GOP Candidate

This is unusual. And frankly, refreshing.

The editorial board of the Sun-Sentinel in Florida has chosen to not endorse any Republican candidate ahead of the March 15th primary.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board is not going to make an endorsement in Florida’s March 15 Republican presidential primary because the kind of person who should be running is not in the race.

We cannot endorse businessman Donald Trump, hometown Sen. Marco Rubio or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz because they are unqualified to be president. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the best of the bunch, but if you measure a candidate by the caliber of his campaign, Kasich’s lack of traction and organization make a vote for him count for little.

[snip]

If he could survive the primary, Kasich would prove a strong candidate in November. Recent polls show he averages a 7.4 lead over Hillary Clinton, which is larger than the leads posted by Rubio, Cruz or Trump.

But while Kasich is the most qualified of the four candidates left standing, he lacks presidential presence. And he doesn’t have a chance of winning because the Republican base is in rebellion and he got out of the gate too late to build a viable campaign organization.

Perhaps in a more-rational election year, the Sun Sentinel would endorse John Kasich. But we can’t urge you to vote for someone who doesn’t have a chance of winning the nomination.

It’s notable that the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board did enthusiastically endorse former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic primary based on her experience, resume and steadiness.

(tipped by TRR reader Tony)

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Dr. Ben Carson Drops Out Of Republican Race For President

After landing in 4th place at the Iowa Caucuses, followed by last place showings in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and pretty much coming in 4th in contests across the country on Super Tuesday, Dr. Ben Carson has told his supporters he’s pretty much reached the end of his presidential run.

From the Washington Post:

Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who briefly led the Republican presidential race before his campaign began an extended public implosion, told his supporters in a statement Wednesday afternoon that he does not see a “path forward” and will not attend Thursday’s debate in Detroit.

Carson, however, did not formally suspend his campaign. Instead, he said in the statement that has decided to make a speech about his political future on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, just outside of Washington.

“I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results,” the statement said. “However, this grassroots movement on behalf of ‘We the People’ will continue. Along with millions of patriots who have supported my campaign for President, I remain committed to Saving America for Future Generations.”

Rumors have been swirling that Republican leaders have been asking Carson to drop out of the presidential race and, instead, run for Marco Rubio’s senate seat in Florida where he lives.

I wonder if that will be part of his speech on Friday?

Stay tuned…

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Sen. Lindsey Graham Jokes “My Party Has Gone Batshit Crazy!”

Speaking at the Washington Press Club Foundation Dinner last night, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham got big laughs for some unexpected remarks.

Saying that Hillary Clinton is about to become president, Graham laid that at the feet of the GOP: “How could that be? My party has gone batshit crazy.”

On the severe dislike that members of the U.S. Senate have for Sen. Ted Cruz: “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody could convict you.”

Watch below: