In a secret call with top officials Monday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus described the GOP’s relationship with its nominee’s beleaguered presidential campaign as “fully engaged” and “together at all levels.”
But behind closed doors with members of the U.S. House, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., urged anything but that. “You all need to do what’s best for you in your district,” Ryan told his caucus, zeroing in on protecting his members –- all of whom are facing re-election in four weeks.
Ryan says he will not defend Trump or campaign with him but didn’t withdraw his endorsement, spelling out a delicate balance not only for Ryan’s own personal political future but for the dozens of endangered down-ballot Republicans looking for guidance on how to handle Donald Trump’s latest controversy –- and potential controversies to come.
But the power struggle that the Republican Party has been combating for at least the last three elections, starting in 2010, has now appeared to overwhelm the top of the ticket. Its reverberations could be felt long after 2016 in American politics.
Trump’s latest public spat with establishment Republicans in the wake of his “locker room” comments about groping women, for which he has since apologized, has taken center stage over the last 24 hours.
He’s blasted Ryan as a “very weak and ineffective leader” who has given “zero support” and called 2008 nominee John McCain “very foul-mouthed.” He also compared top elected GOP officials to “shackles” that had been taken off.
But the discord runs deeper than the paralyzing feud between the nominee and the party’s most prominent elected officials: every down-ballot candidate has been left to navigate the final four weeks to Election Day on their own.
In some battleground states, candidates like McCain, of Arizona, and Rob Portman, of Ohio, have distanced themselves from Trump and even called for him to drop out of the race. In other hotly-contested races, candidates like Richard Burr in North Carolina and Roy Blunt in Missouri have held onto their support of the nominee.
But still other candidates have gotten themselves tangled up: New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte called Trump a “role model” before later calling on him to step down. Sen. Deb Fischer from Nebraska called on Trump to step down before the debate but now says she also still plans to vote for him in November. Darryl Glenn in Colorado also waffled on his initial rebuke of Trump. And Sen. Ted Cruz has maintained his support of Trump so far to avoid a double flip-flop on backing the nominee.
Disagreement over how to handle what’s left of Trump’s splintered support among party leaders has also bubbled to the surface in the RNC itself. Influential GOP state party chair Robert Graham of Arizona attacked Republicans who were waffling on backing Trump in the presidential race.
“It is hard to understand why some are willing to surrender the principles and values we espouse,” he wrote on Monday afternoon. “Leadership is more than stopping political mail, not campaigning for someone or making statements condemning a person’s comments made nearly a dozen years before.”
Still, so far, the Republican Party’s attempt to localize Senate races has been rather successful: most polls to this point have shown GOP Senate candidates with slightly more support than Trump in most competitive states.
But even if enough 2016 hopefuls manage to steer their way across the finish line and maintain control of Congress, it seems clear that the Republican party, its elected leaders, its nominee –- and most importantly, its supporters across the country –- look to remain splintered even on Nov. 9.
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2e6gUhe
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