Podcast from Elite Expert Insider
Ed Rollins Re-emerges as Trump Backer, Strategist
Seasoned Republican operative Ed Rollins is making his debut in Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
Rollins, who was Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign manager, spoke on a conference call Wednesday with supporters of Great America, a super PAC that backs Trump. Rollins has signed on as a strategist for the group.
Rollins says the super PAC aims to help offset what he sees as a huge financial advantage for likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “They’re licking their chops,” Rollins says of Clinton’s team. “They think they’re going to win this thing.”
Great America will likely conduct polls, collect opposition research and run television ads in the lead-up to Election Day, Rollins says. First, though, the group must raise money: As of the end of March, it was almost $700,000 in debt, fundraising documents show.
Ben Carson, a prominent Trump ally, also spoke on the call – a signal that the billionaire businessman is more accepting of outside help from groups that during the primary contest he had called “corrupt.”
12:10 p.m.
John Kasich plans to end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, making Donald Trump the presumptive Republican nominee.
Three campaign officials who spoke to The Associated Press said the Ohio governor plans to announce his decision in a statement from his home state later Wednesday.
The officials spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to disclose Kasich’s decision.
Kasich’s decision to suspend his campaign comes after he failed to convert a win in his home state primary into momentum in the chaotic GOP campaign.
The move comes a day after one of his only remaining rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, announced that he was suspending his campaign.
11:40 a.m.
John Kasich has cancelled a press conference in Virginia and plans to make a statement from Columbus, a day after one of his last remaining rivals, Ted Cruz, ended his campaign.
Kasich’s campaign is not providing details about what the Ohio governor plans to say in his statement later Tuesday, or on why he canceled his Virginia event. Kasich is facing increasing pressure to drop out of the race to clear the path for front-runner Donald Trump to win the nomination.
Kasich had planned fundraisers in the Washington, D.C., area Wednesday. He had planned to address reporters at Dulles Airport but his campaign says he is no longer going there.
11:35 a.m.
One of the more vulnerable Senate Republicans — New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte — will support likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but won’t endorse him.
Liz Johnson, a spokeswoman for the senator, said in a statement Wednesday that Ayotte “plans to support the nominee” — with no mention of Trump’s name.
Ayotte is locked in a tight race with New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. Johnson said that Ayotte, who is a candidate, “hasn’t and isn’t planning to endorse anyone this cycle.”
Republicans hold a 54-46 advantage in the Senate, but with more GOP seats on the ballot in November, they are fighting to hold onto their majority.
10:35 a.m.
One of Ted Cruz’s staunchest financial backers is signaling support for Donald Trump now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee.
Mica Mosbacher writes in an email to The Associated Press that she is calling “on fellow conservatives to unite and support our new nominee Trump.”
Mosbacher was a key part of Cruz’s finance team. She is the widow of Bob Mosbacher, a Houston oilman who served as President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of Commerce.
She says she supported her senator, Cruz, because she saw him as giving voice to the American people. Trump, she says, “also listened to the people.”
Cruz abruptly quit the race after Trump won a resounding victory over him in Indiana Tuesday night.
7:28 a.m.
Donald Trump says he’s planning to accept more political contributions now that he’s the Republican Party’s likely presidential nominee.
The billionaire businessman previewed his path forward Wednesday morning, a day after his chief rival, Ted Cruz, suspended his campaign.
Trump tells ABC’s “Good Morning America,” that he “probably will take small donations,” up to the legal contribution limits but will still contribute to his own campaign. He adds that he doesn’t “want anyone to have big influence over me.”
Trump often tells supporters that he’s funding his campaign largely from his own pockets, although he’s been accepting smaller donations for several months. He says he’s spent about $44 million so far of his own money. He needs much more, however, going forward. The price tag for a general election is likely around $1 billion.
Trump also says he’s confident he “can unite much of” the Republican Party even though he doesn’t want the support of some Republican critics.
6:30 a.m.
Virtually assured of the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump says he likely will “go the political route” in choosing a vice presidential running mate.
The real estate mogul says in a broadcast interview Wednesday that he’s “inclined” to prefer a No. 2 person on the ticket “who can help me get legislation passed.” He notes he already has business experience and tells MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” he wouldn’t want to have to resort to presidential executive orders to get things done.
Trump also reveals he’ll be making a decision over the next week on how to fund a general election campaign.
He says “I do love self-funding,” but adds that he’s thinking over his strategy and will have an answer soon.
“Do I want to sell a couple of buildings? I don’t really want to do that,” he said. But he said that he wouldn’t necessarily want a new source of money “for myself” but that the party needs to bolster its funding. He was asked if he would accept money from super PACs in the fall, although he has refused to do so thus far.
5:50 a.m.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has taken to Twitter to attack what she calls presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “toxic stew of hatred & insecurity.”
The Massachusetts Democrat issued a series of tweets Tuesday night as results from the Indiana GOP primary forced Texas Senator Ted Cruz from the race and left Trump as the overwhelming favorite for the nomination.
Warren tweets that Trump has built his campaign on “racism, sexism and xenophobia” and that there’s more enthusiasm for him “among the leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.”
Warren says what happens next is “a character test for all of us — Republican, Democrat, and Independent.”
Warren has been mentioned by party insiders as a potential running mate for likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
5:30 a.m. Gov. John Kasich is not abandoning his quest for the White House in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in Indiana.
His campaign issued a statement on Facebook early Wednesday saying that the election results “are not going to alter Gov. Kasich’s campaign plans.”
The statement adds: “Our strategy has been and continues to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention. The comments from Trump, on the verge of winning in Indiana, heighten the differences between Governor Kasich and his positive, inclusive approach and the disrespectful ramblings from Donald Trump.”
Kasich has won just one primary — his home state of Ohio — and trails Trump by nearly 900 delegates.
Kasich pledged to stay in the race, with his campaign manager saying the governor would continue to “offer the voters a clear choice for our country.”
Mica Moshbacher on Fox News speaking on Rubio’s decision to run for the senate.
Donald Trump Promises to Supporters Proud
The Illinois senator has rescinded his support for the presumed GOP nominee over his remarks about Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Will others follow?
“I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world,” Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who is in a competitive re-election race, said in a statement.
Trump’s comments about the judge’s ethnicity, “in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me,” prompted Kirk to withdraw his support for his party’s nominee, he said, though he also added he does not support Clinton.
Kirk suffered a stroke in 2012 and often uses a wheelchair. His disavowal in the wake of Trump’s comments about the judge — the first of any leading Republican — followed the debut of a hard-hitting, multimillion-dollar television ad from Clinton allies. It reminded voters in battleground states that Trump had mocked a disabled reporter.
Ron Weiser, one of the recently named top fundraisers for Trump and the Republican Party, said the nominee’s attacks on Curiel are “obviously making it more difficult” to raise money for Trump, whose opponent could have $1 billion at her disposal.
Stanley Hubbard, a Minnesota broadcast company billionaire who recently gave $100,000 to a pro-Trump group, put it this way: “It’s ridiculous. He’s out of line. You don’t attack a federal judge, and you certainly don’t attack him on the heritage of his parents. It’s totally off the wall, and I don’t even have words to explain it.”
Only his fear of Clinton picking Supreme Court justices is enough to keep him giving money to Trump, Hubbard said.
The desire to win in the fall served as a way for even those denouncing Trump to explain their continued backing of him.
Republican presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump gestures during the Republican Presidential Debate, hosted by CNN, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only black Republican senator, called Trump’s comments on the judge “racially toxic” yet said, “He needs to get on to the general election and we need to win.” Ryan, too, said he would still support Trump.
Democrats questioned how Republicans could condemn Trump’s comments while seeking to put him in the White House.
“If Republicans believe that a man who believes in religious and ethnic tests for federal judges is fit to be president of the United States, they must explain why this is an acceptable position,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Clinton, in her Tuesday speech, called Trump “temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief.” Later, she said, “He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds and reminding us daily just how great he is.”
Mica Mosbacher, a Texas and New York fundraiser who backed Trump as soon as her preferred candidate Ted Cruz left the race, said her email has been “blowing up over the past few days” with notes from Republicans concerned about Trump’s comments. “It’s giving some of the donors heartburn, for sure,” she said.
She said she has been pushing back, arguing that while she — and many others — “would personally not bring up a person’s origin, that’s just Trump’s style. He’s his own hatchet man. What you see is what you get. His way is to throw bombs and spark a discussion.”
Trump gave a similar assessment of himself in his speech Tuesday.
While he said his “preference always is peace,” he pledged that he would not shrink from a fight.
“I have not backed down, and I will never, ever back down,” he said. “And I’m not a politician fighting. I’m me.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-06-08/trump-promises-not-to-let-gop-down-as-leaders-grow-worried
