The GOP-Trump fight megathread

[frigidmagi]

I figured I'd just bite the bullet and post these all together.

Rep. Kinzinger says he will not vote for Trump

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday he will not support Donald Trump in November, as he becomes the latest elected Republican official to break from the party.

Kinzinger told CNN he went to the Republican National Convention and had hoped to be able to endorse Trump by the end of it. However, the former Air Force pilot said after Trump’s comments on NATO and his spat with Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen soldier who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, he doesn’t see how he could endorse him.

“Donald Trump is beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics. I'm not going to support Hillary, but in America we have the right to skip somebody,” he said on CNN. “That's what it's looking like for me today. I don't see how I get to Donald Trump anymore.”

Kinzinger joins a growing list of Republicans who have said they will not support their party’s nominee for president. However, unlike many others in the group, Kinzinger is running for reelection. Earlier this week, New York Rep. Richard Hanna said he would back Clinton, but he is retiring from Congress.

Kinzinger did not say who he would vote for instead.

"There's a bunch of people on the ballot. There's a write-in option. I don't agree with Hillary Clinton on a lot of things, most things, probably almost all things, but Donald Trump, I don’t know what he stands for in foreign policy.”

GOP Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) voting for Clinton

Retiring GOP Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) said he will vote for Hillary Clinton in November, making him the first Republican member of Congress to openly announce his support for the Democratic presidential nominee.

In an op-ed for Syracuse.com, Hanna writes that Trump is "deeply flawed in endless ways" and "unrepentant in all things" before declaring: "While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton."

While a number of Congressional Republicans have openly repudiated Trump and said they will not vote for him -- including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) -- Hanna, a resolute #NeverTrump-er, is the first to go as far as crossing party lines in his opposition to the GOP presidential nominee.

"Months ago I publicly said I could never support Trump," Hanna wrote, calling him "profoundly offensive," "narcissistic," and "a world-class panderer."

"I do not expect perfection, but I do require more than the embodiment of at least a short list of the seven deadly sins," he added.

Hanna wrote that he has "long held the belief that the Republican Party is becoming increasingly less capable of nominating a person who is electable as president," suggesting that Hispanics, women, and the LGBT communities are groups that the GOP has grown increasingly out-of-step with.

Turning to Clinton, he explained that "Mrs. Clinton has issues that depending on where one stands can be viewed as great or small. But she stands and has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime. That matters."

"While I disagree with her on many issues," he said, "I will vote for Mrs. Clinton."

Also on Tuesday, amid fallout from Trump's controversial feud with the family of a slain Muslim U.S. soldier, another Republican House member -- Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) -- announced he "no plans" to vote for Trump.
"That's where I am," Dent said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I'm like millions of Americans right now that I have to be persuaded, and I just haven't been."

Dent, who supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the primaries, said that Trump's "incendiary comments" combined with his "lack of policy specifics and the contradictory nature of those policies" have caused him "a great deal of concern."
Dent added that Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) called him Sunday and said he was most likely going to support Hillary Clinton. Dent described Hanna as a "good friend" and a "rock solid guy."

CNN's Rachel Chason contributed to this report.

Mark Kirk: First GOP senator to run anti-Trump TV ad

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois just became the first Republican incumbent in the Senate to run an ad attacking presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump.

The 30-second ad, titled "Even More," follows his decision earlier this month to rescind his endorsement of Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

"...Mark Kirk bucked his party to say Donald Trump is not fit to be commander-in-chief," the ad proclaims.

Kirk's ad bucks his party in other ways, too, depicting a strong affinity for Democrats and their positions.

It points out his lonely support of the president's choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court and his liberal position on abortion rights.

"Mark was the first Republican to support a vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee," the ad says. "He's a leader on protecting a woman's right to choose."

The ad also shows Kirk after his recovery from a debilitating stroke -- being helped up the Senate steps by Democrats: Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia.

Kirk, who was elected in the 2010 Republican wave, is widely thought to be the most vulnerable of the 2016 Republican incumbents in the Senate. And his Democratic opponent Tammy Duckworth is putting up strong fight for his Senate seat. Kirk didn't revoke his endorsement of Trump until after Duckworth's campaign accused him of being "complicit" in the billionaire's campaign of "hate and division."

Duckworth's campaign accused Kirk of portraying himself as "a liberal Democrat" in a liberal part of the state.

"Republican Senator Mark Kirk has lied for years about his military record, falsely claiming to have served in combat and claiming an award he never earned," the campaign said in a statement, continuing, "and now he's not being straight with Illinois voters by portraying himself as a liberal Democrat in Chicago while apparently hoping no one else across the state notices."

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Kirk campaign bought $230,000 in broadcast TV time in Chicago and $35,000 in cable time to run the ad.

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John McCain's Republican granddaughter explains why she's voting for Hillary Clinton

The "fiercely loyal" granddaughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced that she will be voting for Hillary Clinton despite identifying as a Republican. Although Caroline McCain confessed she is "nursing a grudge" against Donald Trump after he dismissed McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, for getting "captured," she also firmly laid out how the Republicanism of Trump is not one she is familiar with or supports:

If this is where the party is going  —  building walls to keep immigrants out, irrationally objecting to international trade, railing against marriage equality, then I'm gone. If this is where the nominee  —  who was for abortion before it was politically expedient, who is a racist and a misogynist, who wants to carpet bomb the Middle East and ban Muslims, wants to take the party  —  then I want nothing to do with it. [Medium]

Caroline McCain admitted she has her own issues with Clinton but "learned something important in 2000 and again in 2008: The picture the opposition and the media paints of a candidate is not the whole picture, and it is not the truthful picture."

"So I'm not a Democrat  —  at least not yet. But this year, I'm With Her," Caroline McCain concluded. Her grandfather, though, might not be too thrilled; John McCain backed Trump in May. Read Caroline's full justification of her decision over at Medium. Jeva Lange

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Meg Whitman, Calling Donald Trump a ‘Demagogue,’ Will Support Hillary Clinton for President

Meg Whitman, a Hewlett Packard executive and Republican fund-raiser, said Tuesday that she would support Hillary Clinton for president and give a “substantial” contribution to her campaign in order to stop Donald J. Trump, whom she berated as a threat to American democracy.

“I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her,” Ms. Whitman said in a telephone interview.

She revealed that Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic nominee, had reached out to her in a phone call about a month ago, one of the first indications that Mrs. Clinton is aggressively courting Republican leaders. While acknowledging she diverged from Mrs. Clinton on many policy issues, Ms. Whitman said it was time for Republicans “to put country first before party.”

Using remarkably blunt language, she argued that the election of Mr. Trump, whom she called “a dishonest demagogue,” could lead the country “on a very dangerous journey.” She noted that democracies had seldom lasted longer than a few hundred years and warned that those who say that “it can’t happen here” are being naïve.

Ms. Whitman also said she “absolutely” stood by her comments at a private gathering of Republican donors this year comparing Mr. Trump to Hitler and Mussolini, explaining that dictators often come to office through democratic means.

“Time and again history has shown that when demagogues have gotten power or come close to getting power, it usually does not end well,” Ms. Whitman said. She asserted that Mr. Trump had already “undermined the character of the nation.”

A billionaire who spent $140 million of her own money in a failed bid for governor of California in 2010, Ms. Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay, is a prized defector for Mrs. Clinton. She is close to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee; has deep ties to the country’s business elite; and is a rare female Republican executive in Silicon Valley.

While many leading Republican donors have made clear that they will not donate to Mr. Trump, few have taken the next step of throwing their support, and financial largess, to Mrs. Clinton.

Ms. Whitman was a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign and was a chairwoman of Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential finance team this year. But after Mr. Christie withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Mr. Trump, Ms. Whitman excoriated the New Jersey governor for what she said was an “astonishing display of political opportunism.”

On Tuesday, Ms. Whitman said she had not spoken to Mr. Christie since he endorsed Mr. Trump, and pointedly noted that she had not changed her view of his decision.

Ms. Whitman, who said she would remain a Republican, brings with her a considerable network of contributors, some of whom she said were open to giving to Mrs. Clinton. She said she was willing to campaign for Mrs. Clinton, said she would do her best to gather checks for her campaign and indicated she would personally give to both Mrs. Clinton and her affiliated “super PACs.” An aide to Ms. Whitman said she would personally give at least an amount in the “mid-six figures” to the Clinton effort.

While Democrats openly appealed at their convention last week to Republicans uneasy with Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton and her top supporters have been making a similar cross-party pitch in private since before the Democratic nomination fight even came to its conclusion.

Ms. Whitman said that she did not commit to supporting Mrs. Clinton when they talked on the phone last month, and that Mrs. Clinton had offered no assurances on how she would govern. But Ms. Whitman called it “a lovely chat” that included a discussion of economic issues.

She said she had told Mrs. Clinton that she wanted to see the two parties’ conventions and assess the running mates that each nominee chose before making her decision. When Mrs. Clinton selected Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, a consensus-oriented figure, “that was a positive for me,” Ms. Whitman said.

“I don’t agree with her on very many issues,” she added, “but she would be a much better president than Donald Trump.”

Trump refuses to endorse Paul Ryan in GOP primary: ‘I’m just not quite there yet’

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated his war with his own party’s leadership Tuesday by refusing to endorse House Speaker Paul D. Ryan or Sen. John McCain, two of the GOP’s highest-ranking elected officials, in their primary campaigns.

Trump’s comments — an extraordinary breach of political decorum that underscores the party’s deep divisions — came as President Obama delivered his sternest rebuke yet of the celebrity mogul candidate. Obama declared Trump “unfit to serve as president” and “woefully unprepared to do this job,” and he challenged Republican leaders to withdraw their support of their nominee.

Obama punctuated his remarks, delivered at a Tuesday morning news conference, by explaining that he had never before felt compelled to so thoroughly denounce a political opponent. While he recalled disagreeing with McCain and Mitt Romney on policy issues in the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, Obama said that he never questioned their qualifications or their “basic decency,” and that he knew they would “abide by certain norms and rules and common sense. But that’s not the situation here.”

In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Trump said he was not backing Ryan in his primary election next Tuesday in Wisconsin, or McCain in his Arizona primary later this month. Both have endorsed Trump but have criticized some of his policies and statements, most recently his belittling of the parents of dead U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan.

Photos of Donald Trump on the campaign trail
View Photos The Republican presidential candidate is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.
Trump praised Ryan’s underdog opponent, Paul Nehlen, for running “a very good campaign” and said of Ryan: “I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet.”

Trump’s comments underscore the continuing divisions in the GOP two weeks after the party’s national convention in Cleveland, which was carefully choreographed to showcase unity. Also Tuesday, Rep. Richard L. Hanna (N.Y.) became the first sitting Republican member of Congress to declare publicly his plans to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump said that Ryan has sought his endorsement but that he is only “giving it very serious consideration.” Responding to Trump, Ryan spokesman Zack Roday said in a statement: “Neither Speaker Ryan nor anyone on his team has ever asked for Donald Trump’s endorsement. And we are confident in a victory next week regardless.”

Trump made his comments during a wide-ranging 50-minute interview Tuesday afternoon over lunch at the Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia.

He said he will work to negotiate the terms of general-election debates in his favor, saying that three is “the right number” but that they should not be scheduled on the same nights as National Football League games or the baseball World Series. He said that he should have influence in selecting “a fair moderator” for each debate and that third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein should not be allowed on stage. “I’d rather have head to head” with Clinton, Trump said.

He took issue with the characterization of Clinton at last week’s Democratic National Convention as a fighter and a change-maker. “Hillary’s not a change person. She’s going to be a person to keep it just the way it is,” Trump said, biting into his cheeseburger. “It’s going to be four more years of Obama.”

Trump lashed out at the media, including The Post, which he accused of turning sharply against him since he secured the nomination. “It’s myself really against the media,” he said, citing what he views as “a tremendous bias against me.”

Trump’s statements about Ryan are the latest hiccup in what has been a fraught relationship for the two party leaders. Ryan endorsed Trump this spring and spoke on his behalf at the convention, but only after a period of public soul-searching.

Ryan has disagreed with Trump on several key issues — including his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States — and he issued a statement over the weekend that indirectly criticized Trump’s comments about the Khans.

“Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military, and made the ultimate sacrifice,” Ryan said in the statement. “Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice — and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan — should always be honored. Period.”

Khizr Khan spoke at the Democratic convention with his wife, Ghazala, at his side. He said that Trump “smears the character of Muslims” and challenged his knowledge of the Constitution. The Khans have sat for numerous interviews in the days since, calling Trump’s character into question.

In the Tuesday interview, Trump defended his commentary about the Khans by saying, “I was viciously attacked on the stage, and I have a right to answer back.”

However, his campaign acknowledged the crisis in an email sent to congressional supporters this week with the subject line “Urgent Pivot: Khan and TPs.” The email asked allies on Capitol Hill to defend Trump’s heavily criticized remarks about the Khans by underscoring his commitment to ending “radical Islamic terror” and deemphasizing his most confrontational comments.

In the interview, Trump rejected the suggestion that some people have concluded that he lacks common decency. “I think frankly a lot of people agree with what I’m saying,” he said. “I was viciously attacked on the stage. All I did was respond to it. Pure and simple. It should’ve been a one-hour story, and they make it a longer story.”

He blamed what he called “unfair media” for giving the Khans a platform.

Nehlen, Ryan’s primary opponent, came to Trump’s defense over his confrontation with the Khans, for which Trump thanked him in a tweet Monday night. Trump’s shout-out sparked speculation that he might endorse Nehlen.

Asked about this in the interview, Trump said Ryan’s “opponent is a big fan of what I’m saying — big fan. His opponent, who’s running a very good campaign, obviously, I’ve heard — his opponent sent me a very scholarly and well-thought-out letter yesterday, and all I did was say thank you very much for your very nice letter.”

In making his comments Tuesday, Trump may have been seeking retribution for Ryan’s dragging his feet about endorsing Trump in May. Trump’s phrasing of his uncertainty about Ryan — “I’m just not quite there yet” — echoes what Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a May interview about endorsing Trump: “I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now.”

[Trumps draw fire for suggesting ‘strong’ women can avoid sexual harassment]

On Monday, McCain, a Vietnam War hero, issued a lengthy statement denouncing Trump for his comments about the Khan family. Asked about McCain’s rebuke, Trump said, “I haven’t endorsed John McCain.

“I’ve never been there with John McCain because I’ve always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets,” Trump continued. “He has not done a good job for the vets, and I’ve always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets. So I’ve always had a difficult time with John for that reason, because our vets are not being treated properly. They’re not being treated fairly.”

McCain did not comment on Trump’s remarks Tuesday. But he did meet with Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who was in Arizona on Tuesday for two rallies.

McCain is locked in a three-way primary — the election is Aug. 30, and early voting begins this week — against former state senator Kelli Ward and tea party activist Clair Van Steenwyk. A third challenger, Alex Meluskey, suspended his campaign this week.

In the interview, Trump said he thought it was a mistake for senators to distance themselves from him because of his popularity with the Republican base. He singled out Sen. Kelly Ayotte — who, like Ryan and McCain, criticized his comments about the Khans — as a weak and disloyal leader in New Hampshire, a state whose presidential primary Trump won handily.

“New Hampshire is one of my favorite places,” Trump said. “You have a Kelly Ayotte who doesn’t want to talk about Trump, but I’m beating her in the polls by a lot. You tell me. Are these people that should be representing us, okay? You tell me.”

He continued: “I don’t know Kelly Ayotte. I know she’s given me no support — zero support — and yet I’m leading her in the polls. I’m doing very well in New Hampshire. We need loyal people in this country. We need fighters in this country. We don’t need weak people. We have enough of them. We need fighters in this country. But Kelly Ayotte has given me zero support, and I’m doing great in New Hampshire.”

Ayotte, whose aides said she still plans to vote for Trump, responded with a statement: “I call it like I see it, and I’m always going to stand up for our military families and what’s best for the people of New Hampshire.”

Trump went on to say that if he loses the election, he will start two or three “anti-certain candidate” super PACs, which he vowed to fund with $10 million apiece, to savage Republicans or Democrats of his choosing in future elections. He said his targets might include Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who both lost in the primaries to Trump but are eyeing another run in 2020.

Hanna, a three-term congressman who is not running for reelection this year, has bucked his party in the past on issues including same-sex marriage and climate change. He said Trump’s prolonged feud with the Khans was the final straw that pushed him to declare his support for Clinton.

“I saw that and felt incensed,” Hanna told Syracuse.com. “I was stunned by the callousness of his comments.”

If the Republican disunity is alarming Trump, he did not show it in the interview. He predicted that he would “do great” in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine campaigned together over the weekend.

“I’m going to do great in states that some people aren’t even thinking about,” Trump said. “I’ve got states that we can win that other Republican candidates wouldn’t even stop over for dinner.”

Asked which states he had in mind, Trump paused.

“Well,” he said. “I’d rather not say. . . . That’s my attitude on the military. I don’t like telling the enemy what I’m doing.”

Lateshia Beachum, Callum Borchers, Mike DeBonis, Karoun Demirjian, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Kelsey Snell, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Sean Sullivan, David Weigel and Katie Zezima contributed to this report.

[frigidmagi]

Susan Collins: Why I cannot support Trump

I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.

When the primary season started, it soon became apparent that, much like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mr. Trump was connecting with many Americans who felt that their voices were not being heard in Washington and who were tired of political correctness. But rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency. Mr. Trump did not stop with shedding the stilted campaign dialogue that often frustrates voters. Instead, he opted for a constant stream of denigrating comments, including demeaning Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) heroic military service and repeatedly insulting Fox News host Megyn Kelly.

With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize. But it was his attacks directed at people who could not respond on an equal footing — either because they do not share his power or stature or because professional responsibility precluded them from engaging at such a level — that revealed Mr. Trump as unworthy of being our president.

My conclusion about Mr. Trump’s unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president.

The first was his mocking of a reporter with disabilities, a shocking display that did not receive the scrutiny it deserved. I kept expecting Mr. Trump to apologize, at least privately, but he did not, instead denying that he had done what seemed undeniable to anyone who watched the video. At the time, I hoped that this was a terrible lapse, not a pattern of abuse.

The second was Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence that Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge born and raised in Indiana, could not rule fairly in a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. For Mr. Trump to insist that Judge Curiel would be biased because of his ethnicity demonstrated a profound lack of respect not only for the judge but also for our constitutional separation of powers, the very foundation of our form of government. Again, I waited in vain for Mr. Trump to retract his words.

Third was Donald Trump’s criticism of the grieving parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq. It is inconceivable that anyone, much less a presidential candidate, would attack two Gold Star parents. Rather than honoring their sacrifice and recognizing their pain, Mr. Trump disparaged the religion of the family of an American hero. And once again, he proved incapable of apologizing, of saying he was wrong.

I am also deeply concerned that Mr. Trump’s lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would make an already perilous world even more so. It is reckless for a presidential candidate to publicly raise doubts about honoring treaty commitments with our allies. Mr. Trump’s tendency to lash out when challenged further escalates the possibility of disputes spinning dangerously out of control.

I had hoped that we would see a “new” Donald Trump as a general-election candidate — one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants. But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no “new” Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat. Regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth.

At the same time, I realize that Mr. Trump’s success reflects profound discontent in this country, particularly among those who feel left behind by an unbalanced economy and who wonder whether their children will have a better life than their parents. As we have seen with the dissatisfaction with both major- party nominees — neither of whom I support — these passions are real and the public will demand action.

Some will say that as a Republican I have an obligation to support my party’s nominee. I have thought long and hard about that, for being a Republican is part of what defines me as a person. I revere the history of my party, most particularly the value it has always placed on the worth and dignity of the individual, and I will continue to work across the country for Republican candidates. It is because of Mr. Trump’s inability and unwillingness to honor that legacy that I am unable to support his candidacy.

Barry McCaffrey, 32 year Army General

My public comments in the media on national security since leaving active service have tried to steer clear of partisan debate. I am not registered with either political party. I have worked with loyalty and genuine respect at very senior levels for both President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton.

The shameful reaction by presidential candidate Donald Trump to the mother and father of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan prompts me to state publicly that Trump should never serve as our commander in chief. The decorated Capt. Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq at age 27 while bravely defending his soldiers during a suicide attack, is the best America offers. His grieving parents were understandably outraged at the degrading notion that America should have a religious screen, legally denying immigration status to Muslims.

Trump’s cruel cultural jab at Ghazala Kahn as a grieving Gold Star mother is simply the final straw. In my judgment, Trump, if elected, would provoke a political and constitutional crisis within a year. He has called for the illegal torture of enemy detainees. He has called for the deliberate targeting and murder of civilians as retribution. He has questioned whether the U.S. should actually fulfill our defense obligations under the NATO pact. These NATO obligations are a U.S. Senate-ratified treaty that Trump should know is the highest law of the land.

Further, Trump has implied that the U.S. should encourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons — allies like Japan and South Korea were urged to become nuclear powers. He has praised Saddam Hussein as an effective anti-terrorist fighter. Hussein was a mass murderer who targeted his own people with an inhumane vengeance to include employing chemical weapons.

Trump has publicly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has become a major threat to Western Europe with his invasion of Ukraine and muscular threats to the Baltic States and NATO regional military forces. Putin has also managed to reverse Russia’s earlier steady march toward a law-based state and is turning that magnificent country into a criminal oligarchy.

Finally, it is concerning that Trump lacks the caution and careful judgment that is required by a future president of the United States when forming national-security and foreign-policy decisions. Trump was shameful in his insulting criticism of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is one of the most venerated American military heroes since World War II. Trump has boasted that his Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps time at a small military high school made him more knowledgeable about national security than most career military professionals. He has stated he knows more about the Islamic State than the generals of the U.S. Armed Forces. Trump has also suggested we can walk away from our U.S. Treasury debt to the international community in a form of selective bankruptcy. This would be a curious form of collective economic suicide.

Trump sounds like a 12-year-old — a willful and abusive braggart. He is remarkably ignorant and uneducated about the world that we face and the means we may use to defend ourselves.

I served in the Armed Forces for 32 years. At retirement, I was a four-star joint-theater commander. In my considered judgment, Trump is unqualified to be the president of the United States and fulfill the role of commander in chief of the 2.2 million men and women of the Armed Forces.

[frigidmagi]

This shit's not funny!

We’re in the middle of August, but Republican panic over their presidential nominee is already setting in.

Politico reports that more than 70 prominent Republicans — including several former GOP senators and congressmen — have written a letter begging RNC chairman Reince Priebus to pull the plug on Trump’s campaign and instead spend all their resources protecting down-ballot Republican senators and representatives.

“We believe that Donald Trump’s divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide,” reads the letter, which was signed by big names such as former Sen. Gordon Humphrey and former Rep. Chris Shays. “Only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with a Trump-emblazoned anchor around its neck.”

As if that weren’t enough, Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak on Thursday posted an epic tweetstorm describing the abject panic that has set in among Republicans, who now fear that they’ll suffer massive down-ballot losses if Trump stays on his current course.

“OK, this shit’s not funny anymore,” he began. “Trump is threatening elected GOPers at all levels in places that haven’t been competitive in decades… We are looking at an extinction-level event.”

Among other things, Mackowiak ripped Trump for continuing to campaign in Connecticut when any hope of winning that state is long gone. He also said that Trump needs to dial back his rallies and TV interviews, and spend an average of 20 hours a week doing preparation for the fall debates.

Does that sound like something Trump would really agree to? Probably not, but Mackowiak insisted that Trump had to do it anyway.

“You can’t overstate panic inside GOP currently,” he said.

tweets

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Defections continue

Former Bush administration official Paul Wolfowitz said he is considering voting for Hillary Clinton in an interview in which he lambasted Donald Trump as dangerous.

Wolfowitz, who was the deputy secretary of defense for President George W. Bush in the lead-up to and start of the Iraq War, said in an interview published Friday that while he isn't enthused about it, he may be forced to vote for Clinton.
"I wish there were somebody I could be comfortable voting for," Wolfowitz told the German publication Der Spiegel. "I might have to vote for Hillary Clinton, even though I have big reservations about her."

In the interview, Wolfowitz repeatedly expressed concerns about Trump, saying he agrees with 50 other former Republican security officials who recently blasted Trump as "dangerous."

50 GOP national security experts oppose Trump
"He says he admires Putin, that Saddam Hussein was killing terrorists, that the Chinese were impressive because they were tough on Tiananmen Square. That is pretty disturbing," Wolfowitz said, calling him "unacceptable."

Wolfowitz also called Trump a continuation of President Barack Obama, despite their party differences. Wolfowitz said Obama's apparent "step back" foreign policy would be exaggerated under Trump, calling him "Obama squared."

"The only way you can be comfortable about Trump's foreign policy is to think he doesn't really mean anything he says. That's a pretty uncomfortable place to be in," Wolfowitz said. "Our security depends on having good relationships with our allies. Trump mainly shows contempt for them. And he seems to be unconcerned about the Russian aggression in Ukraine. By doing this he tells them that they can go ahead and do what they are doing. That is dangerous."

Wolfowitz is one of the nation's most prominent neoconservatives and interventionists, and has been widely characterized as the "architect' of the invasion of Iraq. CNN reported back in 2003 that he was the first Bush administration official to push the 43rd president to topple Saddam Hussein -- broaching the subject four days after the September 11 attacks.

Trump has been an ardent critic of the Iraq War on the campaign trail, saying he opposed it from the get-go, although the first evidence of him opposing the invasion of Iraq was after the war had begun. But Clinton voted in favor of the war when she was in the Senate, a fact that her opponents have used against in her both the 2008 and 2016 presidential elections.
The GOP candidate has also criticized Obama and Clinton for pulling troops out of Iraq too quickly and destabilizing the region, though he supported the same policy in CNN interviews during Obama's first term.

Clinton has steadily courted and landed endorsements from Republican elders in foreign policy, arguing that their support shows that Trump's election would endanger the country's security.

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CBS

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who has long avoided endorsing GOP nominee Donald Trump, said Sunday that at this rate it’s unlikely he will be able to back him before Election Day.

“It becomes increasingly difficult to see that he’s going to change, so I don’t expect that I’ll be able to support him in November,” Flake told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I’d like to, he’s the Republican nominee, I just don’t see how I can.”

He criticized Trump for what he called the candidate’s “360-degree pivot” on immigration in the last few weeks, adding that his “confusing” position on the issue is problematic.

“Some people, as he said, said it was hardening, some said softening, I say it was just confusing,” Flake said. “With regard to immigration he pivots and then pivots right back — so it’s kind of a 360-degree pivot at times.”

The first-term Arizona senator said there are four key elements to an immigration plan: border security, enforcement within the U.S., a temporary worker program and a “mechanism” for dealing with people who are already in the country illegally. Trump has addressed the border security aspect with his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Flake said, but he’s barely touched on some of the other components of an immigration policy.

Flake said he was initially encouraged by Trump’s surprise trip to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, but that Trump’s hard-line speech on immigration that night made it clear no real change was coming.

“The speech in Mexico and that action, I think all of us had some hope after that that he might be changing the tone and tenor of his campaign,” Flake said. “But then when the speech was delivered in Arizona later that day, he seemed to be right back where he has been.”

Flake praised the moves of his fellow Arizona Sen. John McCain in distancing himself from Trump in his own Senate reelection race. After winning his Republican primary last week, McCain released a video saying he would be a “check” on a Hillary Clinton administration.

“He’s doing what I think Republicans need to do,” Flake said. “If we want the future of our party to be what it needs to be, we can’t associate with this kind of message and certainly with this kind of tone and the rhetoric that’s being used. Long-term I think that drives away young voters, it certainly drives away a lot of people in the minority community that we’re going to need moving ahead.”

As for his home state of Arizona, where the Clinton campaign is putting more resources for the final two months of the campaign, Flake said he thinks the usually-red state is actually in play this fall.

“It shouldn’t be up for grabs—Mitt Romney won it by I think eight points—but frankly it is,” he said. “And I think that they’re spending money because they have some indication that she might be in play. And unfortunately I think that’s the case.”

[frigidmagi]

CNN

HW Bush is voting Clinton

Former President George H.W. Bush said Monday that he will vote for Hillary Clinton in November, according to sources close to the 41st President -- an extraordinary rebuke of his own party's nominee.

The sources said this was not the first time Bush had disclosed his intention to vote for Clinton.

The comments came during a receiving line for board members of the bipartisan Points of Light Foundation when Bush was speaking to Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, Robert F. Kennedy's daughter and the former Maryland lieutenant governor. There were roughly 40 people in the room, and it's not clear how many people heard him, though multiple sources did.

The Republican former president's embrace of the Democratic nominee represents a dramatic new chapter in the complicated three-decade-old relationship between the two most prominent families in American politics.
It's a stunning political move -- one that comes just 49 days from the election, and less than a week before Clinton and Donald Trump square off in their first debate.

Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN's Erin Burnett Tuesday that she respects "the 92-year-old former president very much and his decision."

"It is ironic that he would vote for the wife of the man who knocked him out of the race," she added on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "But look, this was a bruising primary ... so I know there are a lot of hurt feelings there."

News of his support for Clinton came first on Facebook, when Kennedy Townsend posted a photo of herself with George H.W. Bush, along with the caption: "The President told me he's voting for Hillary!!"

"The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days. He is not commenting on the presidential race in the interim," Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement.
But sources with knowledge of the conversation told CNN they were surprised and disappointed that Kennedy Townsend had publicly shared a private conversation with the former president.

The Bush and Clinton relationship roller coaster

Kennedy Townsend declined to comment through a spokesman at the Rock Creek Group, where she works as managing director. She later took down the Facebook post.

GOP's Trump divide
Trump's controversial candidacy has split the group of former Republican nominees. Mitt Romney has hammered Trump in speeches and on Twitter, calling him unfit for office. But former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole has endorsed Trump, as has Arizona Sen. John McCain -- though somewhat reluctantly, often referring to "the Republican nominee" rather than Trump by name.
Neither George H.W. Bush nor George W. Bush had weighed in on the general election -- even as Trump savaged George W. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. However, many of the 41st and 43rd presidents' Cabinet secretaries and national security officials have backed Clinton.

George H.W. Bush national security adviser Brent Scowcroft endorsed Clinton in June, saying she "has the wisdom and experience to lead our country at this critical time." George W. Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on CNN in August that he "would have preferred Jeb Bush, but I think Hillary is a great choice. I am afraid of what Donald Trump would do to this country."

And Louis Wade Sullivan, the Health and Human Services secretary under George H.W. Bush and the only African-American in his Cabinet, said this month that "though my enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton is somewhat tempered, I certainly believe she is an infinitely better choice for president than Donald Trump."

But George H.W. Bush isn't speaking for his entire family. Marvin Bush, the former president's youngest son, has said he would vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson. George P. Bush, George H.W. Bush's grandson, has backed Trump.

And Jeb Bush, Trump's former primary rival, has said he won't vote for Trump or Clinton.

A representative for George W. Bush wouldn't comment on Kennedy Townsend's Facebook post or how George H.W. Bush would vote. The representative simply said George W. Bush is "spending his time working to keep the Senate in Republican hands and is not commenting on the presidential campaign."

The Bush-Clinton relationship
The evolving relationship between the Bush and Clinton families began in 1992, when Bill Clinton ran against -- and defeated -- incumbent President George H.W. Bush. Eight years later, with Clinton term-limited out of office, Bush's son, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, succeeded Clinton on a pledge to "restore honor and dignity" to the White House -- a not-so-subtle knock on Clinton's marital infidelity.

But Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush have also spent their post-presidencies teaming up for philanthropic endeavors. And in recent years, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have increasingly appeared together.

The two grew so close that George W. Bush has referred to Clinton as his "brother from another mother," and Clinton has said the two bonded over becoming grandfathers.

A Bush-Clinton matchup
Early in the 2016 campaign cycle, it appeared the two families could be headed for another showdown with the presidency on the line: Hillary Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- the 41st president's son and the 43rd president's brother -- was a Republican candidate and a fundraising powerhouse.

Even if George H.W. Bush hadn't endorsed Hillary Clinton, it was hard to envision him backing Trump.

Neither of the former Bush presidents attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where Trump became the GOP's nominee -- with the Bush family staying out of presidential politics after Jeb Bush, denounced repeatedly by Trump as "low-energy," exited the race.

[Norseman]

I get this strange feeling that the Republican establishment does not like Donald Trump.

[frigidmagi]

I get this strange feeling that the Republican establishment does not like Donald Trump.

Very few people do, he's the most unpopular Presidental candidate on record (Hillary is number 2). If it was Barry vs trump, it would be over by now.

[frigidmagi]

A group of 30 former GOP lawmakers signed a blistering open letter to Republicans on Thursday, warning that Donald Trump lacks the “intelligence” and temperament to be president and urging the party to reject the Republican presidential nominee at the polls on Nov. 8.

The group includes several former lawmakers who have openly opposed Trump from the start, including former Sen. Gordon Humphrey (N.H.) and former Rep. Vin Weber (Minn.).
But more than half of the former lawmakers on the list are announcing their opposition to Trump for the first time.

The group includes former committee chairmen, lawmakers from swing states with decades of experience on Capitol Hill, one of the first openly gay members of Congress, and one member who led investigations on Capitol Hill into scandals involving the Clintons.

“Our party's nominee this year is a man who makes a mockery of the principles and values we have cherished and which we sought to represent in Congress,” the group said in a statement.

“Given the enormous power of the office, every candidate for president must be judged rigorously in assessing whether he or she has the competence, intelligence, knowledge, understanding, empathy, judgment, and temperament necessary to keep America on a safe and steady course,” the letter continues. “Donald Trump fails on each of those measures, and he has proven himself manifestly unqualified to be president.”

Among those who signed the letter are swing-state stalwarts like Reps. Bill Clinger (Penn.), Jim Leach (Iowa), Tom Petri (Wis.) and G. William Whitehurst (Va.), each of whom spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill.

Petri, the Wisconsin Republican, is a close ally of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Clinger was the chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee and led House investigations into the Bill Clinton administration’s “Filegate” and “Travelgate” controversies.

Leach, a close ally of former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), spent 30 years in Congress and rose to chairman of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee.

Other former members rejecting Trump include Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y.), who chaired the House Science and Technology Committee, Jim Kolbe (Ariz.), the second openly gay Republican in Congress, Amo Houghton Jr. (N.Y.), who was once the wealthiest member of Congress, and Geoff Davis (Ky.), who was consistently among the most conservative Republicans in Congress.

The effort was spearheaded by former Reps. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.) and Tom Coleman (R-Mo.).

“In nominating Donald Trump, the Republican Party has asked the people of the United States to entrust their future to a man who insults women, mocks the handicapped, urges that dissent be met with violence, seeks to impose religious tests for entry into the United States, and applies a de facto ethnicity test to judges,” the group said.

“He offends our allies and praises dictators. His public statements are peppered with lies. He belittles our heroes and insults the parents of men who have died serving our country. Every day brings a fresh revelation that highlights the unacceptable danger in electing him to lead our nation.”

The new round of opposition from prominent Republicans actively working to sink their party’s nominee comes just 33 days before the election and three days before Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton square off at the second pivotal presidential debate of 2016.

Clinton has opened up a clear lead over Trump in the polls and is favored to win the White House, in part because Trump has been unable to convince skeptical Republicans to get on board with his campaign.

Trump has repeatedly been stung by high-profile defections from Republicans, including military leaders and former administration officials from both Bush presidencies.

The letter from former Republican officials highlights those divisions at a crucial moment in the race.

“We are proud of our service in the United States Congress and proud that we served in that role as Republicans,” the letter states.

“It is in that spirit that, as Donald Trump’s unfitness for public office has become ever more apparent, we urge our fellow Republicans not to vote for this man whose disgraceful candidacy is indefensible. This is no longer about our party; it’s now about America. We may differ on how we will cast our ballots in November but none of us will vote for Donald Trump.”

— Reid Wilson contributed to this report.

The full list of signors is below:

Steve Bartlett (Texas)

Bob Bauman (Md.)

Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y.)

Jack Buechner (Mo.)

Tom Campbell (Calif.)

Bill Clinger (Penn.)

Tom Coleman (Mo.)

Geoff Davis (Ky.)


Mickey Edwards (Okla.)

Harris Fawell (Ill.)

Ed Foreman (Texas and N.M.)

Amo Houghton, Jr. (N.Y.)

Gordon Humphrey (N.H.)

Bob Inglis (S.C.)

Jim Kolbe (Ariz.)

Steve Kuykendall (Calif.)

Jim Leach (Iowa)

Pete McCloskey (Calif.)

Connie Morella (Md.)

Mike Parker (Miss.)

Tom Petri (Wis.)

John Porter (Ill.)

Claudine Schneider (R.I.)

John “Joe” Schwarz (Mich.)

Chris Shays (Conn.)

Peter Smith (Vt.)

Edward Weber (Ohio)

Vin Weber (Minn.)

G. William Whitehurst (Va.)

Dick Zimmer (R-N.J.)

the hill