In a blow to the reelection bids of establishment Republicans Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain, Republican nominee for President Donald Trump has pointedly refused to endorse either of them.
Both Ryan and McCain face strong primary challenges – Ryan from businessman Paul Nehlen and McCain from former Arizona state senator Dr. Kelli Ward.
Read CHQ Chairman Richard Viguerie’s endorsements of Ward [10] and Nehlen [11] through the links and our article about McCain’s bizarre record of defending of the Muslim Brotherhood through this link [12].
"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 said of Ryan.
Trump's phrasing -- "I'm not quite there yet" -- echoes comments Ryan made to CNN's Jake Tapper in May when he said he wasn't yet ready to back Trump as his party's standard-bearer.
Trump said he has "never been there with John McCain because I've always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets." Some of the worst abuses of veterans have occurred at Arizona Veterans Administration hospitals.
Both Ryan and McCain have endorsed Trump – yet both have made it a point to side with the Democrats and Hillary Clinton to criticize Trump – and Trump has, unsurprisingly, not taken kindly to the criticisms launched by the two leaders of the GOP’s Capitol Hill establishment.
“More than half a dozen of Trump’s former campaign staff members or leading volunteer organizers from around the country — and many more local volunteers — have signed on to the long-shot campaign of [House Speaker Paul] Ryan’s primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, who is openly embracing Trump and casting Ryan as an impediment to Trump’s agenda,” report Politico's Ken Vogel and Rachael Bade.
The group was not sent by Trump, “in fact, most of the staffers had been laid off by his shoestring primary campaign or left amid infighting,” Vogel and Bade report, but some admit “they see the effort to defeat Ryan as a continuation of the bitter fight Trump waged against the GOP establishment.”
So do we.
Read CHQ Chairman Richard Viguerie’s endorsements of Ward [10] and Nehlen [11] through the links and our article about McCain’s bizarre record of defending of the Muslim Brotherhood through this link [12].
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