Republican leaders, apparently annoyed that GOP presidential nominee refuses to play the part of a well-behaved politician, are beginning to hint that the party leadership may openly rebel against their nominee leading into the general election.
On Tuesday, New York Rep. Richard Hanna endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, making him the first congressional Republican to officially reject his party’s nominee.
Reports are now surfacing that Trump’s list of establishment enemies within the Republican Party is growing after he declined to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and criticized Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the two high-ranking Republicans head into congressional primaries.
“I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country,” Trump told The Washington Post. “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.”
As for McCain, Trump said he’s never been a fan.
“I haven’t endorsed John McCain,” Trump said. “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.
“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.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was reportedly “apoplectic” about the GOP nominee’s remarks.
Priebus, along with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Speaker Newt Gingrich, are said to be planning an “intervention” to force Trump to stop bucking the establishment moving forward in his campaign.
“There’s always going to be a residual possibility that Trump can win. The question is, can he in August slow down, take a deep breath and reorganize how he’s operating so that he gets to the standard of a potential president of the United States?” Gingrich said. “He has not done that up to now [and] it’s been significantly to his disadvantage.”
Other Republicans are openly playing with the idea of finding a way to force Trump to drop out of the race.
“There is serious talk about key Republicans coming out hard against Trump,” NBC’s Katy Tur reported.
And The New York Times reported late Tuesday that “Republican lawmakers and strategists have begun to entertain abandoning him en masse.”
Reports indicate that the same GOP leaders are already compiling a list of potential Trump replacements if they can successfully force him out against voter will.
And even if the will of Republican primary voters isn’t totally ignored by the GOP leadership and Trump campaigns through and wins the general election popular vote, there’s still a chance establishment Republicans could sabotage his efforts via the electoral college.
One Georgia electoral college member says he isn’t going to vote for Trump as a private citizen and may not as an electoral college voter.
“This is the Republican Party of Lincoln and Reagan and Romney and Ryan, not the Party of Donald Trump. As a 2016 Presidential Elector, I am forever grateful to our state Party and our Chairman for bestowing this once-in-a-lifetime honor on me. I take my role seriously and in the face of the difficult choice before us, I will always put America First over party and labels,” Republican activist Baoky Vu said in a statement.
He added: “I will not be voting for Donald Trump in the general election. My conscience is clear but my soul is being tested. Born in Saigon, my family knows what it is like to lose a country and my family is forever indebted to America and our allies. I have never questioned the soul, character and goodness of the Nation by who we have chosen as our leader throughout history.”
The post Are GOP leaders preparing self-sabotage to smite Trump? appeared first on Personal Liberty®.
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