GOP is on edge of civil war
POLITICS: Trump fires back at top Republican as brass say they won’t defend him
WASHINGTON — The Republican party inched toward civil war less than a month before election day, as plummeting poll numbers and controversies lit the fuse Monday for a potentially explosive conflict between its presidential nominee and senior leadership.
Party brass made it clear they have stopped defending Donald Trump. They warned elected members to focus on saving Congress, as a string of surveys show such drastically plummeting support for their nominee that it threatens to take down the entire ship.
Trump responded in characteristic fashion: He fired back. On his side in the skirmish is a core of the grassroots that detests its party leadership. Some are talking sabotage of the party, if a Trump spokeswoman is to be believed. Katrina Pierson said she has been deluged with calls and texts from supporters saying they’ll vote for Trump, but not for other Republicans in crucial downballot races.
Trump, meanwhile, blasted the top Republican in Congress. This was after House Speaker Paul Ryan told members in a conference call that he would no longer be appearing with Trump; he’s now focused on saving the legislature to act as a check on a potential President Hillary Clinton.
“Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration,” Trump responded via social media. “And not waste his time on fighting (the) Republican nominee.”
This internal brush fire was lit with two matches. The first is a clear decline in the polls. The latest head-to-head surveys had Clinton winning by seven percentage points, five points and 14 points. Of a dozen major pollsters, only one has shown Trump leading in the last month.
Clinton leads in almost every battleground state.
The second is Trump’s comportment. There was the release of an old video where he talked about grabbing women’s genitals without permission. But his response has included an all-out assault against his political rivals that many Republicans view as crude and counter-productive.
He also labelled Clinton “the devil” and promised she would “be in jail” if he were president because of her email practices at the State Department — a threat that drew widespread criticism.
“That was a quip,” Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” She also wouldn’t confirm Trump’s threat, if elected, to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton. Trump was “channelling the frustration” of voters, she said.
This was after Trump spent part of Sunday’s debate invoking old accusations of sexual assault or misconduct against Bill Clinton. He invited the accusers to sit in the audience. Reportedly, the original plan called for them to confront Bill Clinton at the debate — which was prevented by organizers.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate denied reports he considered quitting over the crass remarks in the video. At a rally, Mike Pence said Monday: “I don’t condone what was said, and I spoke out against it but, the other part of my faith is, I believe in grace. …
“I believe in forgiveness. And we’re called to forgive as we have been forgiven.”