Posted on 08/04/2016 6:19:10 AM PDT by Dosomi
Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort acknowledged that "there's a conflict within the Trump campaign" over the Republican presidential nominee's hesitation to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin for reelection. But Manafort insisted that the two are "very good friends."
"Of course he's trying to bridge the party with Paul Ryan," Manafort told George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America." "But Paul Ryan is running against someone who's not going to win but is a strong supporter of Mr. Trump."
In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Trump refused to endorse for reelection Republicans who have criticized him, such as Ryan and Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He also praised Ryan’s GOP opponent, Paul Nehlen, for running “a very good campaign.”
“I’m just not quite there yet,” Trump said of backing Ryan.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I like to think of Trump as the Dragonslayer of old. Ryan needs to suffer the consequences for his treason to the American people. This is War and I prefer a Patton to a Montgomery. My opinion is Trump should lean heavily on the no good RINOs and assist in their defeat.
MANAFORT: But, for example, the two conventions, when you look at the analysis of the coverage of the two conventions, the Republican convention got 12 times more negative coverage than the Democratic convention.STEPHANOPOULOS: That's not a rigged election.
MANAFORT: But that rigs the process if the messaging is one-sided. If the message is taking their narrative from one side of the campaign, that affects the messaging absolutely. Now do we think that we can overcome that, yes, we do. But at the same time, it's a real issue to him.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And finally, you heard Jon Karl report on Reince Priebus, the chair of the RNC -- he's been a strong ally of Mr. Trump -- is livid about his refusal to endorse Paul Ryan. Are we going to see an endorsement? Has he spoken with Mr. Priebus?
MANAFORT: Reince Priebus is a strong supporter of Donald Trump and a good friend and supporter of Paul Ryan and he's been a bridge between the party and the campaign since Mr. Trump became the presumptive nominee in April. They've spoken several times in the last two days, they're very good friends, we're doing a lot of things together. You know, there's a conflict within the Trump campaign. And we've sort of had a rule of not getting involved in primaries because it's usually not a good situation for the presidential candidate. Of course, he's going to work with Paul Ryan. Of course he's tried to bridge the party together with Paul Ryan. But Ryan is also running against somebody who's not going to win, but nonetheless is a strong supporter of Mr. Trump's.
ABC's Stephanopoulos Grills Trump Campaign Chairman Over Trump's Claim Of A "Rigged Election"
Manafort's remark about "conflict" doesn't disclose the nature of the conflict. Is it "endorse or not?" Is it "Who do we endorse?" The conflict could be, and probably is on some minor detail that has been resolved. Maybe the conflict is that Manafort recommended that neither Trump nor Pence endorse Ryan. In any event, if the conflict is over endorsement, it's minor, because endorsements make little difference. The people choose based on other factors.
Likewise, Manafort's remark that Nehlan isn't going to win carries no weight with the voters in Ryan's district.
Another piece of my speculation is that the remark that Nehlan isn't going to win, is Manafort's way of implying that Ryan doesn't need an endorsement, his campaign is strong. Not to say that "runaway race" is true, just that if Manafort and Trump "pretend" the race is Ryan's no matter what, then withholding an endorsement is meaningless - no reason for anybody to be upset about it.
Another interview given to that that little Sh$% Stephanopoulos.
We can only speculate. Maybe the thought is that an endorsement favoring Ryan (or Trump's dismissal, cast as being out of pique) doesn't matter anyway. If the race isn't close, then withholding full throated support has no effect on the outcome.
Facts on the ground may be otherwise, the race may be close, and Priebus or Ryan may have preferred an endorsement, but got a "Trump is neutral on Ryan" message instead. Manafort is laying out a narrative that suggests Priebus and Ryan had no need or expectation for an endorsement, so there is no reason for either of them to be upset at Trump's neutrality. That undercuts the press claim that Priebus was upset at lack of endorsement favoring Ryan.
Yep. But the same press bias is pervasive throughout the outlets. I thought the more substantial point was on "rigging the election." Stephanopolis blew off the facts of that exchange.
STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the messages that Mr. Trump has been putting out the last few days, he warned several times that this election is going to be rigged. Is that a real concern? Is it responsibly suggesting that the outcome of this election may not be legitimate?MANAFORT: I mean he's concerned about several things. I mean he's concerned about the coverage of the election, which is part of the election process.
STEPHANOPOULOS: His opponents say he's gotten $2 billion in free media.
MANAFORT: But, for example, the two conventions, when you look at the analysis of the coverage of the two conventions, the Republican convention got 12 times more negative coverage than the Democratic convention.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's not a rigged election.
Heheheheh. No, that's what we call a "rigged press."
Actually, the voters in Wisconsin do not know him. Nehlen and his DC based lobbyist handlers have gone to great lengths to hide and distort who Paul Nehlen is.
Nehlen has advertised himself as a local small business owner and former supporter of Paul Ryan. He is none of those things.
Nehlen did register a business identity several years ago in the state of Delaware, but has never filed the required annual paperwork in Delaware to maintain that identity. His "business" has never filed any income taxes in Delaware or Wisconsin or any other state. His business address is listed as Nehlen's home address in Wisconsin. His business' website provides NO contact info - no phone number, no email address, no Twitter, nothing.
When pressed by local media about his campaign's claims of business ownership, operation, lack of continued registration, tax filings, etc., Nehlen's campaign spokesman grudgingly acknowledged that Nehlen's company had never actually conducted any business per se. Nehlen's "business" had merely provided some pro bono advice and consultation to some personal friends whom the campaign spokesman refused to identify.
Nehlen's alleged past support for Ryan is equally sketchy. Nehlen is a recent 2014 transplant to Wisconsin. There is no record of Nehlen making any contribution to Ryan or any other state or federal candidate from Wisconsin. Similarly, no local GOP or TEA party has ever heard of Nehlen. Nehlen has NEVER attended a local event for either group.
Nehlen's campaign manager is a DC-area lobbyist who has previously designed long shot campaigns against longtime GOP politicians with no actual strategy for winning. Instead, these scamPAC campaigns are designed to generate PAC contributions from unknowing out-of-state contributors. These campaigns advertise in national conservative publications identifying their opponent as being a globalist, corporatist, free trader, Bilderberger, Trilateral Commission, unicorn hunter, etc. The PAC dollars then roll in from unwitting dupes from across the country. The campaign manager then pays himself a hefty salary and also pays his consulting company huge service fees. Very little money is actually spent on the campaign locally.
According to the latest FEC report, 98% of Nehlen's campaign contributions are from out of state contributors. Very little has been spent locally.
Draw your own conclusions.
If you gave money to Nehlen, you have probably been scammed.
Further, local polling indicates Ryan will win the primary next week by +35 or 40%.
Manafort handle that little Sh$% Stephy pretty good. There’s always a danger as he is a mouth piece for Hillary and the Demcrat party.
As you may recall, it was Stephanpoulus who got the ball rolling by hyping the Muslim father brouhaha. Stiffy flew into Co. Spgs, CO to specifically interview and ask Trump about it. Trump who remarked and wondered, speaking to that Hillary mouth piece, why his wife had nothing to say at the DNC Hillary CONvention. We all know how that got totally blown out of proportion. They filled in the blank with their BS from the NeverTrumper and DNC media.
Ryan started all this with his holier than thou, periodic condemnations of things Trump said. Ryan has had his own agenda going since it became apparent Trump would win the 1,237 necessary for the nomination.
Maybe the Speaker of the House should also remain neutral and not go around pushing his own agenda at odds with the winner of the primaries.
Trump could have said early on that he would not endorse candidates during state primaries, but Ryan has done a lot to create a strong desire for Trump to send something back in his direction, so Trump used Ryan's own words: "I'm not there yet".
They all are, but yeah, Stephanoplis is an old Clinton friend and loyalist. There is no neutral media outlet, all are hostile to anybody who supports Trump.
-- As you may recall, it was Stephanpoulus who got the ball rolling by hyping the Muslim father brouhaha. ... We all know how that got totally blown out of proportion. They filled in the blank with their BS from the NeverTrumper and DNC media. --
What they did was worse than fill in the blank, they contradicted the contents of the interview! Outright lied. Trump knew it was coming, he put out a press release in advnace of ABC airing the interview. Three days later, the press took the contents of the press release, rebranded as "urgent pivot" (which might be a title fabricated out of thin air by the press), implied that the points raised in that memeo were "new" talking points, when in fact the points were made contemporaneously with ABC's airing of the interview.
Once a person sees the deliberate and blatant duplicity of the press, the whole world changes. The prescribes nothing, absolutely nothing, accurately. In literally 100% of the times that I've researched a story, drilling down to the raw material, the press got it wrong. The press is a source of only misinformation.
He discredited himself acting like a jerk in his appearance and likely created doubts or turned off voters in his district. As I said in a post on an earlier thread, Ryan is a short-timer and we will know for sure in five days; that will be on Ryan's actions and positions, not his opponent.
Ryan again today is attacking Trump over that Islamic Clintonite all for “Republican principles” he says. He’s a chump.
I detest Ryan.
This little sh*t bag may cost Trump the election. If it looks like Trump has been destroyed by the GOPE I will not vote (R) down ticket. Burn it down to the ground.
Why did Manafort say that Nehlan isn’t going to win.?
That was rude!
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Maybe, because it’s true.
Ryan will win in a cake walk. No district is going to get rid of the power that having the Speaker of the house gets them.
Especially, when he also has the full backing of the GOPe and Walker’s ground game behind him.
And leave our establishment RINO's alone, we need them there to keep you in check.
Win or lose, Ryan has always been a DC R establishment flunky; the CORE reason doofus Willard chose him. Just another Boy Scout type (my apologies to the Scouts) w/the the charisma of Dewey, the oratorical skills of Mizz Megyn and the stature of a dwarf. Just another bag man ‘gettin rich’ in DC, like Hasert. As Ko-Ko sang; “He never will be missed.”
Haven’t read every word of this article, but generally missing from the misreporting on this story is:
1. Trump is now the nominee and Ryan certainly never endorsed Trump during the primaries, and Ryan has played games and tried to damage Trump since Trump won the primaries.
2. Ryan is still in his primary contest and neither Trump nor any other Republican has an obligation to take sides in primary races.
And Ryan has generally acted like a pompous ass since Trump won the nomination. There is NO reason Trump should have positive feelings toward Ryan.
Ryan is a dirt bag. Ryan is pompously lecturing Trump to “focus on Hillary” while himself fragging Trump and not focusing on Hillary. Or his primary opponent for that matter.
Ryan has had an anti-Trump tweet “pinned” to the top of his Twitter account for FIVE DAYS IN A ROW. Amnesty Ryan should take his own advice and focus on Hillary before he patronizes Trump.
Nehlen isn’t the smoothest speaker. I noticed that the first time I heard him.
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