Trump, Ryan, pledge to work together; endorsement may come
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waved as he arrived for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., at the Republican National Committee Headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington today. Trump and Ryan sat down face-to-face for the first time, a week after Ryan stunned Republicans by refusing to back the mercurial billionaire for president.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. spoke during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Anti-Trump protesters demonstrated against the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee at the entrance of the Republican National Committee Headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington today, as Donald Trump met with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis.
WASHINGTON » Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan pledged to work together despite their differences after a meeting today aimed unifying a party torn over Trump’s rise to the cusp of the Republican presidential nomination. The speaker appeared closer to offering a full-throated endorsement.
Trump and Ryan issued a statement describing their meeting as a “very positive step toward unification” that recognized “many important areas of common ground” as well as areas where they disagree. Ryan stunned Republicans by withholding his endorsement a week ago when it became clear Trump was on a firm path to the nomination.
The much-anticipated meeting unfolded this morning as more Republicans have begun urging the party to move past the extraordinary discord. The statement by the two suggested both are invested in tamping down the Republican infighting as they try to pull the GOP together for the fight against Hillary Clinton and Democrats in the fall.
Ryan told a news conference they are “planting the seeds” to accomplish that.
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, a Trump supporter, said it will help both the candidate and the speaker if they can work through their differences.
“I don’t think it’s do or die, any endorsement in particular,” he said outside the building. But “Donald Trump’s candidacy is strengthened with an endorsement from the most powerful person, top-ranking Republican in the country. It helps.”
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On the eve of the meetings, Trump eased his defiant tone of recent days. Asked on Fox News who leads the party in his view, he said Ryan. “I would say Paul for the time being and maybe for a long time,” he said.
“We can always have differences,” he said. “If you agree on 70 percent, that’s always a lot.”
The two men represent vastly different visions for the Republican Party, and whether they can come together may foretell whether the GOP will heal itself after a bruising primary season or face irrevocable rupture.
Trump, for years a registered Democrat, has offended women, Hispanics, and others while violating establishment party orthodoxy on numerous issues Ryan holds dear, from trade to wages to religious freedom. Ryan, a policy-focused conservative, insists the GOP must be a party of ideas, and has championed an agenda that has drawn Trump’s scorn by pushing cuts in Medicare and other government programs.
Indeed, a broader swath of Republican voters appears to be moving behind Trump, despite big-name holdouts such as Ryan, both former president Bushes and the party’s 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney. Romney went after Trump on Wednesday over his refusal thus far to release his taxes, calling it “disqualifying” and asserting that the only explanation must be “a bombshell of unusual size.”
Still, almost two in three Republican-leaning voters now view Trump favorably, compared with 31 percent who view him unfavorably, according to a national Gallup Poll taken last week. The numbers represent a near total reversal from Gallup’s survey in early March.
And on Capitol Hill, where Ryan has managed to remain popular since taking over as speaker in the fall, some Republicans made clear that they would like to see him come around to supporting Trump sooner rather than later.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, an ally of GOP leadership, said today his biggest worry about Trump is that he is “‘unpredictable.” Yet Trump is also a “change agent,” Cole said. “That’s exactly what people want right now, so in that sense he’s very well-positioned for a general election.”
“It seems to me they have every incentive to find common ground,” he said of Trump and Ryan, “because to be successful they both in a sense need one another.”
Three meetings were on tap for Trump: the one with Ryan and the party chairman, then with Ryan joined by other senior House GOP leaders and one with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Senate Republicans.
McConnell was quick to embrace the mogul after he clinched the nomination and said this week that Trump is looking like he’ll be “very competitive” in November.
Associated Press writers Steve Peoples, Thomas Beaumont, Alan Fram, Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Lerer contributed to this report.
33 responses to “Trump, Ryan, pledge to work together; endorsement may come”
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The Trump Organization, TO is in the luxury brand biz. Hawaii tourism is in the luxury brand biz. Sounds like a good fit. Well, the state’s Dem party insiders would have even more money to skim to its insiders resulting from a TO presidency which would add federal power to local home rule power to develop the Hawaii tourism brand further. This is preferable to taxing the public to pay for public works for union insiders like the craziness of the elevated rail system.
I think the fit of your aluminum foil hat may be a bit too tight.
I’M STILL VOTING FOR TRUMP!!!
Useless I D I O T S support Hillary Clinton!!!
President Donald Trump vs hiLIARy for PRISONdent…easy choice…GO DON GO!!
Yes. No particular surprise there.
Vote Trump! End The Constitution! No Bill of Rights! Trump 2016!
Glad to see you are on board the Trump Train. LOL
Vote Trump! Execute innocent people on mere association! North Korea is our mentor! Torture everyone who doesn’t look like us! Trump Dictator For Life! War Crimes! War Crimes! War Crimes! No Civil Rights! Trump 2016!
I’m voting for Trump. Ryan can go milk a cow.
A clothes hanger antenna may also help. lol
A fractured party. Can wait for the circus of the R convention. Will be like a hundred Korean soap put together. You know the one with the crooked CEO with multiple wives and off shore accounts and dirty dealings.
NanakuliBoss, we stand at a very interesting period in time. Where millions of Republican voters literally don’t care that their candidate is anti-civil rights, pro-big government, anti-trade, pro-higher taxation, cannot do math at all, campaigns on disregarding the post WWII order which stacked the deck for the West, is pro-Putin who orders the assassination of journalists who reveal his massive corruption, is is secular with no use for religion, pro-choice and pro-trans gender.
If the GOP wants to save their beliefs in small government, low taxation, adhering to the Constitution, pro-trade and religious beliefs, they should seriously consider forming a new party. The GOP under Trump has even less regard for Eisenhower, Goldwater or Reagan than the current GOP does.
What do Ryan and Donald agree on? Ryan is far more ideologically similar to the actual Republican in this election. It is interesting to see so many Trump supporters have nothing but disdain for the GOP platform and Conservatism in general. Civil rights, limited government, less taxation, strong international leadership, all of that is going out the window.
“Make America Great Again” We are well on or way. Check out Clinton Cash. Awesome Trump 2016
Won’t it be a relief to not have to say about local government when Trump wins “the fix is in”.
The 2008-2016 NIGHTMARE is almost over. The WORST POTUS in American history is going home to roost soon to his Murder Capital home!
Your lack of historical knowledge and perspective is embarrassing.
It doesn’t bother you that you are actually favoring the Democrat in this election?
Oh wait, I forgot, you don’t care about policies and positions, only the Cult of Trump.
Even by the low standards of this forum, the ignorance about Trump’s positions are remarkable.
klastri, well, what Grand Chieftain For Life says goes. Nevermind if it doesn’t make sense. Or contradicts what he said 30 seconds ago. ALL HAIL TRUMP! The Cult Of Trump Shall Live FOREVER!
You know it’s bad when Winston who’s political beliefs change based on the wind can take a solid stance against Trump.
Winston Churchill? “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
choyd since you miss Winston I’ll help you out..Winston says:
May 12, 2016 at 8:07 am
Interesting news day for you Obama fans:
Item #1: Walid bin Attash, a planner of the USS Cole bombing and who also played a role in the 9/11 attack, is still at Gitmo. His trial continues to drag on while he and his lawyers play games. Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri, another of the planners, is still awaiting trial. BUT MASHUR ABDALLAH AHMED AL SABRI, ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE USS COLE CELL, HAS ALREADY BEEN RELEASED BY BARACK OBAMA FROM GUANTANAMO BAY. (emphasis added).
I’ll explain the significance for you–Obama released one of the murderers of 17 sailors on the USS Cole. Do the lives of those men and women mean nothing?
Item #2: The Obama administration unlawfully paid billions of dollars to insurance providers under the Affordable Care Act without a funding appropriation from Congress, a federal district judge in Washington ruled on Thursday.
Significance? This great steaming pile of lies is about to slide down the you know what.
Item #3; “In a race marked by wide gender, age and racial gaps, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are running neck and neck in the key presidential Swing States of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania,…”
So much for Clinton’s easy win. Get ready for the WWF presidential race.
Cute Sarge:
Try again:
http://www.snopes.com/obama-freed-uss-cole-terrorist/
But thanks again Sarge for showing you have no use for the Constitution.
Does indefinite detention without charge sound familiar to you? Oh I forgot.
You don’t care about what the Constitution says. CULT OF TRUMP!
sarge22, in a comment above, quotes a fellow fact-free sufferer from Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS) as saying that “Mashur Abdallah Ahmed Al Sabri, one of the members of the USS Cole cell, has already been released by Barack Obama from Guantanamo Bay,” but this is FALSE. He was released by the Periodic Review Board (PRB), which is described on its website as “a body comprised of senior officials from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and State; the Joint Staff; and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that will review whether continued detention of particular individuals held at Guantanamo remains necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.”
Who’s worried about facts when we have experienced “Hope and Change”. “Make America Great Again” Check out Clinton Cash. Just the facts ma’am. Trump Train 2016
He acts and sounds like the N.Korean President Kim.
Don’t you dare question the Cult of Trump. Once he ascends the Throne for Life and ends the Constitution as he’s promised to do, he will follow Putin in having anyone who questions him meet questionable grisly ends. Including you. You will have the choice of groveling at his feet or death.
CULT OF TRUMP!
What is this? So we have Congressman(Senator Head speaker )Mitch Mcconnel, Newt Gingrich and Dan Quayle and countless other Republicans endorsing Trump. My question is: Whats Ryan’s beef with Trump. is Trump too boisterous,too bombastic or just a person stirring up the pot and rattling gages!! Calling out these “Career Politicians”!Those of us in the past,who voted for the Republican party, voted for change,to change the direction Obama is taking the country.And yet ,time and time again The Senate, but even more the Republican House has failed to get anything Substantial passed!Even with the Majority they constantly lose to the Lunacy of Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic gang? This lady has got to be the most incompetent,delusional persona in the White House… Remember.”You have to Pass the( Obama Care act) the bill to know what’s inside the bill”…. Is this lady for REAL?
For the republicans to be defeated by the Democrats on just about everything goes beyond logic.
Now with Ryans attitude,the, “Should I or Shouldn’t I” Endorse Donald Trump? Is just plain stupid! What will it take for Ryan to change his mind? Will Donald have to Wine and Dine the Novice Head speaker. I mean ,look at it this way: Millions upon Millions of Republicans,Independents, voters who havn’t voted in their lives and finally yes,even Democrats ,turned out and voted for Donald Trump. This Speaks volumes! So what IS Paul Ryans problem??
But what speaks even louder? Is the Optics! How does this look to The People voted for Trump? In the Republican party this will be the outcome: A No vote or a “Stay Home Vote” is a VOTE for Hillary!
Indeed,Ryan and his fellow Republicans are showing the Millions of Voters thru-out the USA how divided the Republican party really is.This, in my mind is a foolish thing to do on Paul Ryan’s part,because many of his colleagues ,who followed him will (most likely) lose their seats. Because of his inaction to unite the party and endorse the GOP nominee. But most importantly it shows,to the millions of voters,that the Voters will be the ones to Unite the Republican Party………. not the other way around !
For Paul Ryan all i can say is wise-up now and come together! Let the Votes be cast. IMUA
Moderation……Really SA?
Interesting to see you adopt a platform of anti-civil rights, pro-big government, anti-trade, pro-higher taxation, anti-math, anti-post WWII order which stacked the deck for the West, pro-Putin who orders the assassination of journalists who reveal his massive corruption, pro-secular with no use for religion, pro-choice and pro-trans gender.
If the Republican Party could get their act together this is the election. Cam Cavasso where are you?