Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Thursday, December 12, 2024 79° Today's Paper


Top News

Hewlett-Packard executive Meg Whitman latest GOP defection from Trump

1/2
Swipe or click to see more
2/2
Swipe or click to see more

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Briar Woods High School today in Ashburn, Va.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado >> As Republican loyalists continue to flee, Donald Trump ignited new party tensions today by refusing to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan or Arizona Sen. John McCain, a remarkable display of party division just three months before Election Day.

The Republican presidential nominee told The Washington Post he’s “just not quite there yet,” when asked about an endorsement of Ryan, who faces a primary election next week. In doing so, he echoed the House speaker’s comments of almost three months earlier, when the Wisconsin congressman was initially reluctant to embrace Trump as his party’s standard bearer.

Trump’s statement comes amid intense fallout over his criticism of the family of the late Capt. Humayun Khan, a U.S. Army soldier who died in Iraq in 2004. Indeed, just two weeks after a Republican National Convention that tried to focus on party unity, the Trump-driven rifts inside the GOP appear to be intensifying.

Retiring New York Rep. Richard Hanna became the first Republican member of Congress to say he will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November instead of Trump.

“He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country,” Hanna wrote in a column published in The Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse, New York. “He is unrepentant in all things.”

Hewlett-Packard executive Meg Whitman — a prominent Republican fundraiser — also threw her support behind Clinton, saying, “Donald Trump’s demagoguery has undermined the fabric of our national character.”

Whitman said Trump’s “reckless and uninformed” positions on critical issues from immigration to the economy and foreign policy show he lacks the policy depth and judgment a president needs.

She said national security would be in danger under a Trump presidency and she encouraged all Republicans to support Clinton in November.

The former eBay CEO ran unsuccessfully for California governor in 2010, spending $144 million of her own money in a $178 million loss against Democrat Jerry Brown.

Also today, the woman who helped shape New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s national image declared that she’s voting for Clinton.

“As someone who has worked to further the Republican Party’s principles for the last 15 years, I believe that we are at a moment where silence isn’t an option,” former Christie senior aide Maria Comella told CNN.

They join dozens of high-profile GOP leaders who have previously said they would not vote for Trump, including the party’s 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

A day earlier, Sally Bradshaw, an architect of the Republican National Committee’s 2013 “Growth and Opportunity” report, said she’s leaving the GOP. While not a household name, her decision to leave the party rocked those who make politics their profession.

Bradshaw was one of the five senior Republican strategists tasked with identifying the party’s shortcomings and recommending ways it could win the White House after its losing 2012 presidential campaign. She said she will vote for the Democratic nominee if the race in her home state of Florida appears close come Election Day.

“Trump has moved in exactly the opposite direction from our recommendations on how to make the party more inclusive,” said Ari Fleischer, who worked with Bradshaw on the GOP’s so-called post-election autopsy and was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush.

Fleischer still supports Trump over Clinton. But Bradshaw and Comella are among a group of top Republican operatives, messengers, national committee members and donors who continue to decry Trump’s tactics, highlighting almost daily — with fewer than 100 days before the election — the fissures created by the billionaire and his takeover of the party.

Veterans and families of fallen soldiers continue to call on Trump to apologize for his treatment of the Khan family, who spoke out against Trump at last week’s Democratic National Convention. Trump said the grieving father had “no right” to criticize him, only later acknowledging their son is a hero.

“If realDonaldTrump wants to be the Commander in Chief, he needs to act like one. And that can’t start until he apologizes to the Khans,” Dakota Meyer, one of a handful of living Medal of Honor recipients and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s son-in-law, wrote on Twitter.

Trump invited more tension when he told The Washington Post he’s not ready to endorse Ryan in next week’s Republican primary contest against Paul Nehlen, praising the underdog for running “a very good campaign.”

Tensions were already running high between the two high-profile Republicans, who will have to work together closely should Trump win the presidency. Said Ryan’s campaign spokesman Zack Roday, “Neither Speaker Ryan nor anyone on his team has ever asked for Donald Trump’s endorsement. And we are confident in a victory next week regardless.”

In the Post interview, Trump also declined to support McCain’s re-election and dismissed New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte as weak. Both had been among Trump’s harshest critics in the wake of his comments about the Khan family, particular McCain, a former prisoner of war who said Trump did not have “unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.”

Christie, the New Jersey governor, continues to be one of Trump’s biggest supporters. But Comella, his former aide, said the very survival of the party depends on stopping the celebrity businessman.

“Instead of speaking out against instances of bigotry, racism and inflammatory rhetoric, whether it’s been against women, immigrants or Muslims, we made a calculus that it was better to say nothing at all in the interest of politics and winning elections,” she told CNN. “For me, if our party has a future, we have to change that trajectory and lead by example.”

63 responses to “Hewlett-Packard executive Meg Whitman latest GOP defection from Trump”

  1. honupono says:

    Crumbling.

  2. bsdetection says:

    The Republican Hindenburg is on final approach..

  3. keaukaha says:

    His campaign is collasping and all we can say is we told you so. The blind leading the blind to a humiliating defeat. To be frustrated and angry is understandable but to put your hopes in someone like the Chump is cult like. Very scary.

  4. MillionMonkeys says:

    After he loses the race (or drops out), Trump can get into the luxury cruise business. It’ll be so HUUUGE, he can call it the Titanic Cruise Line.

  5. kuroiwaj says:

    My choice remains Mr. Trump for United States President. The nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court and all Federal Courts are the priority. The nominees must be Originalist and Conservative. The impact of the nominees will impact the United States for the next 50 years.

    • klastri says:

      Trump may be your choice, but people who really understand the office of the President are finally admitting that Trump is fundamentally unfit. His campaign is thankfully collapsing, and now he’s behind Mrs. Clinton by double digits. The goal now is to make his loss so humiliating that he shuts his vile mouth forever.

    • bsdetection says:

      Interesting to read this concern about Constitutionality from someone who believes that the Equal Protection Clause doesn’t protect non-citizens..

      • Ikefromeli says:

        Indeed. You say you are constitutionalist, but you “opt out” on the clear dictates and prescidents of the 14amendment…come now.

      • Ronin006 says:

        Nice spin, bsdetection, but you are wrong. The Equal Protection Clause applies to US citizens and non-citizens who are legal residents of the US. However, the Constitution does not apply to foreigners who want to come here.

        • klastri says:

          You are wrong, of course. Your error has been pointed out many times.

          The equal protection clause protects people described in the clause – not just “US citizens and non-citizens who are legal residents of the US” as you wrote. The clause says “no state shall ‘deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.'”

          That means everyone. Not what you wrote. You need to admit, sooner or later, that you either don’t understand somehow that you keep making this error, or you are deliberately lying. There is no third choice.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Nope. You got it absolutely wrong.

          The U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue well over a century ago. But even before the court laid the issue to rest, a principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, the second president of the United States, wrote: “that as they [aliens], owe, on the one hand, a temporary obedience, they are entitled, in return, to their [constitutional] protection and advantage.”

          More recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) that “due process” of the 14th Amendment applies to all aliens in the United States whose presence maybe or is “unlawful, involuntary or transitory.”

          Twenty years before Zadvydas, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Texas could not enforce a state law that prohibited illegally present children from attending grade schools, as all other Texas children were required to attend.

          The court ruled in Plyler that:

          The illegal aliens who are … challenging the state may claim the benefit of the Equal Protection clause which provides that no state shall ‘deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’ Whatever his status under immigration laws, an alien is a ‘person’ in any ordinary sense of the term … the undocumented status of these children does not establish a sufficient rational basis for denying benefits that the state affords other residents.

          A decade before Plyler, the court ruled in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States (1973) that all criminal charge-related elements of the Constitution’s amendments (the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and the 14th) such as search and seizure, self-incrimination, trial by jury and due process, protect non-citizens, legally or illegally present.

          Three key Supreme Court decisions in 1886, 1896 and 1903 laid the 14th Amendment basis for the consistent ruling of the court that aliens, legal and illegal, have constitutional protection in criminal and certain civil affairs in the justice system.

          In Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), the court ruled that:

          Though the law itself be fair on its face, and impartial in appearance, yet, if it is applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and unequal hand, so as practically to make unjust and illegal discriminations between persons of similar circumstances, material to their rights, the denial of equal justice is still within the prohibition of the Constitution [the 14th Amendment].

          In Wong Win v. United States (1896), the court ruled that:

          It must be concluded that all persons within the territory of the United States are entitled to the protection by those amendments [Fifth and Sixth] and that even aliens shall not be held to answer for a capital or other infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury, nor deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

          In summary, the entire case of illegal aliens being covered by and protected by the Constitution has been settled law for 129 years and rests on one word: “person.” It is the word “person” that connects the dots of “due process” and “equal protection” in the 14th Amendment to the U.S Constitution and it is those five words that make the Constitution of the United States and its 14th amendment the most important political document since the Magna Carta in all world history.

          “Aliens,” legal and illegal, have the full panoply of constitutional protections American citizens have with three exceptions: voting, some government jobs and gun ownership (and that is now in doubt) — Glenn Beck and others notwithstanding.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Klas, now watch this, like men of his ilk, e.g. Les, Kuro, Sarge, et al, Ronin will try to now quietly exit this discussion and not respond. Courage to be blatantly ignorant is usually stymied when facts are added to the equation…..

        • klastri says:

          Ikefromeli – I applaud your effort, but it won’t work with ronin006. His / her “mistake” on this – enforcing underlying racism, of course – is repeated over and over and over again. He’s never correct about anything he / she writes on the law or the Constitution. Not ever. It’s just frustrating to see people with so little intellectual curiosity, or basic dishonesty, that they are compelled to lie over and over again.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          My biggest issue and its with a rather large dollop of contempt, is that folks like Kuro and Ronin claim some form of unnatural intimacy with our constitution, but hardly take the time to become familiar with all its ridges, valleys and peaks.

          Rather, they look for it to somehow explain and provide a comprehensive dictum and rationale for all their accumulated ideology and dogma. Brother –please that is the height of laziness and manipulation.

        • kuroiwaj says:

          IkeFromEli, thank you for your research. Klas, as a retired attorney, for some reason believes the 14th applies to illegal immigrants, and as you post the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the 14th does not. The 14th applies to citizens born or naturalized in the United States in Section 1 of the 14th, and applies to all written words that follows in the section.

        • gmejk says:

          That’s because they operate by the internet adage that if you say something loud enough, long enough and angrily enough, it must be right….

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Kuro, you need to actually read the cases cited–in short, and strongly worded, illegal aliens DO have constitutional rights–and there is no ambiguity to that specific point.

        • klastri says:

          kuroiwaj – I’m not retired, as I’ve explained many times. You cannot stop lying, even when your lies are minor or meaningless.

          I will not debate you on the Constitution. You know absolutely nothing about it, and consistently write gibberish when you are challenged.

          Ike may want to continue this, but you long ago proved beyond any doubt whatever that your ignorance is willful and prideful.

          Have fun supporting Mr. Trump as he slides into the abyss.

        • kuroiwaj says:

          Ike, since Klas is not retired and require sleep, you could provide all of us the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on which case that illegal immigrants are protected under the 14 Amendment. I’m aware of Anchor Babies and their illegal parents, but where is the language on illegal immigrants. I find none. Klas is a true progressive liberal believer and will challenge the original intent of any part of the U.S. Constitution, and we understand his position.

        • sarge22 says:

          Oh man, missed all the lawyer talk but I was watching some baseball and this movie…http://www.dineshdsouza.com/movies/hillarys-america/… Hillary’s America is definitely a documentary with a strong point of view. As such, it plays strongly to its conservative viewer base. However, D’Souza makes his case using facts rather than innuendo, slander or other unjust means. As a result, HILLARY’S AMERICA is a refreshingly gutsy, important movie that everyone opposed to Hillary will want to see and that every American voter should see. D’Souza’s command of filmmaking has grown astronomically. He has recast himself as a conservative Michael Moore, but with facts and truth on his side. Hillary’s America is a documentary with essential information for viewers, but one that still feels utterly entertaining.

        • klastri says:

          sarge22 – You might reconsider taking your talking points from people other than disgraced criminals, drug addicts, and adulterers.

          Just a thought.

        • klastri says:

          kuroiwaj – If you’re suggesting that you have not already been provided the cases you’ve asked for (before, and again today) then you’re lying.

          You only need to read Plyler – which you have been provided at least three times – twice by me, and again by Ikefromeli.

          I’m not sure if you’re lazy or dishonest. Either way, this is the last time I’m providing case law.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Kuro– is this language not clear enough for you??

          More recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) that “due process” of the 14th Amendment applies to all aliens in the United States whose presence maybe or is “unlawful, involuntary or transitory.”

        • kuroiwaj says:

          IRT Ike, mahalo for the info on Zadvydas v Davis decided by U.S. Supreme Court on June 28, 2001. Zadvydas was a legal resident alien in the United States at the time. But, as in Kim Ho Ma, a Cambodian, their Country of birth that the court ruled ordered them deported, rejected them because of their criminal records. Sorry, but decision by the U.S. Supreme Court had nothing to do with “Illegal” immigrants or alien’s.

    • keaukaha says:

      Then why in the world did you put all of your chips on the Chump.

    • MillionMonkeys says:

      Trump isn’t conservative. He’s delusional and narcissistic. I respect your right to be old-fashioned, but Trump would just let you down–if he hasn’t already.

      • sarge22 says:

        Who let the monkeys out? Trump is anti establishment and the scared elites are bailing as was expected. He will ruin their party. They even had to recruit Warren Buffoon.

  6. Ikefromeli says:

    As I called it earlier this morning….the house leadership is hanging by a bear thread in their support of Trump, expect in the coming weeks more repudiation of him. A significant part of the problem is that he (Trump) is beginning to trail in that range where not only is he going to lose, but almost as important, he will take down other races–that range is in 8-9% band. House Rs need to protect their majority, and they can only do that if they defect from his cancerous form of rhetoric and politics.

    • klastri says:

      You know it’s over when Joe Scarborough states doubt on his show – out loud – about whether Mr. Trump is sane.

      • Ikefromeli says:

        So true.

        His temperament and impulse control is that of a three year old.

        No one ever just loses anymore. There are no honest defeats. The philosophy of the disgruntled toddler has taken root, far and wide, across the political spectrum: If I win, the game was fair. If I lose, the only possible explanation.

        Why has admitting mistakes and learning from defeat become too difficult? To acknowledge our own faults, flaws, and responsibility would give us less to say. It would require introspection and self-evaluation, not attention. We would have to turn away from the spotlight and television cameras and our social media platforms.

        Modern American culture simultaneously celebrates victims and mocks those who try hard but never quite succeed. Casting blame, aspersions, and accusations of a rigged outcome ensures you’re never quite defeated, just cheated. It’s a much easier identity to adopt than that of one who fell short. You’re not a “loser,” to use one of Trump’s other favorite words. You’re “the one who should have won.”

        Those last three paragraphs are not from me—but rather from the ultra-conservative National Review and a rather critical sharp critique of the R nominee….so very telling.

        • sarge22 says:

          The SA continues to attack Mr Trump but apparently they missed this story about HiLIARy and the DNC…For equal time I’ll share this story……http://www.jta.org/2016/08/02/news-opinion/politics/3-dnc-staffers-in-leaked-bernie-exchange-resignA… Three high-ranking staffers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned amid the email controversy that forced their boss, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign last week.

          Chief executive Amy Dacey, Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall and Communications Director Luis Miranda will leave later this week, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

          The three were involved in one of the most controversial email exchanges that was hacked and leaked days before the Democratic National Convention. In it, Marshall noted, erroneously, that then-Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is an atheist and suggested that this information could be used to undermine his campaign among religious voters.

        • klastri says:

          sarge22 – Your laziness – posting the words of others – continues.

          That’s old news, actually. The rest of us are watching Mr. Trump’s public descent into madness. It’s quite a show.

  7. klastri says:

    Republicans who follow polls are now reading on Nate Silver’s website, that Mrs. Clinton now has an 85% chance of winning the election. Trump is totally collapsing.

    Politicians don’t hitch their wagon to sure losers. Trump is a sure loser.

  8. keaukaha says:

    Sarge, lespark , moilee where are you. Unusually quite out there in Dizzyland.

    • MillionMonkeys says:

      They’re a little angry and in denial, realizing that his promises are crumbling. Next, they’ll finally notice how ridiculous his hair and his weird hand motions look. The last stage is acceptance.

    • klastri says:

      Sooner or later, even they will be able to see that it’s over.

      It’s over.

    • sarge22 says:

      The SA continues to attack Mr Trump but apparently they missed this story about HiLIARy and the DNC…For equal time I’ll share this story……http://www.jta.org/2016/08/02/news-opinion/politics/3-dnc-staffers-in-leaked-bernie-exchange-resignA… Three high-ranking staffers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned amid the email controversy that forced their boss, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign last week.

      Chief executive Amy Dacey, Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall and Communications Director Luis Miranda will leave later this week, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

      The three were involved in one of the most controversial email exchanges that was hacked and leaked days before the Democratic National Convention. In it, Marshall noted, erroneously, that then-Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is an atheist and suggested that this information could be used to undermine his campaign among religious voters.

  9. Ikefromeli says:

    Trump came out of the GOP convention with the public 15 points less likely to vote for him.

    Wasn’t Donald Trump was supposed to be some sort of show-biz genius?

    Weren’t we told for two months that if the GOP would only hand the keys to Trump, the party’s convention would cease to be so boring; that millions and millions would tune in to see the prime-time spectacle; that the Trump Show would rally a huge grassroots populist rebellion against the status quo; that Trump would unite the Republican party, bring in disaffected conservatives, and lead the charge toward a big win in November. And then: Melania’s plagiarism. Shoutey Michael Flynn. Too-long and too-late speeches lasting well past 11 p.m. on the East Coast. Conservative rebels thuggishly crushed by Trump goons on the convention floor. Empty seats. Ploddingly unoriginal programming. It was slapstick. It was amateur hour. And all that even before Donald Trump stepped to the podium on a Thursday night to give an hour-plus stem-winder that changed no one’s mind — but only reinforced the public’s already ingrained perception of the Manhattan real-estate mogul.

    How did the public view Trump’s speech? They hated it.

    Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/438612/donald-trump-republican-convention-was-failure

    Who wrote this?? Me, with flaming anti-Trump rhetoric??! I wish!!! Nope, again this is standard bearer of conservative politics and policy in the US, the National Review— just entirely amazing.

  10. Ronin006 says:

    The Khan issue was the DNC’s biggest con job.

    • klastri says:

      Not a surprise that you would go so low as to smear a Gold Star family. This is what the Republican Party has become. People who fight each other to find the bottom of the barrel – each lower than the next. You may be able to get still lower. I’m sure you’ll keep trying.

    • Dawg says:

      You are a sick puppy. Losing someone you love is tough, talking about it is harder. Give them a break and stop acting TRUMPED!

    • MillionMonkeys says:

      No con job. Trump dug his own hole and fell into his own trap.

      The smart response from him would have been to acknowledge the heroism of the son and to say comforting words to the parents, while making the objection point that it was a politicized speech. That’s the way EVERY other politician (Democrat or Republican) would have responded. Had he done that too, he would not have lost any supporters.

      Trump’s mistake, no one else’s.

    • keaukaha says:

      The Chump swallowed it hook,line and sinker. Hanapa’a.

    • oxtail01 says:

      And who did they con? Ahhh…Trump, so you just proved he’s not Prez material because he falls for such elementary con job?

  11. Dawg says:

    Kaaaaa BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

  12. ALLU says:

    Yes, Donald Trump had made several grievous and unforgiveable mistakes and his campaign appears to be in shambles. His recent statements have been divisive, and to many, un-Presidential.

    But despite all of this– I ask you all to remember one reason why we should still vote for Trump—-

    Melania. And Dat a-z-z.
    ,

  13. iwanaknow says:

    How can Trump triumph if these fair weather friends run away like cockroaches?

  14. cojef says:

    Scruple don’t count, only money talks. All are in it for their stupid egos! Same with Meg, thought money could buy the election and found out otherwise. The crooked wins, nice guys finish last!

  15. lespark says:

    Might as well find out who’s in or out. Whoever wants to chicken out now is your chance.
    A lot of people base their opinions on what they read and see. Most media is in the business of ratings. Trump is news, Nobody wants to see an old lady screeching and hollering.
    NYT didn’t write anything about Chris Wallace’s interview. SA had nothing about the $400,000,000 ransom.
    Crooked Hillary goes to a small factory with 10 employees, Trump speaks to thousands. Crooked Hillary and her PACS spends millions on negative ads, Trump spends nothing. Yet, to say Crooked Hillary has this race won? Not quite yet.
    A lot can happen. I’ll never buy a HP though. Same lousy company Carly bankrupted.

Leave a Reply