Senator reverses embrace of Trump, showing his risks for GOP
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke during a roundtable meeting with energy executives, today, in Denver.
CONCORD, N.H. >> Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s embrace of Donald Trump as a role model for children — and her abrupt reversal — underscored the risks the Republican presidential candidate poses for purple-state GOP senators who like her are battling for their political lives.
Ayotte, seeking a second Senate term from New Hampshire, used a televised debate against Democratic challenger Gov. Maggie Hassan to say she “absolutely” would tell a child to aspire to be like Trump. Her campaign quickly distributed a statement afterward saying she “misspoke,” and Tuesday she told reporters that “neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have set a good example.”
Ayotte’s remark proved irresistible for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., an active campaigner for her party who’s had repeated, sharp exchanges with Trump.
“Think about it: @realDonaldTrump calls Latinos rapists, African Americans thugs, & women fat pigs, & Kelly Ayotte thinks he’s a role model,” Warren tweeted.
Democrats chortled that Ayotte, considered one of the more vulnerable GOP incumbents, had fumbled with potentially devastating consequences for her re-election bid. They said she wounded herself twice: first by citing as a role model a candidate who’s openly ridiculed women, the handicapped and others and second by a retreat that smacked of insincerity and political repositioning.
“I assume this question we’re going to hear a lot more of in Senate debates, and Kelly Ayotte created the textbook on how not to answer,” said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.
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Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said it was “the unqualified nature of it and her tone” that made Ayotte’s comment truly damaging. “It’s like, ‘What are you talking about, sister?’” she said.
With the GOP’s 54-46 Senate control at stake in November, Ayotte is among a half-dozen Republicans in competitive campaigns or running in swing states like Ohio, Florida and North Carolina that will help determine whether Trump or Clinton takes the White House. Asked Tuesday whether Trump was an exemplar for children, several of them avoided the trap.
“The simple answer is no” and neither is Clinton, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who’s not endorsed Trump, told reporters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Let’s just say the vulgarity and gratuitous insults of people. This is not exactly the way I encourage my kids to behave.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., also facing re-election, stopped short of labeling Trump a role model. Blunt “believes Missourians should choose their own role models,” said campaign spokesman Burson Snyder.
And Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said, “I, like many Americans, take issue with some of the rhetoric and actions that have come from both him and Hillary Clinton, and neither are people I’d hold up as exemplary role models.”
Trump slightly trails Clinton in the latest national polls after his latest taunts, which have included mimicking how the Democrat staggered to a car after being diagnosed with pneumonia and jeering a former Miss Universe for gaining weight. In a startling departure from most presidential candidates’ efforts to avoid alienating blocs of voters, Trump has denigrated the handicapped, women, Hispanics and others.
“The message is run as local a race as possible, and try to stay away from Trump as much as you can,” said Ron Bonjean, a GOP strategist.
On Monday night, Ayotte initially answered indirectly when a debate moderator asked if she would point to Trump as a role model for children. When the questioner persisted, she said, “I believe he can serve as president so absolutely I would do that.”
The campaign of Hassan, a two-term governor, quickly produced a 60-second internet ad featuring Ayotte’s response and juxtaposing it with Trump comments imitating a handicapped reporter, referring to a woman’s “fat, ugly face” and describing Fox News’ Megyn Kelly as having “blood coming out of her wherever.”
Around 39 percent of New Hampshire voters are independents, with Republicans slightly outnumbering Democrats in the remaining group.
That makes questions like Monday night’s difficult for Ayotte. Distancing herself from Trump risks upsetting his supporters, but embracing him too tightly could alienate independents and Clinton voters, whom she will need for re-election.
Clinton has led Trump by modest margins in recent New Hampshire polls.
Ayotte has labored all year to express her views about Trump. She initially said she would support Trump but not endorse him, then in August said would vote for him but not endorse him.
24 responses to “Senator reverses embrace of Trump, showing his risks for GOP”
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Buahahahahahahahah. Trump down by at least 10 points in Pennsylvania. Republican US Senators publicly repudiating Trump, Asians nationally rejecting the R party, –just another day in the tomfoolery that is the Trump candidacy.
Regarding the headline: “GOP senators say Trump is not a role model”.
I can see the comments from the Trumpsters now: “HSA is so biased. Always reporting the facts!”
You have not seen anything yet. Wait till your girl Hilary gets to the white house. We will see what all you Hilary supportsx here wil say.
I’ll say mahalo nui ke akua!!!!
Did you see Nate Silver on the Senate balance? Two to one for Democratic control.
Thanks, Trump supporters for nominating someone who couldn’t possibly be elected!
Haven’t seen Nate in years. How’s he doing?
Well, I plan on keeping pressure on her not to go to war but on the whole I think she will be a good president. I suspect she will be like her husband and we will soon have balanced budgets again, something that would never happen under a Trump presidency.
Like her husband? A whole lot of interns will have to brought in to the White House for her to match Slick Willy.
Is hillary a role model, never mind her husband everyone knows he’s an AH ?
This presidential race has sunk to the level of a sideshow. I credit Trump for most of it.
Every time the Clintons help children and their families they wet their beaks at the same time.
If if doesn’t have the word bat in it, it’s not a real right wing demagoguery….
The right, especially the wacko right do not need facts to back up their facts. They feel the truth. lol
Shame they are just so wrong.
Let’s see, Dishonest Donald is going to deport about 11 million people. Who will pay for that? There will be a rush to fill these minimum wage jobs by his loyal followers who will thank him for their upward mobility. Next he is going to cut taxes on the high income earners and spend billions on infrastructure to his casinos and golf courses and defense to protect his overseas investments. Next he will return all of Eastern Europe to his man crush Putin for helping him win the election. And probably throw in Alaska since there is no more oil left to fight for.
Put down the crack pipe and walk away.
I see you didn’t still supporting that nut case trump.
Abraham Wallach thought he had scored a major career break when Donald J. Trump hired him in 1990 for a senior executive role. Based on Mr. Trump’s boasting and gaudy lifestyle, Mr. Wallach imagined he would soon be leading impressive construction projects around the globe.
Instead, he found an array of failing enterprises, he recalled on Monday. Many top executives had departed the Trump Organization, and those who remained were often huddled in closed-door meetings with bankers and whispering worriedly among themselves.
“Everyone was very glum,” Mr. Wallach said. “It was like getting on the Titanic just before the women and children were moved to the lifeboats.”
That year, he would later learn, was the beginning of Mr. Trump’s reckoning with a decade of rapid, debt-fueled expansion. The eclectic empire Mr. Trump had built with leverage from his father’s brick-and-mortar fortune began to fail, generating enormous losses and bringing him to the brink of personal bankruptcy.
Photo
The Castle casino in Atlantic City recorded total losses of $93.2 million in 1990 and 1991. Credit Michael Ein/The Press of Atlantic City, via Associated Press
The full magnitude of the financial hemorrhaging was a closely held secret until this weekend, when The New York Times published portions of Mr. Trump’s 1995 tax records that showed business losses of $916 million, creating a tax deduction that could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
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For a single businessman to declare losses approaching $1 billion is so extraordinary that it caused several accountants and lawyers consulted by The Times to blanch. The precise breakdown of that figure — specifically which Trump enterprises were responsible for how much — remains murky, hidden in a schedule attached to Mr. Trump’s returns that has not become public. But a review of public records and interviews with those who were present makes clear that it was decisions Mr. Trump made at the helm of his business empire during the 1980s that led to its nearly imploding.
Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, portrays himself now as a self-made man who began life with what he has characterized as a meager $1 million advance from his father. That figure itself represents a significant understatement about the support his father provided him over the years. But in his darkest moment, Mr. Trump again leaned on his family’s wealth, this time to ride out a financial tsunami.
At one point, the balance of his personal bank accounts was expected to drop below $1 million.NYT
He ended up not just borrowing from his father chronically, but also several times he borrowed against the trust of his siblings, and this totaled in the tens of millions.
Yeah right, an incredible manager and mover of people with rare business acumen. Here’s the deal, I could create jobs if I was foolish enough to finance billlion with junk bonds and then in the end, renege on the entire debacle via bankruptcy. Please the man is a whisker away from being a bovine….
I know there’s a coherent thought buried somewhere in that tangled mess. Darn if I can find it though. Oh well, re-arranging my sock drawer is sure to be more fulfilling that reading any of Ike’s posts.
It’s the lead article on the front page of the NYT, which begs the question, what the heck do you read for your news and info? Never mind, I don’t want to know…
I’ve always found the NYT to be just a bit too pedestrian for my taste. But to each his own.
Ayotte must not have been doing a good job like most of the other Senators. This election cycle is about change.
All they need to do is play a video of Ayotte saying Trump is a good a role model for kids in campaign ads and it will sink her reelection bid quickly. People running for office need to realize that stuff they say can bite them in the rear end no matter if they say they misspoke later. Trump pretty much misspeaks every time he opens his mouth and has rarely or never apologized for it.
Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s ultra-conservative columnist, wrote today, “Donald Trump bullies opponents, insults weak people, denigrates his country to make himself seem brilliant, adores tyrants and regularly employs sexist and racist rhetoric. What we should not forget, however, is how much of his difficulty in the race stems from appalling ignorance. That’s the most compelling explanation for his widely criticized comments on PTSD.”
Donald Trump…the leader of the “Never Trump” movement. As for Senator Ayotte, she’s just a spineless twit who just moves as the wind blows.