Trump strains to fix split GOP, blasting common foe Clinton

That announcement was a reversal from earlier in the week, when the presidential nominee declined to endorse the speaker.

“They all agree on one thing”. Manafort replied “I’m not sure if there was confusion” before immediately pivoting to get back on script. He reiterated his support for Trump hours before the endorsement, but he noted that his support wasn’t a “blank check” and pledged to speak out against the businessman’s divisive positions if necessary.

He also announced support for senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, two lawmakers facing tough re-election fights. She then named several African-American friends, women in particular, and drew laughs from the audience when she described how “they’ve supported me, they’ve chastised me, they’ve tried to expand my musical tastes”.

But Trump’s assault on Clinton’s character also came as he himself faced stinging criticism from top USA officials, including a damning editorial on Friday in which the former acting head of the CIA, Michael Morell, a well-respected and non-partisan figure, endorsed Clinton and warned that Trump “is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security”. She warned about her opponent: “He’s harkening back to the most shameful chapters of our history and appealing to the ugliest impulses of our society”.

Vos said “we are Ryan Republicans here in Wisconsin, not Trump Republicans”. “Working hand in hand, we will grow our majority in the House and in the Senate”.

Clinton on Friday also called on journalists hold Donald Trump accountable, saying reporters “have a special responsibility to our democracy at a time like this”.

“I like Paul, but these are awful times for our country”, Trump said in the interview. We need very strong leadership. “I was just – I’m full on with the Trump campaign”.

Trump’s gaffes have overshadowed Clinton’s own vulnerabilities as the Democrats work to recover from a bruising primary election season.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution poll, released Friday, showed Clinton with a 4-point lead over Trump, excluding third-party candidates.

In addition to the criticisms of the military family, Trump has also been condemned in recent days for ordering a crying infant to leave the room at a speech in Virginia, calling for Russian hackers to find emails involving Clinton, refusing to endorse GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan in a Wisconsin primary race, and suggesting there would be nothing wrong with the United States using nuclear weapons against enemies in Europe.

It’s not clear that Ryan is keen to receive Trump’s endorsement. His decision to endorse Trump almost a month later seemed opportunistically designed as well, since it came the week before he began rolling out the House GOP’s “A Better Way” policy agenda that he is hoping a potential President Trump would support.

“I have said during the interview and in many other occasions over the past months that what I told the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly”, Clinton said. But in neighboring Wisconsin, a state Trump insists he can win, the state’s best-known Republicans said they were too busy to attend his evening event. He hasn’t been a part of the political system so his relationships with the leadership of the party are not as deep and long as traditionally it would be with the Republican nominee.