High-profile Republicans and rank-and-file voters yesterday struggled with how to best reject Donald Trump’s divisive candidacy, as the nominee dealt with fallout from his remark that gun rights activists could stop Hillary Clinton from nominating liberal US Supreme Court justices.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post saying the party was in “uncharted waters” and called for leaders to start looking for ways to remove Trump from the ticket.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll taken Aug. 5-8 showed that nearly one-fifth of 396 registered Republicans want Trump to drop out of the race for the White House and another 10% “don’t know” whether the Republican nominee should or not.
Clinton’s campaign moved to bring disenchanted Republicans into the fold by announcing an official intraparty outreach effort on behalf of the Democratic nominee.
But strategists cautioned that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to remove Trump from the Republican ticket.
“It’s wishful thinking to believe the Republicans are going to replace its nominee after the convention. People are grasping at straws,” Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist unaffiliated with Trump, said.
The best moves for Trump’s detractors may be withholding their endorsements, refusing to raise money for his campaign, throwing their weight behind Clinton or holding out hope that he voluntarily quits.
Clinton’s campaign now has a website for Republicans and political independents to sign up to pledge their support.
It lists 50 prominent Republicans and independents who have endorsed her so far, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
John Negroponte, former director of national intelligence under President George W Bush, and former Republican US Representative Chris Shays of Connecticut were among those that announced their support yesterday.
“Donald Trump lost me a long time ago,” Shays told MSNBC in an interview. “He does and says everything my mom and dad taught me never to say and do.
He doesn’t understand the basic requirements of being president of the United States.
And, frankly, he’s dangerous.”
Earlier this week, 50 Republican national security officials had signed an open letter questioning the real estate mogul’s temperament, calling him reckless and unqualified. Other top Republicans, including Senator Susan Collins of Maine this week, have disavowed Trump but said they cannot back Clinton, either.
Trump, a New York businessman, was seeking to reset his campaign this week with an economic policy speech after a series of missteps that included a prolonged clash with the parents of fallen Muslim American Army Captain Humayun Khan.
But Trump’s remark at a Tuesday rally about gun rights activists sparked a torrent of criticism on social media that he was effectively calling for Clinton’s assassination.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” Trump said at the rally at the University of North Carolina. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” he continued.