Trump’s personal attacks on judge spark GOP concerns
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge hearing a Trump University lawsuit is “a hater of Donald Trump” and ought to be removed from the case. So says Donald Trump, in just one of the recent comments by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee that have legal experts worrying about his commitment to an independent judiciary and his views about presidential powers.
In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, Trump expressed unusually personal criticism — focusing on the judge’s Mexican heritage — though his lawyers never actually sought to have the judge removed.
His comments are bringing overwhelming disapproval from politicians and lawyers in his own Republican Party. On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the statements about the judge: “It’s reasoning I don’t relate to, I completely disagree with the thinking behind that.”
And conservative legal scholars say Trump’s statements reinforce their worries that he seems to think he can do whatever he wants and disregard rules and conventions that constrain other political candidates.
“The concern is that he would act unbounded in the presidency, in a way that doesn’t follow the law,” said John McGinnis, a Northwestern University law professor.
Trump’s reluctant backers: Republicans falling in line
JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — He’s finally got Paul Ryan’s endorsement, but many officials in Donald Trump’s new wave of supporters remain reluctant backers at best. Leaders who pledged their backing still aren’t wholly satisfied with his temperament, policies or readiness for the White House.
As Trump works to unify the fractured GOP behind him, these Republicans, Ryan among them, are struggling to show the same enthusiasm Trump generated among rank-and-file conservatives throughout the nation.
“He’s a work in progress,” says Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who promised to support the GOP nominee several weeks ago.
Would Trump be a good president? “To me this is a question of alternatives,” Cole said Friday in a classic lukewarm embrace. “I’m comfortable that he will be a better president than Hillary Clinton.”
The day before, House Speaker Ryan ended an extraordinary public split by endorsing Trump in a column published in his hometown newspaper. Republican officials suggested the endorsement marked an important step toward party unification, even while conceding that the speaker’s endorsement was somewhat underwhelming.
Electing Trump would be ‘historic mistake,’ Clinton says
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Previewing a rancorous fall campaign, Hillary Clinton assailed Donald Trump on Thursday as a potential president who would lead America toward war and economic crisis. She portrayed her own foreign policy as optimistic, inclusive and diplomatic, born from long experience in public life.
There was nothing diplomatic in her remarks, a clear indication of how she’ll take Trump on. Electing him, she said, would be “a historic mistake.”
During a speech in San Diego, the Democratic former secretary of state unloaded on her likely Republican opponent, counting down reasons he is not qualified — from his aggressive Twitter attacks to his emotional outbursts.
“He is not just unprepared; he is temperamentally unfit,” she told supporters. “We cannot let him roll the dice with America.”
She said a Trump presidency could spark nuclear conflicts overseas and ignite economic catastrophe at home.
