Subject: Negative Clips 5.9.2016
From: "Price, Jenna" <[email-masked]>
To: "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Palermo, Rachel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 04:15:45 -0700

NEGATIVE-REPUBLICANS

G.O.P. Has Only Itself to Blame<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/opinion/gop-has-only-itself-to-blame.html?ref=opinion>

NEW YORK TIMES // CHARLES M. BLOW

The Republican Party is trapped between a rock and huckster. Now that all of their other presidential candidates have dropped out of the race, Donald Trump is the last demagogue standing. He is their presumptive nominee. Their party belongs to him. It's a YUUGE ... disaster. Now the few remaining serious folks in that party have to make a decision: support this man who, if current trends in polling hold, is likely to lose the general election by an overwhelming margin (and likely do even more damage to the party brand and hurt the chances of down-ballot candidates), or they can ... wait, they don't really have another option other than to sit out this cycle and pretend that their party hasn't gone stark raving mad. The House speaker, Paul Ryan, told CNN last week that he is "just not ready" to support Trump. Jeb Bush posted on Facebook, "I will not vote for Donald Trump." His brother and father are both refusing to endorse Trump. Mitt Romney, the Republicans' last presidential nominee, has also said that he won't support Trump. Lindsey Graham said last week that he "cannot in good conscience" support Trump. Many prominent Republicans have also indicated that they will skip the party's convention.

Is Trump More Dangerous as Friend or Foe?<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/campaign-stops/is-trump-more-dangerous-as-friend-or-foe.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>

NEW YORK TIMES // JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, vowed last week that he could unite the fractured Republican Party. Republicans are trying to figure out what to think, and what to do, about Mr. Trump. Some unlikely politicians have jumped on the Trump train, like Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a moderate up for re-election. But many others are holding out, including the speaker of the House, Paul D. Ryan, who said that he was "just not ready" to support Mr. Trump for president. The Republican Party is now at war with itself: elected officials focused on short-term survival against those with longer-term interests; intellectuals against lobbyists; the Republican National Committee against the party's Senate campaign committee; and governors looking to get in Mr. Trump's good graces for future appointments against governors in states where he is politically toxic. If Mr. Trump fails to unite the party - if he runs in the general election as he did in the primaries, as a man without a party - will it matter?

Donald Trump breaks the GOP<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-breaks-the-gop-222939>

POLITICO // ELI STOKOLS

It was as shocking as it was predictable after a year of slow-motion build-up-the dramatic splitting apart of the Grand Old Party in the 72 hours after Donald Trump became its presumptive nominee. When asked Friday if the organization he now leads is officially Trump's party, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus responded with pithy double-speak befitting this dystopian moment in our politics.  "It's the party's party," Priebus said. Whatever party Priebus was speaking of is currently in tatters. There is no more denying that Trump will be the Republican Party's presidential nominee. But there is still plenty of denial when it comes to accepting the more fundamental issue at hand: that the fractious coalition of conservatives that we used to know as the Republican Party is, after a decade of fraying ties between the Washington-based establishment and its base, is now comprised of two separate coalitions. There are those mainstream conservatives still tethered to the party's ideological history of limited government, free trade and a hawkish foreign policy; and there is the conservative base that is increasingly resentful of elites of all stripes, voters unmoored from ideology and drawn to Trump's charisma, fearlessness and a populist, angry brand of neo-nationalism.

Donald Trump's Warning to Paul Ryan Signals Further G.O.P. Discord<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/us/politics/donald-trumps-warning-to-paul-ryan-signals-further-gop-discord.html?ref=politics>

NEW YORK TIMES // JEREMY W. PETERS

The widening rift in the Republican Party grew deeper on Sunday and threatened to upset the July convention as Donald J. Trump refused to rule out removing Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House, as the convention's chairman. Mr. Trump's warning was his latest affront to Republicans who have urged him to adopt a more cooperative and unifying tone. And it amounted to an extraordinary escalation in tensions between the party's presumptive nominee and its highest-ranking officeholder. In a series of television interviews that aired Sunday, Mr. Trump demonstrated little interest in making peace with party leaders like Mr. Ryan who have called on him to more convincingly lay out his commitment to the issues and ideas that have animated the conservative movement for the last generation. "I'm going to do what I have to do - I have millions of people that voted for me," Mr. Trump said on ABC's "This Week." "So I have to say true to my principles also. And I'm a conservative, but don't forget, this is called the Republican Party. It's not called the Conservative Party."

Trump's empty administration<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-administration-transition-222944>

POLITICO // DARREN SAMUELSOHN AND BEN WHITE

Top Republican political leaders aren't the only ones shunning their party's presidential nominee - a vast number of highly skilled managers and policy experts, veterans of recent GOP administrations who would normally be expected to fill key positions for a new White House, are also vowing to sit out a Donald Trump presidency. And while the failure of the two Presidents Bush or House Speaker Paul Ryan to endorse the presumptive nominee carries political consequences, the absence of policy veterans in a new administration would have a substantive effect on the running of government. Politico interviewed nearly five dozen Republicans over the past two weeks - people with experience working in government and who understand how Congress can enact, or shred, a new president's agenda - and heard the same sentiment expressed repeatedly. If Trump doesn't change his tune or extend much longer olive branches, many of these government veterans say they intend to cede highly coveted administration posts to less-experienced competitors.