FURLOUGHED FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BOLDLY SUPPORTS SHUTDOWN & BORDER WALL:
HOW MANY MORE DO?
WHY IS CONGRESS ALLOWING SHUTDOWN TO DRAG ON?
IS THIS SHUTDOWN REALLY ABOUT THE WALL?
OR IS IT SECRETLY ABOUT “DRAINING THE SWAMP” & CONTROLLING WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE OF GOVT MONEY?
IS THIS SHUTDOWN SECRETLY BEING USED BY CONGRESS TO LEGALLY GET RID OF LONG TERM FEDERAL GOVT EMPLOYEES OVER THE AGE OF 60??
OR IS IT ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY?
INQUIRING MINDS OF AMERICAN VOTERS WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH.
Post Sources: Fox News, WJLA, YouTube
**** Furloughed federal employee says she supports Trump's push for a border wall
Several times during the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump has claimed that federal workers are on his side.
Now, we’re hearing from one of those workers.
“I’m very strongly behind it, yes,” Amanda Schimone said. “I just believe in what we are doing. I believe in the President’s policies and Secretary Nielsen’s policies, and supporting the border patrol agents.”
Schimone spent 26 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring in 2012. Now, she works at the Department of Homeland Security’s federal law enforcement training center in Cheltenham, Maryland.
“We train all the federal agents, through all the different agencies. Not just DHS, but FBI, the state department, that kind of thing,” she said.
Despite the fact that’s she been furloughed since the shutdown began, Schimone says she supports the border wall on behalf of her colleagues who patrol the border every single day.
“If you had a tool that would help you do your job better and to be able to have border security – they’re my coworkers – I don’t know them personally, but if they say that’s what they need to do their job, than I support them 100 percent,” she said.
Schimone’s husband also works for the federal government, but is not impacted by the partial government shutdown. She says they’re relying on his income plus a pension she gets from the U.S. Air Force to pay their bills while her DHS paychecks are on hold.
“We’ve put away money, we have a financial planner, we’ve been really cognizant of doing that,” she said. “My credit card bills, they’re just getting the minimum payment right now.”
Still, she knows there are a lot of federal employees who are struggling financially due as the shutdown drags on.
“I do have for empathy for them. I do understand that some people live paycheck to paycheck,” she said.
She also understands that a lot of people may not like her perspective on the government shutdown. And she says that’s okay.
“I don’t judge people,” she said. “They have a right to their opinion, and I have a right to mine.”
At the very least, she hopes people will listen to what she has to say.
“Do I like being furloughed? No. But I understand and I support them,” she said. “I realize America is where people really want to be, but I think there’s a right way to come into our country, and not illegally. And so that’s one of the reasons why I do support the border wall.”
She hopes the president and Congress can soon agree on funding for the wall, and get the government back open.
“Maybe negotiate the amount that President Trump wants or some type of other immigration policies, but it sure would be nice if they would try to work together,” she said. “No negotiations makes me feel like they don’t care about the Department of Homeland Security.”
CONOR LAMB, 33, DEMOCRAT, GEN Y, 2018 SPECIAL ELECTION WINNER (PA):
CONOR’S CAMPAIGN PLAYBOOK WAS BORROWED FROM JFK, OBAMA & TRUMP.
LEADERS LIKE CONOR CAN USHER IN EFFECTIVE LANDMARK GUN CONTROL & UPHOLD THE 2nd AMENDNENT.
CONOR ATTRACTED VOTERS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE POLITICAL AISLE.
CONOR’S WIN PROVES DEMOCRAT VOTERS ARE SICK & TIRED OF LYING, COMPLACENT, GREEDY, CAREER POLITICIANS IN CONGRESS WHO ARE SELL OUTS.
CONGRESS NEEDS NEW BLOOD & ACTION.
CONOR IS THE BEGINNING OF THAT MOVEMENT.
CONGRATS TO CONOR ON HIS WIN.
Sources: NBC News, NY Times, Youtube
****** Who Is Conor Lamb, Winner in a Special House Race in Pennsylvania?
For the Democratic Party, Conor Lamb seemed like a candidate generated from reams of election data mined and analyzed to produce an ideal fit for his Southwestern Pennsylvania congressional district.
A former Marine who favored gun rights, he was culturally conservative enough to appeal to rural voters. He was pro labor and pro tariff in an area that still has thousands of steelworkers union members. As a federal prosecutor, he cracked down on drug dealers but also offered empathy about the tragedy of opioid addiction. And his Ivy League polish and earnest manner played well with college-educated suburban voters.
And now, with his victory in a district so Republican that Democrats did not even field a candidate in the last two elections, Mr. Lamb, 33, has offered a template that will be studied in congressional races where Democratic candidates need to win over voters who supported President Trump.
“He is like the type of Democrat that won in ruby-red districts in 2006, who breaks the mold and is much more of a nontraditional, outside-the-mainstream, everyday American law enforcement type,” said John Lapp, a Democratic strategist who was executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, when the party wrested control of the House from Republicans.
Mr. Lamb had to navigate a district that President Trump had won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. The president labeled him “Lamb the sham” in a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania last Saturday, and the administration deployed Vice President Mike Pence, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, and Donald Trump Jr. to defeat him.
In turn, he showed restraint and discipline in talking about the president and was quick to support Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. He did not respond to the president’s mockery, and on Wednesday morning, refused to engage when he was asked on CNN to comment about Mr. Trump’s remarks.
“You call it a red district,” Mr. Lamb said on CNN. “I call it western Pennsylvania. We worked extremely hard to get out and campaign in person over every square inch of this district. And I think just through talking to people, looking them in the eye, figuring out what the issues are for them and trying to come out with solutions, we seemed to have reached a lot of people. We saw huge turnout on both sides which is great. People around here are engaged.”
Mr. Lamb also said he thought voters were weary of pettiness and name calling.
“There was a lot of foolishness in this election and cartoonish campaigning,” he said. “By the time of the president’s visit last weekend, people were tired of that entire approach. I had people, especially elderly people, come up to me and say, I hate those ads against you. It’s not right. It’s not worthy of us. I think there is a little bit of burnout on that type of campaign before the president ever got here.”
Mr. Lamb built his coalition from many disparate parts. He bridged the divide between labor union leaders and their members. “He married the union leaders and rank-and-file for the first time in two decades,” said G. Terry Madonna, a professor at Franklin and Marshall College who has conducted polls in Pennsylvania for more than three decades.
He also focused heavily on local issues and mostly avoided getting into a fight with his Republican opponent, Rick Saccone, over Mr. Trump.
“He decided early on he would not turn this into a national election,” Mr. Madonna said. “It was a local election. Number two, he did events, but more important, he knocked on the door, put the yard sign up, emphasizing his personal connection with people, something Saccone did not do.”
He added, “And also, he was like, ‘Donald who? Who’s that guy?’”
Though the race was Mr. Lamb’s first attempt at public office, politics is part of his family pedigree. His grandfather, Thomas Lamb, was the Democratic leader of the State Senate in the 1970s and served in the administration of Gov. Robert P. Casey.
Michael Lamb, his uncle, is the controller for the city of Pittsburgh and an avid supporter. His younger brother, Coleman Lamb, is helping out as well, on loan from his day job as press secretary for a New York congresswoman.
Mr. Lamb leaned hard on his military background — he served as a prosecutor in the Marine Corps and was stationed in Okinawa while on active duty — and his support for gun rights, beginning with his first commercial.
That same ad also featured a picture of him at a gun range, noting that he “still loves to shoot.” These were acts of political inoculation: Mr. Lamb was sending a message to the district’s conservative-leaning voters that he was his own person.
He also effectively neutralized Republican attempts to label him a liberal in the mold of the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi, by saying that he would not vote for her in a leadership election. Republicans, who poured in millions of dollars in ads against Mr. Lamb, tried to paint him as a slavish follower of the California Democrat. He countered with a commercial noting that his opposition to her had been reported on the front page of a local newspaper.
Mr. Lamb had another résumé-enhancing line to offer voters: federal prosecutor. After clerking for a federal judge in New York, he did a stint as an assistant United States attorney in Pittsburgh, prosecuting a range of cases that gave him a law-and-order credential.
But his time in the Justice Department during the Obama administration also provided Republicans with some fodder. In one ad, the National Republican Congressional Committee noted that Mr. Lamb had reached a plea bargain with a drug kingpin, a potentially damaging line of attack in a region ravaged by opioids.
Like the other attacks Republicans hurled at him, it ultimately proved ineffective.
TRUMP SAYS NO DACA DEAL W/OUT BORDER WALL, BUT DEMOCRATS SAY YES HE AGREED TO DEAL:
KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE AND YOUR FRENEMIES CLOSER.
IS THIS DEAL DONALD'S WAY OF STICKING IT TO GOP LEADERS WHO DISSED HIM OVER OBAMACARE?
TRUMP IS A BUSINESSMAN WHO JUST WANTS A DEAL BUT WILL HE ABANDON HIS BASE WHO ELECTED HIM?
Sources: ABC News, Bloomberg News, CBS News, CNBC, Fox News, NBC News, Youtube
***** Trump Says ‘No Deal’ Was Reached With Democrats to Extend DACA
President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that there was no deal with Democrats yet to extend protections for so-called Dreamers, but the president pleaded with congressional leaders to reach one, while he vowed to push ahead with his border wall "later."
"No deal was made last night on DACA.
Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote," Trump tweeted in a series of posts.
"The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built," he wrote.
"Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!" Trump posted about DACA recipients. "They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own — brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security."
Trump did not deny reports that he would support a deal on DACA that didn't include the wall.
And, in brief comments to reporters Thursday, Trump said "the wall will come later" and that Republican congressional leaders were "on board" with the talks.
"We’re working on a plan. We’ll see how it works out," he said as he was departing to tour the hurricane damage in Florida. "We’re going to get massive border security as part of that."
"The wall is going to be built. It will be funded a little bit later," Trump said.
Later in Florida, the president said, "if the wall is going to be obstructed ... then we're not doing anything."
When asked if he supported amnesty, Trump cupped his hands to his lips and said, "DACA — the word is DACA."
Trump also said he was "not looking at citizenship" or "amnesty" for Dreamers but instead the discussion is about "taking care of people."
Earlier, the president said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., backed the plan.
McConnell's office said Trump had called Thursday morning, and the senator said in a statement, "We look forward to receiving the Trump administration’s legislative proposal."
Trump's tweets and remarks came just hours after he held a dinner meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after which the pair said they’d reached a deal with the president "to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides."
Schumer and Pelosi, in a joint statement Thursday morning, added that Trump's tweets "are not inconsistent with the agreement reached last night."
The pair said "there was no final deal" but that "both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement."
"The President made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear we would continue to oppose it," they said.
Dropping the demand for a border wall could make it easier for Republicans and Democrats to reach an agreement on DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children.
Following the Wednesday night joint statement from Schumer and Pelosi, however, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that, "While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to."
But earlier Wednesday, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told an industry trade group that the border wall does not have to be a part of an agreement on DACA, one attendee at the meeting said.
The Trump administration announced last week that the Obama-era program would end in six months. The president said as part of the announcement that, "I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act."
Ending DACA — a program allows undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain and get work permits in the country — could affect as many as an estimated 800,000 people.
Sources told NBC News Wednesday night that Schumer and Pelosi told Trump they are prepared to deliver votes on a measure that would pair the existing DREAM Act text with additional border security that does not include the border wall funding.
Specifics on what type and level of border security were not disclosed.
The DREAM Act would have offered those who came to the U.S. as children the opportunity to potentially gain permanent legal residency.
The act was first introduced in August 2001 by Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. It has resurfaced several times, always failing to get through Congress.
At a press conference later Thursday morning, Pelosi said the DACA recipients wouldn't be granted amnesty under a DREAM Act deal with Trump, but would have "the opportunity to earn their path to citizenship."
"It’s a long path, a 15-year path, and this is an earned path," she said. "We’re not looking at amnesty; we were never looking at amnesty."
Discussion of a possible deal marked the second time in as many weeks that Trump spurned his own party to pursue an agreement with Democrats.
Last week, Trump struck a deal with Schumer and Pelosi that combined disaster aid for those affected by Hurricane Harvey with measures to keep the government open and extend the debt ceiling for three months, leaving some Republicans reeling.
News of another potential deal was met immediately with criticism from conservative Republicans.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an anti-immigration hardliner tweeted Wednesday that, if there was an agreement,
"Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair.
No promise is credible."
Trump did not deny reports that he would support a deal on DACA that didn't include the wall.
And, in brief comments to reporters Thursday, Trump said "the wall will come later" and that Republican congressional leaders were "on board" with the talks.
"We’re working on a plan. We’ll see how it works out," he said as he was departing to tour the hurricane damage in Florida. "We’re going to get massive border security as part of that."
"The wall is going to be built. It will be funded a little bit later," Trump said.
Later in Florida, the president said, "if the wall is going to be obstructed ... then we're not doing anything."
When asked if he supported amnesty, Trump cupped his hands to his lips and said, "DACA — the word is DACA."
Trump also said he was "not looking at citizenship" or "amnesty" for Dreamers but instead the discussion is about "taking care of people."
Earlier, the president said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., backed the plan. McConnell's office said Trump had called Thursday morning, and the senator said in a statement, "We look forward to receiving the Trump administration’s legislative proposal."
Trump's tweets and remarks came just hours after he held a dinner meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after which the pair said they’d reached a deal with the president "to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides."
Schumer and Pelosi, in a joint statement Thursday morning, added that Trump's tweets "are not inconsistent with the agreement reached last night."
The pair said "there was no final deal" but that "both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement."
"The President made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear we would continue to oppose it," they said.
Dropping the demand for a border wall could make it easier for Republicans and Democrats to reach an agreement on DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children.
Following the Wednesday night joint statement from Schumer and Pelosi, however, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that, "While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to."
But earlier Wednesday, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told an industry trade group that the border wall does not have to be a part of an agreement on DACA, one attendee at the meeting said.
The Trump administration announced last week that the Obama-era program would end in six months. The president said as part of the announcement that, "I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act."
Ending DACA — a program allows undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain and get work permits in the country — could affect as many as an estimated 800,000 people.
Sources told NBC News Wednesday night that Schumer and Pelosi told Trump they are prepared to deliver votes on a measure that would pair the existing DREAM Act text with additional border security that does not include the border wall funding. Specifics on what type and level of border security were not disclosed.
The DREAM Act would have offered those who came to the U.S. as children the opportunity to potentially gain permanent legal residency.
The act was first introduced in August 2001 by Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. It has resurfaced several times, always failing to get through Congress.
At a press conference later Thursday morning, Pelosi said the DACA recipients wouldn't be granted amnesty under a DREAM Act deal with Trump, but would have "the opportunity to earn their path to citizenship."
"It’s a long path, a 15-year path, and this is an earned path," she said. "We’re not looking at amnesty; we were never looking at amnesty."
Discussion of a possible deal marked the second time in as many weeks that Trump spurned his own party to pursue an agreement with Democrats.
Last week, Trump struck a deal with Schumer and Pelosi that combined disaster aid for those affected by Hurricane Harvey with measures to keep the government open and extend the debt ceiling for three months, leaving some Republicans reeling.
News of another potential deal was met immediately with criticism from conservative Republicans.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an anti-immigration hardliner tweeted Wednesday that, if there was an agreement, "Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible."
A potential deal would also go against the views of former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, who as a White House aide was credited with helping Trump emphasize a message centered on economic nationalism.
Bannon, who following his White House exit returned as the head of Breitbart News, told CBS' "60 Minutes" last week he didn't agree with Trump's decision to give Congress a window to save DACA legislatively, and that "the guys in the far-right" and "on the conservative side" were "not happy" with it either.
President-elect Donald Trump should not select Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff, says Michael Savage, the national talk radio host and author of the new book Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country After Obama.
Priebus is “the enemy within,” Savage warns.
“He’s the RNC! Everything the voters rejected,” Savage tells Breitbart News. “He will steer Trump away from every policy we sent him to D.C. to change. He is the enemy within. He is [Paul] Ryan, [Mitch] McConnell, and the Old Guard. They do not want change. ‘Out with the old, in with the new.'”
A close Ryan ally, Priebus was responsible for the GOP “autopsy” following the Romney-Ryan loss of 2012.
One of its conclusions held that, to win elections, Republicans must embrace an immigration agenda that would import future voters who tend to overwhelmingly support Democrat policies.
The Priebus manifesto argued against opposing amnesty and appealing to the Republican electorate’s “core constituency.”
We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only,” the Priebus report stated.
By contrast, for years Savage has argued that Republican candidates should run campaigns on “borders, language, and culture.”
“I call him ‘Rinse,'” Savage said of Priebus, adding that’s “what Trump should do with his advice.”
Savage’s talk radio show, which is one of the most listened-to talk radio programs in the country, reaches an audience over 20 million listeners and is syndicated by over some 400 stations nationwide. This week, Savage will be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in the category of Spoken Word On-Air Personality.
KAREN HANDEL DEFEATS YOUNG, BIG MONEY JON OSSOFF (CONGRATS):
AMERICA IS TIRED OF POLITICS WHICH DIVIDES OUR GREAT NATION.
VOTERS ARE TIRED OF DEMOCRATS' POLITICAL INTIMIDATION & CORRUPTION.
Sources: CNN, Fox News, YouTube
****** Republican Handel wins Georgia special House election
Republican Karen Handel on Tuesday night defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s record-spending, special-election House race, according to the Associated Press.
With all precincts reporting, Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, led Ossoff 52 percent to 48 percent -- a margin of nearly 11,000 votes out of more than 250,000 ballots cast.
The race smashed fundraising records for a House contest -- with both campaigns and outside groups combining to spend a record $50 million.
Ossoff’s defeat was another setback for Democrats hoping to capitalize on President Trump’s low approval ratings to win a long-standing Republican seat.
It was the party’s fourth straight defeat this year in attempts to win a Republican seat and take the momentum into the 2018 midterms. They now must win 24 GOP House seats to retake control of the chamber next year.
“This race was going to require all hands on deck, and that’s what we had,” Handel said at her victory party. “Tonight’s victory is for you. It’s for every citizen in the 6th (Congressional) District.”
To be sure, the contest was close since Handel and Ossoff were the top finishers in April's first balloting, which sent them to Tuesday’s runoff.
Ossoff lead by nearly 5 percentage points as recently as June 12, before the race deadlocked in the final days, according to the RealClearPolitics.com polls average.
The 30-year-old Ossoff, whose campaign was hurt by revelations that he didn’t live in the suburban Atlanta district, thanked his campaign team and voters in a short concession speech.
“Thank you for the most extraordinary process that I have ever been a part of,” Ossoff said. “The fight goes on. Hope is still alive.”
The House seat has been occupied by Republicans since 1979. GOP Rep. Tom Price gave up the seat in February to become Health and Human Services secretary.
President Trump didn’t campaign in Georgia for Handel. But he attacked Ossoff on Twitter for living outside the district and warned voters that he would increase taxes and be soft on national security.
Handel supporters chanted “Trump, Trump, Trump” at her victory party. And the president tweeted his own message of congratulations.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also congratulated Handel, saying, “Karen is all business. I’ve campaigned with her, and I know how eager she is to get to work. I’m excited to have her as a partner in the House.”
Ossoff tried to thread the needle in the conservative-leaning Georgia district by vowing to cut taxes for small businesses, while championing equal rights for women and minorities, which earned him the support of civil rights icon and Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis.
Handel touted her experience as a state and local elected official and argued that outside forces were trying to buy a win.
Voters “are not interested in Hollywood and California coming in and buying this seat,” she said Tuesday morning on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis showed just 3.5 percent of Ossoff’s donations between the end of March and May came from Georgia.
Still, Handel also benefited from outside spending, though most didn’t go directly to her campaign.
Groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee backed by Ryan, have spent millions on her behalf.
Also on Tuesday, Republicans held onto the House seat in South Carolina that was vacated in February by Mick Mulvaney so he could become the White House budget director. Millionaire developer Ralph Norman, the Republican, defeated former Goldman Sachs tax adviser Archie Parnell, the Democrat, in a closer-than-expected contest.
The other two special-election races this year in which Democrats failed to win a GOP House seat were in Kansas and Montana.
In Kansas, Republicans held onto the seat of Mike Pompeo, now the CIA director, and they kept the Montana seat of Ryan Zinke, who became Trump’s secretary of Interior.
Democrats have one last outside chance to win a GOP House seat, Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s in a conservative Utah. The special election is on August 15. Democrats won one special House election this year, holding onto the California seat vacated by Xavier Becerra.
While Republicans have held the Georgia seat since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took it from Democrats nearly four decades ago, the district does not appear as conservative as in years past.
Trump won the district over Democrat Hillary Clinton last year by just 1.5 percent, compared to 2008 when Republican presidential nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain won by 18.9 percent.
The race attracted national attention and record money, but Georgia voters also took a big interest in the outcome.
More than 40,000 people voted early, including 36,000 who didn't vote in the April contest.
Republicans won virtually all the battlegrounds needed to keep the Senate majority
The Donald Trump wave helped several incumbents hold on to their seats
Republicans pulled off a political stunner Tuesday night -- running the table down-ballot and keeping control of the House and Senate, CNN projects.
In a year when the GOP was almost entirely on defense, the party's incumbents -- many outspent and hobbled by struggling campaigns -- managed to survive a political landscape that long appeared all but certain to cost them the Senate.
Democrats believed they had the perfect mix: Near-locks in blue Illinois and Wisconsin. Top-grade recruits in red states Indiana and Missouri to get them close. And Donald Trump would drag down Republican incumbents in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Then, on Tuesday night, everything went wrong for them.
The biggest surprise is that Trump was no drag on the GOP ticket at all -- and might have even helped carry the party.
Trump's margin of victory matched or exceeded those of Todd Young in Indiana and Sen. Richard Burr in North Carolina. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who embraced Trump despite expectations the GOP nominee lose his historically Democratic-leaning state, surged late in the race and benefited from Trump's stunning performance there. Incumbents Roy Blunt in Missouri and Pat Toomey won as well, CNN projects.
As of 3 a.m. ET, Republicans held 51 seats to 47 for the Democrats.
The Democrats' lone bright spots were knocking off Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and holding retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's seat in Nevada with a victory by Catherine Cortez Masto. There is still a chance in New Hampshire, where GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Maggie Hassan were neck-and-neck at votes were still being counted.
But there's nothing that will lessen the sting for Democrats.
The Republicans easily held the House, and on a night party officials were confident they'd tip the balance of power in the Senate, Republicans not only remain the majority party -- but appear to head into the 2018 midterms with a map so favorable that a filibuster-proof, 60-seat supermajority is within reach.
The magnitude of the GOP's down-ballot victories was stunning. Its incumbents held seats most Republicans began the 2016 election cycle assuming were lost in some states and overcame weak campaigns in others.
In Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio -- whose late decision to seek re-election after his failed presidential bid was a boon to the GOP's chances of keeping the Senate -- will best Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, CNN projects. Republican Sen. Rob Portman will also win re-election in Ohio, CNN projects. He ran what's likely the best Republican campaign of the cycle -- turning what was expected to be a close race with Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland into a likely blowout.
Indiana delivered major a blow to Democrats' hopes. Former governor and senator Evan Bayh's late entry was expected to turn the state into a guaranteed pickup -- but scrutiny over his residency and lobbying work catapulted Republican Rep. Todd Young to victory, CNN projects.
Democrats picked off one of the five seats they need when Tammy Duckworth defeated Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois. That race was always a challenge for Kirk, who won Illinois in the 2010 Tea Party wave in the mid-term elections.
(CNN)Republicans pulled off a political stunner Tuesday night -- running the table down-ballot and keeping control of the House and Senate, CNN projects.
In a year when the GOP was almost entirely on defense, the party's incumbents -- many outspent and hobbled by struggling campaigns -- managed to survive a political landscape that long appeared all but certain to cost them the Senate.
Democrats believed they had the perfect mix: Near-locks in blue Illinois and Wisconsin. Top-grade recruits in red states Indiana and Missouri to get them close. And Donald Trump would drag down Republican incumbents in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Then, on Tuesday night, everything went wrong for them.
The biggest surprise is that Trump was no drag on the GOP ticket at all -- and might have even helped carry the party.
Trump's margin of victory matched or exceeded those of Todd Young in Indiana and Sen. Richard Burr in North Carolina. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who embraced Trump despite expectations the GOP nominee lose his historically Democratic-leaning state, surged late in the race and benefited from Trump's stunning performance there. Incumbents Roy Blunt in Missouri and Pat Toomey won as well, CNN projects.
As of 3 a.m. ET, Republicans held 51 seats to 47 for the Democrats.
The Democrats' lone bright spots were knocking off Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and holding retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's seat in Nevada with a victory by Catherine Cortez Masto. There is still a chance in New Hampshire, where GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Maggie Hassan were neck-and-neck at votes were still being counted.
But there's nothing that will lessen the sting for Democrats.
The Republicans easily held the House, and on a night party officials were confident they'd tip the balance of power in the Senate, Republicans not only remain the majority party -- but appear to head into the 2018 midterms with a map so favorable that a filibuster-proof, 60-seat supermajority is within reach.
The magnitude of the GOP's down-ballot victories was stunning. Its incumbents held seats most Republicans began the 2016 election cycle assuming were lost in some states and overcame weak campaigns in others.
In Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio -- whose late decision to seek re-election after his failed presidential bid was a boon to the GOP's chances of keeping the Senate -- will best Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, CNN projects. Republican Sen. Rob Portman will also win re-election in Ohio, CNN projects. He ran what's likely the best Republican campaign of the cycle -- turning what was expected to be a close race with Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland into a likely blowout.
Indiana delivered major a blow to Democrats' hopes. Former governor and senator Evan Bayh's late entry was expected to turn the state into a guaranteed pickup -- but scrutiny over his residency and lobbying work catapulted Republican Rep. Todd Young to victory, CNN projects.
Democrats picked off one of the five seats they need when Tammy Duckworth defeated Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois. That race was always a challenge for Kirk, who won Illinois in the 2010 Tea Party wave in the mid-term elections.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
Control of the Senate will be key to the early successes of a Trump administration. In theory, controlling Congress and the White House will let the GOP swiftly pass legislation that reverses many of Obama's policies.
Republicans holding their own
Republicans faced a daunting task at the outset of the 2016 election cycle: They held 24 of the 34 seats on the ballot -- meaning many more to defend.
But strong GOP candidates have helped the party pull some contests in presidential swing states off the board such as Florida and Ohio.
In Florida, Rubio's loss in the presidential primary turned out to be the GOP's gain, as he held on to that seat.
Two other former GOP presidential candidates also won their Senate re-election bids, CNN projects. Sen. Rand Paul won in Kentucky, as did 2008 nominee John McCain in Arizona.
In Georgia, Sen. Johnny Isakson was struggling earlier in the year, but he will defeat Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale, CNN projects.
Two more Republicans who were expected to be safe -- Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr -- found themselves in closer races than expected.
In North Carolina, Burr's late fundraising start -- combined with the Clinton campaign's focus there -- allowed Democrat Ross to turn the state into a toss-up, but he won impressively.
And in Missouri, Secretary of State Jason Kander has run one of the strongest Democratic campaigns -- punctuated by a TV spot that featured the military veteran rebutting attack ads from the National Rifle Association by assembling an AR-15 rifle while blindfolded. But it doesn't appear to be enough to defeat Blunt.
Blame Comey?
Clinton's recent troubles, including the late focus on her email server, may have hurt Democrats down ballot.
House Democrats remain frustrated with FBI Director James Comey, who made a revelation 11 days before the election that the bureau was once again looking into emails potentially tied to its investigation of Clinton. Democrats believe his announcement provided down-ballot Republicans an opportunity to shift topics and attack Clinton, rather than defend Trump.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that Comey "became the leading political operative in the country -- wittingly or unwittingly."
Pelosi blamed Comey for costing Democrats a shot at winning Republican seats across the country, saying he created "more of an obstacle that we hope to overcome" but adding, "it's difficult."
DONALD J. TRUMP WINS 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL RACE; HILLARY CONCEDES:
TRUMP'S VICTORY WAS A REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION.
Sources: Bloomberg Politics, CNN, Fox News, Youtube
Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States, CNN projects, a historic victory for outsiders that represents a stunning repudiation of Washington's political establishment.
The billionaire real estate magnate and former reality star needed an almost perfect run through the swing states -- and he got it, winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.
The Republican swept to victory over Hillary Clinton in the ultimate triumph for a campaign that repeatedly shattered the conventions of politics to pull off a remarkable upset. Clinton conceded to Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Speaking at a victory party in New York, Trump was gracious toward Clinton and called for unity.
"We owe (Clinton) a very major debt of gratitude to her for her service to our country," Trump said. "I say it is time for us to come together as one united people."
He added: "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans."
Trump won with 288 electoral votes compared to 215 for Clinton, according to CNN projections.
Trump's supporters embraced his plainspoken style, assault on political correctness and vow to crush what he portrayed in the final days of his campaign as a corrupt, globalized elite -- epitomized by the Clintons -- that he claimed conspired to keep hard-working Americans down.
His winning coalition of largely white, working-class voters suggests a populace desperate for change and disillusioned with an entire generation of political leaders and the economic and political system itself.
Now, Trump faces the task of uniting a nation traumatized by the ugliest campaign in modern history and ripped apart by political divides exacerbated by his own explosive rhetoric -- often along the most tender national fault lines such as race and gender.
Trump is sure to follow his own playbook
Trump will be the first president to enter the White House with no political, diplomatic or military executive experience. His victory will send shockwaves around the world, given his sparse foreign policy knowledge, haziness over nuclear doctrine, vow to curtail Muslim immigration and disdain for US alliances that have been the bedrock of the post-World War II foreign policy.
His promises to renegotiate or dump trade deals such as NAFTA and to brand China a currency manipulator risk triggering immediate economic shocks around the globe.
Global markets already began tumbling late Tuesday.
Trump, 70, will be the oldest president ever sworn in for a first term and will take the helm of a nation left deeply divided by his scorched-earth campaign. His victory was built on fierce anger at the Washington establishment and political elites among his grass-roots voters, many of whom feel they are the victims of a globalized economy that has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs.
His victory ends Clinton's crusade to become the first woman to ever rise to the nation's highest office. It's a humiliating chapter in the long political career of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Trump's win also deals a painful rebuke to President Barack Obama, whom he pursued for years with his birtherism campaign built on the false premise that Obama was born outside the United States. Now Trump will have the power to eviscerate Obama's political legacy -- including the Affordable Care Act, the latter's proudest domestic achievement.
But there are deeper, more fundamental questions about Trump's presidency that will be key to his capacity to unify a deeply divided country and appeal to Americans who will feel outraged and disgusted by his victory.
He's got the attention of the whole world
Trump's campaign was built on rage, falsehoods and singling out culprits for the ills of modern America, including undocumented migrants, foreign nations such as China and Muslim immigrants.
He mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, vowed to use the power of the presidency to put Clinton in jail and pledged to sue women who accused him of sexual assault.
Trump has promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it, and to deport undocumented migrants. He has vowed to reintroduce interrogation methods for terror suspects that are more extreme than waterboarding.
So the demeanor that Trump will adopt as president and the manner in which he will behave will be closely watched -- not just in the United States, but among nervous leaders abroad.
One of the many uncertainties about Trump's coming presidency is how his White House will interact with Republicans in Congress — and whether he and GOP leaders will heal their rift from the campaign.
Republicans repelled a Democratic bid to recapture the Senate, giving the GOP control over Capitol Hill and the White House.
That means it would fall to the GOP either to rubber stamp policies likely to mark a break from conservative orthodoxy or to provide a check on the power of Trump, who has shown every sign he will use executive power aggressively.
House Speaker Paul Ryan will face intense pressure from pro-Trump members of his own coalition to cooperate with the new president.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to hold Trump's feet to the fire to ensure he lives up to his promise to appoint justices who could ensure a generational conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clinton apparently failed to reassemble the diverse coalition that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and 2012.
The events of Clinton's terrible final week on the campaign -- the revival of her email controversy by FBI Chief James Comey and a damaging drip, drip, drip of revelations by WikiLeaks which her campaign says was orchestrated by Russian intelligence -- could have helped consign her to defeat.
There also is the question of Trump's temperament. Clinton repeatedly warned that he was unfit to control the nuclear codes because he could be baited with a tweet.
Obama passionately denounced Trump as intellectually and temperamentally unfit to succeed him in the Oval Office.
But now, he will be forced to greet his successor on the morning of Inauguration Day in January, and look on while he is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
Nearly a month after being named the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, Donald Trump has finally earned the vote of House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Far from a wholehearted embrace of his party's 2016 standard-bearer's policies and temperament, Ryan's announcement on Thursday mainly emphasized that Trump would be a better ally to advance Ryan's policy goals than likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The announcement, published in a column in his home town newspaper the GazetteXtra, failed to include the word "endorsement," instead indicating only that the Wisconsin lawmaker will cast his vote for Trump at the ballot box. Ryan wrote that he came to his decision after several conversations with Trump.
"I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas ... into laws to help improve people's lives," he wrote.
NBC News had proclaimed Trump the presumptive nominee 29 days ago on May 4, after Trump's final GOP rivals exited the race. But Ryan withheld his support at the time, instead publicizing his concerns with the likely nominee.
Ryan suggested then that it was up to Trump to unify the party after a primary that resulted in a nominee that many establishment Republicans did not prefer.
"I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee," Ryan said last month. "I'm not there right now. And I hope to though, and I want to. But I think what is required is that we unify this party."
In the column published Thursday, Ryan did not sugarcoat his continuing disagreements with Trump.
"It's no secret that he and I have our differences. I won't pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I'll continue to speak my mind," Ryan wrote. "To enact (Republican) ideas, we need a Republican president willing to sign them into law. That's why, when he sealed the nomination, I could not offer my support for Donald Trump before discussing policies and basic principles."
While it's hardly a glowing recommendation, Ryan's willingness to support Trump presents yet another obstacle to the "Stop Trump" movement as establishment Republicans are slowly lining up behind their nominee, albeit reluctantly.
A primary reason for that unification is Republicans' common enemy in Hillary Clinton, a fact not lost on Ryan in his announcement Thursday.
"One person who we know won't support it is Hillary Clinton. A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves. Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix," Ryan wrote.
Ryan was slow to the Trump train after expressing concerns over some of Trump's comments and positions. The two met twice in May, after Trump was deemed the presumptive nominee, but an endorsement wasn't immediate after the meetings.
"But (I) have a nice relationship with him. And then all of a sudden, he gets on and he does this number. So I'm not exactly sure what he has in mind. But that's okay," Trump added.
In Ryan's column Thursday, he said Trump can "help us" move forward on their policy domestic and foreign policy priories.
"As I said from the start, my goal has been to unite the party so we can win in the fall. And if we're going to unite, it has to be over ideas," Ryan said, seeming to get behind him for the sake of the party and not his satisfaction with the person.
Hillary Clinton holds just a slight advantage over Donald Trump nationally, but her lead grew tighter when third-party candidates are added into the race.
A Quinnipiac University Poll out Wednesday found that when Clinton and Trump were one-on-one in a national general election matchup, she held a 4-point lead over the billionaire, 45% to 41%.
That number tightens even more when Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein were added. When all four candidates were factored in, the former secretary of State had 40%, Trump had 38%, Johnson had 5% and Stein got 3%.
The Trump-Clinton matchup had a noticeable gender gap. Fifty-one percent of men went Republican, while 35% of men went Democratic. Meanwhile, 54% of women surveyed backed Clinton, while 30% supported Trump.
There is some good news for Bernie Sanders in the survey. The Vermont senator led Trump in a general election matchup 48% to 39%.
However, with Democrats he lagged behind Clinton 53% to 39%. In the Democratic delegate race, Sanders is hundreds of delegates behind Clinton when superdelegates (party leaders and elected officials) are included.
The Quinnipiac poll of 1,561 registered U.S. voters was conducted May 24-30. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 points.
The poll of Democrats included 678 voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 points.
IS OBAMA LEADING THE UNITED STATES INTO ANOTHER NORTH v SOUTH TYPE CIVIL WAR FOR 2016 POLITICS?
IT IS TIME TO PRAY.
Sources: Fox News, CBS News, USA Today, Daily Caller, YouTube
On Monday, March 21, 2016 GOP Presidential front runner Donald J Trump will meet with several GOP establishment top brass members.
He will probably also meet with some Democrat party too brass, however I doubt the mainstream media (CNN) will report it.
During Trump's meeting today with Political top brass, discussions regarding recent DEATH THREATS made against his family and Trump conceding the race 2016 race so Hillary's Coronation can proceed will be the main topics of conversation.
Our country's Elite, Bilderberg sponsored political top brass have thus far been unsuccessful in their efforts to halt Trump's Winning Political Movement.
Despite mainstream media propaganda and lies, there has been very little Voter Enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton's second presidential bid.
This explains why key Democrat leaders are using Bernie Sanders as a Voting gimmick.
A vote for Sanders, is actually a vote for Hillary.
So it's not really Hillary winning all those caucuses and primaries. It's Sanders!
Sanders fires up the voters!
Sanders draws voters to the polls.
Sanders gets the votes and wins the Delegates.
Sanders Delegates are then given to Hillary.
Thus Hillary's Coronation proceeds as per Deals made months ago between Political elite top brass, Obama, the Clintons & the Bilderberg group.
Donald J Trump is the only 2016 Presidential candidate with Authentic, genuine voter support at his back.
American voters are tired of being treated by Political elite top brass as if we were not granted a Free Will by GOD.
American voters are tired of being treated by Political elite top brass as if we don't have a mind to make our own decisions.
American voters are tired of being treated by Political elite top brass as if the U.S. Constitution is a mere joke.
Whatever happened to "For the people, By the people, We the people" as it states in the U.S. Constitution??
If GOP party top brass, Democrat party top brass and Bilderberg group member Kills Donald J Trump or steals the Nomination from him, it could possibly lead to riots or Split the United States forever, as another North v South type Civil War.
If the United States splits BARACK OBAMA remains President and will be the first Politician in more than 100 years to lead this nation into another self-destructing Civil War.
By the way..........
There are Political rumours floating that TED CRUZ is not really a Conservative but that he is really an elite GLOBALIST, fully in bed with the Bilderberg group.
Donald Trump will reportedly meet Monday in Washington with nearly two dozen influential Republicans, with the apparent hope of improving relations with the GOP establishment.
The Republican presidential front-runner will be in the nation’s capital to speak at the annual policy conference for AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel group.
Trump’s meeting with Republican lawmakers and other party leaders, as first reported by The Washington Post, will be his first major discussion with them since last fall, when he was on Capitol Hill to protest President Obama’s Iranian nuclear agreement.
The off-the-record meeting was reportedly organized in part by Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has endorsed Trump.
The names of the attendees have not been released, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told “Fox News Sunday” that he’ll be in his home state of Kentucky on Monday, while Congress is on a two-week recess.
At least some factions of the so-called Republican establishment have tried to stop Trump from winning the nomination, in part by supporting other candidates, purportedly backing negative-advertising campaigns and speaking out against the billionaire businessman’s agenda, which includes a vow to dismantle the establishment’s grip on politics, government and wealth.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to call for party unity to help defeat the Democratic presidential nominee, which increasingly appears to be Hillary Clinton, as he continues to win primaries, add delegates and eliminate primary challengers.
Contest after contest has shown Hillary Clinton has the overwhelming support of black voters in the 2016 Democratic primary – but up against Donald Trump, the general election might be a different story.
To be sure, nobody expects Trump or any GOP presidential candidate to win the majority of the black vote, which has been with Democrats since the mid-1930s. Clinton has every reason to believe most black voters sticking with her in the primary against Bernie Sanders would do so in a general election as well.
However, analysts suggest that to consider the black vote a monolith for Clinton in November, should she win the nomination, would be a mistake. The Trump jobs message that has attracted so many disaffected white, blue-collar workers could resonate with black voters equally frustrated by chronic unemployment and unfulfilled promises of change – and Trump’s accelerating march toward the GOP nomination has proven his knack for bringing in voters who might not normally pick a Republican.
“If anything, he knows the economy,” Luz Nelson, a beautician and black South Carolina voter, said days before the front-running Clinton won the state Democratic primary with more than 80 percent of the black vote.
“I’m a New Yorker, too,” Nelson continued. “I know where he’s coming from. Nobody controls Donald Trump.”
If he wants to put any significant portion of the black vote in play, Trump would have to do better than past GOP nominees -- if he indeed is his party’s standard-bearer come November.
Then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got just 6 percent in 2012. John McCain got even less, 4 percent, in 2008 against Barack Obama, who became the country’s first black president. Republican President Gerald Ford won the highest percentage of the black vote in modern history -- 16 percent -- but still lost to Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter.
Influential black political commentator Tavis Smiley recently cautioned Democrats that Trump’s appeal could cross not only party but racial lines.
“If Donald Trump is indeed the Republican nominee, it might be a miscalculation for Democrats to take for granted that black voters are a lock for their nominee, even with [Bill Clinton] and Barack Obama campaigning for her,” Smiley wrote in a USA Today op-ed.
“There is no reason to believe that if he is his party’s nominee, Donald Trump wouldn’t make a serious play for black voters. Who knows how many he might skim? In a close election, it might not take much.”
Clinton has since South Carolina in early February continued winning the black vote in large numbers across the South. She did so again in the Mississippi primary Tuesday night, though Sanders’ upset victory in Michigan all but eclipsed that success.
Meanwhile, she has secured a long list of influential African-American endorsements, from actor Morgan Freeman to civil rights icon Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, while the front-running Trump appears to be struggling to make grassroots connections.
Online videos appear to show Black Lives Matters activists protesting and disrupting recent rallies, as Trump can be heard in the background of one event telling security to “throw them out.”
And critics say he failed during a recent national TV appearance to unequivocally disavow support from former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke – though Trump has since disavowed it, and downplayed the controversy.
Democratic and Republican strategists seem to agree, though, that the billionaire businessman Trump – charisma, bravado and all – has at least captured the interest and curiosity of black voters.
“Up until the KKK thing, he had been doing pretty well,” Douglas Smith, a Democratic strategist and partner at Kent Strategies, said Tuesday. “He oozes this appearance that everybody can fly in a gold jet and have a mansion. I think it’s his signature charisma.”
Smith nevertheless suspects Trump will ultimately come up short because he doesn’t have the “deep well of support” with the black community like Clinton has -- built over the course of roughly 40 years of public service.
And he says Trump lacks the ground game and the kind of party support that would coalesce around Clinton or Sanders.
“You just can’t add water,” Smith said.
Republican strategist Rob Burgess thinks some of Trump’s appeal is indeed in policy, specifically his health care proposals.
“I will not let people die on the streets for lack of health care,” he roared in a debate last month.
However, Burgess thinks other black voters believe Trump will indeed boost the economy for American workers and added, “He can sway some black voters … due to his charisma.”
The Trump campaign declined to comment on efforts to connect with black voters.
However, the campaign has occasionally used two black women – the “Stump for Trump Girls’’ -- as a warmup act on the trail and whose performances have become an Internet sensation.
“If we continue to vote left, we are going to get left,” the duo said at Trump’s military veterans fundraiser last month in Iowa. “And when we look at Donald J. Trump, he has us in mind. He wants a secure boarder. He wants to bring jobs back. He wants to make sure our veterans are taken care of. … And that’s why baby we are going to stump for Donald J. Trump.”
The Rev. Issac Holt, senior pastor at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church, in North Charleston, S.C. – who was visited by both the Clinton and Sanders’ campaigns – thinks the wild card for Trump or any other GOP nominee is the energy they are bringing to the race. But they need to get into the communities.
“What’s missing is the enthusiasm,” he said. “In South Carolina, they didn’t even seek the Black vote, in my opinion.”
Mitt Romney is hoping for a brokered Republican convention in July to stop Donald Trump from winning the nomination, CNN reports.
He has instructed close advisers for look into ways to make this happen.
"The goal is to lock him out at the convention," CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel told Wolf Blitzer, citing sources close to the former Massachusetts governor. "Now, they have to get to the convention, but that's the long-term strategy.
"And implicit in that is that Mitt Romney could offer himself up as a white knight to save the party," she said.
Romney slammed Trump Thursday as a fraud who is playing the American public for suckers.
Gangel called Romney's speech "the opening volley" in a GOP strategy that also includes urging all the current candidates to stay in the race to stop Trump from winning the required number of delegates.
"Expect the GOP leadership establishment to hit harder and harder on Trump," she added, primarily on releasing his tax returns.
"There is a thought that he is not as rich or as liquid as he says he is — and they think they can undermine him by doing that," Gangel told Blitzer.
The ultimate goal is to force Trump into a third-party run — and she said that her Romney sources were "willing to take that chance.
"It's better than having him as the Republican nominee."
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