Byron York: Trump wins big, reaches out to mortal foes in GOP
Washington Examiner
Byron York
3/9/2016
Excerpt:
JUPITER, Fla. — Donald Trump took the podium in the ballroom at Trump National Golf Club Tuesday night after adding a solid win in the industrial Midwest to earlier victories in the Northeast, the South, and the West. And Trump has not only won from Michigan to Mississippi and from Vermont to Nevada -- he has done it with record numbers of voters coming out for Republican primaries and caucuses.
"The turnout has been just massive, every week," Trump said. "I actually think it's the biggest story in politics today, and I hope the Republicans will embrace it."
That's not going to happen, at least not now, a week away from winner-take-all GOP primaries here in Florida and in Ohio. Trump's rivals, backed by increasingly alarmed Republican donors, are throwing millions of dollars in negative ads against him in a last-ditch effort to keep him from amassing enough delegates to win the party's nomination outright — and kill their hopes for a contested convention.
There was something different about Trump at Trump National. Yes, he specifically declined an invitation from the press to declare himself the presumptive Republican nominee. But his message to the party was clearer than he has yet made it in the campaign: I'm going to win, and you should get on board.
Specifically, Fox News' Carl Cameron asked Trump what his post-Michigan victory message is to the Republican officeholders and elites who are trying to sink his candidacy. "I say let's come together, folks," Trump answered. "We're going to win.
"Believe it or not, I am a unifier," Trump continued. "I think it's time to unify. We have something special going in the Republican Party. And unfortunately, the people in the party, they call them the elites … but those are the people that don't respect it yet. We have millions and millions of people coming up and voting."
Coincidentally, just a few hours before Trump spoke, the Republican National Committee was touting the party's remarkably good turnout numbers. "There are a lot of stories on GOP infighting but nobody is mentioning that our turnout across the board is up nearly 70 percent from 2012 while Democrats are down," one official wrote me in an email Tuesday morning. "And we're up 130 percent in states where we invested and have had staff on the ground for 2-4 years (NV, IA, VA, NH)."
.........................................
View the complete article, including video, at:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2585309
Washington Examiner
Byron York
3/9/2016
Excerpt:
JUPITER, Fla. — Donald Trump took the podium in the ballroom at Trump National Golf Club Tuesday night after adding a solid win in the industrial Midwest to earlier victories in the Northeast, the South, and the West. And Trump has not only won from Michigan to Mississippi and from Vermont to Nevada -- he has done it with record numbers of voters coming out for Republican primaries and caucuses.
"The turnout has been just massive, every week," Trump said. "I actually think it's the biggest story in politics today, and I hope the Republicans will embrace it."
That's not going to happen, at least not now, a week away from winner-take-all GOP primaries here in Florida and in Ohio. Trump's rivals, backed by increasingly alarmed Republican donors, are throwing millions of dollars in negative ads against him in a last-ditch effort to keep him from amassing enough delegates to win the party's nomination outright — and kill their hopes for a contested convention.
There was something different about Trump at Trump National. Yes, he specifically declined an invitation from the press to declare himself the presumptive Republican nominee. But his message to the party was clearer than he has yet made it in the campaign: I'm going to win, and you should get on board.
Specifically, Fox News' Carl Cameron asked Trump what his post-Michigan victory message is to the Republican officeholders and elites who are trying to sink his candidacy. "I say let's come together, folks," Trump answered. "We're going to win.
"Believe it or not, I am a unifier," Trump continued. "I think it's time to unify. We have something special going in the Republican Party. And unfortunately, the people in the party, they call them the elites … but those are the people that don't respect it yet. We have millions and millions of people coming up and voting."
Coincidentally, just a few hours before Trump spoke, the Republican National Committee was touting the party's remarkably good turnout numbers. "There are a lot of stories on GOP infighting but nobody is mentioning that our turnout across the board is up nearly 70 percent from 2012 while Democrats are down," one official wrote me in an email Tuesday morning. "And we're up 130 percent in states where we invested and have had staff on the ground for 2-4 years (NV, IA, VA, NH)."
.........................................
View the complete article, including video, at:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2585309
Comment