Rubio puts Trump on defense, but still trails in most polls
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/rubio-puts-trump-on-defense-but-still-trails-in-053344856.htmlPURCELLVILLE, Va. — When Marco Rubio recalled his debate showdown with his rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump, the rush of applause and cheering that filled a college gymnasium here Sunday afternoon sounded like a huge sigh of relief.
For the several thousand listening to the U.S. senator from Florida, the emergence of someone — anyone — to throw punches back at Trump was cathartic.
In fact, the crowd didn’t even let Rubio finish his sentence when he brought up the debate in Houston. He began: “Thursday night, I decided that it was time to unmask the true nature of a man—”
The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd here on the campus of Patrick Henry College, an hour west of Washington, D.C.
As Mike Farris, the chancellor of Patrick Henry College, and one of the pioneers of the Christian homeschooling movement in the United States, put it: “Somebody has to tell the truth about Donald Trump.”
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On Sunday morning, Trump found himself on the defensive on each of the four news talk shows to which he gave interviews. On Fox News Sunday, for example, his interview with Chris Wallace hit five topics: Rubio’s charge that Trump is “a con man”; the admission by Trump that illegal immigrants from Poland worked on the construction of Trump Tower; criticisms about the legitimacy of a now-defunct business called Trump University; the question of whether Trump will release his tax returns; and Trump’s comments that he would like to make it easier to sue news organizations for libel.
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Trump also doubled down on a statement he made after Thursday’s debate, in response to questions about why he has hired hundreds of foreign-born immigrants for jobs at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, even though job applications were received from hundreds of American citizens. As he has before, Trump insisted that many American citizens would not want such jobs, an argument that undercuts his harsh anti-immigration rhetoric.
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Continuing his newsmaking Sunday, Trump also refused, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” to repudiate former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, and the Klan itself.
“Would you just say unequivocally you condemn them and you don’t want their support?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Trump.
“Well, I have to look at the group. I mean, I don’t know what group you’re talking about,” Trump said. “Certainly, I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong.”
“I mean, I’m just talking about David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan here,” Tapper said.
“Honestly, I don’t know David Duke. I don’t believe I have ever met him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t meet him. And I just don’t know anything about him,” Trump replied.
Trump was not telling the truth. In 2000, he told Matt Lauer on NBC’s “The Today Show” that he was not going to run for president as a candidate of the Reform Party precisely because of Duke’s involvement in the party.
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Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Republican Party’s only African-American senator, released a statement saying that “Any candidate who cannot immediately condemn a hate group like the KKK does not represent the Republican Party, and will not unite it.”
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Other Republicans are reaching a similar point. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, said on Twitter Sunday night that if Trump becomes the nominee, he will not support him. “If Trump becomes the Republican nominee, my expectation is that I’ll look for some third candidate — a conservative option, a Constitutionalist,” Sasse wrote.https://www.yahoo.com/politics/rubio-puts-trump-on-defense-but-still-trails-in-053344856.htmlGeneral Election: Trump vs. Clinton
FOX News 2/15 - 2/17 1031 RV 3.0 47 42 Clinton +5
The only candidate that is presently losing to Hillary is Trump and he has the most baggage that Hillary can use to saturate the airwaves with in the fall. It will be ugly.
