{"id":10605,"date":"2016-04-22T08:02:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T15:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/trump-to-gop-leaders-embrace-me\/"},"modified":"2016-04-22T08:02:35","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T15:02:35","slug":"trump-to-gop-leaders-embrace-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/trump-to-gop-leaders-embrace-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to GOP leaders: Embrace me"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.<\/strong> \u2014 Donald Trump\u2019s chief lieutenants pushed skeptical Republican leaders Thursday to embrace him as their likely presidential nominee, declaring he can deliver big electoral gains this fall despite his contentious ways.<\/p>\n

Even as his team pressed Trump\u2019s case, the billionaire raised fresh concern among some conservatives by speaking against North Carolina\u2019s \u201cbathroom law,\u201d which directs transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the sex on their birth certificates. Trump also came out against the government\u2019s plan to replace President Andrew Jackson with the civil-rights figure Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.<\/p>\n

The developments came as the GOP\u2019s messy fight for the White House spilled into a seaside resort in south Florida. While candidates in both parties fanned out across the country before important primary contests in the Northeast, Hollywood\u2019s Diplomat Resort & Spa was transformed into a palm-treed political battleground.<\/p>\n

There were new signs of frustration among members of the Republican National Committee, who are eager for the divisive primary season to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see Mr. Trump begin to bring us together,\u201d said Henry Barbour, a committeeman from Mississippi. \u201cAnd I haven\u2019t seen it. It\u2019s not good enough to do it for 30 minutes one day and then the other hours of the day try to divide.\u201d<\/p>\n

On one side in the long-running battle, Ted Cruz\u2019s team warned party elders in private briefings that only the Texas senator could expand the GOP and heal deepening intraparty divisions. On the other, Trump\u2019s revamped inner circle quietly courted RNC members who openly questioned the front-runner\u2019s tone and party loyalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have expressed concerns about that,\u201d said Paul Manafort, tapped by Trump earlier in the month to lead the remainder of his primary election strategy. \u201cWe hear them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here letting people know that know we\u2019re starting to pivot toward the inevitability of the nomination,\u201d Manafort told The Associated Press. \u201cWe want to start opening doors and building relationships because we are committed to running a traditional united party.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was evidence of a rift on the Democratic side as well.<\/p>\n

Prominent Southern Democrats urged Bernie Sanders to stop dismissing Hillary Clinton\u2019s landslide primary wins across the South, where the front-runner\u2019s popularity among non-whites has helped fuel her success.<\/p>\n

Sanders said the results in the South \u201cdistort reality\u201d because they came from the country\u2019s \u201cmost conservative region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don Fowler of South Carolina, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and other Clinton supporters told Sanders in a letter that \u201cour national Democratic leaders\u201d should \u201cinvest in our races and causes \u2014 to amplify our voices, not diminish them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet as Clinton\u2019s grasp on the Democratic nomination tightens, Trump\u2019s overwhelming Republican delegate lead has done little to calm concerns from GOP leaders, gathered at the resort for the party\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

As Trump continues to rail against \u201ca rigged\u201d nomination process, he sent Manafort and his newly hired political director, Rick Wiley, to help improve relationships with party officials at the meeting.<\/p>\n

The aides were to deliver a private briefing to RNC members Thursday evening aimed at \u201cdispelling the notion out there right now\u201d that Trump\u2019s current unpopularity among key general election constituencies \u2014 women and minorities, for example \u2014 would trigger a general election disaster, Wiley said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s team planned to draw on political history to make the case.<\/p>\n

Wiley cited polls that found Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush struggling in presidential campaigns before they won. Wiley also said Trump could compete and even win in Democratic strongholds such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin \u2014 and even deeper-blue states such as New Jersey, Oregon and Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might not win some of these blue states, but you can make the Democrats spend money and time,\u201d Wiley said.<\/p>\n

Trump is increasingly optimistic about his chances in five states holding primary contests Tuesday: Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. He is now the only Republican candidate who can possibly collect the 1,237 delegate majority needed to claim the nomination before the party\u2019s July convention.<\/p>\n

But Cruz hopes Trump will fall short of a nomination-clinching delegate majority so that he can turn enough delegates to his side at the convention to give him the prize.<\/p>\n

The political posturing came as Trump sparked new criticism by addressing the debate over which bathrooms transgender people should use.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a town-hall event on NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d show Thursday, Trump said North Carolina\u2019s bathroom law has caused unnecessary strife and transgender people should be able to choose which bathroom to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been very few complaints the way it is,\u201d Trump said. \u201cPeople go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz lashed out at Trump\u2019s \u201csupport of grown men using women\u2019s restrooms.\u201d The Texas senator called Trump\u2019s position \u201ca reckless policy that will endanger our loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also said the plan to swap Jackson for Tubman on the $20 bill is an act of \u201cpure political correctness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump called Tubman \u201cfantastic\u201d but said he\u2019d prefer to leave Jackson on the bill and place Tubman\u2019s image on another denomination: \u201cMaybe we do the $2 bill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. \u2014 Donald Trump\u2019s chief lieutenants pushed skeptical Republican leaders Thursday to embrace him as their likely presidential nominee, declaring he can deliver big electoral gains this fall despite his contentious ways. Even as his team pressed Trump\u2019s case, the billionaire raised fresh concern among some conservatives by speaking against North Carolina\u2019s \u201cbathroom law,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":10606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10605"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}