{"id":15588,"date":"2016-03-11T09:01:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T17:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/obama-says-gop-leaders-to-blame-for-party-crackup\/"},"modified":"2016-03-11T09:01:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T17:01:57","slug":"obama-says-gop-leaders-to-blame-for-party-crackup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/obama-says-gop-leaders-to-blame-for-party-crackup\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama says GOP leaders to blame for party ‘crackup’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> Years of Republican hardline politics and divisive rhetoric have spawned Donald Trump and the \u201ccrackup\u201d of the GOP, President Barack Obama said Thursday, scoffing at the notion that his actions or policies were to blame for the charged political climate.<\/p>\n

At a Rose Garden press conference, Obama laid the responsibility on Republican leaders, who tolerated \u201cmaximalist,\u201d uncompromising politics and created an environment where \u201csomebody like Donald Trump can thrive.\u201d The president said conservative leaders should reflect on the policies that landed the party in its current turmoil.<\/p>\n

Obama appeared primed to get his thoughts off his chest, noting he\u2019s repeatedly been asked whether he accepts blame for the climate. He finds that idea \u201cnovel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crackup that\u2019s been taking place is a consequence of actions that I\u2019ve taken,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example. I don\u2019t remember saying, \u2018Hey, why don\u2019t you ask me about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The president argued that Trump, the billionaire front-runner for the GOP nomination, is not an outlier. He said Trump\u2019s policies, particularly on immigration, are not so different from proposals of rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.<\/p>\n

As Obama spoke at the White House, GOP candidates were preparing for a Thursday night debate in Miami and high-stakes elections in Florida and Ohio next Tuesday. Meanwhile, anxious Republican officials were coming to terms with the idea that Cruz \u2014their second-least-favorite GOP presidential candidate \u2014 may be the only chance to stop Trump\u2019s march to the nomination.<\/p>\n

Trump renewed his vigorous criticism of Texas Sen. Cruz, casting the rival he calls \u201cLying Ted\u201d as too polarizing to break the Washington gridlock or win a general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with Ted is that he\u2019ll never get anything done,\u201d Trump told CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box\u201d on Thursday. \u201cAnd the bigger problem is that it\u2019s impossible for him to get elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Cruz\u2019s would-be backers have those same fears. But they fear the prospect of a Trump candidacy more.<\/p>\n

The two men were to clash again on the debate stage Thursday night along with Florida Sen. Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich who are fighting with Cruz to emerge as the strongest alternative to Trump. For now at least, Cruz appears to be ahead in that contest.<\/p>\n

Possible Cruz supporters include reluctant Senate colleagues and former presidential rivals with strong ties to major donors. The first-term senator announced the backing of one former primary opponent, Carly Fiorina, on Wednesday and is seeking the backing of another, Jeb Bush, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump needs to be beaten at the ballot box,\u201d Fiorina declared Thursday on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Capitol Hill, former Cruz adversary, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, has reluctantly embraced the idea of a Cruz nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an outsider year, and the most logical person to take on Trump based on past performance is Ted Cruz,\u201d Graham said. Earlier in the year, Graham likened the choice between Cruz and Trump to \u201cbeing shot or poisoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not my preference,\u201d Graham said of Cruz. \u201cBut we are where we are. And if Trump wins Florida and Ohio, I don\u2019t know if we can stop him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, next Tuesday\u2019s winner-take-all contests in Florida and Ohio have injected a sense of urgency into the GOP\u2019s anti-Trump movement.<\/p>\n

The celebrity businessman\u2019s critics hope to capitalize on what they see as another inflammatory reference about Muslims. \u201cI think Islam hates us,\u201d he said late Wednesday on CNN. \u201cThere\u2019s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Trump is calling on mainstream Republicans to unify behind hm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the establishment is, they should embrace what I\u2019ve done,\u201d he said on CNBC.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP writers Julie Pace and Steve Peoples in Miami, and Mary Clare Jalonick, Donna Cassata, Josh Lederman, Alan Fram and Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Years of Republican hardline politics and divisive rhetoric have spawned Donald Trump and the \u201ccrackup\u201d of the GOP, President Barack Obama said Thursday, scoffing at the notion that his actions or policies were to blame for the charged political climate. At a Rose Garden press conference, Obama laid the responsibility on Republican leaders, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"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-15588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15588","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=15588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15588"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}