Clinton, Breakaway GOP Find Common Foe in Trump
Clinton, Breakaway GOP Find Common Foe in Trump
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Alex Seitz-Wald NBC News
Hillary Clinton's campaign and its allies are stepping up efforts to actively recruit dissident Republicans behind the scenes while publicly highlighting some conservatives' misgivings about Donald Trump.
The unusually aggressive effort to make common cause with partisan foes reflects Democrats' effort to seek Republicans to validate their message that Trump is unfit to be president and their attempt to undermine Trump's support base in his own party.
After a week where Trump could not let go of criticism by the parents of a fallen soldier, made light of receiving the Purple Heart, refused to back House Speaker Paul Ryan and gave a distracted interview to the Washington Post, the Clinton campaign released a television ad Friday highlighting conservative national security experts concerned about the Republican nominee's temperament and judgment on foreign policy.
"If he governs consistent with some of the things he said as a candidate, I would be very frightened," former President George W. Bush CIA director Michael Hayden says in the ad.
Another longtime intelligence officer, former CIA deputy Director Michael Morrell went even farther in an New York Times op-ed, saying Vladimir Putin had made Trump "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
Those voices are just the tip of an iceberg that grown in recent days with new appetite for Republicans to support Clinton, according to a leaders of a new movement of Republicans who support Clinton.
Republicans in Formation
Ricardo Reyes, a former member of the George W. Bush administration who co-founded the nascent movement R4C2016 (Republicans for Clinton 2016) with an op-ed in the Washington Post the day after Trump's nominating acceptance speech, said interest has "absolutely" grown in the past few rough days for Trump.
"We've communicated with a few hundred, closer to a thousand, Republicans" through email and phone who want to support Clinton, Reyes said. He said the supporters come from Republican voters to current and former elected officials and former cabinet officials.
Reyes said he and his co-founder, John Stubbs, also a former Bush administration official, will give cover to Republicans who can no longer sit on the sidelines against Trump and feel an obligation to come support Clinton. They will also work in battleground states to encourage Republican voters to vote Clinton and Republican down ballot.
RESAD MORE: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cli...
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Alex Seitz-Wald NBC News
Hillary Clinton's campaign and its allies are stepping up efforts to actively recruit dissident Republicans behind the scenes while publicly highlighting some conservatives' misgivings about Donald Trump.
The unusually aggressive effort to make common cause with partisan foes reflects Democrats' effort to seek Republicans to validate their message that Trump is unfit to be president and their attempt to undermine Trump's support base in his own party.
After a week where Trump could not let go of criticism by the parents of a fallen soldier, made light of receiving the Purple Heart, refused to back House Speaker Paul Ryan and gave a distracted interview to the Washington Post, the Clinton campaign released a television ad Friday highlighting conservative national security experts concerned about the Republican nominee's temperament and judgment on foreign policy.
"If he governs consistent with some of the things he said as a candidate, I would be very frightened," former President George W. Bush CIA director Michael Hayden says in the ad.
Another longtime intelligence officer, former CIA deputy Director Michael Morrell went even farther in an New York Times op-ed, saying Vladimir Putin had made Trump "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
Those voices are just the tip of an iceberg that grown in recent days with new appetite for Republicans to support Clinton, according to a leaders of a new movement of Republicans who support Clinton.
Republicans in Formation
Ricardo Reyes, a former member of the George W. Bush administration who co-founded the nascent movement R4C2016 (Republicans for Clinton 2016) with an op-ed in the Washington Post the day after Trump's nominating acceptance speech, said interest has "absolutely" grown in the past few rough days for Trump.
"We've communicated with a few hundred, closer to a thousand, Republicans" through email and phone who want to support Clinton, Reyes said. He said the supporters come from Republican voters to current and former elected officials and former cabinet officials.
Reyes said he and his co-founder, John Stubbs, also a former Bush administration official, will give cover to Republicans who can no longer sit on the sidelines against Trump and feel an obligation to come support Clinton. They will also work in battleground states to encourage Republican voters to vote Clinton and Republican down ballot.
RESAD MORE: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cli...
A few hundred, closer to a thousand Rebublicans. Way to go Reyes.