Since Ailes has resigned from FNC, the channel has floundered, as Murdoch’s sons James and Lachlan attempt to re-make it in their image — a more “moderate” channel to appease the global elite. Bill O’Reilly, the primetime lineup’s ratings powerhouse, and Bill Shine, a longtime deputy to Ailes, were both ousted after waves of negative press accusing the former of sexual harassment and the latter of enabling sexual harassment.
George Will exits the Republican Party over Trump
Speaking with The Post, Will said that he changed his voter registration from “Republican” to “unaffiliated” several weeks ago, the day after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) endorsed Trump.
.. Now that Donald Trump looks to be the Republican nominee for president, some of the men who attacked him most fiercely at the start of his campaign are throwing their support behind him — or at least vowing to stop insulting him.
[Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Rick Perry]
.. Will is one of several influential Republicans who have left the party since Trump clinched the nomination. Republican strategist Mary Matalin changed her affiliation to Libertarian the day after the Indiana primary, though she said the decision was not connected to Trump’s primary-season victory.
How Low Can the G.O.P. Go?
A week earlier, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, cut off reporters’ questions about Trump, declaring
I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today.
John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate majority whip, told Politico last week that he will not discuss Trump until Nov. 8, adding wistfully, “Wish me luck.”
On June 19, Paul Ryan, the House speaker, told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press”:
Well, first of all I feel like I have certain responsibilities, as not just Congressman Paul Ryan from the first district of Wisconsin, but as Speaker of the House. And imagine the Speaker of the House not supporting the duly elected nominee of our party, therefore creating a chasm in our party to split us in half, which basically helps deny us the White House, and strong majorities in Congress.
As if that were not enough, Ryan continued down this path:
The last thing I want to see happen is another Democrat in the White House. I don’t want see Hillary Clinton as president. I want to see a strong majority in the House and the Senate. And I think the way to achieve those goals is to have a more unified party, than a disunified party. Now having said that, you know me well, Chuck. If something is done and said that I don’t agree with that I think puts a bad label on conservatism, then I’m going to speak out on it as I have, as I will continue to do, and I hope I don’t have to keep doing.
.. You know the Republicans — honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what I think I’m going to be forced to. I think I’m going to be forced to. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don’t talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. I’ll do very well. I’m going to do very well. O.K.? I’m going to do very well. A lot of people thought I should do that anyway but I’ll just do it very nicely by myself.
Trump’s secret plan to quash a ‘Dump Trump’ convention plot
The presumptive GOP nominee is building a massive whip team in preparation for a possible floor fight.
In a Tuesday night conference call led partly by Trump’s top adviser Paul Manafort and including 200 staffers and volunteers, Trump’s senior convention aides sketched out a whip operation led by a half-dozen operatives with deep convention experience. The effort will rely on a team of 150 volunteers and paid staff to keep the convention’s 2,472 delegates in line, and it will utilize a database with information on many of the delegates.
.. The team will be overseen primarily by Doug Davenport, a former lobbying associate of Manafort, who was brought on board by the Trump campaign in April to court supportive delegates.
.. Trump campaign attorney Bill McGinley, who was counsel to the 2012 convention’s rules committee, will handle all of the campaign’s legal operations at the convention.
.. Anti-Trump delegates, meanwhile, have yet to compile even a complete roster of members of the convention Rules Committee, let alone the entire attendance list.
.. Davenport and Manafort did not respond to requests for comment. But the offer to pay for travel and accommodations for members of the whip team, many of whom are not campaign staffers, is notable, given the dire financial straits facing the campaign. It seems to suggest that Trump’s team is leaving nothing to chance when it comes to securing the nomination.