TRUMP Strong Against GOP - FBI Indicts Hillary - Delegate Count

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-   -    Rest in Peace Nancy Reagan

2.       Trump on Face the Nation – Jan Brewer and Steve Forbs endorse Trump this week Benghazi Heroes Endorse Donald Trump along with Jeff Sessions and Maine Gov. Paul LePage

-          Water boarding? (2A)

-          Q: Mr. Trump you are bringing in a lot of new people into the Republican Party but there are some who want to leave, what’s your message? Good Riddance? (2B)

-          Q: What do you make of them trying to take the nomination away by the convention? (2C)

-          Q: “THEY” say “THEY” can’t be in a party with you as the Head of It? (2D)

-          Q: You said Paul Ryan will have a big price to pay and John McCain has to be very careful, how can you unify by saying things like that?(2E)

-          Scarborough on Trump and WTF is this medias problem (2F)

-          Scarborough with Kristol and Heilman rather Hilary than Trump. (2H)

-          bostonherald.com Nearly 20,000 Bay State Democrats have fled the party this winter, with thousands doing so to join the Republican ranks, according to the state’s top elections official.

-          Secretary of State William Galvin said more than 16,300 Democrats have shed their party affiliation and become independent voters since Jan. 1, while nearly 3,500 more shifted to the Mass GOP ahead of tomorrow’s “Super Tuesday” presidential primary.

-          Confidential polling data shows Hillary Clinton could lose the presidential election in heavily Democratic New York to Donald Trump as the GOP front-runner’s support grows to the point of being “surprisingly strong,” The Post has learned.

-          Jane Fonda

a.       It’s terrible and it’s dangerous,” Fonda said of the Trump’s candidacy two days ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

b.      “Even if he doesn’t make it which I don’t think he will, the fact that he’s said the things he’s said about Muslims for example, the damage has been done,” Fonda said. “All those young Muslims now can say, ‘Yeah I guess they really are waging a war against us.’” “It will draw them closer to the terrorists. I think it’s really, really dangerous,”

-          TED CRUZ

a.       “Trump was right to skip CPAC. The votes are in Kansas not Washington. Why give the anti-trump activists a target,” Gingrich said in a tweet earlier today. Ted won the straw poll.

b.      Ted Wars GOP not to steal the nomination from Trump

c.       The twist here is that Stand for Truth has accepted more than $1 million in donations from corporations or limited liability companies, whose funders are difficult to uncover, meaning the original source of the campaign cash is hidden. While corporations can make donations to super PACs, an LLC allows individual donors to steer cash through easy-to-register, self-owned organizations.

      Illegal Immigration

-          TEXAS - A federal judge signed an order on Friday that denied a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by citizens of Mexico and several Central American nations claiming entitlement to birth certificates for their children born in the United States. They sued the Vital Statistics Unit of the Texas Department of State Health Services saying the agency denied them the certificates because they did not possess the required identification.

-          As reported by Breitbart Texas in July, the parent plaintiffs of the 23 children claimed that the state of Texas violated their children’s rights because the Fourteenth Amendment provides that any child born on U.S. soil is an American citizen as well as a citizen of the state where they reside. The plaintiffs and their children reside in Texas.

a.       The Office of the Texas Attorney General represented the state in the lawsuit. In a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “Today’s ruling is an important first step in insuring the integrity of birth certificates and personal identity information. Before issuing any official documents, it’s important for the state to have a way to accurately verify people are who they say they are through reliable identification mechanisms. We will continue defending DSHS’s policy on safeguarding Texans’ most sensitive information and vital documents.”

   Hillary

-          FBI Indicts Hillary –

a.        Hillary Clinton is about to be served an indictment by the the FBI as part of it’s ongoing investigation into her email scandal, according to Judge Andrew Napolitano, which would bring her presidential campaign to a massive halt. Bryan Pagliano is the Clinton IT staffer who was responsible for setting up Hillary’s private email server and he was just granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.

b.      Fox News sat down with Judge Andrew Napolitano and he explained the situation perfectly. “This is enough to shake the American political system to its foundation.”Napolitano said. Napolitano explained the fact that the FBI has pushed for and has been granted immunity for Pagliano tells us that the Department of Justice is heavily involved, much more than originally indicated. Immunity is usually only granted if a witness has information that would implicate themselves during a testimony. Napolitano went on to explain the fact that Pagliano being granted immunity indicates the DOJ has most likely already convened a Grand Jury, which would only lead you to believe the FBI has enough evidence to indict Hillary Clinton and more toward a criminal trial.

-          30K are killed a year by gun violence White Racism is more dangerous than ISIS (4A)

-          The Blaze Murders in 2010 – Rifles 358, Handguns 6,009 – Shotguns 373 – Unknown guns 2,035 – Knife Blade 1,704 – Other weapon 1,772 – Hands and Fists and Feet 745

a.       Top 25 things to die from MedHelp.org

b.      Exposure to excessive natural cold odds 1 in 7,399 – Exposure to excessive natural heat odds 1 in 6,174 –

c.       Fall from a building 1 in 6,115 –

d.      Firearms discharge 1 in 5,981 (In 2006, there were 862 undetermined/unintentional firearm deaths. Americans are statistically much more likely to die from firearms discharge than people in comparable countries. Total firearm-related deaths are eight times higher in the U.S. than in economic counterparts in other parts of the world, like Canada, England and France) –

e.      Air Space transport accident 1 in 5,862 –

f.        Contact with machinery 1 in 5,189 – Choking on Food 1 in 4,404 – Fall involving bed, chair or furniture 1 in 4,238 –

g.       #16 Bicycle accident 1 in 4,147 (In 2009, 630 bicyclists were killed, and a whopping 51,000 were injured in accidents. Most of these deaths occurred in urban areas, where there are more cars and traffic congestion. The number one thing you can do to reduce your risk? Wear a helmet!) – ATV or off road vehicle 1 in 3,579 –

h.       #15: Complications of medical and surgical care
Odds of dying: 1 in 1,523 (According to the National Hospital Discharge Survey, 45 million surgeries were performed in 2007, so it's a good thing that only 1 in 1,523 people will die from medical or surgical complications. You are more than twice as likely to die from complications of medical and surgical care than in an ATV or off-road vehicle accident; the largest gap in odds on this list.)

i.         #13: Accidental drowning and submersion
Odds of dying: 1 in 1,073

j.        #10: Assault by firearm
Odds of dying: 1 in 300
America is the gun violence capital of the world. According to FBI crime statistics, there were 9,146 murders by firearm in 2009. Like death by accidental gun discharge, death rates for assault by firearm in the U.S. are also disproportionate to similar countries. It has the highest rate of firearm deaths among 25 high-income nations and more disturbingly, the overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children under age 15 is 12 times higher than the death rates of these 25 high-income nations combined.

k.       #9: Exposure to narcotics and hallucinogens
Odds of dying: 1 in 289

l.         #8: Car accident
Odds of dying: 1 in 272

m.    #7: Falls
Odds of dying: 1 in 184
This category includes statistical data from #18, the category for deaths from falling off a bed, chair or other furniture and #23, the category for people falling off a building, along with any other type of unintentional fall. In 2008, 22,631 Americans died from unintentional falls, which equates to 7.5 people per 100,000.

n.      #5: Intentional self harm
Odds of dying: 1 in 115
A person died from committing suicide every 15 minutes in the U.S. in 2007, the most recent year for which data was available.

o.      #4: All types of land vehicle accidents
Odds of dying: 1 in 85
This category is similar to car and ATV accidents; it simply combines death rates from ATV and off-road vehicle accidents (#16), motorcycle accidents (#12), car accidents (#8) and any other type of land vehicles, like tractors, tanks and go-karts.

p.      #3: Stroke
Odds of dying: 1 in 28

q.      #2: Cancer
Odds of dying: 1 in 7

r.        #1: Heart disease
Odds of dying: 1 in 6

Some in Crowd ‘Excited’ for Romney; Others Say ‘Abhorrent’

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Joel Pollak / Breitbart News

by JOEL B. POLLAK3 Mar 20161,538

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Hundreds of people stood outside in line for over an hour to attend Mitt Romney’s speech at the University of Utah against Donald Trump — and not all of them were happy with Romney’s intervention in the presidential race.

“I find it abhorrent that Mitt Romney would pull this stunt,” said “Max,” a Trump supporter wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, who did not want to be named.

“After the support that Trump gave Romney in 2012, this is just absolutely hypocritical and below the Republican Party. It’s below the Democrats, for that matter.”

Others, however, were happy to hear Romney’s perspective.

“I wish Romney would run,” said Andrew Drechsel, 32, of Salt Lake City, saying he looked forward to hearing Romney’s rebuke to the “kids” in the GOP. He added, however, that he is supporting 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

16%

 for president: “I would never vote Republican.”

Paul Garder, 69, of Park City, is also a Sanders supporter — but he was unhappy with Romney’s appearance.

“It’s just another episode of the Republican clown show. I’m astonished that after his poor showing in 2012 that Romney would suggest Trump will do a worse job.”

University of Utah student Catherine Warner, 19, is a supporter of 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)

97%

 and was excited to hear Romney speak.

“In my dream, he would endorse Ted Cruz,” she told Breitbart News. But since that was unlikely, she said, she hoped Romney would hint at joining the race, because it might slow Trump.

Navy veteran and history student Andrea Bryant, 30, who described her views as libertarian, said her expectations for Romney’s speech were low.

“I thought he might endorse Rubio. But if he does now, it is too little, too late.”

She noted that Romney’s new toughness against Trump had been lacking in his own campaign. “This is a departure from how I wish he would have been in 2012.”

“Max,” meanwhile, wanted to sent a message to the former Massachusetts governor.

“I want him to see this,” he said, pointing to his hat. “I want him to know that there are people here who disagree.”

Donald Trump Releases Seven Point Healthcare Reform Plan Repealing Obamacare

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Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

by ALEX SWOYER3 Mar 2016Washington, DC1093

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is out with a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

After repealing Obamacare, the real estate mogul proposes to tear down barriers so health insurance can be sold across state lines. Trump’s health insurance plan would also make individual premium payments tax deductible. Additionally, his plan would eliminate Obamacare’s individual mandate.

Trump’s plan says reform must start with Congress repealing Obamacare.

Any reform effort must begin with Congress. Since Obamacare became law, conservative Republicans have been offering reforms that can be delivered individually or as part of more comprehensive reform efforts. In the remaining sections of this policy paper, several reforms will be offered that should be considered by Congress so that on the first day of the Trump Administration, we can start the process of restoring faith in government and economic liberty to the people.

He lists seven points of action:

Congress must act. Our elected representatives in the House and Senate must:

Completely repeal Obamacare. Our elected representatives must eliminate the individual mandate.

 No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.

Modify existing law that inhibits the sale of health insurance across state lines. As long as the plan purchased complies with state requirements, any vendor ought to be able to offer insurance in any state. By allowing full competition in this market, insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up.

Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system. Businesses are allowed to take these deductions so why wouldn’t Congress allow individuals the same exemptions?

 As we allow the free market to provide insurance coverage opportunities to companies and individuals, we must also make sure that no one slips through the cracks simply because they cannot afford insurance. We must review basic options for Medicaid and work with states to ensure that those who want healthcare coverage can have it.

Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Contributions into HSAs should be tax-free and should be allowed to accumulate. These accounts would become part of the estate of the individual and could be passed on to heirs without fear of any death penalty. These plans should be particularly attractive to young people who are healthy and can afford high-deductible insurance plans. These funds can be used by any member of a family without penalty. The flexibility and security provided by HSAs will be of great benefit to all who participate.Require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure.

Block-grant Medicaid to the states. Nearly every state already offers benefits beyond what is required in the current Medicaid structure. The state governments know their people best and can manage the administration of Medicaid far better without federal overhead. States will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse to preserve our precious resources

.Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products. Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America. Though the pharmaceutical industry is in the private sector, drug companies provide a public service. Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers.

Trump also references illegal immigration in is health care plan, saying, “Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually. If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments.”

Read More Stories About:

Big Government, 2016 Presidential Race,Donald Trump, obamacare, health insurance

Mexico says won't pay for Trump's 'terrible' border wall

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ca.news.yahoo.com

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - There is no way Mexico would fund Donald Trump's "terrible" plan to build a wall along its border with the United States if the Republican front-runner wins the U.S. presidential election, the Mexican finance minister said.

Trump, the New York billionaire developer and former reality television star, sparked outrage in Mexico when he vowed to force Latin America's second largest economy to pay for a wall along the southern U.S. border to stem the flow of illegal immigration and drugs.

In a televised interview late on Wednesday, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray categorically rejected the proposal.

"Under no circumstance will Mexico pay for the wall that Mr. Trump is proposing," he said. "Building a wall between Mexico and the United States is a terrible idea. It is an idea based on ignorance and has no foundation in the reality of North American integration."

Trump has accused Mexico of sending rapists and drug runners across the U.S. border and has vowed to increase fees on some Mexican visas and all border crossing cards as part of a broader plan to force Mexico to pay for the wall.

Former conservative Mexican presidents Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox have compared Trump to Adolf Hitler while fears of a Trump presidency have helped stoke a spike in the numbers of immigrants trying to enter the United States.

(Reporting By Alexandra Alper; Editing by Simon Gardner and Bill Trott)

COMMENTS

Romney calling Trump 'phony,' urging Republicans to shun him

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bigstory.ap.org

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney charged into the increasingly divisive 2016 GOP White House sweepstakes Thursday with a harsh takedown of front-runner Donald Trump, calling him a "phony" and exhorting fellow Republicans to shun him for the good of the country and party.

"His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University," Romney said in a speech readied for delivery to a University of Utah audience.

In turning up the rhetoric, Romney cast his lot with a growing chorus of anxious Republican leaders — people many Trump supporters view as establishment figures — in trying to slow the New York real estate mogul's momentum.

"Here's what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud," Romney said in his talk, set for delivery later Thursday.

Trump, in turn, disparaged Romney in a series of tweets: "I am not a Mitt Romney, who doesn't know how to win," ''Romney, who ran one of the worst races in presidential history, is working with the establishment to bury a big 'R' win!" and Romney is "not a good messenger" to be telling Republicans how to get elected.

Romney has been chipping away at Trump in recent days, but the speech Thursday was certain to be his most forceful statement yet. Trump has responded to Romney by saying the former Massachusetts governor was a failed candidate in his own right.

Panicked GOP leaders say they still have options for preventing the billionaire from winning the GOP nomination — just not many good ones.

Romney also declares that a Trump nomination at the party's convention in Cleveland in July would enable Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, according to excerpts of his speech obtained by The Associated Press.

He charged that Trump "has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president."

In a phone-in interview Thursday with "Good Morning America," Trump scoffed at Romney's charges and declared that "I've brought millions and millions of people ..into the Republican Party."

"The Republican establishment is going to give it all back," he added.

Romney's involvement comes as party elites pore over complicated delegate math, outlining hazy scenarios for a contested convention and even flirting with the long-shot prospect of a third party option.

The 2012 Republican nominee's speech marks his most aggressive step into the 2016 contest to date, but it was unclear what impact his words would have with voters deeply frustrated by their party's leaders.

Trump, meanwhile, was setting his sights on the general election. His campaign reached out to House Speaker Paul Ryan's office to arrange a conversation between the two men, and urged Republican leaders to view his candidacy as a chance to expand the party.

Trump padded his lead with victories in seven Super Tuesday contests, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claiming three states and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio picking up his first victory of the 2016 race.

Despite Trump's strong night, he was not yet on track to claim the nomination before the party's national gathering in July, according to an Associated Press delegate count. He has won 46 percent of the delegates awarded so far, and he would have to increase that to 51 percent in the remaining primaries.

GOP strategists cast March 15 as the last opportunity to stop Trump through the normal path of winning states and collecting delegates. A win for Rubio in his home state of Florida would raise questions about Trump's strength, as could a win for Kasich, Ohio's governor, on his home turf.

The candidates have a high-profile opportunity to make their case to voters in Thursday night's prime-time debate. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson all but ended his bid Wednesday, saying he would skip the debate and declaring he did "not see a political path forward."

The GOP mayhem contrasted sharply with a clearer picture on the Democratic side, where Hillary Clinton was drawing broad support from voters and her party's leaders. Rival Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to keep up the fight, though his path to the nomination has become exceedingly narrow.

Romney argues that Trump's "domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe," Romney says. "And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill."

The Associated Press has asked Republican governors and senators if they would support Trump if he becomes the party's nominee. Of the 59 respondents, slightly fewer than half could not commit to backing him in November.

One long-shot idea rumbling through power corridors in Washington was the prospect of a late third-party candidate to represent more mainstream conservatives. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been approached by "a mixture of people" about being part of a third-party bid, according to Jeff Miller, who managed Perry's failed GOP presidential campaign. But Miller said Perry found the idea "ludicrous."

A more likely, though still extraordinarily unusual, scenario being discussed is a contested convention.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Julie Bykowicz, Stephen Ohlemacher and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

COMMENTS

Pandemonium in the GOP: Some embrace Trump while others rush to stop him

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Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were the big winners on Super Tuesday. Get caught up with the race.

Super Tuesday

The Post's Dan Balz says ...

The window for stopping Donald Trump closed almost completely Tuesday night, leaving the demoralized anti-Trump forces with two weeks and no agreed-upon strategy for denying him the GOP nomination. For months, the party elite dismissed him, but now that they finally see his inevitability seem powerless to stop him.

The GOP has two weeks to take down Donald Trump 

The upcoming voting schedule

March 5

Both parties vote in Kansas and Louisiana. Maine and Kentucky hold GOP caucuses; Nebraska holds a Democratic caucus.

March 6

It's the Maine Democratic Caucus and the Puerto Rico Republican primary.

March 8

Both parties vote in Michigan and Mississippi, and Republicans vote in Hawaii and Idaho.

Upcoming debates

March 3: GOP debate

on Fox News, in Detroit, Mich.

March 6: Democratic debate

on CNN, in Flint, Mich.

March 9: Democratic debate

on Univision, with The Washington Post in Miami, Fla.

Campaign 2016

Catch up after Super Tuesday

Trump captures the nation’s attention on the campaign trail

The Republican presidential candidate dominated the Super Tuesday contests.

By Matea Gold, Philip Rucker and Tom Hamburger March 2 at 11:26 PM    

The Republican Party was in a state of pandemonium Wednesday as a clutch of independent groups scrambled to throw together a last-ditch effort to deny Donald Trump the presidential nomination, even as some party figures concluded it was now too late to stop the billionaire mogul.

The decentralized and desperate stop-Trump campaign found a possible new leader in Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, who is expected to deliver a forceful, top-to-bottom indictment of Trump in a speech on Thursday.

In a flurry of conference calls and meetings, top Republican donors and strategists laid plans for a multimillion-dollar assault on the front-runner in a series of states holding contests on March 15. Ground zero is Florida, where home-state Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading establishment candidate, is going all in to defeat Trump, who leads in the polls there.

But other Republicans yielded to Trump after he swept seven out of 11 states on Tuesday, the biggest day of balloting yet. Alex Castellanos, a veteran media consultant who earlier in the season had tried unsuccessfully to organize an anti-Trump campaign, said, “A fantasy effort to stop Trump . . . exists only as the denial stage of grief.”

“Trump has earned the nomination,” Castellanos wrote in an email. “Donald Trump whipped the establishment and it is too late for the limp GOP establishment to ask their mommy to step in and rewrite the rules because they were humiliated for their impotence.”

VIEW GRAPHIC 

How a fractured field just might block Trump and force a brokered convention

Similarly, William J. Bennett, a Reagan education secretary, said he could not support the anti-Trump movement.

“I’m used to being the moral scold, but Trump is winning fair and square, so why should the nomination be grabbed from him?” asked Bennett, now a conservative radio host. “We’ve been trying to get white working-class people into the party for a long time. Now they’re here in huge numbers because of Trump and we’re going to alienate them? I don’t get it. Too many people are on their high horse.”

[The Take: The GOP has two weeks to take down Donald Trump]

The deepening split in the party came as the field appeared poised to narrow further. Though stopping short of formally suspending his campaign, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told supporters Wednesday that he does not see a “path forward.” He scrapped plans to attend Thursday’s Fox News Channel debate in Detroit, a high-stakes opportunity for Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to take shots at Trump.

The non-Trump candidates hope to prevent him from acquiring the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. That would push an ultimate decision to the Republican National Convention in July, potentially turning the Cleveland showcase into a hothouse of intrigue, mischief-making and chaos.

The emergence of Romney as a leading Trump antagonist stoked speculation that he might offer himself as a consensus candidate at the convention. But loyalists were adamant that he has no plans to run.

“Over time, there’s been a lot of speculation about that,” said former Utah governor Michael Leavitt, a Romney confidant. “He’s heard from many people about that idea, and he continues to be skeptical about the prospect of success.”

Rubio, Cruz and Trump all vow to unify GOP on Super Tuesday

Play Video2:42

As results showed Donald Trump leading in at least six states on Super Tuesday, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) argued that nominating him would be bad for the Republican party. Here are key moments from their speeches following the March 1 races. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Romney’s associates said he is not planning to offer an endorsement when he speaks Thursday at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he has a home.

On Wednesday night, a group of more than 50 conservative foreign policy experts, including former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff and former deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick, issued an open letter calling Trump unfit for the office of president.

Even with fewer people in the race, some GOP figures declared that Trump was nearly unstoppable. Eric Fehrnstrom, a former senior adviser to Romney, said it has become almost “impossible for his opponents to catch up to him.”

Mike Murphy, who ran a pro-Jeb Bush super PAC, said the Trump “train may have left the station. I don’t want to be a critic of what’s being tried, but after millions of dollars in ads, it’s more important to narrow the field than to air more ads against him.”

Still, other operatives worked behind the scenes Wednesday on plans for a ruthless ad blitz to discredit Trump by attacking his business career and character. It marks a dramatic escalation of an anti-Trump campaign that until recently had little firepower.

[The GOP’s implosion over Donald Trump’s candidacy has arrived]

The air assault is largely being funded by Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC allied with Rubio; Our Principles PAC, a new anti-Trump outfit; American Future Fund, an Iowa-based nonprofit; and the conservative Club for Growth. Some of the groups are working in collaboration.

Conservative Solutions dropped nearly $3 million worth of new anti-Trump ads this week, largely in Florida, Michigan and Illinois, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Our Principles is also launching a new ad in those states, part of a seven-figure buy that will also air on national cable.

“We have a very target-rich environment,” said Katie Packer, who runs Our Principles. “He has left quite a wake of victims in his path.”

Packer said the increased focus on Trump is taking a toll on the front-runner, pointing to Cruz’s victories Tuesday in Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska.

People with knowledge of the group’s activities said a substantial number of new donors have come aboard since January, when Our Principles launched with an initial $3 million donation from Marlene Ricketts, the matriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs. Among the new contributors are billionaire investor Paul Singer, who serves as the Rubio campaign’s national finance chairman.

New contributions are also bolstering the efforts of American Future Fund, a politically active nonprofit that launched a trio of anti-Trump ads online last week centered on the now-defunct Trump University. The organization is spending $1.75 million to put the spots on the air in Florida cities such as Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach. The group also plans to run ads during the next two Republican debates.

“The people who are donating are very concerned not just about what Trump does to the Republican Party, but to conservatives in general,” spokesman Stuart Roy said.

As of Tuesday, super PACs and other independent groups had plowed $16 million into commercials and mailers explicitly going after Trump and an additional $9.4 million into ads that refer to the brash billionaire. In all, that amounts to just 11 percent of the nearly $238 million spent by outside groups on the presidential race, according to FEC filings.

Some of the operatives have been poring over polling data showing that only a small portion of the electorate was aware of negative aspects of Trump’s career.

“Small percentages of those surveyed knew about Trump University, the failure of Trump Mortgage, the KKK controversy,” said Rick Hohlt, a longtime GOP donor involved in the efforts.

That has convinced some activists that they can gain traction against Trump. But even some involved in the new efforts are uncertain whether the coming assault will have an impact.

“You’re going to see a massive ad spend to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,” said one Republican involved in the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “Fundraising is not a problem. There may be other problems. Trump may be Teflon — this may not stick to him. On March 15, we will have an experiment: What happens when millions and millions of dollars go after Trump?”

Some party strategists said none of the attempts to trip up Trump will work unless Rubio, Cruz and Kasich step up their campaigns.

“People sitting around here talking, it’s just a parlor game,” said Charlie Black, a longtime Republican strategist. “There’s nothing you can do behind the scenes. It’s all got to happen out there on the playing field. You’ve got to go beat the guy.”

What Rubio, Cruz and Kasich now are counting on most is depriving Trump of enough delegates that they could force a convention showdown. The prospect of a brokered convention probably overstates what would unfold, in part because there is no sign of the ability of a few power brokers to have their way.

“This is a political marketplace with a set of structured rules,” Leavitt said. “Whoever can get 1,237 delegates will be the nominee. There is a lot of maneuvering within those rules that can occur. But there is no smoke-filled room.”

The convention rules will not be finalized until just before the event opens in Cleveland. About two-thirds or more of the delegates will be bound on the first ballot to back the candidate who won in their state or district. After that, however, they become free agents.

But the possibility of the convention delegates going against the candidate who had amassed the most delegates, even if not a majority, could leave the party even more divided and demoralized heading to the general election.

The convention rules may be moot if the tide keeps lifting Trump. New examples emerged Wednesday of party elites gravitating toward the former reality television star.

Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, said he is considering an endorsement. “For me, Trump potentially represents a big expansion of the Republican Party, a way to bring in those blue-collar Reagan Democrats,” Moore said. “That’s necessary if the party is going to win again.”

Scott Reed, who managed Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign, said “the fear is as high as it’s ever been” in the establishment.

“But I’m amazed that people are acting surprised,” he said. “Trump has been building for months, and the voters are speaking.”

Watching Trump talk on Tuesday night about unifying the party, Reed said: “I was struck that he was doing smart things, saying the right things. . . . He has to keep that sort of thing up. Look presidential. Don’t go back into the gutter.”

Dan Balz, Robert Costa, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Anu Narayanswamy contributed to this report.

Exclusive Audio — Rubio Campaign Manager Plots Brokered Convention In Manhattan Donor Meeting To Take Nomination From Trump

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by MATTHEW BOYLE2 Mar 2016Washington, DC6107

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is plotting to take the Republican nomination away from Donald Trump using surreptitious tactics at a so-called “brokered convention,” according to an audio recording of his campaign manger in a private meeting with high dollar donors in Manhattan obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.

Last Wednesday evening in New York,according to CNN, Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan met privately with a group of supporters and top donors to chart Rubio’s path forward heading into Super Tuesday after abysmal performances from the first-term Florid Senator so far. During the meeting, Sullivan walked Rubio’s money men through the scenario he envisions he will use to stop Trump.

An audio recording of Sullivan giving the powerpoint presentation obtained exclusively by Breitbart News shows Sullivan plotting for a brokered convention.

“That is – I know if you watch the cable shows, they’re pretty breathless right about now that this is it, nothing is stopping Donald Trump,” Sullivan says at the opening of his remarks on aiming for brokered convention. “He can’t be stopped. He has got more momentum, this is it. It is over.”

But, Sullivan argued in the pre-Super Tuesday session: “5.3 percent of the delegates allocated in this thing. We have 94.7 percent remaining. You need to get to 1,237 delegates to win this thing.”

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING:

The presentation came the day after Trump destroyed the rest of the field in Nevada among every demographic including Hispanics. Rubio finished more than 20 percent behind Trump, getting only 7 delegates—half of Trump’s 14 delegates. That was an embarrassing finish for Rubio, who spent much of his childhood in Las Vegas and emphasized the Silver State, campaigning there heavily throughout the course of 2015 and early 2016. That bad finish for Rubio came after three previous disappointments.

On Feb. 1, Rubio finished in third in Iowa with just 23 percent of the vote. He pulled in 7 delegates, the same amount Trump’s second place with 24 percent won the national frontrunner and one fewer than Iowa caucuses winner Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)who got 8 delegates there. In New Hampshire, Trump’s astounding 35 percent victory—20 points better than Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 15 percent—won Trump 11 delegates. Kasich got 4, Cruz won 3 with an 11.7 percent third place finish, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush beat Rubio out for fourth place winning 3 delegates. Rubio’s abysmal fifth place finish with just 10.6 percent won him only 2 New Hampshire delegates.

A couple weeks later in South Carolina, Rubio similarly failed to meet expectations. Even with the Palmetto State’s governor, Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) campaigning for him—and Sullivan hailing from South Carolina—Rubio failed to win the state after his team was previously telling people he’d finish in third in Iowa, second in New Hampshire and first in South Carolina, his 3-2-1 strategy. Trump’s definitive 32.5 percent victory there won him all 50 delegates in South Carolina, and Rubio came up empty as did everyone else.

Sullivan argued in the meeting in Manhattan that according to South Carolina exit polling, late deciders in these primaries are breaking for Rubio in a big way—so it’s not time to throw in the towel just yet. Exit polling from Virginia on Super Tuesday seemed to back that point up, but again like South Carolina—it was too little too late and Rubio lost to Trump.

“This is the exit polling in South Carolina, just kind of to give you a little – kind of a snapshot of the public,” Sullivan told the donors.

All of these states, when you start to looking at it, they close quickly at the end. People start paying attention, voters – there’s a big difference between a voter’s position on who they support and who they’re going to vote for two weeks before the election, a week before the election, a day before the election. That’s when it matters. We start to see here – and this is voters who decide in the last week who they are going to support, 28 percent chose Marco Rubio. On the electability, that was 47 percent. That is an angle we’re pushing hard because we know that we are the best candidate to beat Hillary, or Bernie. We are confident about that, and we know the voters are confident about that and they want him to win.

Sullivan added that this trend has been seen around the country. “That 28 percent close in the final week, that’s indicative of what we saw in Iowa and then, to a lesser extent in New Hampshire, obviously, that was not a good state for us – had a bad run there,” Sullivan said.

When Sullivan was giving this presentation, the final delegate counts from Nevada had not yet been totaled. But heading into Super Tuesday, Trump had 82 delegates while Cruz had 17 delegates and Rubio had 16 delegates. While the totals aren’t yet completely tabulated for Super Tuesday, Rubio—by any calculation—fared especially poorly since he failed to hit the 20 percent threshold statewide in Texas meaning he only will from there win a handful of delegates from congressional districts in which he topped 20 percent.

Rubio similarly failed in Alabama, winning just 1 of 50 delegates up for grabs—and the first term Florida senator only one won state, a victory in Minnesota. That prompted comparisons between Rubio and Walter Mondale, with some calling him “Marco Mondale” since the 1984 Democratic presidential candidate against incumbent President Ronald Reagan won only Minnesota and no other U.S. States. The unfortunate turn of events for Rubio also undercuts his carefully crafted image as the standard bearer of the next generation of Reagan’s legacy, since Rubio has only won where Reagan lost.

Back then, while publicly projecting that they could potentially beat Trump in a race to 1,237 delegates to win outright, Sullivan had already signaled that the race is about trying to broker the convention. At such a brokered convention, Sullivan’s plan to help swing it for Rubio even if Rubio has fewer delegates than Trump is to convince the delegates to back Rubio on a second ballot—where they would be technically unbound—and thereby essentially take the nomination away from Trump, its rightful winner if he has the most delegates.

“What this really comes down to, this race going forward on these delegates, is a race to get the most delegates at convention,” Sullivan said in the private Manhattan meeting.

If nobody gets to 50 percent of the delegates, if nobody gets to 1,237, then there’s a floor fight and delegates in most of these states, every state has different rules on these delegates, most of these states – the delegates are no longer bound after the first ballot. So if nobody has 50 percent, they do a perfunctory ballot, no one gets there. No one gets to 1,237, and then the vast majority of the next round of voting are free agents.

Sullivan further explained who the delegates actually are, and how they’re not people loyal to Trump in any way—but really party insiders.

“The interesting thing without getting too far into the weeds of these delegates is – you know, a little over 95 percent of the [inaudible], the delegates aren’t selected by the campaigns,” Sullivan said.

Donald Trump doesn’t choose his delegates for the national convention, I don’t choose Marco Rubio’s, Ted Cruz doesn’t choose his. These are people –in many cases who have already started the process, they ran on a slate at their precinct, then it was GOP conventions, then at their state conventions, to become a delegate for the national convention. Some of you I know have been delegates in the national convention here, different way, different state, it’s a pretty laborious process. It is generally not someone who just – a casual voter if you will, or someone who is just suddenly energized. These are people who have been involved in the process for a long time, have relationships with other activists, because you’re elected at your state convention. So why that’s important—and I know I’m side tracking, but this is an important [point]—when you show up at the convention, if I just say, ‘I want to go to Cleveland, because well it’s a fun place to go hangout in July—thank you Reince Priebus. After I spend 15 minutes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.’ Most of the people go to these conventions because they believe in the Republican Party, they believe in a core set of issues, they’ve been doing this for a while.

In continuing to explain it, Sullivan even admitted that the debate audiences have been stacked against Trump and for Rubio—something the Rubio campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) have repeatedly denied.

“Most of them it’s not their first time: these are repeat delegates,” Sullivan said.

None of them look like a Donald Trump supporter. None of them look like a Donald Trump supporter. So my point in this little deviation here is: should this go to the convention, that’s a real problem for Donald Trump because he’s got to start persuading these same—the people that he’s getting booed at, that he’s talking about these debates that he’s mocking, you know what those are? You know what I like to call them? Delegates.

In this pre-Super Tuesday presentation by Sullivan, the Rubio campaign manager also made some fairly bold predictions that his boss fell well short of on election day. First, while he was right when he predicted that Cruz would win Texas, he was wrong about predicting a bounce for both second and third place finishers.

“Cruz will win Texas, which will be the biggest prize on March 1, but even with his win—first place finish—in Texas, he is not going to get the kind of bounce out of that … because the second place person in the state of Texas is going to get delegates, and the third place person in Texas is going to get delegates,” Sullivan said.

And that’s what matters. Whoever wrote the memos, it looks great to see Rubio in first place, second place, third place or fourth or fifth or all the way down on election night. What really matters is how many delegates do they have? That’s what is most important. And so to that point: we – coming in third in Texas, that should get you a lot of delegates. And then going over and playing in other states that matter more: Virginia is not proportional by