Press. voanews.com.
If Hillary Clinton is elected president in November, Republicans may
look back on the week just passed as a turning point in the race. Republican
Party leaders are increasingly concerned about recent national and state polls
that show the Democratic nominee surging into a lead over Republican Donald
Trump.
Polls in battleground states such as New Hampshire, Michigan and
Pennsylvania show Clinton leading by substantial margins. These came on the heels
of national polls by CNN and NBC that showed Trump trailing by at least 8
percentage points.
The surveys came in the wake of last week’s Democratic National
Convention, which appeared to give Clinton a 5- to 7-percentage-point boost, a
normal occurrence after a party convention. But they also seemed to reflect the
fallout from a series of controversies involving Trump that have sparked
negative reactions from not only Democrats but also some prominent Republicans.
Trump remained defiant on the campaign trail despite the fretting by
Republican leaders. He told a rally in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday that
his campaign was in fine shape and remained on track to win in November.
“So I just want to tell you the campaign is doing really well. It has
never been so well united,” Trump said to cheers.
Trump and the Khans
Trump’s difficult week began with his feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan,
the Muslim American parents of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed
in the Iraq War in 2004.
Khizr Khan denounced Trump at last week’s Democratic convention in
Philadelphia, and Trump’s combative reaction to the Khans drew a negative
response from key Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona
Senator John McCain.
“We not only have to respect but love the family members who have made
these sacrifices,” McCain said.
Trump also sparked a backlash among party leaders for refusing to
endorse both Ryan and McCain in upcoming primary elections.
The controversies swirling around Trump have some Republican leaders
worried that his undisciplined approach to the campaign is helping Clinton and
could hurt Republican hopes to hold their majorities in the Senate and House of
Representatives.
“He is going to have to start convincing people that he is qualified for
the presidency and has the temperament for the presidency,” said University of
Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik. “And I don’t think that back-and-forths
like this one with the Khan family are particularly helpful in that regard.”
Projection update
Kondik’s boss, Larry Sabato, issued an update Thursday on the Electoral
College projection from the university's Center for Politics. It showed Clinton
with a likely 347 electoral votes and Trump with 191. The projection showed
Clinton increasing her chances of carrying several key states, including
Colorado and Virginia, which is the home state of her vice presidential running
mate, Senator Tim Kaine.
Mindful of the growing party concern about his campaign, Trump told
local television station WPEC in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he realized he
needed to change the focus of his campaign.
“Well, I think that is probably right. More focus on Hillary Clinton.
She’s a disaster, so we’re going to focus more on Hillary Clinton,” Trump said.
Clinton campaigned this week in Colorado, another swing state where
Trump is trailing in recent polls. Clinton continued to hammer away at the
notion that Trump’s temperament should disqualify him from becoming president.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump is unqualified to be
president and unfit to be commander in chief,” Clinton said Wednesday to roars
from a crowd in Denver.
The pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA also launched an ad this week
featuring a number of Republicans criticizing Trump. Among them is Michael
Hayden, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National
Security Agency, who is seen in a video clip describing Trump as “a clear and
present danger.”
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