KANSAS CITY, MO.: With Election Day weeks away, Donald Trump’s campaign has denounced the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, deepening a rift in a state critical to Trump’s White House hopes.
GOP Chairman Matt Borges has been organizing the state party’s resources behind Trump’s bid and offering advice to the nominee. But Borges also is an ally of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of Trump’s primary rivals. Kasich has been critical of Trump and recently told Ohio reporters he may not vote for him in the race against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s Ohio chairman, Bob Paduchik, says Trump is not happy.
“Chairman Borges has routinely exaggerated his relationship with the candidate and the campaign,” Paduchik wrote Saturday in a letter to state party committee members. “Chairman Borges does not represent or speak for the candidate and he no longer has any affiliation with the Trump-Pence campaign.” Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is Trump’s running mate.
Paduchik wrote he expects the Ohio Republican Party to continue paying the Trump campaign’s Ohio payroll and expenses. Paduchik said he spoke to Trump on Thursday.
“He is very disappointed in Matt’s duplicity,” Paduchik wrote.
But in his own email to committee members, Borges said he and the party remain committed to aiding Trump. Borges said the majority of Trump campaign staffers are and will remain on the Ohio Republican Party’s payroll. He also noted the party has helped Trump reach out to women’s and African-American organizations in Ohio, is chasing absentee ballots with voter cards promoting the Republican ticket and is organizing get-out-the-vote efforts.
“I speak and meet with Bob Paduchik and Trump team members regularly,” Borges wrote. “Interestingly, none of Bob’s concerns were voiced until he shared them publicly today.”
Borges said the “bruised ego of a staffer” won’t get in the way of his duties as party chairman.
With its 18 electoral votes, Ohio is crucial to winning the presidency as Trump sees his prospects diminish in other closely contested states such as Virginia.
The tension between the Trump campaign and the state party, full of Kasich loyalists, isn’t new, yet Trump has relied heavily on the state party for campaign operations. Angering party officials could damage the campaign as the Nov. 8 vote nears.
Paduchik also accused Borges of being more focused on becoming the next chairman of the Republican National Committee than on helping Trump. Borges has been mentioned as a possible RNC successor to Reince Preibus, a Trump ally.
The tipping point for Trump’s campaign appears, in part, to be Borges’ decision to let a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter watch the most recent presidential debate with Borges and his wife. The couple told the reporter they were conflicted about what to do on Election Day.
“I’ve got to think about what I want to remember having done ... 10 years from now,” Borges was quoted as saying.
Paduchik included the article and several others in the email he sent out to state committee members.
Jim Simon, a state party committee member, said that in a challenging election season, Borges has “handled it perfectly. Drawing fire away from our candidates and officeholders is the chairman’s job, which is something I’m sure Bob doesn’t understand,” he said in a statement.
Campaign trail
Meanwhile, a beleaguered Trump sought to undermine the legitimacy of the U.S. presidential election on Saturday, pressing unsubstantiated claims the contest is rigged against him, vowing anew to jail Clinton if he’s elected and throwing in a baseless insinuation his rival was on drugs in the last debate.
Not even the country’s more than two centuries of peaceful transitions of political leadership were sacrosanct as Trump accused the media and the Clinton campaign of conspiring against him to undermine a free and fair election.
“The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect her president,” he said, referring to the several women who have come forward in recent days to say that Trump had groped or sexually assaulted them. He has denied the claims, calling the women liars.
Earlier Saturday, Trump took to Twitter to warn that “100% fabricated and made-up charges, pushed strongly by the media and the Clinton Campaign, may poison the minds of the American Voter. FIX!”
“Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail,” he added. “Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election.”
In a country with a history of peaceful political transition, his challenge to the election’s legitimacy — as a way to explain a loss in November, should that happen — was a striking rupture of faith in American democracy. Trump has repeatedly claimed without offering evidence that election fraud is a serious problem and encouraged his largely white supporters to “go and watch” polling places in certain areas to make sure things are “on the up and up.”
Peter Kostruba, a Trump supporter who traveled to his Portsmouth, N.H., rally from Barnet, Vt., with his 10-year-old son, said he’s not expecting riots to break out if Clinton wins, but he sees sharper divisions in the country.
“It definitely feels like the odds are stacked, whether it’s the legal system or the voter system,” Kostruba said. “I don’t think you’re going to see all of this group here arm themselves and mobilize, but, you know, we’re probably not too many years away from that if things keep going the way we’re going.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose decision not to campaign for Trump angered the GOP nominee, made clear he does not share the candidate’s concern about the election’s legitimacy.
“Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan.
It was not the first time Trump has raised the idea the election is unfairly tilted against him, but it has become a resurgent theme for the New York billionaire and many of his supporters in the past several days as he’s slipped in preference polls and faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
As well, campaign money is tight, at least in comparison with his rival’s resources, according to information that pre-dates the release of a 2005 video that showed him bragging about imposing himself on women.
Trump began this month with $75 million in his campaign and joint party accounts, he said Saturday in a statement. That’s exactly half of what the Clinton team said it had on hand.
Clinton’s emails
Trump’s tribulations and accusations overshadowed the release Saturday of yet more emails hacked from accounts of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, laying bare aspects of the campaign’s internal deliberations.
The latest batch showed the campaign worrying whether Sen. Elizabeth Warren might endorse Bernie Sanders, wrestling with how to respond to revelations about her private email use, and lining up materials to respond to fresh accusations from Juanita Broaddrick, who accused Bill Clinton of raping her decades ago. He denied the rape accusation, which was never adjudicated by a criminal court.
Trump also suggested Saturday that Clinton had been on drugs during the last debate and challenged his rival to a drug test before the final debate Wednesday.
Instead of spending the weekend preparing, he said, “I think she’s actually getting pumped up, you want to know the truth.
“I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate, ’cause I don’t know what’s going on with her,” he said. “But at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning. And at the end, it was like ... she could barely even reach her car.”
Trump offered no evidence to support the bizarre claim. Nothing about Clinton’s demeanor in the debate suggested she was under the influence.