Trump Manages To Give Some House GOPers More Heartburn In Hill Meeting

[DonViejo]

-snip-

"It's awkward. It's really awkward," Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said when asked what it was like to sit in a meeting when the nominee doubled down on his stump speech line that Saddam Hussein had killed a lot of terrorists. "There is a lack of enthusiasm. You can feel it." Kinzinger said that at one point, Trump had used the Saddam story as just one example of how the media has treated Trump unfairly.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said that members asked about his effect on the House and Senate races. One member asked pointedly about Trump's comments about Hispanic voters. "He said Hispanics love him," Dent said, noting that the polls showed no such thing. "All I can say is that I haven't endorsed him. I believe he has a lot of persuading to do."

Another Republican in the meeting who declined to go on the record so he could speak candidly told TPM that Trump was asked pointedly if he would defend Article I of the Constitution. "Not only will I stand up for Article One," Trump enthusiastically stated, according to the member in the room. "I'll stand up for Article Two, Article 12, you name it of the Constitution."

The Republican member said that Trump's lack of knowledge about how many articles exist, gave him "a little pause." (The Constitution has seven articles and 27 amendments.)

-snip-

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-changes-few-minds-with-meeting-on-the-hill

[C_U_L8R]

1. Article 12

Gosh, Trump truly is a moron of epic proportion

[underpants]

3. He also didn't know that Jeff Flake wasn't on the ballot this year

I read earlier. Trump confronted Flake and threatened that Flake would lose. Flake informed Trump that he was on the ballot this year.

[Mass]

2. Sanford is on thre record about Article XII

Also surprising the difference between the article on the WaPo and here. On the WaPo, the article was including lines trying to show the House GOP as not that negative about Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/07/07/trump-meets-with-hill-republicans-as-controversy-over-star-of-david-tweet-continues/

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) left the meeting worried about Trump’s grasp on the basics of the Constitution. At a lunch with reporters afterward, he recalled that the candidate did not seem to know what he was promising to defend.

“I wasn’t particularly impressed,” said Sanford. “It was the normal stream of consciousness that’s long on hyperbole and short on facts. At one point, somebody asked about Article I powers: What will you do to protect them? I think his response was, ‘I want to protect Article I, Article II, Article XII,’ going down the list. There is no Article XII.”

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), who said he was “uncomfortable” with Trump’s language, gave him a pass on the Constitution flub.

“When he made the comment about the Constitution, I love this Article and that Article, I assumed he was talking about the Amendments, because he was off on the numbers,” he said.

But both Griffith and Sanford tempered their criticism, contrasting Trump’s sometimes slipshod approach to Clinton’s adroit politicking.

“He may be loose on some facts, reckless on some, but there’s not malicious intent there,” said Sanford.