A Hit Piece from The Hill
* * *
When asked who he would vote for if the presidential race
comes down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the former mayor of Los Angeles
and a longtime Republican establishment figure, Dick Riordan, says: "I
would probably go find a deserted island."
* I'M FINE WITH THAT. HOW'BOUT THE REST OF YOU?
(*SHRUG*)
"I think Hillary is disgusting," said Riordan,
a wealthy investor who has exceeded $500,000 in political donations throughout
his career.
* SHE IS. I CAN SEE A LEFTIST SUPPORTING BERNIE SANDERS.
I CAN'T SEE ANYONE WITH CHARACTER OR INTEGRITY SUPPORTING HILLARY RODHAM
CLINTON.
"And I think Trump is crazy," Riordan added in
a telephone interview Monday.
* HOW SO?
* BY THE WAY... WHY IS A SUPPOSED "NEWS" STORY
REVOLVING AROUND WHAT DICK RIORDAN SAYS?
(*SMIRK*)
* THIS LOSER REPORTER WOULD DO BETTER INTERVIEWING ME; AT
LEAST I'LL BACK UP MY SNARK!
Riordan is not alone.
* AGAIN... THIS IS A NEWS STORY... HOW?
In conversations over the past month, GOP establishment
donors have confided to The Hill that for the first time in recent memory, they
find themselves contemplating not supporting a Republican nominee for
president.
* FRANKLY I'D RATHER THESE CLOWNS CONTEMPLATE - AND THEN
COMMIT TO - SUICIDE. (DOUCHE BAGS!)
Most, however, still believe that Trump will flame out
before they have to face that decision.
* PERHAPS HE WILL. BUT IF HE DOESN'T... HE'LL HAVE MY
ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT.
The subject of Trump came up at a recent Beverly Hills
lunch hosted by former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Rockwell Schnabel.
* FRANKLY I'M MORE A NORMAN ROCKWELL KINDA GUY...
(*GRIN*)
Seated around the table in the private dining room of the
Hotel Bel-Air...
* OH, YEAH... DEFINITELY THE KIND OF FOLKS WE NEED TO BE
PAYING ATTENTION TO... NOT!
(*SNORT*)
...were several of the West Coast's most powerful
Republican donors, including Ronald Spogli, the venture capitalist and former
ambassador to Italy under President George W. Bush; his business partner
Bradford Freeman; and Riordan.
* SERIOUSLY... SHOULDN'T THESE CLOWNS BE BUYING ADS
INSTEAD OF GETTING FREE NEWS COVERAGE?
A story that circulated after the lunch was that the
donors engaged in a hypothetical question: "If it was Donald Trump running
against Hillary Clinton, who would you vote for?"
One version has it that most of the Republicans at the
table put their hands up for Clinton.
* AND THESE ARE THE FOLKS WHO YOU'RE TELLING US REPRESENT
THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT...
(*SMIRK*)
* AGAIN... FOLKS... THE GOP - AND THE COUNTRY - WOULD BE
FAR BETTER OFF IF PEOPLE LIKE THIS BECAME ACTUAL DEMOCRATS INSTEAD OF ACTING AS
A DEMOCRATIC SIXTH COLUMN WITHIN THE GOP.
Schnabel disputes that account and said in a telephone
interview Tuesday that it was just banter among friends and that he is
confident that all the Republicans at the table would support the final GOP
nominee for president, whomever that turns out to be.
* AGAIN... WHY IS THIS A NEWS STORY...???
Schnabel called back later on Tuesday afternoon to
clarify what he meant. "My only caveat would be that ... I assume that the
Republican we'll nominate will be somebody that would make a great
president," he said. "That's not a conversation we've had to have in
the past, but obviously there are some we would be concerned about."
* PLEASE... SCHNABEL... KILL YOURSELF... I'M ASKING
NICELY!
The four Republican donors sitting at that lunch table —
Schnabel, Freeman, Spogli and Riordan — have between them contributed more than
$2.7 million to candidates and political action committees over their careers.
* AND? SO?
All have donated to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's
presidential campaign, and Freeman and Spogli have given $1 million and
$50,000, respectively, to the pro-Bush super-PAC Right to Rise.
* SO THEY REPRESENT THE DEMOCRAT WING OF THE REPUBLICAN
PARTY; WE GET IT!
The feeling among the GOP's business wing is not entirely
negative toward Trump. The billionaire has found a couple of champions —
including billionaire investor Carl Icahn — but outreach from campaign
surrogates has not always found a receptive audience.
Several months ago, Doug Manchester, a California
developer and chairman of Manchester Financial Group, emailed a number of
Republican donors plugging Trump for president.
"I met with Donald himself and was again very
impressed with a Man [sic] who does not have to be doing what he is but
believes as I do that we need to Make America great again and believe he can do
it!!" Manchester wrote to his friends in an email seen by The Hill.
"As all of you know I was all in for Mitt but
unfortunately he did not make it!!"
"I think Trump can win," added Manchester,
known in donor circles as “Papa Doug.”
Asked about the email and his support for Trump,
Manchester said in a recent telephone interview that the celebrity businessman
wants nothing for his support and that he had given no money to Trump's
campaign so far. He said that in his judgment, Trump is the "person who
could turn this country around."
* AND I THINK THAT THIS IS TRUE.
* DOES TRUMP SHARE MY VIEWS ON EVERYTHING? NO. DOES HE
REPRESENT "ENOUGH" OF WHAT I BELIEVE IN? DAMN STRAIGHT!
Several recipients on the email, however, disagreed with
Manchester's appraisal of Trump's virtues.
* WHO... CARES...???
On one hand, Trump benefits from the distrust and insults
that many establishment figures direct toward him. He says he does not want
their money and, with a personal wealth of at least $3 billion, he does not
need it. But from another angle, such resistance could also signal danger. The
business wing still carries significant clout in the GOP and traditionally the
nominee is approved by — or at least tolerated by — the party establishment.
* I... HATE... THE... PARTY... ESTABLISHMENT...!!!
* FOLKS; THE "PARTY ESTABLISHMENT" SHOULD LEAVE
THE GOP IN MASS AND INSTEAD OF MOVING OUR PARTY TO THE LEFT, THEY COULD BE
MOVING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO THE RIGHT!
The quiet deliberations about Trump among these circles —
and the recent decision to use super-PAC money to attack Trump, most notably by
Ohio Gov. John Kasich's supporters — may pose difficulties for the front-runner
as the field narrows and electability becomes a higher priority than hot
rhetoric.
* KASICH...
(*SNORT OF UTTER CONTEMPT*)
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says he is not
surprised that establishment GOP donors are sour on Trump. "The GOP
establishment will do anything they can to stop Mr. Trump from being the GOP
nominee," Lewandowski said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Mr.
Trump is the only one who is not controlled by the special interests. ... They
want a puppet that they can control, and Donald Trump will never be that
person."
* SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT TO ME!
While Trump flaunts the fact that he is uninterested in
the support of elites, there have also been reports that he has privately wooed
billionaires such as Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.
* ADELSON BACKED GINGRICH LAST CYCLE. (AND GOOD FOR HIM!)
Trump says he has turned down multiple offers of $5
million-plus from lobbyists who he says would have wanted favors from his
administration if he took the money.
When The Washington Post broke a story about a pro-Trump
super-PAC with closer-than-advertised connections to the Trump campaign, the
billionaire front-runner and his aides pushed back forcefully. The super-PAC
ultimately shut down, and Trump called on all super-PACs supporting him to
return their donations.
* I... LIKE... READING... THIS...!!!
The most generous Republican donors appear to be taking
note of Trump's hostility. When The Hill studied the donation patterns of 190
donors and their families connected with the powerful conservative network
founded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, not a single
contribution could be found to Trump's campaign.
* SO...???
But some opinions are changing, if ever so slightly, the
longer Trump stays atop the polls. A number of Republican donors interviewed by
The Hill, including Minnesota billionaire Stanley Hubbard — who is himself part
of the Koch network — are making peace with the fact that there is some chance
Trump could win the nomination.
When interviewed several months ago, Hubbard said he
would "really have to think about" whether he could bring himself to
support Trump.
* WANNA BET HE DOES IF TRUMP IS THE NOMINEE? BETCHA HE
WOULD!
But in a more recent interview, Hubbard was adamant that
he would support whomever the Republican nominee is because they would make a better
president than Clinton.
* SO WHY PRINT THE INITIAL "SEVERAL MONTHS OLD"
STATEMENT?
(*SMIRK*)
* FOLKS... THIS IS CALLED A "HIT PIECE."
NOTHING MORE.
Other Republican donors are praying that the bombastic
campaign-trail Trump would transform into a soberer President Trump.
No fan of Trump, Riordan says he nonetheless believes
that if elected president, the billionaire would change for the better.
"If he became president, he would be much more
responsible and would surround himself with good people," Riordan said.
"I guess you become sane."
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