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Tags: Hillary Clinton | 2016 Elections | GOP 2016 | Donald Trump
OPINION

Will an Independent Trump Split the GOP?

Larry Bell By Thursday, 13 August 2015 08:43 AM EDT Current | Bio | Archive

Rampant rumors regarding a sweetheart win-win presidential campaign relationship between The Donald and the Clintons are gaining far more credibility than I originally imagined.

It appears that chances of Trump going rogue as an independent candidate to help deliver White House keys to Hillary — just as Ross Perot did for husband in 1992 — aren’t entirely so far-fetched after all.

As revealed by the opening question and commentary of the Aug. 6 prime-time debate, just such a possibility is duly recoded on the broad sweep of GOP radar. Trump was the only candidate refusing to rule out a crippling third-party campaign upon failure to score a Republican primary victory, stating “I will not make the pledge at this time.”

Commenting afterwards in a Fox News Channel Sean Hannity interview, he explained, “Why should I give up that leverage?”

As he constantly reminds us, Donald Trump is very good at leveraging business and political deals. Touting his own success as a high-rolling wheeler-dealer, he makes no apologies about buying political debts.

He bragged before 24 million debate viewers about cashing in on contributions to Clinton interests which bagged him Hillary’s front row appearance at his wedding ceremony with Melania Knauss.

Arguing that “the system is broken,” this crony capital government train wreck has obviously worked to Trump’s advantage. Rand Paul was quick to point out that in refusing to pledge loyalty to the Republican Party: “He’s already hedging his bets because he’s used to buying politicians of all stripes.”

Referring to a suspicious Trump conversation late last May that was reported on Aug. 5 by The Washington Post, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and current GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina stated, “I didn’t get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race. Did any of you get a phone call from Bill Clinton? I didn’t. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t given money to the foundation, or donated to his wife’s Senate campaign.”

The reportedly “candid” discussion about his political ambitions and “political interest in seeking the White House” occurred just before Trump threw his “Make America Great Again” cap in the ring.

According to the article, “four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that Clinton encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape.”

Although anonymous Clinton aides declined to speak on the record, one employee told the Post that “Mr. Trump reached out to President Clinton a few times.” The aide added that “While we don’t make it a practice to discuss the president’s private conversations, we can tell you that the presidential race was not discussed.”

There should be nothing very surprising about a revelation that Donald and Bill have continued to engage in friendly chats over the years regarding lots of common interests: golf, goals, and gifts — funding to the Clinton Foundation in particular.

Still, people in both interviewed camps observed that it was considered especially sensitive, coming only a month after Hillary had declared her own presidential run.

Independent of obvious potential two-way Trump-Clinton benefits, actual odds of him becoming a 2016 GOP prospect-shattering wrecking ball remain to be anyone’s guess.

In April, 2011 Trump told The Wall Street Journal, “I am very conservative. The concern is if I don’t win [the 2012 GOP primary] I will run as an independent, and I think the answer is yes.”

Earlier in this current campaign cycle he claimed to have no intention of running a third-party offensive if he failed to win the primary because it would hand Hillary the presidency. He has more recently qualified this position, telling Sean Hannity “If I’m treated fairly and I get a fair shot at this and I’m not, you know, being sabotaged with all sorts of nonsense and a lot of phony ads and they [the GOP] throw a lot of money into it.”

Assessments of his conservative bona fides by many individual Independent and Republican skeptics will require convincing evidence of his often-repeated “I’ve evolved” line. Some may question why he previously hoped that an “impressive” Nancy Pelosi would impeach George W. Bush, and continues to favor single-payer healthcare.

On the other hand, let’s give him due credit as a pro-growth supply-sider who is committed to reducing the capital gains tax to 15 percent, cut back tax burdens on corporations, and eliminate estate taxes altogether.

He also supports fossil fuel development, and thinks Al Gore’s global warming alarm-premised Nobel Peace Prize award should be revoked.

And yes . . . so long as no top secret Trump love notes turn up on Hillary’s newly liberated e-mail server, he deserves the same fair but critically accountable treatment all candidates for the nation’s highest honor and responsibility should expect.

Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and the graduate program in space architecture. He is the author of “Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits of Climate Doom”(2015) and “Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax” (2012). Read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
 

 

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LarryBell
Chances of Trump going rogue as an independent candidate to help deliver White House keys to Hillary aren’t entirely so far-fetched. As revealed by the opening question and commentary of the Aug. 6 prime-time debate, Trump was the only candidate refusing to rule out a crippling third-party campaign.
Hillary Clinton, 2016 Elections, GOP 2016, Donald Trump
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2015-43-13
Thursday, 13 August 2015 08:43 AM
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