NEW YORK -- A group of passengers came to the aid of two Muslim women being verbally harassed by a Trump supporter on a Manhattan-bound subway earlier this week, according to a report. The man, who was pushing a baby stroller when he boarded the F train in Queens around 8 a.m. Monday, told the hijab-wearing…
Republicans are terrified that Donald Trump will have a gruesome effect on congressional candidates in what they increasingly believe will be a historic electoral defeat.
The GOP establishment, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), rallied around Trump after he knocked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) out of the primary race last month -- but recent controversies have softened their support.
A new poll shows Hillary Clinton holding a 12-point lead over the presumptive GOP nominee, while another found seven in 10 Americans hold an unfavorable view of the real estate developer and reality TV star.
That could spell doom for the Republicans' hopes for retaking the White House -- as well as their chances for maintaining control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Several Republican insiders expressed their fears to The Hill, which reported that Trump's campaign may have hit a wall.
“I think the tailspin could be really bad — historic proportions bad,” said Tony Fratto, who served as deputy press secretary during the George W. Bush administration. “I think it’ll be a historically bad loss. I’ve said that from the very beginning.”
Republicans who had backed Trump after he appeared to claim the nomination are now backing away from the presumptive nominee.
They worry that Trump, who has resisted GOP establishment suggestions to tone down the outrageous insults that appealed to Republican primary voters, will alienate party activists he'll need in November.
That could have a disastrous effect on congressional races, many GOP strategists fear.
“Look, I mean, what could be going wrong with Donald Trump?" said GOP strategist Rick Wilson. "He is being out-raised by every possible fundraising metric. He is losing in the national polling averages. He is being crushed in the swing-state polls. He is being devastated in the polls in the states that he claims he is going to put into play, such as California, New Jersey and New York -- and he is increasingly erratic.”
Wilson used colorful language to describe just how ghastly he thinks the election will be for Republicans.
“This is unlike an ordinary campaign where you focus on the top of the ticket," Wilson said. "This year, instead of good things rolling down the hill, it’s like these candidates are at the bottom of a chute in a butcher’s shop.
“They’re going to be covered in gore," he added. "It’s horrifying.”
Donald Trump's polling numbers for the general election are dropping with every word he says. Perhaps that is why Ohio Governor John Kasich isn't willing to endorse Trump for president.
"You know, it's painful. It's painful. You know, people even get divorces, you know? I mean, sometimes, things come out that, look, I'm sorry that this has happened," Kasich said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "But we'll see where it ends up. I'm not making any final decision yet, but at this point, I just can't do it."
Scarborough asked if Kasich would recommend House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) renounce their support of Trump. "You know politics. They don't care what I think," Kasich said. "It's up to him," Kasich said later, specifically about Paul Ryan.
"I would say that I think Paul Ryan is definitely torn," he continued. "I mean, he's also the leader of the House. There's this thing called Republican loyalty. I've been a Republican all my life, how do you think I feel about this? I'm the Republican governor of Ohio. It's difficult."
"I know as governor of Ohio, with some people who pound on me, I said I'm not prepared to do it and he's going to have to change," Kasich said.
Kasich told Fox News last week it was "hard to say" whether he would support Trump for president at July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
He also pointed the finger at Scarborough and the media for perpetuating Donald Trump's popularity with so much free media.
"The media gave him two billion dollars worth of free press,” Kasich blamed. “I mean, I could be having a press conference and they’d have an empty podium with Trump speaking there. I mean, look, you guys have a lot of responsibility for this. You know it too. You all know it, you know?”
“One famous network executive said, ‘Well, you know, Trump may not be good for the country but he’s good for our ratings, and we make more money.’ I think the elites have let us down in a lot of places, and I think, you know, two billion dollars worth of free press? You couldn’t get enough of it,” Kasich continued.
Scarborough challenged Kasich asking if there was ever a time he wanted to be on but they didn't let him, but Kasich said it wasn't specifically "Morning Joe," rather it was coverage in general.
“The thing about Trump was, though, he’d just pick up the phone and call,” Scarborough claimed. “You could attack him, he’d pick up the phone and call. Trump knew how to play the press.”
Kasich wasn’t having it. “Look, it was all ratings. Come on, who’s kidding who?” He continued that if he had called into Morning Joe there wouldn't have been any ratings.
“That’s not true–” Scarborough claimed.
“Hey, Joe, come one, now you’re not leveling with me...” Kasich slapped back. “You know that there was a lot of fixation on him by the media, which is changing now.”
“Well, when the guy would say outrageous things...” Scarborough tried to explain.
“So you focused on it,” Kasich finished for him. “That’s my point.”
Watch a clip of the interview below:
A "lone hacker" has taken responsibility for a cyber attack on the U.S. Democratic National Committee, which the DNC and a cyber-security firm have blamed on the Russian government.
The DNC and cyber firm CrowdStrike disclosed the attack on Tuesday, saying that hackers working for Russia broke into the DNC's computer network, spied on internal communications and stole research on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
A Russian government spokesman responded by saying that Moscow had not been involved.
On Wednesday, an individual using the moniker Guccifer 2.0 took responsibility for the attack in a post on the blogging site WordPress.com, saying the DNC was "hacked by a lone hacker."
The DNC did not respond to a request for comment late on Wednesday evening on Guccifer 2.0's claim. CrowdStrike said it stands by findings that the Russian government was behind the attacks.
Guccifer 2.0's blog includes images of documents it claims were stolen from DNC servers, including one titled "Donald Trump Report," which was dated Dec. 19, and spreadsheets purportedly containing information about party donors.
Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the documents, which the blog said were among "thousands of files and mails" removed from DNC servers that would soon be published on WikiLeaks.
CrowdStrike issued a statement saying it "stands fully by its analysis" that two groups affiliated with Russian intelligence were discovered in the DNC's network last month.
The company said it was reviewing the documents published by Guccifer 2.0 to determine whether they were authentic.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle. Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Donald Trump's attempt to paint himself as an ally to LGBT communities was rejected on Wednesday in the bluntest terms possible thanks to the #AskTheGays tag.
As Towleroad reported, the GOP's presumptive presidential candidate once again tried to incite tension between those communities and Muslims during a campaign speech, as he said, "Ask the gays what they think and what they do, in, not only Saudi Arabia, but many of these countries, and then you tell me -- who's your friend, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?"
Twitter users then answered the "question" in no uncertain terms, as seen below.
It is well known that very bright, intelligent, and gifted people often have major mental issues, and can be insufferable. But if a public intellectual, such as a poet, playwright, novelist, musician, actor, or athlete is such, while it may be an issue for those around them, it has little direct effect on the American people.
But if such a person is competing for the Presidency, or is an occupant of the Oval Office, it is a much more disturbing and dangerous scenario, particularly in an age of nuclear weapons, terrorism, and domestic discontent leading to rejection of the established political order. Such is what is now faced with the meteoric rise of businessman Donald Trump, who is seen by many as narcissistic. He displays delusions of grandeur, often seems not to grasp reality, and doesn’t understand the limits the Constitution places on the president and the Congress.
Would Donald Trump be the first President to display such traits of egomania and narcissism? The answer is clearly negative, as one can observe that Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon all had elements in their personalities that resembled the characteristics that Trump clearly has, but none on his – Trumpian – scale.
Andrew Jackson had a mercurial personality, and his temper and belief in his own superiority helped lead to rash actions. When President James Monroe ordered the invasion of Spanish Florida in 1818, Jackson went ahead and burned down Seminole towns, including Tallahassee; and when he found two British nationals (Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister) in Spanish Florida, he ordered summary justice, leading to their execution, without consulting President Monroe or Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, causing an international controversy with the nation we had recently engaged in war from 1812-1815. This caused political conflict with both John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun (Secretary of War), who became his major political rivals during the next two decades of his national political life. Jackson’s readiness to lead an invasion of South Carolina during the Nullification Crisis in 1832-1833 only was prevented by compromise promoted by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, another political rival, after their election contest for Jackson’s second term in 1832. Jackson’s repudiation of the Supreme Court ruling concerning the right of Native American to their ancestral lands, which led to the Trail of Tears (one of the most reprehensible Presidential actions in all of American history), undermined the rule of law. His determination to destroy the Second National Bank of the United States, leading to the Panic of 1837, helped to defeat his favored successor, Martin Van Buren, when he ran for reelection in 1840, as Van Buren could not easily repudiate his mentor’s actions on the economy. In many ways, Jackson may have been the most dangerous President until Richard Nixon 140 years later.
Theodore Roosevelt loved public attention so much that he felt a need to comment on everything and everyone in his lifetime. He was boastful on a regular basis and tried to make news headlines in every possible manner. He engaged in what many called “cowboy diplomacy” toward Latin America, with interventions in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, pursuing what came to be called Big Stick Diplomacy. He bragged about “building” the Panama Canal after arranging a treaty that was foisted on the new Panama nation, leading to great resentment in that country. He became engaged in a very divisive and contentious Presidential campaign against his own chosen successor, President William Howard Taft, in 1912, using insults not all that different from what we’ve heard from Donald Trump against his Republican rivals for the 2016 nomination. He was ready to lead troops to fight Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany during the Great War had President Woodrow Wilson, whom TR hated with a passion, allowed it. He craved the praise that foreign governments gave to him when he toured European capitals after his Presidency. He challenged the norms of what a President could do domestically, expanding the definition of Presidential power, seen as significant and historic, but also questioned by many over time. His ego was driven also by his own insecurities, which he had developed in childhood from bouts with asthma and poor eyesight, which made him want to be noticed and respected. Always a colorful character, one has to wonder how he would have led the nation into World War I, had he been elected in 1912. Would he have handled the issue of domestic criticism and opposition any different from fellow progressive Woodrow Wilson, whom history chastises for violating civil liberties?
Lyndon B. Johnson was another colorful character in the Oval Office. He gave his daughters names that corresponded with his own initials: LBJ. He was infamous for being overbearing with legislators in private meetings, and aggressive and belligerent toward critics in the news media and in Congress. He overworked his staff. He lived and breathed politics all the time. He had a reputation of practicing “in your face” politics and intimidated critics of the Vietnam War. His unwillingness, until 1968, to listen to others who advised him to change his Vietnam War policy doomed the United States in Vietnam. His policy led to one of the major failures any President has sustained while in office. Even with his tremendous ego, he also had a clear sense of his own insecurities and weaknesses, and at times, it made him drink and smoke and swear too much. LBJ was a man of great accomplishments, but also great shortcomings, and he was dogged by a desire to be loved by the American people.
Richard Nixon was, without question, the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Presidency. Born into poverty, he never overcame his resentment of wealthy people, such as the Rockefellers and the Kennedys. He had very low self esteem as part of his basic nature, and saw his opponents and critics as his enemies and used the power of the Presidency to gain revenge on them. He gathered loyalists around him who would do his bidding. More than any other President he found it hard to deal with the news media. (One wonders how he would have handled the 24-hour news media of the 21st century.) He worked to cover up much of what he ordered the military to do in Southeast Asia and saw no problem violating morals or ethics when the national interest, as he perceived it, required it. He ordered break-ins and wiretapping on a massive scale and had an “enemies list,” which was used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service to harass his critics. People high up in the government worried that he might declare martial law during Watergate. He didn’t, but we came very close to this threat becoming reality, and that is why Watergate is thought to be the third greatest crisis in American history, after the Civil War, and the Great Depression and World War II.
Now we face the growing danger of Donald Trump, who is perceived by this author (see my previous article about Trump on HNN) as the most dangerous Presidential candidate in American history. Many conservatives, as well as progressives and neutral observers, see Trump as a Fascist, who appeals to the fears, anxieties, and prejudices of those with less education and economic stature. Trump builds up the fear of Muslims and Hispanics with his nativism and racism. He promotes the disrespect of women with his misogyny, and promises everything will be fine in both domestic and foreign policy, even though he has given no real specifics on any of the issues. His bluster and braggadocio are totally out of line for any President, yet Trump seems not to realize that every word he utters leads to false assumptions and confusion that could undermine America’s worldwide image.
His recent comments on foreign policy have caused great alarm among experts in diplomacy, defense and national security. Among other wild statements, he has suggested ending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as the major bulwark of American foreign policy and backed the spread of nuclear weapons to Japan and South Korea. He has praised Vladimir Putin and suggested he’d be willing to meet with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Trump’s use of insults against anyone who is critical of him, and his threats to curb freedom of the press and freedom of speech against his naysayers, is terrifying. The Presidency is not a place for a novice like Trump, who would enter the Presidency as a “blank slate” with no real understanding of major public issues.
The one common theme among Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon are their years in the military and in government and their knowledge, even when they engaged at times in deplorable behavior. But with Donald Trump, who has zero military and government experience, and is the most ignorant Presidential nominee in American history, we are dealing with a candidate who has more of a “mobocracy” following, similar to those who stormed the White House at the Inauguration of Jackson in 1829. It is reasonable to fear that events could unhinge Trump.
The American Republic could be facing its greatest constitutional threat since Richard Nixon in 1974, and yet there is still time to prevent this from happening, and that is the responsibility of all of us in the historical community to make clear to everyone that Donald Trump has no magic potion, and no simple answers to the complex world we live in, and that we can ill afford to put this potential demagogue into the Oval Office.
Ronald L. Feinman is the author of Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, August 2015).
This article was originally published at History News Network
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said on Wednesday he is considering running for re-election and may decide to jump into the race as early as this weekend, a move that could help Republicans retain their majority in the U.S. Senate.
"I'll go home later this week. And I'll have some time with my family. And then, if there's a change in our status, I'll be sure to let everyone know," the former Republican presidential candidate told reporters in the U.S. Capitol.
Rubio, 45, first elected to the Senate in 2010, announced his retirement from the Senate in March after losing Florida's presidential primary. But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and others have been pressuring him to reconsider, citing polling data showing him to be the only Republican who can win the election in Florida.
Rubio confirmed a Politico report that he was urged to run for re-election on Sunday in Orlando, Florida, by one of the Republicans contending for the seat, his friend Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera. The two men were in Orlando after the shooting that killed 49 people at a gay nightclub.
Another Florida Republican hopeful, U.S. Representative David Jolly, has indicated he would step aside if Rubio entered the race.
Rubio must decide whether to seek re-election by June 24, the filing deadline for Florida's August primary.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Eric Walsh; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Georgia on Wednesday and gave a real barn-burner of a speech. In fact, pound for pound, it might have been the single craziest speech Trump has ever given.
And that is saying a lot.
To recap the fun for you, we've compiled the five craziest statements Trump made at his campaign rally in Georgia.
1.) Trump says there's a one-in-five chance he could talk North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons.
Trump has said before that he would personally meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Responding to critics of this position, Trump today said, "Who the hell cares? I'll speak to anybody. There's a 10% or 20% chance I can talk him out of those damn nukes."
You might recall that Trump has also said he'd be willing to encourage South Korea to build and maintain its own nuclear weapons so that it would not have to rely on the United States for protection any longer. It's not clear how Trump would encourage North Korea to give up its nukes even as South Korea is arming itself with them, but in his defense: He's not even trying to make sense.
2.) America will cease to exist because Russia's superior nuclear arsenal will destroy us.
Despite constant complaining from Republicans, the United States still has by far the most powerful military on the planet. Trump, however, said today that our nuclear capabilities are far behind where those pesky Russians are.
"Our nuclear is old," he said. "Putin's is tippy-top, from what I hear. We've got to be careful."
As of 2015, the United States had 7,100 nuclear warheads while Russia had 7,700 -- this is not an especially large gap, especially when you consider that NATO allies Britain and France also had a combined 525 warheads as well. Additionally, 3,200 of those Russian nuclear warheads were awaiting dismantlement, whereas just 2,340 American warheads were awaiting dismantlement. If those warheads were dismantled on time, the United States would have a numerical advantage in total warheads.
And of course, nuclear warheads are only one part of having a strong military and the United States' military spending is around ten times Russia's.
Nonetheless, Trump also said that if this country doesn't make the changes he's proposing, "eventually, it's not going to survive, just so you understand."
3.) We must create "safe zones" for Syrian refugees.
This might be the single least thought out Trump policy proposal ever, which is saying a lot. But this is what he actually said: "We have to build safe zones. Build them in Syria, build them over there... and get the Gulf states to pay for it."
The idea that we could build "safe zones" for people in Syria without a massive use of military force is just crazy. Any attempt to carve out and maintain zones where Syrians could live in peace away from the fighting would be enormously costly, much more costly than accepting refugees into our country.
Oh, and the fact that Trump thinks he could "get the Gulf states to pay for it" is just the cherry atop the insanity sundae.
4.) It costs the government $1 million every time we "turn on" one of our aircraft carriers.
This statement is impossible to thoroughly fact check because it just makes no sense, but Trump really did say that "Every time you turn on one of those aircraft carriers, it costs you probably a million bucks."
Watch the video for yourself if you don't believe it:
5.) Trump bashes Obama for holding White House state dinners in "unsafe" tents
When the White House has a big state dinner, it typically erects a big tent on the White House lawn. Donald Trump, however, slammed this practice during his rally today as overly expensive and unsafe.
"Forget the state dinners that cost, by the way, a fortune," said Trump. "When I saw a state dinner, it's [in] a tent, which is actually unsafe. It's a tent on the White House lawn. And I actually called up the Obama administration and I said, 'I will build you [for] free, a $100 million or more ballroom, we'll choose five great American architects, we'll design something everybody likes... instead of having a tent, which looks like hell."
The transcription really does not do this rant justice and you really need to watch it for yourself:
At any rate, this last bit of insanity actually makes me want to vote for Trump just to see the incredibly tacky $100 million ballroom he will no doubt erect on the White House lawn if elected.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday called for surveillance of mosques as part of U.S. law enforcement efforts to prevent terrorism, and stood by his remarks on banning Muslim immigrants that others in his party have criticized.
Trump repeated his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States after a U.S.-born Muslim man with Afghan immigrant parents fatally shot 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub early on Sunday.
The billionaire New York real estate developer said that while the Florida gunman was born in the United States, "his parents weren't and his ideas weren't born here."
"We have to maybe check, respectfully, the mosques and we have to check other places because this is a problem that, if we don't solve it, it's going to eat our country alive," Trump said at a rally in Atlanta.
The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, is believed by authorities to have acted alone, inspired by radical ideology he was exposed to over the internet.
Prominent Republicans this week distanced themselves from Trump's comments about Muslims after the Orlando mass shooting.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday he did not think a ban on Muslim immigrants was in U.S. interests. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who ran against Trump for the Republican nomination and has been a fierce critic since, said Trump's response made him "unnerved."
Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said on Wednesday that Trump's rhetoric had grown "even more inflammatory" in recent days. She said the United States counts on partners in majority-Muslim countries to help fight terrorism.
"Not one of Donald Trump's reckless ideas would have saved a single life in Orlando," Clinton said at an event for U.S. military families in Virginia.
Trump on Monday proposed that the United States suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is "a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies until we fully understand how to end these threats." He also said radical Muslims were entering the country amidst a flood of refugees and "trying to take over our children."
Trump previously has drawn criticism, including from within his own party, for saying he would implement a database to keep track of Muslims in the United States and require them to register.
Trump's hard-line proposals on immigration have contributed to his popularity among some conservative voters. But they have also triggered condemnation from minority and human rights activists, and his political opponents, many of whom have called his rhetoric racist.
(Reporting by Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker; Editing by Will Dunham)
Renaissance man John Legend has made it no secret he is no fan of GOP candidate for president Donald Trump.
In March, Legend got into a Twitter war with Trump's son after he called Trump a racist. Now, the actor and singer is doubling down, warning that electing Trump could lead the United States back to a "dark place" not seen since slavery.
“We are in a moment now where we have a major candidate for office who is being very racist and divisive in a very public way," Legend said of Trump in an interview with Variety. "I feel the need to call that out all the time because I don’t want us to feel like it’s impossible for our nation to go back to another dark place. I think we can slip into that if we let the wrong person take over and impose the wrong regime on this country.”
Legend's words are particularly chilling because he was talking to the publication about "Underground," a period drama about slavery for which Legend is executive producer.
“I’m sure people in 1800’s didn’t think they were evil people, but they allowed an evil institution to last for quite a long time,” Legend said.
He said he has been attacked on social media for being so vocal on his opinions of Trump -- but Legend said he won't be backing down.
"Some people want me to shut up and sing…I can’t just sit by and watch,” he told Variety. “Most of them are eggs on Twitter. Or they have a Trump icon on Twitter... I can’t sit by and let this stuff happen without trying to influence people. It’s worth it to me. “
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has offended just about every demographic in the United States at one point or another, and on Tuesday evening he managed to say something offensive about a group whose support he's consistently courted: U.S. veterans.
During a rally on Tuesday, Trump talked about the disastrous effort to rebuild Iraq after the American invasion in 2003 and raised some eyebrows when he talked about the role American soldiers played in the debacle.
"Iraq, crooked as hell. How about bringing baskets of money — millions and millions of dollars — and handing it out?" Trump said at an evening rally. "I want to know who were the soldiers that had that job, because I think they’re living very well right now, whoever they may be."
The Trump campaign clarified that he was referred to Iraqi soldiers who stole money, although this claim makes no sense since it was American troops who were charged with dispersing funds to rebuild the country, as a series of tweets posted by Iraq War veteran Corbin Reiff makes clear.
Let's start at the beginning and work our way down:
In Trump's defense, there were some soldiers who were convicted of swiping money intended for Iraqi reconstruction, as this Washington Post report makes clear. All the same, the soldiers who actually skimmed reconstruction resources were a tiny minority of all the American troops who were charged with distributing funds.
Similarly, the number of Muslims who support ISIS is also a tiny minority of the Muslim population as a whole, but this doesn't stop Trump from tarring "the Muslims" as being collectively complicit in all terrorist activities.
It's not hard to see why someone who thinks like this ends up offending a lot of people, is it?
A Maine Republican won a narrow congressional primary victory despite a series of outrageous statements to rival anything eructed by Donald Trump or Gov. Paul LePage.
Mark Holbrook, a Brunswick psychologist, has actually outdone Trump -- who insulted former rival Ted Cruz's wife -- by attacking his GOP primary opponent's wife and children.
"Like a lawyer, (opponent Ande Smith) wiggles on the fact that he's only been married two years, and that his children are from different marriages," Holbrook said on his campaign website's home page. "Not that there's anything wrong with blended families. Why force the impression that he and his wife planned on having their five children two years apart?"
Holbrook "seems perfectly suited to the current mood of the Republican electorate," wrote blogger Mike Tipping for the Bangor Daily News.
The GOP candidate, who will face Democrat Chellie Pingree for the 1st Congressional District, believes climate change is a hoax and cites bogus videos about selling body parts to justify his call to completely defund Planned Parenthood.
"Mark has the guts to tell you the truth," his campaign website boasts. "The global warming crowd is after your wallet and more control of your life. More Polar bears than ever, folks."
Holbrook backs Trump's call to ban Muslims from the U.S. and to a build a wall along the Mexican border, and claims Democrats have “herded African-Americans onto a new plantation” through entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
His campaign website, which is staffed by volunteers and costs $30 a month maintain, borrows some of Trump's campaign themes to describe Holbrook.
"Mark is a straight-talking, true conservative outsider, owing no favors to the Establishment," the website claims. "His campaign has no fixed offices, is mobile, techno and responsive, and is 100% volunteer-powered."
Holbrook didn't limit his political attack on children to his opponent's family -- he joined other Republicans in attacking transgender children as a threat to public safety.
During a debate last week, Holbrook warned voters in his opening statement that tyranny would be “forced on us" in public restrooms by “boys saying they’re little girls, and girls saying they’re little boys."
“That kind of craziness propelled me into this race,” said Holbrook. “We cannot let the country we love deteriorate any further.”
Holbrook, a professional counselor, former police officer and one-time lobsterman, said he expects Tuesday's primary win to undergo a recount.
He raised just $24,600 during the race, compared to $130,000 raised by his more moderate opponent, an attorney, online security consultant and U.S. Navy veteran.
Bernie Sanders does not plan to suspend his campaign and endorse presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a video speech to supporters on Thursday, focusing instead on ways to pursue his policy agenda and reform goals, a spokesman said.
Sanders, who has resisted pressure to exit the race and back Clinton in a show of party unity since she clinched the Democratic nomination last week, will address supporters nationwide on a video live stream on Thursday night.
That raised expectations Sanders might formally pull the plug on his campaign. But spokesman Michael Briggs said on Wednesday the speech will focus on how Sanders' supporters can keep the fight alive on priorities such as raising the minimum wage and reducing the influence of big money in politics.
"Tomorrow night, no, he's not ending it," Briggs said of the campaign. "We're working our way through that, how to go forward on that front. This message to supporters is going to be a lot broader than that."
Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, has promised to continue his campaign to next month's Democratic nominating convention in Philadelphia as leverage to force concessions from Clinton on his policy goals and on reforms he seeks in the Democratic Party's nominating process.
Since Clinton secured enough delegates for the nomination last week, however, Sanders has laid off some campaign staff, stopped holding rallies and dropped plans to court unbound delegates in an unspoken acknowledgment that the former secretary of state will be the nominee.
"He knows how to count," Briggs said.
Sanders and Clinton met in a downtown Washington hotel for more than 90 minutes on Tuesday night to search for common ground after she won the final nominating contest in their sometimes bitter primary campaign.
In similarly worded statements, both camps described the meeting as "positive" and said the two discussed their shared goal of defeating presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.
Sanders was back home in Burlington, Vermont, on Wednesday to prepare his speech and consider how to keep pressuring Clinton to back issues like raising the minimum wage and fighting climate change.
He also has demanded changes to the party nominating process, including replacing the Democratic National Committee leadership and eliminating superdelegates, who are unelected and are free to support any candidate.
The Sanders camp has pushed for a commitment to hold votes at the convention on some of those platform issues and on changing party nominating rules.
"We see the convention as a serious opportunity for a serious discussion about a lot of these issues. We hope the Democratic Party establishment can figure out a way to open its arms and welcome into the party fold the people who have been excited by Bernie’s campaign," Briggs said.
(Editing by Dan Grebler)
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