US ELECTION: TRUMP AND HIS 'SHACKLES' STILL GETTING ENDORSED

It’s no longer news that Hillary Clinton according to a recent poll is taking the lead over other contenders including the now highly controversial business mogul, Donald Trump especially as regards his recent remarks on a video while he was making assertions on groping women.  

Also as reported by the BBC, among who did not find such remarks funny is incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama who as then went ahead to blast Donald Trump based on his earlier remarks that women ‘would be intolerable even for someone applying for a job at a 7-Eleven convenience store’ as a result Obama while speaking at a rally supporting Hillary Clinton urged the republicans to officially withdraw their endorsements from Trump who has also accused them, the republicans as ‘disloyal’ with direct scornful remarks at Paul Ryan, House Speaker whom he described as a "weak and ineffective" leader.

Addressing a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday evening, Mr Obama referred to Mr Trump's crude remarks about women, saying: "Now you find a situation in which the guy says stuff that nobody would find tolerable if they were applying for a job at 7-Eleven."

He said: "You don't have to be a husband or a father to say that's not right. You just have to be a decent human being."

Mr Obama questioned how senior Republican politicians could still want Mr Trump to be president.

"The fact is that now you've got people saying: 'We strongly disagree, we really disapprove... but we're still endorsing him.' They still think he should be president, that doesn't make sense to me," he told the crowd.

Mr Obama was interrupted several times by anti-Clinton campaigners but seemed unfazed, saying: "This is democracy at work. This is great."

Thousands waited for more than six hours to hear Barack Obama speak in what could very well be his last visit to the battleground state as president.

The sun was out, and so were the hecklers. The first two interrupted the president early in his address. Mr Obama, seemingly unfazed by it all, waited for the crowd to finish their booing before telling the hecklers with a wry grin to "get their own rally".

It wasn't long before Mr Obama was interrupted again. This time, the heckler was further back in the crowd. The man walked straight past us as he left, wearing a T-shirt declaring "Hillary for prison 2016".

In the third and final interruption, a man entered the cordoned-off area, screamed something at the president and tore a Clinton-Kaine campaign sign in two.

The man was escorted away and President Obama carried on smoothly, handling it all with good humour. The Greensboro crowd seemed to appreciate the laugh, in a campaign that's turned decidedly nasty.

In another development, Hillary Clinton's Campaign Chairman John Podesta has said that Russia was behind an apparent hacking of his emails and may have been colluding with the Trump campaign.

He said on Tuesday that the FBI was investigating the hacking of the emails that were published by WikiLeaks.

The 2005 video released on Friday revealed Mr Trump describing how he had sought to have sex with a married woman and making other sexually aggressive comments about women.

On Monday, Mr Ryan said he would not defend Mr Trump over the remarks.

He told fellow House Republicans he would instead focus on congressional elections to ensure Republicans could maintain legislative control.

Mr Trump fired back in a string of tweets, saying the "shackles" had been removed, allowing him to "fight for America the way I want to". He said he neither wanted nor needed Mr Ryan's support.

Mr Trump said "disloyal" Republicans "come at you from all sides. They don't know how to win - I will teach them!"

He attacked Senator John McCain, who has denounced Mr Trump's conduct and faces a close re-election battle in Arizona, as "foul-mouthed".

Despite a widening divide within the Republican Party, some members insist they are sticking by Mr Trump.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he was "really disturbed" by Mr Trump's comments about women but still planned to support him, saying the election was "about bigger issues than that".

Texas Senator and former rival Ted Cruz also said he would still cast his ballot for Mr Trump, telling a Texas TV station that Mrs Clinton was an "absolute disaster".

Mr Trump delivered a gaffe while addressing supporters in Florida on Tuesday, telling them to go out and vote on the wrong date.

ABC News footage showed him saying: "Go and register. Make sure you get out and vote, November 28." The election is on 8 November.

DONALD TRUMP, COASTING TO VICTORY?

The race for the White house is getting hotter and of course Obama would be having a field’s day watching events unfold as all those running to take over from him jostle to outdo one another.

One of the front runners, Donald Trump after massive criticisms from some party leaders, went hot and vulgar on his rivals on Thursday during the Republican debate even as the conservatives brooded over accepting his acrimonious candidacy or disrupting his march to the nomination.

Trump had during the debate while hitting back at Rubio who had made mocking remarks on his hands being small, said “Nobody has ever hit my hands, he referred to my hands. If they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem” even as the boisterous crowd laughed and booed. “

Rubio while trying to exonerate himself accused Trump for casting the first stone saying “Donald Trump has basically mocked everybody with personal attacks,” thereby getting Trump on the defensive who then retorted with several insults while talking over his rivals saying on one of the instances “You’ve defrauded the people of Florida, little Marco”.

Hmmm! Never knew Donald Trump was this mouthy until the campaigns started.

Interestingly, in as much as the attacks on Trump from his fellow contenders are flying from every angle on the debate state, each of the candidates including Senator Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich have nevertheless affirmed that they would give their full support to anyone who eventually emerges the party’s nominee.

On the 15^th of March, Florida the home state of Rubio will have their votes but there are fears that Trump may take the day there as he already leads by polls and if that happens, it could have a massive negative effect on his chance to the nomination.

On the other hand, Kasich who according to the people “seem to be the adult on the stage” opines that rather than focus on personal debasement and ‘scrums’ as recorded on Thursday, the race should focus on ‘important policies’ even as he struggles to remain relevant in the nomination contest which is becoming fiercer by the day..

From all indications, Trump the business mogul who only a few days ago emerged as one of the world’s richest as reported by Forbes is obviously gliding towards becoming the party’s flag bearer as other voters have pledged their allegiance to rally round Trump irrespective of how it turns at the end of the day.

Guess who also got himself on Trumps firing line as a result of some of his very hash criticisms while lambasting Trump as unfit to emerge President on Thursday?

It was none other than Mitt Romney, who said nominating Trump would assist Hillary Clinton of the Democratic party to emerge winner and had also in a speech at Utah while admonishing the people to vote the other candidates said “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud” who according to him “is playing the American public for suckers” and unfit to be America’s President.

Trust Trump to always have answers for any attacks. He has on several occasions insisted on being the only one capable of defeating Clinton, according to him, “I have not started on Hillary yet, believe me, I will start soon.” In response to Romney, Trump called him a “choke artist”  “begging” for endorsement having lost to Obama four years ago. And Kasich on the other hand did not help matters as he acknowledged that even though Romney still has some elements of power within the party, he however added that “Mitt Romney is a great guy, but he doesn’t determine my strategy”.

Cruz who also to an extent seems to be on the same worrying page with Romney insists that “the stakes are too high” for Trump to emerge the nominee, with fears that Clinton will eat him alive ahead of the November election given Trump’s legal problems with his closed university and his financial contributions to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign which according to him would spell huge trouble and asked the viewers, “Is this the debate you want playing out in the general election?”

Taking the sides of Cruz, Steve King a House Republican told AFP that it is wrong for a party to disintegrate forcefully with the aim to stop a popular candidate was not the answer and also added that “We should not change the rules just because you don’t like the person that emerges in the leadership”.

Trump when asked by Fox news representatives on why he changed some of his political opinions such as on the Iraq war and admitting Syrian refugees, Trump defended his ground-shifting saying “I have a very strong core, but I’ve never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible.” He thereafter went ahead to reverse his own immigration plan, saying he now supports an increase in visas for highly skilled foreign workers. “I changed my tune,” he added. Rubio however cut in saying “There’s a difference between flexibility, and telling people whatever you need to get them to… do”.

And so while we await results from the upcoming votes, here is closing with a trending note from a supposed late relative of Trump's.