Trump: I can stop raising cash for Republicans

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is threatening to stop fundraising for the Republican National Committee if it were to shift its money away from his campaign to House and Senate candidates.

Trump was responding to a Time magazine story that said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had told Trump he’d shift resources unless Trump’s poll numbers improved, after Trump at first declined to endorse the Republican primary bid of House Speaker Paul Ryan in his Wisconsin district.

Both Trump and a spokesman for Priebus said it’s not true.

But in a Fox News interview, Trump added that if it was true, it’s alright, because he’s the one raising money for the RNC. He said fellow Republicans are “getting used to” the money he’s raising.

Trump also dismissed a letter drafted by frustrated Republicans urging Priebus to stop helping Trump. Trump said he doesn’t want those Republicans’ support.

Also Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said GOP prospects for keeping control of the Senate after the November elections are “very dicey,” sounding an alarm amid the mounting Republican concerns about Trump’s candidacy.

Speaking to a Louisville-area civic group in his home state, McConnell said Senate Republicans were going to be “on defense” in this year’s election, regardless of who led the ticket as the party’s presidential candidate.

Twenty-four GOP-held seats are on the ballot this year, compared with 10 for Democrats, he noted. McConnell was promoted to majority leader two years ago when a Republican surge wrested Senate control from Democrats.

McConnell did not mention Trump as being a drag on Republican down-ballot races, but he chided Trump’s campaign tactics. The Kentucky senator said he hopes Trump “settles down and follows the script.”

When asked by a reporter about Trump’s comments labeling President Barack Obama as the “founder” of the Islamic State group, McConnell replied: “I’m hoping that we can make this election about Hillary Clinton. I think if we do, we can win.”

With the election less than three months away, McConnell said Republicans are in “a dogfight,” and listed GOP-held seats in New Hampshire, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Indiana as “very competitive.”

“I may or may not be calling the shots next year,” McConnell said.

Democrats need to pick up five seats to take back control of the Senate, or four if they also keep control of the White House, since the vice president casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate.

McConnell warned that if Republicans lose their grip on the Senate after the November election, their ability “to impact judicial appointments will be considerably diminished.”

McConnell tried to deflect questions about Trump, but 72-year-old Trump supporter Cathie Tucker wasn’t having it, saying he needed to be more forceful in his support of the nominee.

“We don’t hear your voice enough,” she said.

McConnell said a vote for Trump over Clinton “is easy for me.” The senator added that when Trump “says something I have to speak up on, I will. But that doesn’t mean I don’t support him.”

Yet McConnell said it’s “stating the obvious” that neither Trump nor Clinton is “widely appealing to the American people.”

Also Thursday, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, dismissed the reaction to the candidate’s assertion that Obama was the “founder of ISIS” as a media-driven “controversy over semantics.”

Pence nonetheless defended Trump’s comments by saying Obama and Hillary Clinton’s policies led to the jihadist group’s rise.

Speaking Thursday at a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, he said the pair undid hard-fought gains in Iraq by withdrawing troops and creating a “vacuum” that allowed the group to flourish.