Unity is GOP’s Goal, Say Trump and Sessions

Donald Trump continued his calls for unity among members of the Republican Party, urging them to rally around his candidacy at the convention, in November and beyond.

“I think we’re gonna have a great convention and go onto a great victory,” said Donald Trump. “It would be nice if the Republicans stuck together.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee seemed to strike a softer tone than usual during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Acknowledging he was by no means the typical candidate the GOP would normally promote, the businessman asked party leaders nevertheless to listen to the will of the American people and seek unity heading into next month’s Republican National Convention.

“I think we’re gonna have a great convention, and I think we’re gonna go onto a great victory. It would be nice if the Republicans stuck together,” Trump said on “Meet the Press.” “I think because I’m a different kind of candidate, and, you know, Paul Ryan said that — I’m a different kind of a candidate. I think that I win either way. I can win one way or the other.”

Speaker Ryan expressed some of the same sentiments during his own appearance on “Meet the Press.”

“I get that this is a very strange situation. He’s a very unique nominee,” Ryan said of Trump. “I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party …Because you know what I know that’ll do? That’ll definitely knock us out of the White House.”

He also said, “My goal is to make sure that we’re unified, so that we’re at full strength in the fall and make sure we win the election.”

Ryan also pointedly said GOP leaders need to decide for themselves where they stand on Trump.

When NBC News correspondent Hallie Johnson pressed Trump on whether he planned to win “with them or without them [the Republicans],” Trump responded that he could go either way.

“I do believe that. But, I think because I obviously won the primaries without them, you know, I’m an outsider and I won the primaries,” Trump said. He added, “I do believe that we can win either way, but it would be nice if we stuck together.”

Other leading Republicans are also urging the party to come together and support Trump by emphasizing the extreme importance of winning the White House in the November general election at all costs. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a vocal Trump supporter, expressed more optimism than some of his colleagues, predicting the party eventually will gather together in unity.

“Our leaders on both sides need to be considering what the American people are saying in this election and they need to be a part of the unity, too,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions.

“I think we’re going to get unity,” Sessions said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding that Republican leaders need to honestly look at the nation’s choices and listen to them. “They need to look at the election returns. They need to understand that the American people are not happy with the gridlock in America.”

Sessions then identified the major issues that Americans have expressed as they’ve made their voices heard during the primaries.

“They’re not happy their wages have fallen since 2000 steadily. They’re not happy that we have high unemployment. They’re not happy that we have an open border and lawlessness at our border,” Sessions said. “They believe we should have a lawful system of immigration that serves their interests. They don’t believe these trade deals have worked for them.”

He added, “I think there’s a lot of things that we need to learn from the American people. So I think our leaders on both sides need to be considering what the American people are saying in this election and they need to be a part of the unity, too.”