With jab at Ryan, Trump ignites new tensions in GOP

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) — As Republican loyalists continue to flee, Donald Trump has ignited new party tensions by refusing to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan or Arizona Sen. John McCain, a remarkable display of party division just three months before Election Day.

The Republican presidential nominee told The Washington Post Tuesday that he's "just not quite there yet," when asked about an endorsement of Ryan, who faces a primary election next week.

Bradshaw was one of the five senior Republican strategists tasked with identifying the party's shortcomings and recommending ways it could win the White House after its losing 2012 presidential campaign.

"Trump has moved in exactly the opposite direction from our recommendations on how to make the party more inclusive," said Ari Fleischer, who worked with Bradshaw on the GOP's so-called post-election autopsy and was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush.

[...] Bradshaw and Comella are among a group of top Republican operatives, messengers, national committee members and donors who continue to decry Trump's tactics, highlighting almost daily — with fewer than 100 days before the election — the fissures created by the billionaire and his takeover of the party.

"Instead of speaking out against instances of bigotry, racism and inflammatory rhetoric, whether it's been against women, immigrants or Muslims, we made a calculus that it was better to say nothing at all in the interest of politics and winning elections," she told CNN.