Thread: High-Profile GOP Donor Meg Whitman Indicates She Is Likely to Support Hillary Clinton

High-Profile GOP Donor Meg Whitman Indicates She Is Likely to Support Hillary Clinton, Say Sources

• By INES DE LA CUETARA

PARK CITY, UTAH — Jun 11, 2016, 12:57 AM ET

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Hewlett Packard Enterprise President and Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Nov. 2, 2015.


Republican donor Meg Whitman, the high-profile Hewlett Packard Enterprise president and CEO, indicated at Mitt Romney's closed-door summit on Friday that she would likely be supporting Hillary Clinton in November, according to multiple sources who were in the room.

"She posed the question, 'Is it not reasonable to support Hillary Clinton?' given all the awful things Trump has said," explained donor John Chachas.

Whitman served as Romney's finance co-chair in 2012.

But asked if she was switching over to the other side, Whitman told ABC News, "I haven't made that decision. We’ll see, get to the conventions, see who the vice presidential picks are. And then I will make that decision." Her office declined to comment further when asked.

She backed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the primary season and criticized him for his subsequent support of Donald Trump.

Whitman's words come as a majority of Romney loyalists -- many of whom spearheaded the "Never Trump" movement -- are facing tough decisions about who to back this cycle. Romney himself has been one of Trump's most outspoken critics, and has openly declared he would not be voting for the presumptive GOP presidential candidate.

And on Friday, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee told CNN that a Trump presidency would change America with "trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny," adding "all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America."

Donors say they've come to the annual Romney retreat in Park City, Utah, looking for guidance from top Republicans attending the event, including Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican party chairman Reince Priebus.

"These guys are a lot smarter than I am, and if they’re endorsing [Trump], that's kind of reassuring to me,” said Scott Keller, a donor from Utah who was at the summit and has decided to back Trump.

According to long-time Romney confidante, Spencer Zwick, Ryan was asked about his recent endorsement of Trump and "said nothing new."

"He mostly talked about his agenda," Zwick said, adding: "I think a lot of people, they're tired talking about Trump University. They want to talk about policy and a path forward."

Whitman, meanwhile, indicated she would likely vote for Clinton, but made no mention of actually donating to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Still, some prominent Republican donors here were in shock.

"I see Meg Whitman supporting Clinton, and I’m surprised about that. I love and respect Meg Whitman but, my gosh," said Keller.

Keller added, however, that the "right thing" to do is to go vote for someone. Keller said that’s why he's planning to back Trump -- although he was reluctant to do so initially.

Two sources in the room said Whitman also compared Trump to historical demagogues, including Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. She then turned to Ryan to ask him how he could support Trump.

Whitman has previously gone on the record saying she wouldn't be voting for Trump.

"Look at the comments he's made about women, about Muslims, about reporters, it's just repugnant," she told CNBC in March.

According to Jim and Joanne, a couple from Southern California who declined to provide their last names, Whitman isn't the only donor here considering Clinton. The summit attendees took an informal poll at lunch, with the room splitting evenly among Trump and Clinton supporters, they said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-...ry?id=39774523

Well, it seems to me that there are a lot of these Republican "Establishment" types who really have more in common with the Democrats than they do the real Republicans who are Trump Supporters, because they support amnesty, legalization, illegal immigration, massive legal immigration and free trade treason deals. They don't really seem to mind the wasteful spending, or the debt, and routinely come up with more and more ways to run our businesses and industry out of the country. Meg may be one of those who have made a lot of money during the Obama years at the expense of the American People and our poor beleaguered nation and just want more of it, whereas Trump is going to shake it all up, secure our borders, build the wall, deport illegal aliens, cut spending and fix our bad trade deals. Apparently these policies are disturbing to some Republicans who rather like Democrat programs that line their pockets.

To that I say: UGH!!!

Oh look at this:

Meg Whitman likens Trump to Hitler, Mussolini
Teddy Schleifer

By Theodore Schleifer and Daniella Diaz, CNN
Updated 12:44 PM ET, Sat June 11, 2016

Story highlights

Whitman is in Utah for Mitt Romney's annual Experts and Enthusiasts summit
Trump has occasionally drawn comparisons to Hitler during his campaign

Washington (CNN)Billionaire and major Republican donor Meg Whitman on Friday compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, two sources in the room told CNN.

The Hewlett-Packard CEO's remarks at Mitt Romney's Utah retreat of top Republican supporters and fund-raisers came as she and news anchor Campbell Brown grilled House Speaker Paul Ryan over his endorsement of Trump. Ryan, unlike several other prominent GOP officials at the retreat, chose to endorse him but has simultaneously sought to distance himself from Trump's rhetoric about minorities.

The sources said Whitman was referring to Trump's rhetoric within a historical context.

In response, Trump told CNN he doesn't want Whitman's support, though he didn't respond to her references to Hitler and Mussolini.
"I never met Meg Whitman, but the job she is doing at Hewlett-Packard is not a very good one," he said in a statement via his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks. "Based on the disastrous campaign she ran in California, and the tens of millions of dollars she wasted, I have learned a lot from her. I do not want her support."

A spokesman for Whitman didn't respond to CNN's request for comment. A message left with Ryan's office was not immediately returned Saturday morning.

Romney, who at one point tried to spike Trump's campaign, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday that Trump will change America with "trickle-down racism."

Whitman, who unsuccessfully ran for California governor in 2010 and served as Romney's finance co-chair for his 2012 presidential campaign, is a major donor to Our Principles PAC, an anti-Trump group. She also has been an outspoken Trump critic: In February, she blasted New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who she backed for president before he dropped out of the race, over his endorsement of Trump, calling it an "astonishing display of political opportunism."

And in March, Whitman told Re/code that she doesn't want Americans to vote for Trump, adding, "When you take a look at the facts about his record, they're pretty remarkable. I don't think Republican voters have grasped this yet."

Trump has occasionally drawn comparisons to Hitler during his campaign. Anne Frank's stepsister, former Mexican president Vicente Fox and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican, have invoked the dictator in referring to Trump. Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld likened Trump's immigration policy to Kristallnacht, the 1938 pogrom against European Jewry.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/11/politi...wlett-packard/

Wow, Meg. You've really fallen off the edge! Trump is right not to want your support. You and Romney are losers, you lost your Governor's race because you were caught hiring illegal aliens and Romney lost the Presidential election because he lost the woman vote.

And guess what? Between you and Carly, hell will freeze before I buy anything with an HP on it. To stoop so low as to claim Donald Trump is Hitler or Moussolini because he wants to enforce US immigration law and fix our bad trade deals is despicable. It won't stick because it's an outrageous lie, of the type jealous little low character people make against a strong leader they're so jealous of they will say and do anything to try to bring him down to puff yourselves up.

Won't work. Because Trump is taking his campaign to the people. I'm sure he's as fed up with you stupid fat cats with no regard for anyone but yourselves as we are.