May at this point. In the news business, it sometimes feels like that. When the news cycle gets stuck on one story. This week the political news cycle got stuck on one news story about the republican president ial primary. The story of whether or not the Republican Party was going to have a hard time accepting donald trump as their partys new leader and as their partys president ial nominee. Theres been a lot of opinion expressed about this matter, theres been a lot of speculation about it. We have on this show tried to stay focused on the data rather than just the opinion on this matter. Because i think most of the data suggests that the Republican Party is not having that hard a time accepting donald trump as their nominee. After all, mr. Trump received more votes in the republican primary this year than any republican president ial candidate has ever received before. Weve also been reporting that for all the beltway ink thats been spilled over this idea that republican elected officials and Party Leaders are having a hard time with mr. Trump, there really just isnt that evidence of anybody saying no to him. We reported last night we could find so few republican members of congress who were explicitly opposed to donald trump, we thought as of last night there were so few of them that you could actually fit all of them into a Station Wagon. In the senate, the three republican u. S. Senators known to be explicitly opposed to mr. Trump are lindsey graham, dean heller, and ben sasse. Thats it. In the house, we reported last night that the two republican members of the house who are known to be explicitly opposed to mr. Trump were Carlos Curbelo of florida, scott rigel of virginia. A grand total of five members of grus, three in the senate, two in the house. That would imply not exactly a great rift in the party. Since then, though, four more members of congress have been in touch with us today to let us know that they would like to also be recognized as being crammed into that car. Oh, really . Yes, so behold, we happily correct the record. Four additional confirmed members of congress from the Republican Party who say explicitly on the record today they are opposed to donald trump. So weve still got those three senators on the top row there. Lindsey graham, ben sasse, dean heller. In the house, carlos curbele, scott mitchell. Add eliana of florida, bob dole of illinois, richard han 1 2 new york, congressman reid ribble of wisconsin. We have spoken with all of their offices today. They have all confirmed that they should also be crammed into that midsized sedan or Station Wagon which was previously holding all of the Republican Party in congress who is against donald trump. Because there are now nine of them confirmed as being no to trump republicans. We are going to have to get them a bigger car. Turns out they would not all fit in the Station Wagon. They would all fit in a chevy tahoe if you got the one that was configured with a third seat in the back but that does crimp your cargo space. As long as theyve got no baggage. These nine members of congress this brady bunch, in the proverbial chevy tahoe, that is the sum total of what we know so far. In terms of the split in the Republican Party over donald trump becoming that partys president ial nominee. These updated numbers mean that the no to donald trump caucus is roughly 3 of congressional republicans. Oh, how will the party survive . This terrible schism. I should say, if you are a republican member of congress or a republican member of the senate and you are explicitly opposed to donald trump being your partys leader and being your party as president ial nominee, if you will not vote for him, if you are encouraging other people to not vote for him, let us know. Well get you a bigger proverbial car. Well get you a bus fit ever turns out there are that Many Republican members of congress who are actually opposed to him. Right now all we know of is nine. We will update it every time we get another one. If we ever do. I dont know if we ever will though. All the momentum in the party seems to be going the other direction. Seems to be going toward mr. Trump. Nine Committee Chairman from the house of representatives today signed on with mr. Trump. The house of representatives of course is controlled by the republicans so they control all the committees. The chairs of nine house committees all came out today and endorsed mr. Trump. And you know, its a real decision to do that if mr. Trump is going to be a problem for republican incumbents. Those Nine Committee chairmen, like every other member of the house come november, they will all be up for reelection. Everybody in the house needs to run for reelection every two years. So every republican maybe except the very few who have said no to him, every republican is going to be running to one degree or another alongside the leader of their party. To a certain extent, every republican in the country this year is going to be running on what donald trump stands for. And today the question of what donald trump stands for got very, very woolly. It might possibly have fallen apart altogether. You said we got to stop muslim immigration till we find out what the hells going on, you said. And then you walked back the other day to say, listen, that was a suggestion, but youve got to put together a commission headed by rudy giuliani. Would you like to expand on that . Yeah, it was a suggestion. Look, anything i say right now, im not the president. Everythings a suggestion. No matter what you say, its a suggestion. Speaker ryan said after the meeting that there are clearly issues on which you two disagree. We know that one of thoets those is on that ban of muslims. He is not for it, you have said you are. In recent days youve called it more of a suggestion than a proposal. Id like you to clarify that for me because i think millions of people who voted for you across the country during the primary process felt as if you were actually proposing that. Are you softening your stance . Im not the president right now so anything i suggest is really a suggestion. Im always flexible on issues. I am totally flexible on very, very many issues and i think you have to be that way. Everything is just a suggestion. I am totally flexible. Mr. Trump says now basically that he has no policy platform. Hes not overtly proposing to do anything particular as president. Everything he said that the country ought to do . Its a suggestion. Its totally flexible. And it is remarkable to hear a major Party President ial nominee admit that they dont really stand for anything. That everythings up for negotiation. They dont really have any firm policy proposals that you can count on them for. That you can count on him to enact when he becomes president. Its remarkable to hear it. Reasonably speaking, its not an illogical way to run. Right . If you think about it. Its cynical but its not illogic illogical. The Trump Campaign apparently has just moved into a part of the election where they say they do not want mr. Trump to be judged on the basis of his policy proposals, all are subject to change. They dont think thats whats important to voters about mr. Trump. Theyre basically saying whats more important than any promise he could make on policy is that people should just trust donald trump to do a good job. To be a guy who would be good at being president. Dont vote for him because of something specific he says hes going to, do vote for him because you think he would be good at the job, because you think hes generally capable as a person. He vaguely wants the right things for the country. Hell be good at handling stuff when it comes up. Hes the kind of guy youd like to be president no matter what it is he exactly wants to do with the job. Its an unusual way to run for president but its not irrational. In fact, thats probably the way that a lot of voters think about their choice in a president ial election. When people tell pollsters they vote for who they wanted to have a beer with, those voters know theyre never going to get to have a beer with the president. Theyre basically telling pollsters they cast their votes for who they liked the best, who they thought was the best person, who they thought would be a better. Earn in that job, regardless of their platform or promises or what they said they wanted to do. Voting for the perceived capabilities of a politician as a person, rather than anything specific about their agenda, it does in a way make sense. Unless your perception of your candidates capabilities is completely wrong for some reason. I mean, its one thing to vote for somebody who stands for nothing because you think theyd be a generally capable person. Its another thing did vote for someone who stands for nothing who it turns out is a crank. Or is fundamentally unstable. Or who is a con artist. Or who is prone to bizarre behavior. This is the bond wit teller building. Used to be the bond wit teller building. Built in 1928 on the corner of 56th street and fifth avenue in new york city. A great example of art deco architecture. Its big distinguishing feature on its facade were really big stone sculptures. It was interesting, they werent at the street level. They were way high up on the facade of the building. Each about 15 feet high. Really distinctively art deco. This is an 11story building. These sculptures were on the eighth and ninth floors, between the eighth and ninth floors of this 11story building. Interesting design, right . The interesting was designed by the same firm that built Grand Central terminal. In addition to those really notable sculptures, it also had a huge 20 foot by 30 foot intricate superheavy metal sculpture thing. It was a grille, basically, on the front of the building, built into the main entrance, really striking. It was made of solid nickel. It was all interlocking geometric designs. Super intricate, very distinctive. Built in 19281929. 1980, that building was due to be demolished. Because a developer wanted to put up a big glass tower in its place. The developer promised the metropolitan museum of art in new york city that when the old building was demolished, the met could have all that important art. They could have the giant grillework. They could have the bas relief stone sculptures from the front of the building. That was the deal. And then on a thursday afternoon in june with no warning, the Real Estate Developer instead had the stone statues jackhammered into pieces. Quoting from the New York Times the next day, two stone bas relief sculptures high on the facade, pieces that had been sought with enthusiasm by the metropolitan museum of art, were smashed by jackhammers yesterday on the orders of a Real Estate Developer. The destruction of the art deco panels stunned some art appraisers and elicited expressions of surprise and disappointment from officials at the met where they were to have been installed by the department of 20th century art. Everybody thought these sculptures and the grille thing were going to the met. The met thought they were going to the met. The neighbors thought they were going to the met. The New York Times interviewed a gallery owner who was across the street from the Bonwit Teller building, yesterday mr. Miller said he was stunned when he looked out his window and saw workmen attack the sculptures with jack hammers. They were just jackhammered in half and pulled down in such a way they shattered. It was just tragic. You will have guessed by now the Real Estate Developer in question who did that in 1980 was donald trump. What went up on that site after the Bonwit Teller building came down in a heap was trump tower. And when a significant portion of new york freaked out about him destroying this art that everybody thought was going to go to the met from the old building, jam hammering it off the building with no explanation and no warning like they were buddha sculptures in northern afghanistan, a representative of the Trump Organization was made available to the press to explain the Trump Organizations side of this disturbing story. John baron, a Vice President of the Trump Organization, said after the demolition yesterday that the company had decided to not preserve the sculptures because the merit of these stones was not great enough to justify the effort to save them. Remember the metropolitan museum of art was going to take them and put them up. But the Trump Organization decided they had no artistic merit. As for the giant gilded nickel geometric grillework, the art museum, the met thought they were getting that too. The Trump Organizations explanation for that one was that they lost it. We dont know what happened to it, said john baron, a Vice President of the Trump Organization. Looking back on this, as far as we can tell, there never was a john baron Vice President of the Trump Organization. That was not a real person. We actually had it confirmed a decade later, that there was no john baron. That confirmation came in a Court Proceeding a decade later. In the course of a bunch of legal wrangling that happened over the fact that mr. Trump used illegal immigrant laborers to tear down the bonwit building and put up his trump tower. Mr. Trump testified under oath in 1990 during a legal proceeding about his illegal immigrant labor theres he and another one of his executives at his company sometimes used this alias, john baron, in some of their business dealings when they didnt want to use their real names. They admitted to it, he admitted to it under oath. It actually created a minor media scandal around mr. Trump in 1990, headlines ran at the time about how he had been using this fake name, john baron. It was described at the time as an open secret in the new york press, somebody named john baron would call reporters to say things about donald trump. But the john baron calling reporters to talk about donald trump was actually just donald trump himself. But he admitted to that in a Court Proceeding in 1990. Got a bunch of headlines, people started making fun of him for that in 1990. So in 1991, mr. Trump apparently started using a different name. Killed off john baron, picked up a new name. And that is what led to the huge and truly freaking weird development in the president ial campaign today. And thats next. [burke] at farmers,we seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a ufh2o. [man] thats not good. [pilot] thats not good. [man] thats really not good. [burke] it happened august fourteenth,2008, and we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum this is a recording made in 1991 by a reporter from People Magazine sue carswell, calling Donald Trumps office, she ended up speaking with somebody who sounded very much like donald trump but he said his name was john miller. He said he was a publicist working for donald trump. And he said he was brand new to the organization. He had just started. But even though hed just started, brand new, he was eager to help this People Magazine reporter with her queries about Donald Trumps love life. For a man who was just a hired hand, who had just started at the organization, was brand new, he did seem to know a lot about Donald Trumps love life and inner feelings. Is marla trying to reconcile all of this . Marla wants to be back with him, wants to be with him, he just feels its too soon. I can tell you there was never any talk of marriage from donalds point of view. I can also say that marla would like to get married but it was something he didnt want to do. Its just too soon. Hopefully hell maintain a Good Relationship with marla. What about but its just too soon. What about this thing, it says trump last week became interested in reconciliation ivana wants to get back with donald. Whats she going to say . When youre with somebody else and has other people lined up, yes, i want to get back. Shes a savvy woman. Shes not going to say hes living with marla, hes got three other girlfriends, and shes not going to say, all right, i really want to get back. You know, she wants to get back, shes told him to a lot of her friends that shes told to him. But its so highly unlikely. Off the record. Is he interested . He left. It was his choice to left and he left. He left marla no, see, thats the biggest misconception of this whole thing. The biggest misconception is he didnt leave for marla. He left for himself. He didnt leave for marla, he never left for mar lashes he was going to leave anyway. Marla was there, but he was going to leave, marla or not, he was going to leave anywhere. He does things forred him. When he makes the decision, that will be a very lucky woman. Hes not going to do that until he makes the decision. When he makes the decision hes very capable of a total commitment. When he makes the decision. But he felt its too soon. Off the record he felt marla wasnt the right one or whatever. But he just felt it was too soon. For a pr guy who had just started, who was brand new at the Trump Organization, boy, he really had very quickly tapped really deeply into his boss psyche. When he makes the decision, hes very capable of a total commitment but he felt its too soon, he felt marla wasnt the right one, he felt it was too soon. That pr guy is just tapped right in. That happened in 1991. People magazine ran an article about it at the time that gave the game away. The top headli