17:04

Never say #NeverTrump... unless you’re a member of the Bush clan.

A preview of Cleveland? Photograph: ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

With cover provided by House speaker Paul Ryan, who yesterday declined to endorse Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House, a litany of “thanks, but no thanks” echoed from the halls of Washington, with multiple former presidential candidates declaring that they would rather eschew voting at all than cast a ballot for the real-estate tycoon.

But all wasn’t dire in Trump Town - despite his flirtation this morning with allowing the United States to default on its sovereign debt, endorsements from certain quarters of the Republican party continued to pour in, as well as pronouncements from his campaign that the naysayers would come around. Of course, so did the gleeful negative advertisements from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Here’s a quick rundown on the biggest news from the campaign trail - and some new nuggets that have just dropped:

In a series of tweets, former presidential candidate and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham declared that he could not, “in good conscience,” support Donald Trump ’s candidacy “because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative... nor has he displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as commander in chief.”

declared that he could not, “in good conscience,” support ’s candidacy “because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative... nor has he displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as commander in chief.” Former Florida governor Jeb Bush joined Graham - as well as his former-president brother and father - in declining to vote for either candidate, saying that the Republican nominee “has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character” required to serve as president. “I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life,” Bush wrote. “For Republicans, there is no greater priority than ensuring we keep control of both chambers of Congress. I look forward to working hard for great conservatives in the Senate and House in the coming months.”

joined Graham - as well as his former-president brother and father - in declining to vote for either candidate, saying that the Republican nominee “has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character” required to serve as president. “I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life,” Bush wrote. “For Republicans, there is no greater priority than ensuring we keep control of both chambers of Congress. I look forward to working hard for great conservatives in the Senate and House in the coming months.” Trump, for his part, doesn’t seem too perturbed by the brewing Republican civil war. The presumptive nominee penned an eyeroll-laden response to Graham’s declaration, writing that if he had lost the primary campaign as badly as Graham had, he wouldn’t vote either. “I fully understand why Lindsey Graham cannot support me,” Trump wrote. “If I got beaten as badly as I beat him, and all the other candidates he endorsed, I would not be able to give my support either. Every time I see Lindsey Graham spew hate during interviews I ask why the media never questions how I single handily [sic] destroyed his hapless run for president.”



He’s left it up to his campaign aides to denounce those unwilling to hitch their wagon to his star:

Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) .@SpeakerRyan not supporting @realDonaldTrump - is an insult to the millions of Americans who VOTED for him (in record #'s.) #Trump2016

Meanwhile, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton senses a weakness - and is making the most of it. Clinton’s campaign has been reaching out to Bush family donors to try to win their support with the pitch that she’s closer to their values than Trump is, reports Ben White in Politico.

senses a weakness - and is making the most of it. Clinton’s campaign has been reaching out to Bush family donors to try to win their support with the pitch that she’s closer to their values than Trump is, reports Ben White in Politico. Throw in her scalding new line of Twitter-based anti-Trump advertisements, and the general-election strategy of the Clinton camp may be coming into shape:

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) "I get along with everybody." —@realDonaldTrump



About that...https://t.co/QHYq3vScho

But while Clinton focuses on Trump, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is focusing on the upcoming Democratic national convention. Sanders has written a letter to Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz warning that any moves by the national party to stack convention committees with Clinton supporters will result in fights on the floor of the convention. “I believe that the composition of the standing committees must reflect the relative support that has been received by both campaigns,” Sanders wrote. “That was why I was so disappointed to learn that of the over forty people our campaign submitted at your request you chose to select only three of my recommendations for the three standing committees.”

That’s it for the biggest news of the day - we’ll be back next week with more up-to-the-second news from the campaign trail!