Donald Trump said Saturday that he’s filled all of the speaker slots for the fast-approaching Republican National Convention -- trying to end talk about key GOP figures distance themselves for him and the event and capitalize on rival Hillary Clinton’s bad week.
Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said on Twitter that he’ll announce the lineup on Wednesday and that he has “a long waiting list of those that want to speak.”
To be sure, Trump critics have for weeks kept a running tally of top Republicans not attending the four-day convention in Cleveland that starts July 18 -- from such standard-bearers as former President George W. Bush to New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is in a tough re-election campaign.
Speaking on the convention stage is considered a coveted opportunity for politicians, especially for up-and-coming ones to raise their national profile. Barack Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention, for example, helped him ascend from a freshman Illinois senator to president.
Neither Trump nor Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, have scheduled campaign events over the Fourth of July weekend, amid speculation that Clinton will speak to the FBI about the agency’s investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
The interview is expected to be a final step in the probe, which has cast a cloud over Clinton’s campaign.
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Speculation about an agency under the Obama administration conducting an unbiased probe intensified this week when Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, met privately with Attoey General Loretta Lynch, who can either accept or reject the recommendations from career prosecutors and the FBI director on whether to bring charges in the case.
Lynch, appointed by Obama, has said she will accept whatever recommendations she receives.
Also this week, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin had a six-hour deposition with the conservative group Judicial Watch about Clinton’s use of the server and private email address for govement communication while they both were at the State Department.
While the court-ordered deposition didn’t result in any ground break revelations, Abedin acknowledging the setup “frustrated” her and that a “hack” on the system was attempted, sidetracking the Clinton campaign’s attacks on Trump.
"Judicial Watch represents everything that is wrong with our political system,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. “They are only interested in headlines and have made a complete mockery of our (judicial) system.”
Clinton, who has risen slightly in recent polls against Trump, is this weekend at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., where reporters wait to see if she will indeed meet with FBI investigators.
She has no scheduled events until Tuesday, when she speaks at a National Education Association event in Washington, D.C.
Last year, Clinton caused a big flap over the Fourth weekend at a parade in key primary state New Hampshire when campaign staffers used a rope to keep reporters away from her.
Trump, a first-time candidate and billionaire businessman, struggled in June to gain GOP support after suggesting a judge in a civil suit against his Trump University real estate school might be bias, considering Trump has proposed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and the judge’s parents are from Mexico.
Trump’s next scheduled event is Wednesday in Cincinnati.