Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s blistering speech attacking general election opponent Donald Trump for his foreign policy positions was a massive hit - so much so that the former secretary of state is planning a sequel.
This time, Clinton told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, the speech will be focused on the economy.
“While he may have some catchy soundbites, his statements on the economy are dangerously incoherent,” Clinton said. “They are deeply misguided, and they reflect an individual who is temperamentally unfit to manage the American economy.”
“It’s not hard to see how a Trump presidency could actually lead to a serious global economic crisis,” she added.
In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s change in tone is a “good start” - or, at least, Trump’s use of a teleprompter has lead him to believe.
“Well, maybe using a prepared text last night and not attacking any other Americans was a good start,” McConnell said. “So I think there’s still time for him to begin to act like a presidential candidate should be acting. And, so I haven’t given up hope, but certainly last year - last week was a - was not a good week for Donald Trump.”
Trump has a chance to utilize his massive following and unlikely rise to power to win the general election, McConnell said, but he can’t do so when he loses his credibility in the eyes of the electorate.
“Donald Trump has an opportunity here to be the change agent, to take America to a different place,” McConnell told Burnett. “But in order to succeed in doing that, he needs to run a credible, thoughtful campaign and indicate - and demonstrate the seriousness that people expect of their president.”
A revealing exchange from an interview Donald Trump gave the New York Times:
He posed with some women and looked back at a reporter to point at the women and boasted “Hispanics!” Afterward, he bragged: “They say ‘We love you, Mr. Trump. We’re from Mexico.’ ”
Senior senator from Maine Susan Collins told a local NBC affiliate that unless presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump admits that that his racialized criticism of the federal judge overseeing the fraud suit against Trump University was a “serious mistake,” she won’t be able to endorse his bid for the White House.
“Donald Trump needs to admit that he made a serious mistake,” Collins told WLBZ. “He needs to apologize to the judge and the American people. He needs to go back and focus on the economic issues that are important to our nation.”
“No more insults,” Collins continued. “No more insulting the heritage or religion of groups of people.”
“There is still time for him to apologize, to get back on track and to go back to those issues that really resonate with the American people about jobs and unfair trade agreements.”
When Hillary Clinton laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination last night, she unleashed a torrent of “first woman” commentary. If challenger Bernie Sanders ever backs down, she will be crowned the first female presidential nominee of a major US political party. If she wins in November, she will be the first female president in this nation’s 240-year history.
But she stands on the sturdy shoulders of many more female political pioneers who also aspired to be the leader of the free world, but they were just a little before their time. Here are some of them.
Victoria Woodhull, 1872, ran under the banner of the Equal Rights party nearly half a century before women even had the right to vote. She was also the first woman to testify before Congress, arguing that the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution – the ones granting equal protection under the law and giving black men the vote – also enfranchised women. We all know how that worked out.
Margaret Chase Smith, 1964, a Republican from Maine who served in Congress for 34 years, was the first woman to run for a major party’s nomination. She received 227,007 votes in her party’s primary and lost to Barry Goldwater.
Shirley Chisholm, 1972, was on the primary ballot in 12 states, earned 152 delegates and used them at the Democratic convention as bargaining chips to have the rights of women, African Americans and the poor included in the party platform.
She was the first African American to run for the presidential nomination.
More on Elizabeth Warren’s reportedly imminent endorsement of Hillary Clinton:
Reuters reports that the Massachusetts senator will “soon” endorse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and that while she is currently uninterested in serving as Clinton’s running mate, Warren “has not ruled it out.”
Warren had heretofore declined to endorse either Clinton or her main primary opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, telling the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs this week that the superdelegate system is antidemocratic.
“I’m a superdelegate,” Warren said, “and I don’t believe in superdelegates.”
The Massachusetts senator has, however, been a consistent critic of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, calling him a “money-grubber,” a tool of the Wall Street banks and a tax delinquent who rooted for families to get thrown out of their homes in the housing market crash.
In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt - yes, she’s been on a bit of an interview jag today - presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said that she will “continue to make the case [Donald Trump] is temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief,” despite the presumptive Republican nominee’s “campaign of insults.”
Clinton told Holt that she will look to mistakes made by Trump’s fallen Republican opponents as opportunities to campaign against him.
“I think that there are several lessons from his primary race,” Clinton said. “Number one: A lot of his primary opponents never took him on over issues, because they were somewhat close to what he was saying. And when it came to the personal attacks, because they didn’t have any strong issue position to contrast with him they really couldn’t come back on the personal side either.”
Clinton said that she will “absolutely not” respond to Trump’s every insult, and that while “He can run a campaign of insults,” “I’m running a campaign of issues that are going to produce results for the American people. I’m going to talk about why he’s unqualified to be president based on his own words and his deeds. And I’m going to continue to make the case he is temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief.
Reuters: Elizabeth Warren to endorse Hillary Clinton
Citing anonymous sources, Reuters is reporting that Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, a darling of the left, will endorse presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
BREAKING: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren to endorse Clinton - sources
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 8, 2016
Warren is speaking at the American Constitution Society’s national convention in Washington, DC, tomorrow.
Updated
Republican congressman: Donald Trump 'likely to be a racist'
Three-term Republican congressman Reid Ribble told CNN today that presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump is “likely to be a racist,” and implicitly criticized the reticence of national party leaders to condemn the remarks.
“His comments over the weekend are authenticating what I believe is the man’s character,” Ribble told CNN. “Something that walks like a duck, talks like a duck, is likely to be a duck. If you continue to say what I believe are racist statements, you’re likely to be a racist.”
Ribble, who is retiring after this term, told a local Wisconsin Fox affiliate last December that he would not support Trump if he became the Republican nominee.
In her first interview with the Washington Post since launching her bid for the White House more than a year ago, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton covered 14 months’ worth of territory, from whether she thinks her general-election opponent is racist to the role of superdelegates in the nominating process to the parts of last night’s speech that brought her to tears when she read them.
While decrying Donald Trump’s racialized criticism of the federal judge presiding over the multi-state fraud suit against Trump University, Clinton declined to say whether she thought that Trump was a racist.
“I don’t know what’s in his heart. I have no way of telling that,” Clinton said. “I can just say that if you look at what he’s been proclaiming since he started the campaign, he has been engaging in divisive and prejudiced attacks against people.”
“Even though I can’t say what’s in his heart,” however, “if you say someone can’t do their job because of their heritage, that is certainly a racist attack,” Clinton said. “And it’s just plain wrong. It has no place in our politics. And as we have seen in the last week, a lot of Republicans, prominent Republicans, have rejected that and distanced themselves from it.”
Regarding the contentious primary with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton told the Washington Post that she expects the national party to at least consider some of the electoral reforms suggested by Sanders, including the role of superdelegates (party loyalists and elected officials who get a sort of “extra” vote).
“Yeah, we’re going to have a discussion,” Clinton said. “I think that’s something that the DNC does after every convention. And I think some changes were made, I don’t know all the details, I wasn’t involved, but I have heard changes were made after ’08 and I think even after 2012. So there will be an opportunity to discuss all of this.”
Clinton also opened up about the emotional importance of her victory speech in Brooklyn last night, admitting that she teared up while rehearsing a section of the speech in which she referenced her late mother.
“I practiced the part about my mother several times, because I teared up every time I practiced it,” Clinton said. “And I tried to get myself so that I could be, you know, a little more used to saying it. And it still was for me personally one of the most extraordinary and meaningful public experiences I’ve ever had.”
“I was worried that if, when I went out to speak, just the emotion of the moment would be so intense that I might have trouble getting through the speech itself. So I did have to collect myself and try to get prepared.”
Updated
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump famously once tweeted that the concept of anthropogenic climate change was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government in order to stymy American manufacturing:
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
But in late 2009, the then-businessman signed an open letter to President Barack Obama urging immediate action in the face of the “scientifically irrefutable” evidence of “catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”
The letter, uncovered by Grist, was signed by scores of American business leaders, including three of Trump’s adult children, and urges action to encourage “investing in a clean energy economy.”
“We support your effort to ensure meaningful and effective measures to control climate change, an immediate challenge facing the United States and the world today,” the letter said. “Please allow us, the United States of America, to serve in modeling the change necessary to protect humanity and our planet.”
Trump’s skepticism of climate change’s impact on the planet has been curbed by business interests before. Worries about rising ocean tides led the real estate tycoon to apply for a permit to construct a sea wall to protect a golf course he owns in Ireland.
Hillary Clinton on Donald Trump: 'It’s classic behavior by a demagogue'
In an interview with the Associated Press, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told the news wire that general election opponent Donald Trump’s attacks on his opponenets, the press and the federal judge presiding over the fraud suit against Trump University are the behavior of a “demagogue,” and echo some of the darkest chapters in modern political history.
“It’s classic behavior by a demagogue,” Clinton said. “We’ve seen it many, many places and times in the world, and that’s why I think it’s so dangerous.”
The former secretary of state once enjoyed a cordial relationship with Trump, even attending his third wedding to model Melania Knauss with her husband, former president Bill Clinton. In the telephone interview, Clinton explained that at the time, the real estate tycoon was “always entertaining,” and that she was unaware of Trump’s stances on immigration and his willingness to court conspiracy theorists.
“I never really ever had any information about him engaging in bigotry and prejudice until he took up the cause of the birthers against President Obama, which is really so bizarre,” Clinton said.
Clinton told the Associated Press that although she is not necessarily convinced that Trump means everything he proposes - neither is Trump himself, for that matter - his rhetoric is still harmful.
“I don’t know if this is just, you know, political gamesmanship that he thinks plays to the lowest common denominator, but whatever the reason for it is, it’s wrong and it should not be tolerated by anybody,” Clinton said.
Dan Scavino, social media director and senior adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, is already drawing up a list of detractors to ban from the party’s national convention in Cleveland.
First up? Conservative radio host and Trump critic Hugh Hewitt.
Assume hater Hugh Hewitt will not be attending the @GOP Convention. If he is - the RNC should BAN him from attending.
— Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) June 8, 2016
We’ve reached out to the Trump campaign for comment about potential bans on reporters or columnists, and will let you know when (if) we hear back.
Updated
In an interview on Capitol Hill, Alabama senator and early Donald Trump endorser Jeff Sessions told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson that “it would’ve been nice” if the presumptive Republican nominee had not launched a racialized criticism of the federal judge presiding over the multi-state fraud suit against Trump University, “but he’s explained that.”
“It would’ve been nice if it were - that had not been said, for sure,” Sessions said. :But he’s explained that, and he’s really, feels strongly about this lawsuit. You know, he feels like it’s an unjust proceeding and he should prevail and, but now he said he’s going to let his lawyer handle it and he’s not going to be continuing to comment it, and I think that’s probably a good decision.”
Sessions was unconcerned with Trump’s ability to raise money when Jackson pointed out that Trump’s campaign “lags behind in cash and in organization,” saying that Trump’s strength lies in “appealing directly to the American people.”
“That’s where he’s getting these votes, and his message about protecting American workers, protecting American jobs, creating rising pay, defending American manufacturing, trade agreements effectively, all of those things are what’s appealing right now across the board.”
“He’s got Democrat support, independent support, at high levels, and I think as that message continues to resonate, it’ll increase even more,” Sessions said.
After sweeping aside his Republican rivals, Donald Trump and his advisers must now build a campaign for the general election that shows he is not just a brash insurgent.
Trump tried to display some discipline on Tuesday night during a speech at a golf club in upstate New York, following a turbulent few days when seniorRepublicans have accused him of outright racism him for his remarks about an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.
He was surprisingly restrained, spoke from a prepared text using a teleprompter and did not once mention his signature proposal to build a wall on the Mexican border.
The visible signs of control come as the Trump campaign also appears to have settled down after weeks of infighting. Sources within the campaign told the Guardian that the conflicts between longtime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and veteran strategist Paul Manafort have grown less heated in recent weeks as the two have started to develop a better working relationship.
The campaign is now working with the Republican National Committee to build up a ground game across the country.
While Trump has relied upon a bare-bones campaign staff to win the Republican primary, there is a realization that a different structure is needed to beat Hillary Clinton. As one source familiar with the campaign noted: “You think we can really win a general election with 70 people?”
By contrast, Clinton has more than 10 times as many staffers and has been deploying key people to swing states for months in preparation for the general election.
Marco Rubio: 'I'm not done yet'
Florida senator Marco Rubio may have reneged on his pledge to endorse the eventual Republican presidential nominee, but in an email sent out to supporters this afternoon, he appeared more than ready to “STOP HILLARY CLINTON” from winning his home state in the general election in November.
Under the subject line “I’m not done yet,” Rubio told supporters of his late presidential campaign that “the only way we can STOP HILLARY CLINTON is to beat her in the key battleground state of Florida and deny her the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes.”
After requesting money from his supporters to “help fund the Republican Party of Florida’s vital grassroots efforts to stop her,” Rubio said that he remains “100% committed to making sure the only way Hillary Clinton reaches the Oval Office is as a guest.”
“It is often said you cannot win the Presidency without winning the state of Florida,” Rubio continued. “We get only ONE shot to stop her. It’s a huge undertaking with colossal national implications but if we work together and pool our resources we can win.”
#NeverHillary trumps #NeverTrump, it seems.
Democratic National Committee spokesperson TJ Helmstetter is currently live-tweeting a meeting in which the party’s platform - the formal set of guiding principles and policy planks that the party ratifies every convention - is being discussed and debated.
While the final version won’t be revealed for more than a month, here are some highlights from the room where it happens:
AG Holder suggested adding "ban the box" to #demplatform. Next up: Rep. Raul Grijalva.
— TJ Helmstetter (@TheTJHelm) June 8, 2016
Rep. Grijalva discusses decorated US military veterans who have been deported after committing minor crimes. "They deserve better treatment"
— TJ Helmstetter (@TheTJHelm) June 8, 2016
"Islamophobia makes us less safe, incites anti-Muslim hate crimes, and bolsters ISIS narrative." - Dalia Mogahed at #DemPlatform meeting
— TJ Helmstetter (@TheTJHelm) June 8, 2016
1 in 5 reservation homes lack plumbing, 16% lack telephone service, 1/3 of native homes are overpopulated - Fawn Sharp
— TJ Helmstetter (@TheTJHelm) June 8, 2016
Really, please try to imagine what the discussion around this question would be at the Republican drafting committee.
— TJ Helmstetter (@TheTJHelm) June 8, 2016
The editorial board of the largest newspaper in Iowa has penned a blistering op-ed today, lambasting senior Iowa senator Chuck Grassley for, among other things, his refusal to condemn Donald Trump’s racialized criticism of a sitting federal judge.
“When it comes to Donald Trump, there are invertebrates that have shown more spine than Sen. Charles Grassley,” the editorial stated.
The editorial took Grassley to task for demurring on the question of the acceptability of Trump’s insistence that a judge of Latino descent could not oversee the multi-state fraud suit against Trump University without bias. On Monday, Grassley showed little concern over Trump’s statements, telling Roll Call that “the president is only one-half of the process, and the Senate’s the other half. And we’re a check on the president.”
“But what sort of a check would Sen. Grassley be as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee?” the editorial asked. “Just how diligent would our senator be in reviewing the nominees chosen by a man who has categorized Mexican immigrants as rapists and who initially refused to disavow support from white supremacists?”
Grassley continued defense of Trump in an interview with the Des Moines Register this morning, equating Trump’s attack on Curiel’s “Mexican heritage” with an assertion by then-appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor in a 2001 speech that “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
Grassley said he had not heard “any criticism of that sort of comment by a justice of the Supreme Court.”
Hillary Clinton may have locked up the Democratic presidential nomination - although yes, commenters, it’s still technically possible that superdelegates may flee her en masse - but, in an ironic callback to her own defeat in 2008, the former secretary of state faces an uphill climb in unifying the party after a contentious primary season.
Supporters of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders have vowed for months to never support Clinton as the nominee, threatening to support a third-party candidate, to pull the lever for Donald Trump or to stay home on Election Day altogether. (Trump, for his part, welcomes disaffected Sanders supporters “with open arms.”)
But at least some who felt the Bern during the primary are making a more pragmatic choice - including some of Sanders’ most high-profile fans. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt - the cute one from Inception - posted this afternoon on Facebook that although he was excited to support Sanders in the Democratic primary, “Trump is scary.”
Although in a subsequent post, Gordon-Levitt called Clinton “scary in ways,” the actor said that #NeverTrump trumps #NeverHillary.
Trump backs away from plan to raise $1bn
Two weeks after the Donald Trump campaign made a deal with the Republican national committee to help raise money for state parties, and about a month after Trump hired a Hollywood hedge-funder to “create a world-class finance organization”, Trump says he does not need to raise that much money after all, because he can get on TV anytime he wants.
Trump on fundraising goals
— Mike Nizza (@mikenizza) June 8, 2016
May 10: “I think we’ll raise $1 billion."
Today: "There’s no reason to raise that."https://t.co/CJuGXjqaua
The candidate told Bloomberg news that he did not need “nearly as much money as other people need.” Other people meaning, it would seem, Hillary Clinton, who is by some counts on track to raise a billion dollars and who picked up an endorsement Wednesday from megabucks donor Tom Steyer.
Trump on fundraising: I get so much publicity, "there's no reason to raise" $1 billion. https://t.co/7yw3wdWZVh pic.twitter.com/5edMHOvyXQ
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) June 8, 2016
Updated
Release of Clinton emails may have compromised CIA names – experts
The names of CIA personnel could have been compromised in the hypothetical instance that hackers who’d accessed Hillary Clinton’s private computer server cross-checked certain emails with redacted versions released by the state department, the Associated Press reports, citing security experts.
“Classification experts seem to have inadvertently provided a key to anyone who has the originals,” the report says.
It works like this: the redacted versions of the emails in “at least 47” cases “contain the notation ‘B3 CIA PERS/ORG,’ which indicates the material referred to CIA personnel or matters related to the agency.” Hackers in possession of the originals could compare the two sets of documents and match names with the “CIA PERS” notation, outing CIA personnel.
The CIA declined to comment.
A U.S. official said the risk of the names of CIA personnel being revealed in this way is “theoretical and probably remains so at this time.”
Read the full story here.
Updated
Cornel West, one of Sanders’ picks to sit on the platform committee for the Democratic national convention, says dropping out is Sanders’ choice:
Cornel West tells @aseitzwald that Sanders has "up, up, uphill struggle" & dropping out is his "brother's choice." pic.twitter.com/XMBJ5OzSOH
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 8, 2016
Sanders email: 'the struggle continues'
The Bernie Sanders camp sends out a fundraiser email highlighting (bold-facing actually) a line from the candidate’s speech last night:
The struggle continues. We are going to fight for every vote in Tuesday’sprimary in Washington, DC, and then we will bring our political revolution to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
I am pretty good at arithmetic, and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.
But you know that what we are doing is about more than Bernie Sanders. It is all of us together. It is what this movement is about. It is millions of people from coast to coast standing up and looking around them and knowing that we can do much, much better as a nation.
Congratulations @HillaryClinton & all her supporters on your Historical win. My Sanders family, let's keep pushing our Progressive values!
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 8, 2016
Trump hits the money trail
Donald Trump will attend “a high-priced fundraiser in Boston on Monday”, the Boston Herald reports. Tickets for the event, at Langham Hotel, will start at $2,700 per person.
In addition to Boston, Trump plans at least five fundraisers in the coming weeks, according to the Associated Press: a June 16 event in Dallas, a June 17 lunch in San Antonio and a June 18 event in Houston. The following week, Trump and his Republican allies will raise money in his hometown of New York City.
CBS confirms Trump to meet w/ donors tomorrow at Four Seasons in NY. Reince Priebus will be there.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) June 8, 2016
Grassley invokes Sotomayor 'wise Latina' comment to defend Trump
Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the judiciary committee, has not displayed much discomfort with Trump’s remarks about judge Gonzalo Curiel. “I would not say what Trump said,” Grassley said.
But Grassley advanced his defense of Trump in an interview with the Des Moines Register, from his home state of Iowa, on Wednesday. Grassley equated Trump’s attack on Curiel’s “Mexican heritage” with an assertion by then-appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor in a 2001 speech that “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Sotomayor has been a Supreme Court justice since 2009.
Grassley said he had not heard “any criticism of that sort of comment by a justice of the Supreme Court”.
. @ChuckGrassley: Donald Trump's remarks on Judge Curiel are equivalent to Justice Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment pic.twitter.com/YgzAw3qxWY
— Jason Noble (@jasonnobleDMR) June 8, 2016
Poor analogy. Sotomayor was saying diversity can bring different perspective, not that a white man can't do the job. https://t.co/8RZbCpdJDT
— Bleeding Heartland (@desmoinesdem) June 8, 2016
The Register is unhappy with Grassley for, most lately, declining to hold a hearing on the nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. A DMR editorial today concludes: “when it comes to Donald Trump, there are invertebrates that have shown more spine than Sen. Charles Grassley.”
Updated
Majority of Americans found Trump's attack on judge racist – poll
A YouGov poll finds that a 51% majority of Americans think Donald Trump’s comments about judge Gonzalo Curiel were racist.
That includes 22% of Republicans:
YouGov poll: Were Trump’s judge comments racist?
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 8, 2016
ALL: 51% yes, 32% no
GOP 22% yes, 65% nohttps://t.co/P3tmBbkrtS pic.twitter.com/5YKmUjQBTl
(h/t @bencjacobs)
Gingrich: Trump an 'absurd amateur'
After becoming an enthusiastic early boarder of the Trump train, former House speaker Newt Gingrich appears to be going through a period of disillusionment, following Trump’s controversial objections to a judge’s “Mexican heritage”.
At the weekend, Gingrich called Trump’s judge attack a “mistake” and “inexcusable”. Trump then hit back that Gingrich’s criticism was “inappropriate”. At which Gingrich, on Monday, reversed himself a bit, telling the Washington Post that Trump was “going to be fine as a candidate” and “He is learning very rapidly.”
Now Gingrich is back to “stupid” and “amateur”, Statnews reports:
.@newtgingrich: Trump “made a really stupid mistake last week, and it took him about 3 days to learn.” Calls Trump an “absurd amateur.”
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) June 8, 2016
UPDATE: Gingrich says he has been misquoted:
Totally misleading report about my talk at Bio this morning. In 90 minute dialogue made clear Trump is learning, a gifted amateur, will win
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) June 8, 2016
UPDATE 2: StatNews’ Rebecca Robbins posts a transcript of Gingrich’s remarks in which he says “You have a Trump – this absurd amateur.”
Full transcript of segment of @newtgingrich remarks about Trump at #BIO2016 panel this AM. https://t.co/xteZIL70Nj pic.twitter.com/UIsFek9tSC
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) June 8, 2016
Updated
Biden on Sanders: 'give him time'
Vice President Joe Biden says it’s up to Bernie Sanders to decide when to end his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, AP reports:
Asked Wednesday if it was time for the Vermont senator to halt his effort, Biden said: “Oh, let him make that decision. Give him time.”
Asked how much time Sanders should have to make that decision, Biden said, “I’m being graceful.”
The AP is tracking Democrats on Capitol Hill who are calling explicitly for Sanders’ exit:
Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said Wednesday that Sanders should “stand down.” Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said Democrats must “come together and unify.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said Hillary Clinton’s nomination was historic and she would like to see Sanders wind down his candidacy sooner rather than later.
Update: congratulations for Clinton from Sanders’ sole endorser in the Senate:
Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Sanders endorser, congratulates HRC for winning the nomination at the top of his remarks on toxic chemical reform bill
— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) June 8, 2016
Updated
The head of the largest conservative group in the US Congress, Representative Bill Flores of Texas, said he could not back Republican Donald Trump for president at this time, CNN reported (via Reuters):
Flores, the head of the Republican Study Committee in the House of Representatives, told CNN he was incredibly angry about comments that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee made about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
Video highlights from the candidates' rallies
In case you didn’t spend your Tuesday night watching it on TV – here are video highlights from the Clinton, Trump and Sanders rallies:
Ryan to Republicans: 'time to be united'
Two days after leading a charge to call out Donald Trump’s remarks about a federal judge as “racist”, House speaker Paul Ryan has urged colleagues in a morning meeting to unite behind Trump, CNN reports.
“They heard the speaker make it pretty clear to them that it’s time to unite behind Donald Trump,” but “he did not specifically urge” lawmakers to unite behind Trump, CNN’s Manu Raju reports:
Paul Ryan tells GOP in meeting: It is time to be united. @mkraju reports https://t.co/WIxHOtEITG
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) June 8, 2016
Updated
Trump on Jesus: 'somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind'
More from the Cal Thomas interview:
CT: Who do you say Jesus is?
DT: Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence. Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind.
Trump 'I don't care if a judge is Mexican or what'
Tribune content has published a new Donald Trump interview with columnist Cal Thomas, in which Trump comes out with many familiar lines, but also some new ones.
Ask whether he plans “less talk about Mexicans,” Trump says that he never judged Gonzalo Curiel on his Mexican heritage per se, but that he has “been treated very unfairly”.
Here’s a passage from the Q-and-A:
CT: So there will be less talk about Mexicans and other things and more about issues?
DT: Yes, the reason I bring up the (Trump University) lawsuit, because it is a lawsuit I am going to win. … I have thousands of students who loved the school and I’ve been treated very unfairly in that lawsuit. I don’t care if a judge is Mexican or what. What I care about is to be treated fairly. And the only reason I spent time on it is when they ask me a question, instead of saying I have no comment and then winning the case two years from now, I’d rather bring up parts of the case. For instance, you possibly didn’t know I have many thousands of letters saying the course was great. And people have actually been successful after they took the course. It’s worth my while to explain this because people then say, ‘Wow, I never knew that.’
Trump has been referring testily for weeks specifically to Curiel’s “Mexican heritage,” calling the judge “a hater of Donald Trump” who “happens to be, we believe, Mexican”. Trump began talking about Trump University a lot on 27 May at a rally in San Diego. You can watch the video beginning at 22m on CSPAN here. Trump said Curiel’s Mexican heritage presented an “absolute conflict” in an interview on 3 June.
Clinton campaign launches 'Republicans against Trump'
The Hillary Clinton campaign has launched a “Republicans against Trump” web site – republicansagainsttrump.org.
Both Trump and Clinton last night invited disillusioned voters from across the aisle to join their campaigns. But the Clinton campaign appears to be ahead of Trump at attempting to organize crossover voters.
[Update: Clinton to appear on Fox News]:
.@BretBaier: "We have Secretary @HillaryClinton on #SpecialReport tomorrow at 6 PM." #OReillyFactor
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 8, 2016
The new web site, flagged by Politico, asks voters for contact information and promises a bumper sticker. It comes with a “pledge”:
Donald Trump is not qualified to be president. He does not represent my beliefs as a Republican and, more importantly, my values as an American. He does not speak for me and I will not vote for him.
At bottom is the note “paid for by Hillary for America”.
Last night in Brooklyn, Clinton said the election was “about millions of Americans coming together so take we are better than this”:
We won’t let this happen in America. And if you agree, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, I hope you will join us...
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Hewitt urges Republicans to dump Trump
Influential conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt has for the first time said that Republicans should avoid nominating Donald Trump as president, “because we’re going to get killed with this nominee”:
“It’s like ignoring stage 4 cancer. You can’t do it. You gotta go attack it. And right now the Republican party is facing, the plane is heading toward the mountain, after the last 72 hours...
“I think the party ought to change the nominee. Because we’re going to get killed with this nominee... they ought to get together and let the convention decide it. If Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next four to five weeks, great, they can keep him... But it’s awful and it ended bad last night.”
Hillary Clinton’s long fight to the nomination showed her “raw determination, perseverance and resilience, her singular qualities,” writes Jill Abramson for the Guardian, after stopping by Clinton’s victory rally at the Brooklyn Navy Yard:
Mothers brought their daughters. One father, Matthew Gunn, brought his five-year-old, Madeleine, sporting a Hillary cap and T-shirt that was swimming on her.
Crammed into a giant greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard (I almost stepped on Madeleine in the crush), they came to see history being made.
Eight years ago to the day, Hillary Clinton, in clearing the way for Barack Obama, talked in a moving concession speech about putting 18 million cracks in the hardest glass ceiling of all. She has crawled over broken glass in 2016 to reach the next rung, becoming the first female nominee of a major US political party.
The slog to beat Bernie Sanders was longer and far more arduous than expected. But all those caucuses, debates and primaries showed Clinton’s raw determination, perseverance and resilience, her singular qualities. They have grown stronger with each step in her political evolution, from first lady to US senator, secretary of state and two-time presidential candidate. They are qualities even her detractors admire and fear.
Read the full piece:
Clinton on a two-woman ticket: 'maybe'
In an interview with ABC News broadcast late Tuesday, Hillary Clinton told David Muir that “at some point” the country would be ready for a two-woman White House ticket – “maybe this time, maybe in the future”.
The speculation was in response to a question about Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. But Clinton pretty much declined to indulge veepstakes talk:
CLINTON: Well, I’m not going to get into vice presidential choices but I have the highest regard for Senator Warren.
MUIR: Let’s put the name aside though, do you think the country would be ready for two women?
CLINTON: I think at some point. Maybe this time, maybe in the future. But we’re going to be looking for the most qualified person to become president should something happen to me, if I’m fortunate enough to be the president.
MUIR: Is Bernie Sanders? Would he be a good vice president?
CLINTON: We’re gonna be looking at everybody who has something to contribute.
MUIR: How short is the short list, Secretary?
CLINTON: Well we don’t have a short list yet. We’re just beginning to gather up information and think about this.
Clinton's California romp
An extremely solid performance in congressional districts with high proportions of Latino voters drove Hillary Clinton to an unexpectedly strong performance Tuesday in California – unexpected, that is, if you place much faith in the polls:
RCP avg of CA Dem polls on Tuesday: Clinton up by 2.0. Actual result: Clinton up by 13.0. https://t.co/Q3v6loFqiu
— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 8, 2016
Moreover, Clinton's lead in CA CD's where Latinos make up 40%+ of eligible voters is larger than any public poll had her margin w/ Latinos.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) June 8, 2016
That healthy margin among Latinos, should it hold for Clinton in the general election, would serve her well in the swing state of Florida, in states in which Democrats are eager to extend recent victories (Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico) and in the potential pick-off state of Arizona.
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Clinton manager: 'we just stuck together'
Tremors of doubt and reports of a shakeup inside the Hillary Clinton campaign after Bernie Sanders’ whopping victory in the New Hampshire primary – and Clinton’s meager Iowa caucuses win – gave way to a sense of confidence after Clinton won five out of five of the “super Tuesday” contests on 15 March, including Florida and Ohio, campaign manager Robby Mook tells the AP:
“We just stuck together and hung together,” said Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager and a target of early shakeup rumors. “That was a really galvanizing and important moment for the campaign.”
Missouri senator Claire McCaskill tells AP the early moment of doubt was real, however:
“There was a moment when we were worried,” recalled Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Clinton backer. “We thought this will be really a test, can she withstand everyone talking in her ear?”
The AP postmortem has some rich detail:
Gone were the old Clinton hands, with their warring fiefdoms. Mook, a young operative known for inspiring fierce loyalty among his staff, prided himself on thriftiness. Aides were ordered to take cramped buses instead of the train between New York and Washington. Donors used to attending catered events sometimes found themselves on their own for meals at finance gatherings. When the staff traveled to Las Vegas for the first Democratic debate, they had to share rooms at Circus Circus, an aging hotel on the strip that ran $29 per night.
“When that cost gets further reduced to $14.50 because you discover you’ll have a roommate, now that’s the sign of a madman,” Nick Merrill, Clinton’s traveling spokesman, joked about Mook.
Read the full piece here.
Democratic unity watch
The Washington Post reports that Bernie Sanders’ sole Senate ally and a leader of congressional progressives are calling for unity this morning:
Two top Sanders backers -- Sen Merkley and Rep Grijalva -- tell me it's time to unite behind Hillary: https://t.co/PYGQAODSC0
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 8, 2016
Once a candidate has won a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of the popular vote, which Secretary Clinton has now done, we have our nominee,” Merkley told the Post’s Greg Sargent. “This is the moment when we need to start bringing parts of the party together so they can go into the convention with locked arms and go out of the convention unified into the general election.”
“He’s gonna do the right thing,” Grijalva told the Post, referring to Sanders.
Tom Steyer, meanwhile, the billionaire hedge fund manager / environmental activist, has issued a statement endorsing Clinton, in significant reassurance that whatever may go wrong for her campaign and groups that would support it in the coming months, they won’t soon run out of money.
“Now is the time to defeat Donald Trump,” Steyer says:
Tom Steyer endorses Hillary pic.twitter.com/0BOvOw12iz
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) June 8, 2016
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Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Hillary Clinton won big, Bernie Sanders stayed in, and Donald Trump played it straight in an effort to reassure Republicans – that’s last night in a nutshell, as the final states held their primaries.
Clinton claimed the mantle of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, solidifying her likely status as the first woman in US history to be nominated by a major party for president.
Sanders said he would “take our fight to ... Philadelphia” for the party’s national convention, but he dropped mention of winning the nomination and he did not attack Clinton. Clinton was projected as winner in California early Wednesday, by a poll-busting 56-43 split with 94.4% reporting. Our comprehensive results page is here.
In one of many signs that the Democratic nominating contest is winding down to a somewhat organized conclusion, Barack Obama called both Clinton and Sanders last night, congratulating Clinton and thanking Sanders for “energizing millions”. Sanders and Obama will meet, at the senator’s request, at the White House on Thursday.
Earlier Tuesday, a seemingly chastened Trump gave a scripted speech in which he sought to reassure party colleagues that his remarks in recent days, branded by many of those colleagues as racist, did not represent the candidate he was about to become.
“I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle, and I will never ever let you down ... I will make you proud of our party and of the movement,” Trump said.
Trump described a policy vision called America First and said he would soon, maybe Monday, deliver a speech describing what’s wrong with “the Clintons”.
Clinton did not wait to attack Trump. In a smiling victory speech in a joyous Brooklyn auditorium with the word “history” echoing in every corner, Clinton said Trump was “temperamentally unfit to be president” and “goes against everything we stand for”, and she said “make America great again” was code for “let’s take America backwards”.
Clinton’s delegate stash grew to 2,755, well over the 2,383 majority mark. That number includes the free-range superdelegates who Sanders seemed last night to have tacitly admitted were not on the verge of abandoning the presumptive nominee:
Thank you for reading, and please join us in the comments.
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