Today in Campaign 2016
There ain’t no party like the Republican party, because the Republican party don’t stop - even during the brewings of a civil war. As conflict foments between #NeverTrump forces, lead by the most powerful elected Republican in the country, and the party’s impossibly popular presumptive presidential nominee, members of the Grand Ol’ Party were forced to choose sides for a battle nobody wants to fight.
It’s like the newest Marvel movie, only without robots or Chris Pine.
- House speaker Paul Ryan lead the #NeverTrump charge, declining to endorse presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump at this time, telling CNN that “I’m not there right now.” “I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper, in his first interview since Trump appeared to clinch the party’s presidential nomination following the suspension of his last remaining rivals’ campaigns. “Conservatives want to know: Does he share our values? There are lots of questions that conservatives are going to want answers to. At this point,” Ryan said, “I think he has to do more to unify this party.”
- Arizona senator John McCain, Trump’s forebear as a Republican presidential nominee who is running for his sixth term in the senate, endorsed Trump - despite their extreme differences on immigration and torture - but was captured on audio tape admitting that Trump’s presence on the ticket poses an obstacle to his re-election. “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by Politico. “If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I’ve never seen in 30 years.”
- Junior Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, who’s made a name for himself trashing Trump – being the only senate Republican, not counting growlin’ Lindsey Graham, to do so – has written a letter on Facebook calling for a third-party candidate in the 2016 race for the White House. Sasse seems to rule himself out, pleading parental duties, but at the same time he seems to reckon himself fit for the role.
- Trump, meanwhile, continued the day as if the entire Republican establishment had welcomed him to the club with a Harry & David gift basket, holding a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, in which he dismissed CFCs as the cause of ozone depletion and made an oblique reference to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s marriage.
- The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also made a policy declaration today, telling Fox News this evening that he thinks that the UK would be better off not being associated with the European Union. “I think the migration has been a horrible thing for Europe,” Trump told Bret Baier. “A lot of that was pushed by the EU. I would say that they’re better off without it, personally, but I’m not making that as a recommendation. Just my feeling.”
- As the FBI probe into former secretary of state Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure at the state department comes close to conclusion, the law enforcement agency interviewed some of Clinton’s closest aides in connection with the investigation, according to CNN. Multiple aides, including longtime confidante Huma Abedin, have been interviewed by federal investigators, some of them multiple times, according to the report. Investigators have reportedly found no evidence that Clinton willingly violated federal law. The interviews were described to CNN by law enforcement sources as “routine.”
That’s it for today from the trenches - we’ll be back tomorrow with more up-to-the-minute coverage from the campaign trail!
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson: I'm supporting Donald Trump
Telling the New York Times that Donald Trump won the Republican nomination “fair and square,” billionaire casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson said that he is supporting Donald Trump’s bid to win the White House in November.
“Yes, I’m a Republican, he’s a Republican,” Adelson told the Times. “He’s our nominee. Whoever the nominee would turn out to be, any one of the 17 - he was one of the 17. He won fair and square.”
Adelson’s newly acquired Las Vegas newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had endorsed Florida senator Marco Rubio’s bid for the Republican nomination.
Two days after he became the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump was in high spirits as he wore a hard hat on stage and mimed the work of a coal miner, reports the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs:
Becoming the presumptive Republican nominee has not changed Donald Trumpat all.
In a rally in Charleston, West Virginia in front of roughly 13,000 screaming attendees, the newly minted Republican nominee took a victory lap. Trump proclaimed “I wish the primaries would keep going but I am the only one left” and celebrated by repeatedly urging his supporters to not even bother voting in West Virginia’s upcoming primary and instead “save your vote for the general election in November”.
Two days after Ted Cruz suspended his campaign, effectively ending the Republican primary, Trump was in high spirits as he briefly wore a hard hat on stage and mimed the work of a coal miner. In a state where coal mining is still an important industry, Trump repeatedly emphasized his commitment to the industry.
He told the crowd, “I’ll tell you a little secret. I’ve always been fascinated by the mines,” speaking in front of a backdrop of uniformed coal miners holding signs that read “Trump digs coal”.
In lieu of his typical attacks on primary opponents – calling Cruz “lyin’ Ted” and criticizing the way John Kasich eats food – Trump pivoted his vitriol toward Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. He made veiled reference to former president Bill Clinton’s liaison with Monica Lewinsky in the White House and said of the Clinton Foundation, “the whole thing is a scam”.
Trump made no mention of the criticism that he is receiving from inside his own party.
A little more than 24 hours after becoming the last man standing in the quest for the Republican presidential nomination, billionaire Donald Trump came within a whisker of doing what he recently pledged he would only do if provoked: bring up Hillary Clinton’s marriage.
At a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, Trump was riffing on Clinton’s role in her husband’s administration when he made a not-so-oblique reference:
“Let me tell you something - the Clinton administration, of which Hillary Clinton was definitely a part, she was part of almost everything. Almost, I say, not everything.”
The audience laughed and applauded at the non-reference, to which Trump responded with mock chagrin.
“I didn’t think the people of West Virginia thought like that. That’s terrible. You should be ashamed of yourselves!” he said, pretending to scold them. “Terrible, terrible people.
In a new fundraising email with the subject line “I’m so sorry,” Hillary Clinton’s campaign is reaching out to members of racial, ethnic and religious minorities who have been alienated by aggressive rhetoric and policy proposals by presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“If you or anyone you know is Muslim-American, Mexican-American, a woman, an immigrant, or anyone else Trump has attacked, then I have one thing to say to you,” writes deputy communications director Kristina Schake.
“First: I’m so sorry for what you’ve had to listen to on the news and read in the papers every single day.”
“And second: We’re going to fight back, and we’re going to make sure that none of his horrible ideas ever become law - that’s a promise,” Schake continues. “But Hillary is counting on you to be a critical part of that fight, and that starts today with our brand new Stop Trump Fund.”
Donald Trump on the military:
In many cases, illegal immigrants are being taken care of better than our vets.
Illinois governor Bruce Rauner won’t attend the Republican National Convention or endorse Donald Trump for president, according to the Chicago Tribute, joining the ranks of numerous other prominent Republican politicians who have foregone endorsing the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Raunder joins Illinois senator Mark Kirk, who faces a tight bid for reelection against Democratic opponent, representative Tammy Duckworth.
Another #NeverTrump:
Ex-Gov. Christine Todd Whitman says she will write in @JohnKasich for president. #hardball
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) May 5, 2016
Donald Trump tells an audience in Charleston, West Virginia, that the removal of chlorofluorocarbons from aerosol cans used to dispel hairspray is “like a lot of rules and regulations you have in the mines” - that is, unimportant.
“You’re not allowed to use hairspray anymore, because it affects the ozone – you know that, right?” Trump said. The riff was prompted after he checked his iconic hair after donning a mining helmet at the lectern.
“In the old days, you put he hairspray on, it’s good; now, you put it on, it lasts, like, twelve minutes,” Trump said. “You’re telling me that affects the ozone layer? I say no way, folks - no way! No way! That’s like a lot of rules and regulations you have in the mines.”
“You know why it’s #NeverTrump?” Trump asks the audience.
Because I’m gonna stop the gravy train for all of these consultants who are ripping off our country.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry, who once called Donald Trump’s candidacy “a cancer on conservatism,” told CNN this evening that he is endorsing Trump’s candidacy as the presumptive Republican nominee and is “open to any way I can help” get him elected - leaving the door open to be a potential running mate.
“He is not a perfect man,” Perry added. “But what I do believe is that he loves this country and he will surround himself with capable, experienced people and he will listen to them.”
Perry might have wanted to let his webmasters know - the entire speech in which he said Trump “foments agitation, thrives on division, scapegoats certain elements of society, and offers empty platitudes and promises” is still online.
Updated
Donald Trump rails against Hillary Clinton’s comments on coal miners in March, in which she said “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” calling the comment “a tough one to explain, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’ll tell you what folks - you’re amazing people, and we’re gonna take care of a lot of years of horrible abuse,” Trump said to miners in the audience. “And you can count on it, 100%.”
“The miners don’t wanna leave!” he said, of miners looking for work following the closure of coal mines. “We’re gonna open the mines, we’re gonna open the mines.”
“I see over here: ‘Trump Digs Coal,’” Trump says, reading from campaign signs that his campaign had printed out. “That’s true.”
“We’re gonna bring back all those miners, you’re gonna be so proud of your president, you’re gonna be so proud of your country.”
Donald Trump holds first rally as presumptive Republican nominee
Speaking in Charleston, West Virginia, Donald Trump has begun his first campaign rally as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
To the strains of John Denver’s Country Roads, Take Me Home - “West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country roads” - Trump told the crowd that he almost missed his opponents for the Republican nomination.
“I want the primaries to keep going - but everybody’s out - I’m the only one left,” Trump said. “That’s okay, right?”
Updated
More than eight in 10 Republicans who support Donald Trump regard refugees from Iraq and Syria as a major threat to the US, according to a survey that lays bare the deep political polarisation in America.
Trump’s creed of “America first” set out in a recent foreign policy speech in Washington appears to be resonating with Republicans who believe the US should put its own interests ahead of playing the role of global policeman.
“America’s Place in the World” is a survey of foreign policy attitudes conducted periodically by the Pew Research Center. The latest poll was carried out among 2,008 US adults from 12 to 19 April, before Ted Cruz and John Kasich pulled out of the race for the Republican nomination.
For those who back the New York billionaire in the primary campaign, the large number of refugees fleeing the conflict in Iraq and Syria is especially worrisome, according to Pew. Some 85% of Republican voters who support Trump say the refugees are a major threat to the US, compared with 74% of those who prefer Cruz and 59% who prefer Kasich. Trump has promised a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.
Among Democratic voters, by contrast, just 40% of Clinton supporters and 34% of Bernie Sanders backers view the refugee migration as a major threat. For Trump supporters, only the threat from Islamic State (93%) ranks higher than refugees, among the eight issues included.
Trump may claim “I love Hispanics!” but 81% of Hispanics have an unfavorable opinion of Trump according, to a Washington Post-ABC News poll of 1,010 adults conducted last month.
A separate poll conducted last month by America’s Voice/Latino Decisions National Survey put the number a little higher - 87% said they had an unfavorable opinion of the New York billionaire (among Republican Latinos, that number slid a little lower to 73% unfavorable).
Donald Trump: UK is 'better off without' the European Union
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told Fox News this evening that he thinks that the UK would be better off not being associated with the European Union.
“I think the migration has been a horrible thing for Europe,” Trump told Bret Baier. “A lot of that was pushed by the EU. I would say that they’re better off without it, personally, but I’m not making that as a recommendation. Just my feeling.”
“I know Great Britain very well,” Trump continued. “I know, you know, the country very well. I have a lot of investments there. I would say that they’re better off without it. But I want them to make their own decision.”
Trump has expressed skepticism of the UK’s membership in the EU before. In March, he said he understood support for the so-called “Brexit” because the UK’s allies were “doing nothing”.
“I think they [Britain] may leave the EU, yes, they’re having a lot of problems,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I don’t want to make a comment about the UK leaving but I think they may leave based on – I’m there a lot, I have a lot of investments in the UK and I will tell you that I think they may leave based on everything I’m hearing.”
Just yesterday, Trump criticized Barack Obama for coming out against the Brexit, telling the Daily Mail: “I didn’t think it was a good thing for him to do it.
“I would say that I’m not going to give Britain any advice, but I know there are a lot of people that are very, very much against being in the EU.”
Updated
Sens. John McCain, Dan Sullivan, Tom Cotton say they'll 'support the nominee'
There ain’t no party like the Republican party, because the Republican party is mandatory.
Arizona senator John McCain, Alaska senator Dan Sullivan and Arkansas senator Tom Cotton have all gone on the record to say that, despite vast differences in policy and ideology, they will “support the nominee” of the Republican party.
“Well, first of all, I’ve always said I would support the nominee of the party, the party of Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt,” McCain said to local radio KTAR, first reported by Buzzfeed News. “I have strong disagreements with Mr. Trump on a number of issues. I believe four years of Hillary Clinton will be an absolute disaster for this nation, as far as national security is concerned.”
“I’m not comfortable with a lot of the things that he has done,” McCain added.
“There’s all this focus on Trump and the White House as there should be but what a lot of us are focused on is making sure regardless of whether Hillary wins or Trump wins,” Sullivan reiterated. “One of the most important things we have to do is keep the US Senate in Republican hands.”
“I’ve long said that I will support the Republican nominee because we can’t afford a third Obama-Clinton term,” said Cotton.
“I’m supporting the nominee of the party,” said McCain, when asked again if he was supporting Trump. “The answer is I am supporting the nominee.”
There’s a lot of people right now (rightly) freaking out about the fact that Donald Trump, as the presumptive Republican nominee, will soon be entitled to receive classified briefings from US intelligence agencies about national security issues. It’s just one more terrifying sign that he is that much closer to the presidency.
As Buzzfeed is reporting, some Democrats are now making the argument Trump shouldn’t receive these briefings at all. Sen. Chris Murphy said today, Trump “has no moral or ethical grounding,” warning that “he wouldn’t think twice of taking classified information and putting it out in the public realm if he thought it served his political purposes.”
But is this the argument Democrats really want to make right now? Currently, there is only one candidate in the race accused of mishandling classified information, and that’s Hillary Clinton. No matter your position on whether she is guilty or not, this doesn’t seem like something they would want to draw additional attention to.
On another more humorous/conspiratorial note: It’s well known that many people in the military and intelligence community are just as scared of a Trump presidency as much of the general public. So here’s an admittedly crazy hypothetical to think about: Intelligence agency officials purposefully feed Trump juicy information in the classified briefings, knowing that he’ll immediately tell the public, then refer him for prosecution.
You just know he wouldn’t be able to help himself.
Updated
The Obama administration has commuted the prison sentences of 58 federal convicts, part of a broader push to revamp the criminal justice system and ease punishments for non-violent drug offenders.
The people whose prison terms were cut short include 18 who were given life sentences. Most who received clemency are now due for release on 2 September, though others will be released over the next two years.
The latest wave – which includes defendants convicted of dealing cocaine, crack and methamphetamine – brings to 306 the total number of inmates whose sentences Obama has commuted, the vast majority for drug crimes. The pace of commutations – along with pardons, which are less common – is expected to increase as the end of Obama’s presidency nears.
The prisoners given commutations have been “granted a second chance to lead productive and law-abiding lives,” said the deputy attorney general, Sally Quillian Yates.
“Our clemency work is continuing as part of our broader efforts to effectuate criminal justice reform and ensure fairness and proportionality in sentencing,” Yates said.
Donald Trump has responded to Paul Ryan in a (relatively tame!) statement this evening:
I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda. Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!
New Jersey governor and Donald Trump campaign surrogate Chris Christie is reportedly hoping to sway Speaker Paul Ryan’s opinion on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, according to WNYC.
new: @ChrisChristie says he's going to reach out to @SpeakerRyan to find out "what his concerns are" about endorsing @realDonaldTrump
— Matt Katz (@mattkatz00) May 5, 2016
Donald Trump’s first rally after becoming the presumptive Republican nominee will be held in the Charleston Civil Center in the downtown of West Virginia’s capital city. The brutalist hunk of concrete filled up hours before and as an orderly line dissolved into a horde of people desperate to make it in the event.
Campaign handing out signs that say "Trump digs coal" in Charleston WV pic.twitter.com/fmtnS4tZ12
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 5, 2016
Trump was already pivoting to a general election message giving prime seats to coal miners, still in uniform from work, with signs planted saying “Trump Digs Coal.” The crowd seemed to be wearing even more Trump merchandise than usual for the rally as the cavernous space, which held over 13,000, filled up.
FBI interviews Hillary Clinton's closest aides in email probe
As the FBI probe into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure at the state department comes close to conclusion, the law enforcement agency interviewed some of Clinton’s closest aides in connection with the investigation, according to CNN.
Multiple aides, including longtime confidante Huma Abedin, have been interviewed by federal investigators, some of them multiple times, according to the report. Investigators have reportedly found no evidence that Clinton willingly violated federal law. The interviews were described to CNN by law enforcement sources as “routine.”
Clinton herself, meanwhile, has not yet been interviewed, and a scheduled sitdown with the FBI has not yet been finalized, but is expected to take place within the next few weeks.
Updated
In an interview with the Associated Press, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump suggested that he plans to reveal his vice presidential nominee at the party’s convention in Cleveland this July.
“It is early - we just won yesterday,” Trump said. “I will announce it at the convention. A lot of people are interested.”
What’s that? The Republican speaker of the house declined to endorse his party’s presumptive nominee because of intense philosophical differences that he views as anathema to the conservative movement?
We couldn’t hear you - we were too busy reading this email from the Committee for Arrangements for the Republican National Committee, sent out at the same time as Paul Ryan’s interview on CNN, which announces the official florists of the convention.
If flowers can’t distract people from the impending Republican civil war, nothing can.
Updated
Continuing the seismic interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper in which he declined to endorse presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan told Tapper that while “it’s possible” that Trump could bridge the ideological gap between his campaign and the Republican establishment, the speaker’s focus will be on maintaining the party’s majority in the House of Representatives this fall.
“I desperately want to see us unify on principles and ideas and policies and agenda,” Ryan said, “and I’m hoping where that’s gonna go.”
“I’m not saying he’s got to support my policies - he won fair and square on his policies, and yes, he comes from a different wing of the party than I do, but I gotta tell you, if we don’t unify all wings of this party, we’re gonna lose this election,” Ryan said.
That said, “we’ve got a ways to go from here to there.”
Ryan said that, as speaker of the house, he will gavel the Republican National Convention into order, “but we’ll see” if Trump has made any substantive moves toward unifying the party by that point.
Tapper pressed Ryan on the substantive ideological differences on religious liberty, free trade and immigration between Trump and the Republican orthodoxy, and asked if it was reasonable to expect Trump to abandon his principles for the sake of party unity.
“We’ve got work to do,” Ryan responded, tightlipped.
That said, Ryan declared that he was more focused on maintaining the Republican majority in Congress than in the future of the Republican party. “I don’t think it’s right to think about 2017 and beyond - I’m focused on 2016,” he said. “My focus this fall is, has been and will be the House majority.”
After once again declining to entertain the notion that he might become a “consensus candidate” in the event of chaos at the convention, Ryan closed out the interview by laughing dismissing Trump’s assertion in March that “he will have to pay a big price” if he doesn’t get along with the billionaire.
“No, I’m not worried about that,” Ryan said with a chuckle.
Updated
Speaker Paul Ryan declines to endorse Donald Trump: 'I'm just not ready to do that at this point'
In a move that raises the civil war brewing in the Republican party to a new level, House speaker Paul Ryan has declined to endorse presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump at this time, telling CNN that “I’m not there right now.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan. Photograph: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
“I’m just not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper, in his first interview since Trump appeared to clinch the party’s presidential nomination following the suspension of his last remaining rivals’ campaigns. “Conservatives want to know: Does he share our values? There are lots of questions that conservatives are going to want answers to.”
“At this point,” Ryan said, “I think he has to do more to unify this party.”
“I’m familiar with the points you’re making,” Ryan said in response to a laundry list of episodes from the primary campaign - ranging from trump’s comments about women to his flirtation with connecting primary opponent Ted Cruz’s father with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“I wanna see a verification that our conservative principles will be championed, will be run on, will be represented,” Ryan continued. But just as Trump needs to moderate his message, Ryan said, “there’s a bit of humility that each of us needs, particularly in Congress.”
“He tapped into something in this country that is very powerful,” Ryan said of Trump, “but at the same time, now that we have the presumptive nominee who is going to be our standard-bearer,” who must espouse “the principles that not only built our party but built this country.”
“Looking back on the primary campaign, there are instances and episodes that question that,” Ryan concluded, “but I hope we can get there.”
Updated
Ex-KKK leader: Donald Trump's victory will expose 'Jewish supremacists who control our country'
White nationalist and onetime candidate for US senate David Duke has hailed Donald Trump’s accession to the Republican presidential nomination as an “amazing victory,” calling Trump’s rise a chance for white supremacists to expose the “Jewish supremacists who control our country.”
“The Trump campaign at a whole series of levels is a great opportunity for us to expose the people who really run the Republican Party, who run the Democratic Party, who run the political establishment and who are leading us all to disaster,” said Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, of the “Jewish extremists” who he accused of controlling American government on his radio show.
First reported by RightWingWatch, Duke exhorted listeners to “make sure that Trump understands that we expect him to follow through on these things and we expect him to be our white knight, our advocate and our person.”
Duke’s endorsement of Trump in February - and his subsequent declaration that the billionaire’s candidacy might rehabilitate the public image of Adolf Hitler - has highlighted Trump’s appeal among the so-called “alt-right,” an amorphous political movement whose proponents frequently espouse radical racialist views.
Trump initially declined to condemn Duke after his endorsement, telling CNN that “I don’t know anything about David Duke; certainly I would disavow it if I thought there was something wrong.”
Trump subsequently reversed course, tweeting a video in which he told press: “As I stated at the press conference on Friday regarding David Duke – I disavow.” Trump also did not condemn the Ku Klux Klan, as he was asked to during the interview.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday, Trump also declined to send a message to supporters who had sent a torrent of antisemitic and threatening messages to journalist Julia Ioffe this week after her profile of Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, appeared in this month’s issue of GQ.
“I don’t have a message to the fans – I’m not gonna talk about that,” the presumptive nominee said.
All of this has only emboldened Trump’s white supremacist acolytes, Duke said in his radio show, before pushing his listeners to normalize Trump’s more extreme positions on immigration and national security.
“This is a movement to take America back, and when we say ‘take America back,’ we know exactly what that means,” Duke said, “and I think everybody who says that knows what it means. And if we don’t keep putting that heat, if we don’t keep pushing the envelope over, we’ve got to be so far to the right ... for our people that Trump seems moderate so that he will have space to move to the right himself because we’ve got to start an evolutionary movement to the right.”
Trump: 'I love Hispanics'
...and taco bowls. Thumbs up.
(What prevented this patronizing tweet from not deploying a “feliz”?)
Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016
Updated
Reid warns Democrats not to get 'overconfident'
Senate minority leader Harry Reid has he was concerned that Democrats are “over-confident” about their chances in 2016, Reuters reports:
Reid, in a conference call with reporters in both Washington and his home state of Nevada, said: “Am I concerned about it? Of course I am,” adding, “I think this race could be a debacle for the Republicans. But I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m not being over confident.”
Andy Card, former chief of staff to George W Bush, said on MSNBC that he would “probably write in a name” if faced with a choice between Trump and Clinton for president.
Anguished Republicans began cycling through the five stages of grief on Thursday in the wake of what one leading voice of the establishment called Donald Trump’s “hostile takeover” of their party, write the Guardian’s Dan Roberts and Ben Jacobs.
Here’s a bit from the middle of the piece:
Others in Congress appear ready for bargaining, a phase of seeking to regain control that psychologists describe as a normal reaction to feelings of helplessness after a loss.
“As the presumptive nominee, [Trump] now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals,” wrote the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, in language that made clear his desire to make the best of a bad situation.
But Trump has won landslide after landslide among Republican voters by positioning himself as the ultimate political outsider. There is little evidence he plans to tinker with a winning formula to make congressional leaders feel better.
Read the full piece here:
Here’s further from Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs on Bob Dole’s novel decision to attend his party’s national convention this year (see earlier):
“Senator Dole is planning to briefly attend the convention in Cleveland,” a spokesperson told the Guardian.
Despite his willingness to attend the convention, Dole did not commit to supporting the Republican nominee in November. “We’ll have to wait and see how the convention plays out,” said Dole’s spokesperson.
Dole, who was also the party’s vice presidential nominee in 1976 in addition to being its 1996 presidential nominee, spent over 30 years as a Republican elected official and served as both Senate Majority Leader and chair of the RNC.
The announcement comes after all four other living former nominees George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney have made clear that they will not attend the party’s convention in Cleveland. Both Bushes have said through spokesmen that they will not endorse in the election while McCain has said he will support the party’s nominee. Romney, who gave a blistering attack on Trump in March has yet to weigh in on whether he will support the party’s presumptive nominee.
Former Ron Paul aides convicted
Three former Ron Paul aides have been found guilty on charges of conspiracy, causing false campaign expenditure reports and engaging in a false statement schemes in a 2012 plan to pay an Iowa state senator $73,000 to switch to Paul from Representative Michele Bachmann before the caucuses.
Former Ron Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton, deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari and John Tate were convicted on the charges after a jury failed to reach a verdict in a 2015 trial on the same charges.
Both Benton and Tate were advisers to Rand Paul, Ron’s son, during his recent presidential campaign. Benton is now involved with an outside political group supporting Donald Trump.
The Guardian has asked Rand Paul’s team for comment.
The Des Moines Register was at the scene at the federal court for the southern district of Iowa:
Jurors have found former Ron Paul aides Jesse Benton, Dimitri Kesari and John Tate guilty on all counts in 2012 endorsement payment scandal.
— Grant Rodgers (@GrantMRodgers) May 5, 2016
In October, a jury found Benton not guilty of lying to FBI agents in 2014 but convicted Kesari on charges of causing a false record. Kesari was found not guilty of obstruction of justice.
Former Ron Paul campaign chair Jesse Benton leaves courthouse with wife (who is Paul's granddaughter). No comment. pic.twitter.com/TASi3nmYoM
— Grant Rodgers (@GrantMRodgers) May 5, 2016
Dole to attend Republican convention
1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole will attend the national convention, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs has learned – but Dole’s not all in for Trump quite yet:
SCOOP: Bob Dole will attend RNC in July but WILL NOT commit to voting for the party's nominee in November
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 5, 2016
The convention is scheduled to adjourn on 21 July, the day before Dole’s 93rd birthday.
Despite the fact that Bob Dole is attending the RNC this year, he will not commit to voting for the Republican nominee in November.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 5, 2016
Romney skipping Republican convention
In the largest blow to Donald Trump’s campaign since Mitt Romney attacked his “third-grade theatrics” in a speech in March, Mitt Romney has announced he will not be attending Trump’s coronation in Cleveland.
Mitt Romney will skip Trump’s nominating convention in Cleveland https://t.co/zLIWFKv3OS
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) May 5, 2016
John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, also has said he would skip the convention in order to work on his own re-election. We’re kidding about Romney’s absence hurting Trump, but it is remarkable that the two previous Republican nominees and two previous Republican presidents are keeping such a distance from the emergent nominee.
Romney and McCain, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush will all be represented at Trump’s convention by four empty chairs.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) May 5, 2016
Updated
Master strategist Cruz no match for Trump's charisma
Ted Cruz did everything right in his campaign for the White House, writes Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs:
He built a happy campaign operation that achieved all of its ambitious goals. Cruz elbowed out candidate after candidate to consolidate support among social conservatives, Tea Partiers and libertarians in the Republican field. He raised considerable amounts of money to build a political apparatus unrivalled in the GOP field.
There was only one problem. Every successful move, every stratagem that took Cruz – who dropped out of the presidential race on Tuesday night after a disastrous loss in Indiana – from an ambitious Ivy Leaguer to one of the final three Republican candidates for the presidency prevented him from attaining the ultimate goal.
The Texas Republican was elected to the Senate in 2012 after winning a bitter primary as a Tea Party candidate. He was positioning himself for a White House bid almost from the get-go, travelling to Iowa for presidential cattle calls less than six months into taking office. In a legislative body that values tradition, Cruz’s undisguised ambition didn’t help him make friends. But what really alienated colleagues was his push to shut down the government in October 2013 in an attempt to defund Obamacare, the president’s signature healthcare reforms. The quixotic effort alienated almost all of his colleagues who were left calling him a “wacko bird” and viewed him as an amoral opportunist who would do anything for his own political gain.
Cruz did nothing to alter his image when he became the first candidate for the White House in 2016 to announce his campaign, in an event at Liberty Universityin Virginia in March last year. He was then racing to beat competitors with stronger roots in Iowa – such as Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee – to be the first out of the starting gate.
Cruz’s message that day was consistent with what the Texas senator would say every day on the campaign trail until the moment he withdrew from the race in Indianapolis on Tuesday. He told a crowd of college students: “I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America” and pledged to “reclaim the constitution”.
In fact, Cruz’s campaign was remarkable for its consistency. There was only one key issue on which Cruz changed his message significantly in the course of the campaign – Donald J Trump.
Read the full piece here:
Trump and his finance chair are both past Hillary Clinton donors. If Ted Cruz finds out about this there is going to be trouble.
One thing Trump and his new national finance director have in common: They've both donated to @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/d4RZtbpC62
— Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) May 5, 2016
Boxers turn pre-fight smack talk to Trump
Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez takes on Amir Khan in Las Vegas on Saturday, and the pair teamed up in their pre-fight news conference to punch back at Donald Trump, reports Guardian sport:
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, stoked tensions earlier this year when he condemned Mexican migrants as “rapists and criminals” before vowing to build a “great, great wall” to stop people coming across the border. Álvarez, the WBC middleweight champion, said that Trump’s words were unhelpful.
“I don’t really like getting into political issues but it hurts, it offends, I would like [Trump] to understand us,” said Álvarez. “When I’m out running, I see a lot of my countrymen working hard, they have not come here to rob and steal. We want to show him that we Mexicans come here to succeed and be victorious.”
Trump has also called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the US, and Khan, a British Muslim, kept a straight face as long as he could before joking: “You never know – this could be the last fight for me and Canelo here. That’s if Donald Trump becomes president.”
Oscar De La Hoya, whose company, Golden Boy, is promoting the event, announced that Trump would be attending the fight, but wouldn’t have ringside seats.
Fox apologizes for calling Trump 'ignorant,' 'crazy,' 'egocentric' and 'nasty'
Former Mexican president Vicente Fox has offered an apology to Donald Trump for having called the presumptive Republican nominee ‘ignorant,’ ‘crazy,’ ‘egocentric’ and ‘nasty’. Fox extended an invitation to Trump to “come to Mexico and to see what Mexico is all about.”
Fox previously took exception to Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and “make Mexico pay for it.”
“I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall. He should pay for it. He’s got the money,” Fox told Jorge Ramos on Fusion in February.
Fox issued an apology in an interview with Breitbart News Wednesday.
“I apologize,” Fox said. “Forgiveness is one of the greatest qualities that human beings have, is the quality of a compassionate leader. You have to be humble. You have to be compassionate. You have to love thy neighbor.”
“Love your nation. Love the world,” he added. “Yes, I’m humble enough as leadership be, [a] compassionate leader. If I offended you, I’m sorry. But what about the other way around?”
I don’t think he should follow the strategy of attacking others, offending others, to get to his purpose. There are other ways and means of doing it... I invite him to come to Mexico and to see what Mexico is all about.”
Senator writes anti-Trump open letter
Junior Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, who’s made a name for himself trashing Trump – being the only senate Republican, not counting growlin’ Lindsey Graham, to do so – has written a letter on Facebook calling for a third candidate in the 2016 race for the White House. Sasse seems to rule himself out, pleading parental duties, but at the same time he seems to reckon himself fit for the role.
The letter begins interestingly, describing the pressure Sasse is under to fall in line on Trump. (This pressure is party-wide: some Republican National Committee staffers were told Wednesday that they should leave by the end of the week if they couldn’t back Trump, the New York Times reported.)
Sasse writes:
“I’ve ignored my phone most of today, but the voicemail is overflowing with party bosses and politicos telling me that “although Trump is terrible,” we “have to” support him, “because the only choice is Trump or Hillary.”
This open letter aims simply to ask “WHY is that the only choice?”
AN OPEN LETTER
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) May 5, 2016
to those disappointed in both of our presidential candidate choices:https://t.co/vbwOi1UGhg
Goodnight.
The letter says most Americans think both Trump and Clinton are bad and then calls for a “thought experiment” on the topic of drafting an “honest leader”:
So...let’s have a thought experiment for a few weeks: Why shouldn’t America draft an honest leader who will focus on 70% solutions for the next four years? You know...an adult?
(Two notes for reporters:
**Such a leader should be able to campaign 24/7 for the next six months. Therefore he/she likely can’t be an engaged parent with little kids.
**Although I’m one of the most conservative members of the Senate, I’m not interested in an ideological purity test, because even a genuine consensus candidate would almost certainly be more conservative than either of the two dishonest liberals now leading the two national parties.)
Who does Sasse have in mind? Is he aware of the Texas deadline on Monday? Texas’ rules for running for president as an independent state:
Independent candidates for President file an application with the Secretary of State. The application must be submitted with a petition, and both documents must be filed no later than May 9, 2016.
Or does Sasse mean this third candidate once chosen would then somehow be nominated as a Republican?
Updated
Trumps appoints banker with Hollwood ties finance chairman
Donald Trump is wasting no time building that finance organization he was talking about yesterday. Trump has appointed Steven Mnuchin, like Trump a New York scion, as national finance chairman.
Mnuchin founded and runs Dune Capital Management LP, a private investment firm.
Mnuchin dabbled in Hollywood and scored some big wins – including none other than Avatar – before losing up to $80m for himself and partners in an investment in a Beverly Hills studio that filed for bankruptcy in August 2015, Variety reported:
The son of a prominent New York banker and arts patron, Mnuchin spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs building a fortune reportedly worth $46 million, before forming his own firm, Dune Capital, that would bring him even more luster. By the mid-2000s, Dune was providing financing for batches of winning movies, like the “X-Men” franchise and “Avatar,” Hollywood’s all-time box-office champion. [...]
With Relativity’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week, those high hopes have been dashed, and Mnuchin has been left in a particularly uncomfortable position. The money-man and fellow investors in a Dune Capital fund are said to have lost as much as $80 million — equity that is almost certain to be lost for good, said two sources familiar with the situation. And disgruntled Relativity investors privately are questioning how a bank Mnuchin once headed –OneWest Bank of Pasadena – was allowed by Relativity to drain $50 million from the studio just weeks prior to the July 30 insolvency filing.
“It’s a great privilege to be working with Mr. Trump to create a world class finance organization to support the campaign in the general election,” a Trump statement quoted Mnuchin as saying.
“Steven is a professional at the highest level with an extensive and very successful financial background,” the statement said Trump said.
“He brings unprecedented experience and expertise to a fundraising operation that will benefit the Republican Party and ultimately defeat Hillary Clinton.”
Looks like Mnuchin's given to many D's - Clinton, Obama, Kerry, Schumer - as well as R's. Definitely a Trumpian pick https://t.co/ofE44w4XVs
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) May 5, 2016
David Cameron suggests Donald Trump ‘deserves our respect’ – video
Donald Trump has announced two campaign stops for Friday: one in Omaha, Nebraska, which votes on Tuesday, and one in Eugene, Oregon, which votes the Tuesday after.
Tow truck driver ditches disabled woman because of Sanders sticker
A tow truck driver outside Asheville, North Carolina, responded to a stranded vehicle call Monday from a driver with disabilities, but when he saw her Bernie Sanders sticker he aborted the pick-up and left her on the side of the highway, Fox Carolina reported:
Kenneth Shupe said he was called to pick up a woman stranded on I-26 in Asheville on Monday.
When he saw “a bunch of Bernie Sanders stuff” he said he told the woman, “very politely,” that he could’t tow her car because she was “obviously a socialist” and advised her to “call the government” for a tow.
“Every business dealing in recent history with a socialist minded person I have not gotten paid,” Shupe said. “Every time I deal with these people I get ‘Berned’ with an ‘e’ not a ‘u’.”
Shupe, who runs Shupee Max Towing in Travelers Rest, said he is a conservative Christian who supports Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The Huffington Post reported the driver, Cassandra McWade, “collects disability payments and has psoriatic arthritis, impaired mobility, early stage Crohn’s disease, severe fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.”
McWade’s mother wrote about the incident on Facebook:
Heads up, friends.... Cass had a wreck in Asheville yesterday. She is fine, but the car was not driveable. We called our mechanic who was tied up in Easley at the time, so he sent ShupeeMax Towing to get her. Kenneth Shupee drove from Travelers Rest to Asheville, hooked up her car, and when he went around to the back, he came back and told her that he wouldn’t tow her because she had a Bernie sticker on the back of the car. HE LEFT HER ON THE SIDE OF THE INTERSTATE IN NC, and DROVE AWAY. Spread this bigot’s story far & wide. Btw, I’m guessing he’s a Trump supporter. The only difference is that the Don would have taken the money, because he at least realizes that liberals’ money spends just the same as anyone else’s. Dumb (expletive) cost himself money driving all the way to Asheville & back for nothing. (Expletive).
Read the full piece here. H/t Dana Liebelson / Huffington Post
Updated
Trump reverses on self-funding
During the primary season, Donald Trump has claimed to self-fund his campaign while accepting individual contributions, which he has explained are too small to send back. But since Trump has not built or encouraged the growth of a Super Pac superstructure around his candidacy – or made the kinds of repeated appeals for donations that most candidates do, and has personally loaned his campaign millions – his claims to self-funding are not four-Pinnochios-false.
Trump has spotlighted the self-funding that he has done as a central virtue of his candidacy. “I’m self-funding and I am going to take care of the people – not the special interests and insurance companies like the other candidates,” he said in February.
That’s over now, with Trump telling the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that he will create a “world-class finance organization” to power his campaign.
“I’ll be putting up money, but won’t be completely self-funding, as I did during the primaries,” Trump said.
If you visit the Trump web site you can donate now to make America great again. About 10.7m people have voted for Trump so far, indicative of what might develop into a grassroots donor network (about 12.5m people have voted for Clinton). Here’s the New York Times’ campaign funding correspondent:
He has not ruled out taking public financing, but also said he wants to raise a billion dollars for the general, which, better hurry dude.
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) May 4, 2016
I suspect Trump could reach Sanders volume (and beyond) on small donor $ if he actually tried to raise it. Which would be interesting.
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) May 4, 2016
And here’s a roundup of Trump’s previous opinions about candidates who take money or are boosted by money from outside political groups:
As Trump prepares to start fundraising, here are some of the ways he's bashed fundraising as corrupt. via@EveryVoice pic.twitter.com/2n2f5kvLss
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) May 5, 2016
It is tempting to say that there would appear to be little chance that Trump’s course-change on dark money in politics represents a risk for him politically, if one admits as evidence his previous course changes on abortion, health care and guns.
McCain caught on tape: Trump damages my bid
John McCain, Donald Trump’s forebear as a Republican presidential nominee who is running for his sixth term in the senate, has been captured on audio tape admitting that Trump’s presence on the ticket poses an obstacle to his re-election.
McCain had previously dismissed such a link.
“If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by Politico. “If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I’ve never seen in 30 years.”
Read the full piece at Politico here.
Updated
Cameron: Trump deserves respect
David Cameron has said he “respects” the controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump for making it through the grueling Republican primary process, writes the Guardian’s Heather Stewart:
The prime minister refused to retract his claim, made when a Trump candidacy still seemed an unlikely prospect, that the billionaire’s proposal for banning Muslims from the US was “stupid, divisive and wrong”.
Speaking at a joint press conference at 10 Downing Street alongside his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, Cameron said, having come through the tough primary process, Trump “deserves our respect”.
“Knowing the grueling nature of the primaries, what you have to go through to go on and represent your party in a general election – anyone who makes it through that deserves our respect,” Cameron said.
Read the full piece here:
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Donald Trump appears to have called some of the Republican party to heel, as his last rival for the nomination, John Kasich, dropped out of the race Wednesday and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell released a statement of support.
But there’s one big exception: the two former presidents Bush. “Neither George HW nor George W Bush, the only two living former Republican presidents of the United States, will endorse Donald Trump,” writes Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs:
In statements released to the Guardian on Wednesday evening, spokesmen for both former presidents said they would be sitting out the 2016 election. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for George W Bush, told the Guardian: “President George W Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign.”
The statement by the 43rd president was echoed in one released by his father. Jim McGrath, a spokesman for George HW Bush, told the Guardian: “At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics. He naturally did a few things to help Jeb, but those were the ‘exceptions that proved the rule’.”
Is the current nominee’s failure to win the support of the two previous Republican presidents a sign of faultlines within the Republican party? Submit your think pieces in the comments, please. And read more here:
McConnell is not sitting the race out, but his statement in support of Trump as the nominee is more fatalist than fawning:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issues statement backing Donald Trump as GOP nominee pic.twitter.com/CYf9potXLw
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) May 4, 2016
While it appears that fears (hopes?) of a contested Republican convention have been laid to rest, Ted Cruz’s spokesman has signaled that Cruz, for one, does not expect to spend four days in Cleveland at the Donald Trump Show. “The convention is about more than one person,” he tweeted:
The convention is about more than one person. We need a conservative platform and rules. Cruz will have a voice in both.
— Ron Nehring (@RonNehring) May 5, 2016
Watching accommodation & capitulation by McConnell, Rubio et al, one concludes:
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 5, 2016
This is the way the GOP ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
Being president is weird sometimes:
Hillary Clinton will be campaigning in Los Angeles today, ahead of next month’s California primary, while her opponent, Bernie Sanders, hits Charleston and Morgantown in West Virginia. Trump will be in Charleston, too, this evening, and Ben Jacobs will join him.
Thanks as always for reading and please join us in the comments.
