Today in Campaign 2016: And then there was one (or three)
It’s finally happened.
With the suspension of Ohio governor John Kasich’s campaign, billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Barring some kind of cataclysm, political or otherwise, Trump will mount the stage in Cleveland this July in the culmination of the most surprising political saga in modern American history.
Here are some key takeaways from today’s epic campaign:
- Speaking from what looked to be a semi-furnished basement in Columbus, John Kasich suspended the presidential campaign that earlier in the day he had vowed to continues. After quoting Alexis de Tocqueville, Kasich said: “As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith - deeper faith - that the Lord will show me the way forward and fulfill the purpose of my life.” He, like Ted Cruz, did not endorse Donald Trump, or mention any other candidate.
- Trump’s victory lap featured numerous controversial statements, and flew in the face of political experts (and his own campaign staffers) who predicted a more reserved general-election version of Trump. The presumptive nominee doubled down on his pledges to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, build a wall along the Mexican border and ban Muslim foreigners from the country, and refused to apologize for suggesting that former opponent Ted Cruz’s father was possibly involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
- Foreign leaders were quick to clutch their pearls. Without naming Trump, former French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told an audience in London: “Think about the impact of the coming US presidential elections. If a climate change denier was to be elected, it would threaten dramatically global action against climate disruption.” He said: “We must not think that everything is settled.”
- He did back down on at least one campaign pledge, however: Trump has cast aside one of his main selling points, telling the Wall Street Journal that he will not self-fund his presidential campaign during the general election.Instead, Trump said, he’ll be creating a “world-class finance organization” to rival that of likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
- In her first sitdown interview since losing last night’s Indiana presidential primary, former secretary of state and likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton fixed her aims on Donald Trump, the newly minted (for all intents and purposes) Republican nominee. “I don’t think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running our country,” Clinton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
- She might have an edge: A new CNN/ORC polls showing Clinton up 54-41 on Trump in a general election matchup depicts significant weaknesses for Trump among women and nonwhite voters. The presumptive Republican nominee performs less well with both groups than did 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, who lost by 126 electoral votes.
That’s it for today - we’ll be back tomorrow with another thrilling chapter in the 2016 presidential campaign!
In a pair of new statements, likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign team declared that they are “disgusted” with Donald Trump’s accession to the Republican nomination, and will use every weapon in her considerable arsenal to prevent him from winning the White House.
“When I imagine him in the White House, I’m disgusted,” Clinton’s deputy communications director wrote. “Not just because of the policies he’d enact - a ban on Muslims entering the country, punishment for women who get abortions, a wall on the border in Mexico - but also because I try and imagine him doing the more symbolic, but often just as powerful, parts of the president’s job.”
“I just can’t imagine him mourning with the country after a mass shooting, or comforting us after a natural disaster,” she continued. “There is no version of Trump we’ve seen that would ever encourage a little girl to dream bigger. He’d never feel like it’s on him to demonstrate to kids that learning can be cool.”
“Donald Trump can’t be our next president,” the statement concludes. “We can’t risk it.”
Clinton’s national director of Latino outreach echoed this statement with an even more aggressive condemnation of Trump’s remarks today, in which he doubled down on some of his most controversial policy positions.
“In less than 24 hours after capturing the Republican nomination, Donald Trump has already amde it abundantly clear the type of America that would emerge under him: one in which Latinos, Muslims and other communities of color would not feel at home,” wrote Lorella Praeli.
“Just today, Trump doubled down on his quest to ban Muslims from entering the United States and deport millions of immigrants families who are part of America’s social fabric and economic engine. And just today, we were once again reminded that Trump’s hateful rhetoric and bigoted policy proposals threaten to obstruct our path towards a more fair and open country. We simply cannot afford that. Hillary Clinton will not tolerate this divisive and dangerous direction and, as president, will not stop fighting to break down the barriers and build ladders of opportunity for every American.”
Donald Trump: Ted Cruz as VP is 'something we can think about'
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump told Fox News tonight that he is open to considering Texas senator and former opponent Ted Cruz as his vice presidential pick, lauding Cruz as “a capable guy” a little more than 24 hours after he questioned whether Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“He was a very strong competitor. He really competed hard and tough,” Trump said, saying that a vice presidential nomination was “something we can think about.”
Trump is apparently willing to let bygones be bygones with Cruz, who lost his cool on the morning of the Indiana primary, calling Trump a “serial philanderer” and an “amoral” phony.
“It’s an easy thing,” Trump said. “He said some things and he made some things up and he took some things that were said out of context.”
Malcolm Turnbull has sought to allay fears about Donald Trump winning the US presidency by saying the Australia-US alliance would remain strong regardless of who was president although Australians may observe US elections with consternation at times.
Speaking on Triple M, the Australian prime minister said there was truth in the proposition Trump had succeeded owing to a protest vote against traditional politicians.
“There’s a real sense of disappointment in middle America, with the very slow growth in middle incomes,” he said. “Middle America has seen very slow growth and in some cases have gone backwards in incomes.
“Income inequality is a big issue in the US … there are a lot of tensions there [and] support for Trump is clearly evidence of that.”
The possibility of a Trump presidency has caused widespread global consternation because he has advocated tariff increases against China, called theGeneva conventions a problem for the conduct of US wars, and has advocated the use of torture “a hell of a lot worse” than waterboarding and isolationism in the event of a war between North Korea and its neighbours, Japan and South Korea.
Asked about that global concern Turnbull said: “I have absolutely no doubt the Anzus alliance – the Australian-American relationship – will continue to grow and strengthen regardless of who the president is.
“Our relationship with the US is so deep, it’s based on thousands if not millions of individual relationships, it’s been built up over generations.”
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, whose name has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick, said today that although she plans on supporting Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, she is not interested in the job.
“While I am flattered to be mentioned and proud of what that says about the great things going on in South Carolina, my plate is full and I am not interested in serving as vice president,” said Haley in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has released a statement regarding presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s accession to the nomination:
I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee, is now on the verge of clinching that nomination. Republicans are committed to preventing what would be a third term of Barack Obama and restoring economic and national security after eight years of a Democrat in the White House. As the presumptive nominee, he now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals.
Mac Stipanovich, a major Florida fundraiser and close ally of the Bush political dynasty, has joined that clan’s patriarchs in refusing to endorse or support Donald Trump as the party’s nominee - and has gone a step further, writing an open letter to Florida Republican urging them to push for Trump’s defeat.
“Make no mistake, we Republicans stand on the threshold of a fundamental moral test in the 2016 presidential election, a challenge so serious as to be existential,” Stipanovich writes in the Tallahassee Democrat.
The choice between Hillary Clinton and Trump is like being caught between “the Devil and the deep blue sea,” Stipanovich writes, but Trump, he cautions, is “a neo-fascist - a nativist, an ultranationalist, a racist, a misogynist, an anti-intellectual, a demagogue, and a palingenetic (sorry) authoritarian to whom clings the odor of the political violence he encourages.”
“A worse candidate to sit in the Oval Office for the next four years cannot be imagined.”
Now, Stipanovich tells his fellow Republicans, it is up to them to stop him - even if it means losing the White House. “We must deny him the presidency by not voting in the presidential election at all or voting for Hillary Clinton if conscience permits.”
“As bad as the cure for Trump’s Caesarism will be for the Party and for the country, it will not be bad as the disease, and both will survive,” Stipanovich concludes. “So if anyone asks you, ‘Et tu Brute?’ answer proudly, ‘Damned right.’”
Neither George HW nor George W Bush, the only two living former Republican presidents of the United States, will endorse Donald Trump.
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’.”
The non-endorsements come as Trump has become the presumptive nominee and many party figures have tried to come to terms with the fact that the demagogic reality television star will be their party’s standard-bearer in November.
The decision by both former presidents is particularly personal because of the unsuccessful candidacy of Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor, who is George HW’s son and George W’s brother, was repeatedly attacked during his campaign by Trump. The presumptive nominee tarred the two-term governor as “low-energy” and mocked him as “an embarrassment to his family”.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was on fire tonight on NBC Nightly News, telling host Lester Holt - who, for some reason, anchored the entire evening newscast from Trump Tower - that he wasn’t backing down on a single policy proposal from the Republican primary.
For Republicans (and others) who believed assurances from Trump’s top campaign advisers that he would moderate his positions - or at least his rhetoric - once he claimed the Republican nomination, the broadcast was a lesson in Trump’s inherent inability to be reined in.
Holt apparently presumed that Trump would moderate his stance on what has become a signature issue: a temporary ban on Muslim immigration and travel to the United States.
“You’re speaking to the whole county now,” Holt prefaced his question, before asking Trump if he still stands “behind the idea of a ban against foreign Muslims coming here?”
“I do,” Trump said, without hesitation. “We have to be vigilant. We have to be strong. We have to see what’s going on. There’s a big problem in the world. You look what’s happening with the migration in Europe. You look at Germany. it’s crime-riddled right now.”
Trump then vowed to accomplish the ban within the first 100 days of his presidency.
When questioned about his other signature policy proposal - the deportation of roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the US - Trump doubled down as well. “Yes, they’re gonna be deported,” Trump said. “Look, we either have a country or we don’t. We have many illegals in the country and we have to get them out and go through a process. Go through a system.”
The responses to this tweet from the Republican party are worth taking a look:
Thank you to the entire Republican field for a hard fought race. The Party is better for your efforts.
— GOP (@GOP) May 4, 2016
Sample response: From Nebraska senator Ben Sasse!
I assume this is a parody account? https://t.co/kPOoDpVmU7
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) May 4, 2016
Updated
The Rolling Stones have asked presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to stop playing their songs at his campaign events.
In a statement this morning, the rock band said they have not given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and “have requested that they cease all use immediately”.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment or say whether they had a license to play their songs.
Trump, an avid music fan, has featured Rolling Stones songs at his rallies for months as part of a diverse soundtrack that includes Elton John, opera and classic rock songs. The Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic You Can’t Always Get What You Want was a popular song for his events, and during an event last night, the campaign played Start Me Up.
In her first sitdown interview since losing last night’s Indiana presidential primary, former secretary of state and likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton fixed her aims on Donald Trump, the newly minted (for all intents and purposes) Republican nominee.
“I don’t think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running our country,” Clinton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
But other Democratic politicians have been even more aggressive in their characterizations of Trump, in particular Elizabeth Warren, the senior senator from Massachusetts who recently went on a tweetstorm calling out Trump’s campaign as being powered by bigotry.
Here’s what else is real: @realDonaldTrump has built his campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 4, 2016
There's more enthusiasm for @realDonaldTrump among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 4, 2016
.@realDonaldTrump incites supporters to violence, praises Putin, and is "cool with being called an authoritarian."
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 4, 2016
“I think Elizabeth Warren’s really smart,” Clinton said, when Cooper asked if she agreed with the Democratic senator.
Although when asked if she thinks Trump is a racist, Clinton demurred.
“I’m gonna let people judge for themselves, but I have the highest regard for Elizabeth Warren,” she said.
President Barack Obama sipped filtered water in Flint, Michigan, this afternoon and assured parents that anyone older than six could do the same during a visit to a city still reeling from a scandal over lead-tainted drinking water.
Obama made the trip to the mostly African American community to reassure residents that the water was safe even as he predicted it would take more than two years to replace the city’s aging pipes, which leached lead into the drinking water.
The surprises keep coming from Donald Trump’s first sitdown as the presumptive Republican nominee, after the candidate changed his position on raising the minimum wage in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“You have to have something you can live on,” Trump said. “But what I’m really looking to do is get people great jobs so they make much more money than that, much more money than the $15.”
Donald Trump: I'm open to doing something on the minimum wage https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/pWIfjE8MhH
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 4, 2016
At a presidential debate in Milwaukee last November, Trump told Fox Business host Neil Cavuto that he wouldn’t raise the minimum wage because the US “is a country that is being beaten on every front.”
The federal minimum wage is currently at $7.25, although labor groups and both Democratic presidential candidates have pushed to raise the minimum wage to more than twice that level - although there is some quibbling regarding Hillary Clinton’s position.
WSJ: Donald Trump won't self-fund general election campaign
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has cast aside one of his main selling points, telling the Wall Street Journal that he will not self-fund his presidential campaign during the general election.
Instead, Trump said, he’ll be creating a “world-class finance organization” to rival that of likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I’ll be putting up money, but won’t be completely self-funding, as I did during the primaries,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. The candidate had long decried his opponents’ reliance on campaign contributions and super PACs, labelling them “puppets” of special interests who wouldn’t look out for average voters.
Although he did receive several million dollars in donations - which he characterized as unsolicited - Trump’s campaign spending was largely in the form of loans from himself, which can be repaid by the campaign during the general election. Those loans, which are interest-free, also don’t have to be repaid until Dec. 31, 2016 at the earliest - and could even be written off on Trump’s tax returns.
In his first in-person interview since functionally clinching the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump distanced himself from comments he made yesterday morning linking former opponent Ted Cruz’s father with Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated John F. Kennedy in 1963.
“Ted Cruz’s father, seems like a nice guy, don’t know him,” Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “He made horrible statements about me, praying for bad things to happen to me, essentially.”
As for whether the National Enquirer story he cited - which claimed to possess photographic evidence that Rafael Cruz, an ardent anti-communist, was seen handing out pro-Castro leaflets with Oswald in the months before the Kennedy assassination - Trump demurred.
“I’m not saying he conspired, I’m saying he’s all over the place,” Trump said. “Of course I don’t believe it, but I said, ‘Let people read it.’”
In his first sitdown interview as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump refused to back down his his longstanding - and long-since debunked - claims that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and also refused to denounce antisemitic attacks on a journalist who wrote a profile about his wife.
Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump doubled down on some of his most controversial and inflammatory positions and statements, claiming his statements about the president’s nationality his attempts to link the father of former rival Ted Cruz to the assassination of John F Kennedy were proportional to attacks waged against himself.
“I’ve given up a tremendous amount to run for president,” Trump told Blitzer. “I gave up two more seasons of Celebrity Apprentice.”
Blitzer asked Trump specifically to address his supporters who had sent “vicious” messages to journalist Julia Ioffe this week. After her profile of Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, appeared in this month’s issue of GQ, the Russian-American journalist received a torrent of antisemitic and threatening messages from supporters of the Republican frontrunner.
“I don’t have a message to the fans – I’m not gonna talk about that,” Trump said, calling Ioffe’s story “nasty” and defending his wife against unspecified falsehoods in the piece.
“She doesn’t need to have bad things said about her,” he said of his wife. Trump protested that he knew nothing of any antisemitic or abusive comments and threats directed at Ioffe.
When Blitzer asked Trump about his past support of “birtherism” - the fervent and unsubstantiated belief that Barack Obama was secretly born outside of the United States and is therefore constitutionally ineligible for the presidency, Trump pinned his past statements on his likely opponent in the general election: Hillary Clinton.
“She’s the one who started it,” Trump said. The billionaire has long argued that the former secretary of state was the instigator in the birther movement, although evidence for this assertion has not surfaced.
Trump, whose senior campaign staff have intimated to Republican party leadership that the candidate would moderate his tone in the general election, also refused to walk back statements on other hot-button issues, including his signature proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigration into the United States.
“I don’t know, I mean, look, I don’t know,” Trump said, when Blitzer asked if such a proposal would alienate America’s allies in the Middle East. “The migration is a disaster – we’re letting in thousands of people. They don’t have documentation, they don’t have paperwork, we don’t know who they are or where they come from.”
In an interview with the New York Times Trump said he would implement the ban within his first 100 days, the paper reported.
He also declared that his suggestion that US troop presence in friendly nations should be subsidized was still a key feature of his proposed national security platform.
“If they’re not going to take care of us properly, we cannot afford to police the entire world,” Trump said, when asked if he would allow Japan and South Korea to become nuclear powers. “I’m prepared to walk, and if they don’t take care of us properly ... they’re gonna have to defend themselves.”
When Blitzer quoted a military estimate that it might cost more money to house American troops in the US than in Japan, Trump implied that perhaps those troops were redundant. “Maybe you don’t need them. Maybe you don’t need them.”
Updated
The head of the Republican Jewish Coalition has released a statement purporting to congratulate presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on clearing the field to the party’s nomination, but makes little mention of him beyond the first sentence of the statement.
“The Republican Jewish Coalition congratulates Donald Trump on being the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican party,” said RJC chair David Flaum, before moving on to more important matters.
“Throughout the course of this long campaign among Republicans there has been unity in the belief that Hillary Clinton is the worst possible choice for a commander in chief,” Flaum continues. “Secretary Clinton has proven time and again through her record and her policies that her candidacy will compromise our national security, weaken our economy and further strain our relationship with our greatest ally Israel. Along with the presidential race, the RJC will be working hard to hold on to our majorities in the Senate and the House. It is critical that these majorities be preserved. To do this we must remember our core principles: peace through strength, unwavering support for Israel and robust American leadership at home and abroad.”
And with that, resistance to Donald Trump’s capture of the Republican party has officially crumbled as his sole remaining opponent conceded there was no chance of preventing the New York businessman from becoming the party’s presidential nominee.
John Kasich’s decision to suspend his campaign will mark the formal end of the most extraordinary race for the Republican presidential nomination in modern political history, and leave Trump with only the Democratic nominee in November standing between him and the White House – likely to be Hillary Clinton.
Kasich spent 18 years in Congress, including six years as chairman of the powerful House budget committee, before leaving government temporarily to work as a regional director for failed investment bank Lehman Brothers. He was elected governor of Ohio in 2010 in a close race with an incumbent Democrat and enjoyed home-state popularity measured at record levels in 2015, with 62% of Ohio voters approving of his job performance.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic party said: “Since last March, Governor John Kasich has spent more than 200 days out of state, pursuing his presidential ambitions and ignoring the needs of the people of Ohio ... It’s time that Ohio had a governor who was actually doing something about all of that, rather than gallivanting across the country.
“In addition, we hope that the Kasich administration will provide a full accounting of the cost to Ohio taxpayers and Kasich’s campaign will reimburse the state for every single penny that his failed campaign cost the taxpayers of Ohio.”
John Kasich suspends his presidential campaign
After quoting Alexis de Tocqueville, John Kasich officially announces the suspension of his presidential campaign.
“As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith - deeper faith - that the Lord will show me the way forward and fulfill the purpose of my life.”
“Thank you, and God bless,” Kasich concludes.
Updated
John Kasich continues a speech widely anticipated to lead to the suspension of his presidential campaign with a series of policy platforms.
“Let me be clear - we all know that economic growth is imperative to the success of our country,” Kasich says. “And I can tell you that economic growth can be achieved by our public officials if they just do their jobs. But they have to do their job. They can’t focus on focus groups, and they have to overcome the fear of reelection or criticism.”
“We need a realistic path to balance the budget, and frankly nothing more imperative than a balanced budget amendment to the US constitution,” Kasich continues, and “run America again from the bottom up.”
Tearing up, John Kasich opens up about the connections he made with voters in the Republican primary campaign, particularly one moment that made news around the world.
“The people of our country changed me,” Kasich says. “They changed me with the stories of their lives. But we all remember that hug in South Carolina from that young man who had found despair, and then found hope somehow, and he just wanted to give me a hug. And the country marveled.”
“But that was one of a series of these things that happened,” Kasich says.
John Kasich goes over the surprising arc of his presidential primary campaign.
“I visited these beautiful, beautiful towns in New Hampshire, and people had really counted me out in New Hampshire, but when we hit our 100th town hall, it was really remarkable. Those beautiful towns... I will never forget the people of New Hampshire,” Kasich says.
And from New Hampshire’s town halls “to the excitement of California - even being able to sit in traffic in Los Angeles,” Kasich says of his campaign’s journey, was “magical, what we are seeing here.”
“The people here,” he said of his “beloved” Ohio, “I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to be a leader in this state. The people in Ohio have given me the greatest professional experience of my lifetime. I’ve tried to pay them back.”
“We never had all the money we wanted - we were probably outspent 50-to-one,” Kasich says, but he thanks his financial backers who “did everything they could possibly do.”
“We had a great time, and we’re gonna have a lot more fun in the future.”
Ohio governor John Kasich begins by thanking his wife, Karen, his daughters and his senior campaign staff for their help and support during his campaign for the Republican nomination.
“We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves,” Kasich told the audience, composed of journalists, staffers and supporters, about his family and supporters, “and I think we do it with honesty and integrity, and as a result, I think I know, and I sure hope and pray that this experience that they have had in this campaign is improved and changed their lives for the better.”
John Kasich speaks in Columbus
Ohio governor John Kasich, the second-to-last man standing in the Republican presidential primary, is set to address reporters and supporters in Columbus, Ohio, this afternoon after last night’s Indiana primary paved the way for billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump’s improbable accession to the Republican nomination.
Kasich’s decision to end his presidential campaign came as a surprise even to the candidate, whose campaign released a Star Wars-themed ad only this morning. But after the Republican National Committee dubbed Trump the “presum[p]tive nominee,” Kasich reportedly decided that there was no path forward.
Coming up: Governor John Kasich of Ohio will formally quit the race for the Republican presidential nomination with a statement in his home state at 5pm, following Texas senator Ted Cruz’s decision last night to step aside in favor of presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
Although Barack Obama said that his speech in Flint was not the time or place to relitigate “every screwup” that lead to the Flint water crisis, he said that the lead contamination in the industrial city was part of “a broader mindset, a bigger attitude, a corrosive attitude that exists in our politics and exists in too many levels of our government.”
“It’s a mindset that believes that less government is the highest good, no matter what,” Obama said. “It’s a mindset that says, environmental rules designed to keep your water clean or your air clean are optional, or not that important, or unnecessarily burden business or taxpayers. It’s an ideology that undervalues the common good, says we’re all on our own, and ‘what’s in it for me and how do I do well,’ but ‘I’m not going to invest in what we need as a community.’”
“And as a consequence, you end up seeing an underinvestment in the things that make us safe, that make us whole, that give us the ability to pursue our own individual dreams,” Obama continued.
“So we underinvest in pipes underground; we underinvest in bridges that we drive on and the roads that connect us and the schools that move us forward,” Obama said. “And this is part of the attitude, this is part of the mindset: We especially underinvest when the communities that are put at risk are poor or don’t have a lot of political clout and so are not often heard in the corridors of power.”
“This myth that government is always the enemy forgets that our government is us!” Obama concluded, and it’s a myth “as corrosive to our democracy as the stuff that lead to lead in your water.”
After highlighting the efforts made by local government officials who have expanded health services, provided water and baby formula and tested homes for lead exposure, Barack Obama called on local members of the Flint, Michigan, community to help lead the fight against lead contamination.
“This is not a government effort alone - we need our businesses and nonprofits and philanthropists to stand up,” Obama said. “And what’s incredible about Flint is the number of volunteers who have already paved the way.”
“Not too long ago, I received a letter fro a young lady - an 8-year-old girl named Mari Copeny,” Barack Obama told the crowd. “You may know her as Little Miss Flint.”
“And like a lot of young people, Mari is worried about what happened in Flint,” Obama said. “She’s worried about what’s going to happen in this city and this community.”
“Her president should come to Flint to meet with her, and that’s why I’m here - to tell you directly that I see you and I hear you, and I wanna hear directly from you about how this public health crisis has disrupted your lives, how it’s made you angry, and how it’s made you worried,” Obama said.
“I’m also here to tell you that I’ve got your back.”
Barack Obama addresses audience in Flint, Michigan
President Barack Obama is speaking to an audience of roughly 1,000 people at Flint Northwestern High School in Flint, Michigan, the president’s first visit to the city since its lead-contaminated water crisis began nearly two years ago.
The president’s visit to the majority-black city comes amid high levels of frustration with local, state and federal government authorities in addressing the crisis,
“Alright - settle down, everybody!” Obama told the rowdy crowd. “Lemme do some business here,” he said, before introducing local politicians like Michigan governor Rick Snyder, who received a loud chorus of boos.
Never say #NeverTrump... unless you want Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton quoting you in a fundraising email to highlight the dissension within the Republican ranks.
On the heels of a new ad that shows a medley of Republicans warning that Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee would sow chaos and discord throughout the land, Clinton is extending a welcoming hand to the many, many Republicans who have declared that they would rather live with her than die with the Donald.
“Many prominent activists, journalists and elected officials in his own party have figured out what Hillary Clinton has argued all along: Donald Trump is too big a risk for America,” the Clinton campaign writes befor taking a look at the large group of prominent conservatives “who are already promising that they’ll never vote for Trump.”
The list - 41 people in all - includes prominent conservative lawmakers, fundraisers, political activists and thought leaders, all of whom have declared at one point or another that when it comes to Trump, party loyalty demands too high a sacrifice.
Some sample quotes:
- Former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman: “I will probably vote for her.”
- Former Virginia Senate candidate Ken Cuccinelli: “When you’ve got a guy favorably quoting Mussolini, I don’t care what party you’re in, I’m not voting for that guy.”
- Conservative blogger Erick Erickson: “Reporters writing about the ‘Stop Trump’ effort get it wrong. It’s ‘Never Trump,’ as in, come hell or high water we will never vote for Trump.”
- Conservative columnist George Will: “If Trump is nominated, Republicans working to purge him and his manner from public life will reap the considerable satisfaction of preserving the identity of their 162-year-old party while working to see that they forgo only four years of the enjoyment of executive power.”
One of Donald Trump’s earliest endorsers admitted this morning that, although he is pleased with the unlikely rise of the billionaire real estate tycoon to the presumptive Republican nomination, the candidate “has some work to do” in communicating with female voters in a way that doesn’t send them fleeing to support Hillary Clinton.
“He has some work to do there,” Tom Marino, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, told NPR this morning. “He’s certainly going to have to pivot to women - women are critical in the election. Those who vote are 51% females, and he has some work to do there.”
Marino, the fifth sitting member of Congress to publicly endorse Trump’s presidential campaign, told Politico at the time of his endorsement that Trump is “the man for the unprotected ... not the protected, not for the Wall Street people, not for the DC insiders, but for the hard-working taxpayers.”
But Marino was a little more honest this morning about Trump’s massive negatives among the largest single demographic in the US, telling NPR that “wounds have to heal” after a bitter Republican primary in which Trump mocked a female opponent’s face, called for women who obtain abortions to be punished and dismissed a Fox News anchor’s aggressive questioning during a debate as being the result of menses.
“You make it known that women are gonna play a major part in his cabinet,” Marino said, of how Trump might heal those wounds. “He’s gonna address the family needs, because no matter what party we;’re talking about, women, in particular mothers, are worried about their family, how their children are gonna be protected.”
Despite his previous rhetoric, Marino said, Trump sincerely wishes to unite the Republican party. “Americans... they’re sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way Washington’s run. It needs to be bulldozed and start over.”
Medley of top Republicans attack Trump in Clinton ad
Here’s a new Clinton video spot featuring a medley of bad things senior Republicans have said about Trump this election cycle. (Most of the Republicans in question, with the exception of Mitt Romney, were running against Trump at the time.)
Featuring cameos by Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mitt Romney, George Pataki, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham:
"President Trump" is a dangerous proposition.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio agree.https://t.co/fUkISvgaXC
Ha.
Tomorrow, Obama national security team will begin debating plan to arm moderate Republican rebels.
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) May 4, 2016
Rolling Stones to Trump: cease and desist
“The Rolling Stones have asked presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to stop playing their songs at his campaign events, the AP reports:
In a statement Wednesday, the rock band said they have not given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and “have requested that they cease all use immediately.”
A Trump campaign spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, an avid music fan, has featured Rolling Stones songs at his rallies for months as part of a diverse soundtrack that includes Elton John, opera and classic rock songs. The Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was a popular song choice for his events.
Last night at the end of his event it was Start Me Up. So here’s that:
Hillary Clinton is in a live interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, now airing. She criticizes Trump’s “aggressive, bullying” manner and repeats that he’s a “loose cannon”: “this to me is a case of a blustering, bullying guy” who left his opponents “dumbfounded,” she says, adding that Trump’s Republican rivals did not know how to handle him.
The implication being that she does.
"I don't think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running the country." —Hillary to @AndersonCooper
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
She dodges a question about media accessibility:
Asked on @CNN if she'll start doing as many media interviews as Trump does, Hillary says it's time for him to answer tough Qs. !?!
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) May 4, 2016
.@andersoncooper are you going to be more accessible to reporters now?
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) May 4, 2016
Hillary Clinton: [Words that do not answer the question]
Further Republican indigestion – and (premature/misguided?) Democratic delight – at the advent of nominee Trump:
Text from a Kasich staffer: “Sucks to be a Republican."
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) May 4, 2016
Goodbye, Republican Party. And Good Riddance. https://t.co/TXVAwcKdHQ via @theblaze
— Kevin Boyd (@kevinboyd1984) May 4, 2016
Rush Limbaugh: "My instinctive feeling right now is that Trump is gonna win, beat Hillary badly, that it could be landslide proportions."
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) May 4, 2016
The epidemic of schadenfreude in Democratic circles today is something to behold.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) May 4, 2016
Hillary Clinton will close out the week with campaign events in California, her team has announced. She’ll be in Los Angeles and Oakland on Thursday and Friday for “public organizing events” and speeches.
"Unity versus division, compassion versus selfishness, and love versus hate. The stakes don’t get much higher." pic.twitter.com/nwy7MfMutc
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, whose plea upon his early exit from the presidential race for fellow candidates to do the same in order to set up a narrow contest that could stop Trump, has weighed in on a potential Trump-Clinton general election matchup.
He’s staying true to the GOP:
.@GovWalker tells reporters that @realDonaldTrump is a better choice than @HillaryClinton. #wipolitics pic.twitter.com/OQOseCENDy
— Theo Keith (@TheoKeith) May 4, 2016
With Donald Trump as the Republican party’s presumptive nominee, it’s time for him to start contemplating a running mate, writes Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs:
Here are five options for the veep stakes for the outsider who has often said he would look for a number two with political experience:
Chris Christie
Christie’s endorsement of Trump was a pivotal moment for the campaign. But while the New Jersey governor has been a helpful and loyal surrogate, he doesn’t add any geographic balance or conservative credentials. Plus, the footage of Christie standing behind Trump looking like a hostage on Super Tuesday doesn’t help.
Newt Gingrich
The former House speaker and 2012 presidential hopeful has long been a rare pro-Trump voice in Washington DC. Gingrich would bring considerable political experience and significant public profile as a running mate. It’s just a question of whether Trump wants to double down on a ticket of thrice-married elderly men who love publicity.
Read the full piece here:
Updated
Republican revulsion at what primaries hath wrought
In our blog coverage of the Indiana result last night, we rounded up Republican voices who said they would leave the party because of Trump or who said they would vote for Hillary Clinton or who at least said they would never vote for Trump.
The flow of Republicans through the outdoor continues Wednesday – although they’ll have a lot of time to reconsider before November.
But here’s a further roundup of Republicans (and ex-Republicans) making the hard call.
Deputy press secretary under president George W Bush:
A message for my fellow Republicans: If you back Trump you will not be trusted again | Fox News | https://t.co/BvmCU4KwQk
— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) May 4, 2016
US senator:
The path to national recovery is getting longer--as both broken parties move closer to nominating fundamentally dishonest 2016 candidates.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) May 3, 2016
US senator:
If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 3, 2016
Top Mitt Romney strategist:
More Republicans voted for non-Trump candidates than Trump, so I'm with the rest. https://t.co/YI9FP8c5LY
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) May 4, 2016
Ricochet editor:
Just asked the RNC to remove me from all their mailing lists because I'm leaving the party. That felt good.
— jon gabriel (@exjon) May 4, 2016
Right-wing talk show host:
All we have to see, is that I don't belong to you. And you don't belong to me.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) May 4, 2016
Freedom pic.twitter.com/JBUtF8fsdZ
Former top John McCain aide:
the GOP is going to nominate for President a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it's on the level. I'm with her.
— Mark Salter (@MarkSalter55) May 3, 2016
Current John McCain daughter:
I hope history remembers those who gave up their conservative principles for the cult of personality and celebrity. And those who didn't.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 3, 2016
Top GOP messaging strategist:
Just cancelled my plane and hotel reservations for Cleveland.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 4, 2016
RedState blog editor:
I am no longer a Republican.
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) May 4, 2016
Washington Free Beacon writer:
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) May 4, 2016
Washington Examiner managing editor:
I have officially de-registered as a Republican. pic.twitter.com/DjRI21Oyvx
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) May 4, 2016
A Republican Party without a sense of shame is a Republican Party I don’t want to be a part of. https://t.co/xZQzKyN1Xr
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 4, 2016
On the opposite side are,
for example, a former Republican presidential candidate, governor and host:
The voters have spoken https://t.co/AXN0ULHhwY
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) May 4, 2016
Donald Trump broke the code, owned the media, and inspired the masses. I will be all in to help him defeat Hillary Clinton and I call upon all fellow Republicans to unite in defeating Hillary and abandoning and repudiating the hapless “Never Trump” nonsense.
And the senate majority leader:
When asked whether McConnell will support Trump, spox points to these comments from @SenateMajLdr last week https://t.co/xMx0ss59PH
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) May 4, 2016
McConnell freely admits he doesn’t know Trump well “but I’ve met him a few times in the past. He was always friendly and supportive. He’s called me a couple of times recently and we’ve had pleasant conversations.”
The Profiles in Courage award here goes to New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte, who says she will “support” Trump but not “endorse” him. She’s up for reelection.
Updated
How far we’ve come:
❎Perry
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 4, 2016
❎Walker
❎Jindal
❎Graham
❎Pataki
❎Huckabee
❎Paul
❎Santorum
❎Fiorina
❎Christie
❎Gilmore
❎Bush
❎Carson
❎Rubio
❎Cruz
❎Kasich
✅Trump
Kasich to suspend campaign
A senior campaign source confirmed to the Guardian that Ohio governor John Kasich would be suspending his campaign on Wednesday afternoon.
Trump to begin receiving classified briefings
As the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump will gain access to state secrets, Time reports:
Later this year, Trump will begin receiving regular national security / intel briefings. After the convention GSA will sign transition MOU
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) May 4, 2016
Those are references to the general services administration, which will sign a memorandum of understanding about a transition to a Trump administration, in the event that he should win.
The Ohio Democratic party has released a statement on Kasich’s reported decision to drop out of the presidential race.
The local Democrats aren’t happy about how the Republican governor, whose current second term is up in 2018, has been spending his 2016.
“Since last March, Governor John Kasich has spent more than 200 days out of state, pursuing his presidential ambitions and ignoring the needs of the people of Ohio,” the statement reads. It goes on to correctly spell “gallivanting”:
...It’s time that Ohio had a governor who was actually doing something about all of that, rather than gallivanting across the country.
In addition, we hope that the Kasich administration will provide a full accounting of the cost to Ohio taxpayers and Kasich’s campaign will reimburse the state for every single penny that his failed campaign cost the taxpayers of Ohio.
Donald Trump is not resting on his laurels – tomorrow he pops up in West Virginia, which with Nebraska votes this coming Tuesday:
Join me in Charleston, WV - tomorrow! https://t.co/kv624y9UOm
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2016
Having some fun with the plan hatched by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns not so long ago to divide and conquer the states of Indiana, Oregon and New Mexico against Trump. The divide part, maybe; the conquer part, hardly:
BREAKING: New Kasich and Cruz alliance to cede New Mexico & Oregon to Trump. Will divide up which California CDs they both won't campaign in
— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) May 4, 2016
Kasich to suspend presidential bid – reports
John Kasich will suspend his campaign for president, the Associated Press reports, after an earlier announcement that the governor had canceled events and was on his way home to Ohio.
Kasich finishes with just 153 delegates – good for fourth place, after Trump, Cruz and Marco Rubio, who captured 171 delegates before dropping out in March.
BREAKING: AP sources: Kasich to end his bid for White House; Trump to become presumptive GOP nominee for president. pic.twitter.com/1AUaQKs0rb
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) May 4, 2016
Updated
Trump veep committee to include Carson
Donald Trump will set up a committee “soon” to pick a running mate in advance of the July convention, and the committee will include retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Trump tells the New York Times:
“I’ll set up a committee, and that I will do soon,” Trump said. “I think on the committee I’ll have Dr Ben Carson and some other folks.”
To think that for six days, she was a heartbeat, an election and about 700 delegates away from the presidency.
What a difference a day makes. Carly Fiorina at Indy Airport & no one cares. (Pic: Steve Handelsman) #Election2016 pic.twitter.com/dyurOy2gia
— Edward Lawrence (@EdwardLawrence) May 4, 2016
“Donald Grump happens to have the most trash of any grouch in the world.”
Trump once inspired a full Sesame Street sketch - Donald Grump - belittling grouches and hoarding trash https://t.co/T5XV9U005a
— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) May 4, 2016
Trump would derail Paris climate deal, architects warn
The election of Donald Trump would derail the landmark agreement on climate change reached in Paris last December, the architect of the accord has warned, writes the Guardian’s Fiona Harvey:
Trump is now virtually certain to be the Republican candidate for president and has said “I am not a great believer in manmade climate change”, leading to fears he would attempt to unpick the historic agreement if he became president.
Without naming Trump, the former French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told an audience in London: “Think about the impact of the coming US presidential elections. If a climate change denier was to be elected, it would threaten dramatically global action against climate disruption.”
He said: “We must not think that everything is settled.”
In response to a speech by Barack Obama at the opening of the Paris climate summit, Trump said: “I think one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard in politics, in the history of politics as I know it, which is pretty good, was Obama’s statement that our No 1 problem is global warming.”
Read the full piece here:
Kasich cancels schedule, plans hometown announcement
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts:
Kasich press conference in DC cancelled "He will make an announcement in Ohio at 5pm" his adviser tells reporters here. Sounds like he's out
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) May 4, 2016
Republicans weigh Garland against risk of Trump – or of losing senate
The advent of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee has some conservative thinkers taking a second look at Merrick Garland, the DC circuit judge nominated by president Obama to fill the Supreme Court vacancy whom Senate leaders have vowed not to grant a hearing.
“Our view is this: give the people a voice in filling this vacancy,” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said in March. By which he meant, let’s see if we can elect a Republican president (assuming we hold the senate majority) and nominate and confirm a more palatable candidate.
Two key questions now face McConnell and judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley: Would Donald Trump nominate a more palatable Supreme Court nominee than Merrick Garland, from the Republican perspective? And what if Republicans lose their senate majority in an election in which disgust with Trump keeps Republicans away from the polls and creates a Democratic wave?
If the latter scenario unfolds, a president Hillary Clinton could end up putting forward a new nominee to be confirmed by a Democratic senate. That would be a suboptimal result for the GOP.
And so there is a call on the right to let the nomination of Garland, by reputation an evenhanded and nonpartisan judge, proceed.
Here’s Leon Wolf on conservative comment site RedState.com:
Garland is not a great choice, but he is not a terrible one, either. And more than anything, he is old (for a modern Supreme Court appointment) and will be up for replacement in probably 10 years instead of 20 or 30.
Republicans must know that there is absolutely no chance that we will win the White House in 2016 now. They must also know that we are likely to lose the Senate as well. So the choices, essentially, are to confirm Garland and have another bite at the apple in a decade, or watch as President Clinton nominates someone who is radically more leftist and 10-15 years younger, and we are in no position to stop it.
Or, the Republicans could wait to see who wins the election and, if it is the Democratic frontrunner, offer then to hold hearings on Garland (if they still control the Senate).
Here's a dramatization of what would happen if Hillary wins and Senate GOP offers to confirm Garland. https://t.co/ssUAaTWoVU
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) May 4, 2016
Update: here’s a reported analysis in Roll Call on the odds of Republicans keeping the senate in a Donald Trump election:
Q: How bad is the outlook for Senate Republicans?
A: Pretty bad, according to many of the party’s own strategists.
Republicans can afford to lose only a net of three Senate seats to hold their majority, and the party is already defending seven states — Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida, and Iowa — that President Barack Obama won twice.
With Trump, though, many Republicans become despondent. One Senate campaign veteran last month estimated that the party had a 75 percent chance of losing the majority. Another put the odds at 80 percent.
“I’m not saying people cannot win with him at top of the ticket, but remember how challenging Todd Akin was? That would look like child’s play compared to what we’re about to deal with with Trump,” Rob Jesmer, the former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in early March. (Akin was the failed 2012 Missouri Senate Republican candidate of “legitimate rape” infamy.)
Read the full piece here.
Updated
Hillary Clinton sees a fundraising opportunity in the moment of mass realization that Trump has clinched it:
Clinton, in Trump $$ email: "The whole world is counting on us to win this thing. And we owe it to them to step up." pic.twitter.com/GrFjDZmumy
— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) May 4, 2016
There's only one candidate left who can stop a Trump presidency.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
Chip in now if you've got Hillary's back: https://t.co/HkpiIXhekF
Republican John Kasich, the lone challenger holding out against Trump, has scheduled a press conference this morning at Dulles Airport.
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts is among the press in attendance:
Waiting for John Kasich/ Obe Wan to show up at Dulles and every 5 mins this Star Wars theme strikes up from a laptop https://t.co/QZfNPOBpg7
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) May 4, 2016
Our Only Hope#MayThe4thBeWithYou #StarWarsDayhttps://t.co/Bi2qNGw2oM
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) May 4, 2016
It’s not packed:
Media contingent awaiting @JohnKasich press conf at Dulles airport pic.twitter.com/RCiWvkqhma
— Deirdre Shesgreen (@dshesgreen) May 4, 2016
In other candidate moves today, Clinton is scheduled to speak at the Asian Pacific Congressional Institute in Washington before attending a fundraiser; Sanders holds a rally in Lexington, Kentucky, at 7.30pm this evening; and Bill Clinton will campaign in California.
Updated
Warren blasts Trump for 'racism, sexism, xenophobia'
Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and progressive standard bearer, weighed in on the Indiana result last night, at some length and with some urgency of tone, on Twitter.
“.@realDonaldTrump is now the leader of the @GOP. It’s real - he is one step away from the White House,” Warren began:
Here’s what else is real: @realDonaldTrump has built his campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 4, 2016
There's more enthusiasm for @realDonaldTrump among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 4, 2016
.@realDonaldTrump incites supporters to violence, praises Putin, and is “cool with being called an authoritarian.”
.@realDonaldTrump attacks vets like @SenJohnMcCain who were captured & puts our servicemembers at risk by cheerleading illegal torture.
And @realDonaldTrump puts out out contradictory & nonsensical national security ideas one expert called “incoherent” & “truly bizarre.”
What happens next will test the character for all of us – Republican, Democrat, and Independent.
It will determine whether we move forward as one nation or splinter at the hands of one man’s narcissism and divisiveness.
I'm going to fight my heart out to make sure @realDonaldTrump’s toxic stew of hatred & insecurity never reaches the White House.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) May 4, 2016
Zero tossup states? What fun is that?
(N.B.: The Democrats don’t yet have a nominee and the Republicans don’t even technically have a nominee, and it’s rash to the point of reckless to take general election opinion polls at face value so far in advance. So: which of the state characterizations below is shakiest?)
Wow. There are ZERO toss up states right now according to UVa's Center for Politics. pic.twitter.com/oEqSJ3vUHS
— Brian McGill (@brian_mcgill) May 4, 2016
Update: for those who like maps, here’s another one, painting a much more favorable picture for the Republican nominee – giving him Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire – but he still loses:
Republicans have a massive electoral map problem that has nothing to do with Donald Trump https://t.co/PXm060UjyW
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 4, 2016
“Here’s the underlying math,” writes the Washington Posts’s Chris Cillizza:
If Clinton wins the 19 states (and D.C.) that every Democratic nominee has won from 1992 to 2012, she has 242 electoral votes. Add Florida’s 29 and you get 271. Game over.
Updated
Here are a few tidbits from overnight not-to-be missed:
Ted Cruz ends campaign by accidentally hitting, elbowing his wife in the face pic.twitter.com/epO1tzKgTT
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) May 4, 2016
Tomorrow's front page:
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 4, 2016
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the @GOP https://t.co/ywZB1bH1na pic.twitter.com/7RsKFIrSYk
Donald Trump is the GOP's nominee — it's time for Cruz and Kasich to drop out https://t.co/Xqbm31wxxv pic.twitter.com/g31IZ562cX
— New York Post (@nypost) May 3, 2016
Clinton leads Trump +26 among women - poll
The new CNN/ORC polls showing Clinton up 54-41 on Trump in a general election matchup depicts significant weaknesses for Trump among women and nonwhite voters. The presumptive Republican nominee performs less well with both groups than did 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, who lost by 126 electoral votes.
In new @CNN @realDonaldTrump even w/@HillaryClinton among men but she leads +26 among women. Trump +9 w/whites, less than 1/2 Romney advtg
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) May 4, 2016
There was a bright spot for Trump in the poll: voters seem to trust him more at handling the economy, CNN reports:
Clinton is also more trusted than Trump on many issues voters rank as critically important, with one big exception. By a 50% to 45% margin, voters say Trump would do a better job handling the economy than Clinton would.
Clinton this morning continues to take the fight to Trump, even as the paint is still drying on her most recent loss to Democratic rival Bernie Sanders:
"As he goes after women, as he goes after literally every group, I'm going to be their voice." —Hillary on Trumphttps://t.co/iNUo2EuTYO
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 4, 2016
Updated
British prime minister David Cameron still thinks Donald Trump’s proposed Muslim ban is “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
No 10 says Cameron has 'no intention' of withdrawing his "stupid, wrong' comment re Trump's Muslim ban plan - https://t.co/8RsfAovtla
— AndrewSparrow (@AndrewSparrow) May 4, 2016
Andrew writes:
- George Papadopoulos, an adviser to Trump, said Cameron’s comments were “uncalled-for” and it would be “wise” for the prime minister to “reach out in a more positive manner” to the Republican front-runner. Asked about Papadopoulos’s comments, Cameron’s official spokeswoman said:
The prime minister has no intention of withdrawing his comments, which were made in response to comments that Donald Trump made calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US. That was the context for the PM’s comments.
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. That race was dramatically streamlined Tuesday night as Donald Trump scored a big win in Indiana, causing Texas senator Ted Cruz to suspend his campaign and clearing Trump’s way to the Republican nomination.
“I don’t know if he likes me or doesn’t like me,” Trump said of Cruz in a victory speech. “But he is one hell of a competitor. He has an amazing future.”
Bernie Sanders scored an upset victory on the Democratic side, beating Hillary Clinton by five points and vowing to fight on despite trailing in the delegates race.
“The Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over,” Sanders said. “They’re wrong.”
Click here for an interactive map of Indiana results:
The current delegate standings are at bottom.
The “presumptive” Republican nominee, in the words of party chair Reince Priebus, hit on a series of interesting topics in morning show appearances on Wednesday, including his potential vice-presidential pick, his general election funding model, and his assertion a day earlier that Cruz’s father was involved in the JFK assassination.
Trump did not back down on the JFK conspiracy theory.
“I don’t think anybody denied it,” he said.
On @GMA, @realDonaldTrump declines to apologize for claim about Cruz's father: "I don't think anybody denied it" https://t.co/UTU8TkCvSE
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 4, 2016
As for his fundraising, Trump said he would make a decision over the next week, and that he did not want to sell real estate to self-fund his campaign. Should Clinton be the Democratic nominee, she is expected to have a war chest that is already being filled by large donors contributing to outside political groups as well as individual donors. Trump has criticized that model as currying corruption.
And the running mate? Trump said he would “most likely” choose an elected official who would definitely, lest there be any doubt, be a Republican.
NEW CNN/ORC National Poll:
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) May 4, 2016
Clinton: 54
Trump: 41https://t.co/WEKqPE0u58
Thank you as always for reading and please join us in the comments!
Updated
