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Tom McCarthy (now) and Scott Bixby (earlier) in New York

Hillary Clinton wins DC primary and sits down with Sanders in Washington – as it happened

Interactive
Tracker

Summary

We’re going to wrap up our live blog coverage, with no details yet having issued from the Bernie Sanders–Hillary Clinton meeting. Sanders has a video broadcast planned for Thursday in which, he has said, he will talk about the future of his campaign.

Clinton won the Washington DC primary Tuesday night. With 83% of precincts reporting she led by 79-21. She became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president eight days ago when she claimed a 2,383 majority of the delegates at stake.

Democrats

It appears that the 2016 primary season will set a record for participation, with more than 60 millionvoters casting ballots – about 30 million in each party’s race. See you in Iowa in 2020!

Trump suggests US soldiers took cash meant for Iraqi reconstruction

A controversial line from Trump’s speech in Greensboro: He said that Iraq was “crooked as hell” and that US soldiers in charge of handing out reconstruction funds in the country are “living very well right now”:

When we got out, we should have taken the oil. I’ll never forget some of the pundits. Most of them they don’t have the brains they were born with. They said, ‘They’re talking about a sovereign country.’ Iraq. Crooked as hell.

How about bringing baskets of money. Millions and millions of dollars, and handing it out? I want to know, who are the soldiers who had that job? Because I think they’re living very well right now, whoever they may be.

Update: The Trump campaign says he meant Iraqi soldiers:

The United States was at one point handing out a lot of cash in Iraq – as in pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills – and a lot of it disappeared, but blame has fallen to contractors, bribe-takers and “ghost employees” in the Iraqi government (and see below: US soldiers):

Trump said something similar back in October 2015, Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs points out:

He also suggested that some American soldiers charged with distributing money to fund the Afghan and Iraqi government embezzled it instead. “I want to know who are the soldiers carrying suitcases with $50m?” asked Trump. “How stupid are we? I wouldn’t be surprised if those soldiers, if the cash didn’t get there.”

Updated

Clinton and Sanders arrive at Hilton

The Democratic candidates have both rolled into their DC meeting place. The primaries are over, and it’s time to talk.

Bernie and Jane Sanders arrive at a DC Hilton for a meeting with Hillary Clinton.
Bernie and Jane Sanders arrive at a DC Hilton for a meeting with Hillary Clinton. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Updated

Trump: ‘Obama is angrier at me than he is at the shooter’ – video

Donald Trump: Obama is angrier at me than he is at Orlando shooter – video

Clinton is flirting with the 80% mark in the Washington, DC, primary:

Just more 30 million people voted in each party’s nominating contest this year. It looks like that’s a record number of participants. Congratulations, everyone who participated!

Updated

Clinton wins Washington DC primary

Shortly after polls close in Washington, DC, Hillary Clinton is projected as the winner of the district’s Democratic primary.

Clinton and Sanders were to meet after the close of polling stations at 8pm ET. We’ll wait to see what we might hear from them.

Under votes are better than over votes?

Clinton’s lead here is representative of her lead so far in the District:

Trump warns North Carolina crowd of immigrant threat

In a rambunctious rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trump responded to criticism from President Obama earlier Tuesday, saying “Obama was more angry at me than he was at the [Orlando] shooter,” writes Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs:

Trump had implied a day earlier that Obama was somehow in league with terrorists. On Tuesday, Trump kept up the criticism, telling the Associated Press: “President Obama claims to know our enemy, and yet he continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people.”

The presumptive Republican nominee also spoke darkly about Muslim immigrants to the United States at his Greensboro rally, which followed a speech in New Hampshire on Monday in which he renewed a call for a Muslim ban.

“How does this type of immigration make our lives better?” Trump asked. He continued to allege that Syrian refugees were “sneaking into” American communities “without documentation”.

Trump also boasted about banning “the dishonest Washington Post” from his events. “I love it” he said of banning the well-respected and much-decorated journal. He added, “I’m so happy.” The Post is one of a number of media outlets that Trump has banned from his events. The list also includes Politico, Buzzfeed, Univision and the Des Moines Register.

Clinton to meet with Sanders

A meeting between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is to begin soon at the Hilton hotel in Washington, DC, according to the campaigns’ guidance. Reporters are staking out the hotel.

It’s unclear what level of information will issue from the meeting. Sanders has told supporters he will talk about the future of the campaign in a Thursday video broadcast. So he’s not expected to bow out tonight.

Updated

MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki has the results of past Democratic primaries in the District of Columbia. Clinton lost to Obama 24-75 in 2008.

Washington DC polls close

That was it. No more presidential voting (not counting delegates at the conventions) (or early voters) (or absentee voters, etc.) till November!

Updated

The Washington DC results will be illustrated on our interactive results tracker – follow along here.

DC

Trump’s done. Ten minutes until Washington DC polls close.

Trump: 'Pocahontas' could be Clinton veep pick

Trump says he thinks Senator Elizabeth Warren might be Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick. But he does not refer to her by name; he calls her “Pocahontas” in reference to her disputed Native American heritage.

Trump:

I think maybe it could be Pocahontas. I hope so. I hope it’s Pocahontas.

They want me to apologize. But I did! Can you believe it, I apologized. I said, ‘I’d like to apologize to Pocahontas. It’s true. The great Pocahontas.

Updated

Trump is re-telling the story of how he beat Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination. Like how Clinton always talks about beating Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb.

“I remember New Hampshire, I love New Hampshire. In fact just yesterday I was in New Hampshire. Gave a speech about” that “horrible, horrible” incident...

Next Trump riffs about the heroin and opioids epidemic in New Hampshire. Now he’s talking about how great he was in the debates. Who’s going to begrudge him a little walk down memory lane, it’s his birthday!

Updated

Trump is saying lyrics, as he has before, from Al Wilson’s The Snake. “Think of your border, think of people pouring in who you know are going to be trouble at some point”.

[A protester is taken out. “Get him out,” Trump says. “That’s right, go home to mommy. Bye”]

“Think about your border folks. .. We’re gonna protect our country”. Then he recites the lyrics in full, though he is interrupted by another protester and stops to join the crowd in a chant of USA! USA! USA!.

On her way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
“Oh well, “ she cried, “I’ll take you in and I’ll take care of you”
“Take me in oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman, “ sighed the snake

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk
And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk
Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she’d taking in had been revived
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,“ sighed the broken snake

Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried
“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now, my gosh you would have died”
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thank you, that snake gave her a vicious bite
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed that vicious snake

“I saved you, “ cried that woman
“And you’ve bit me heavens, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in”

Trump’s applauded for his recitation. “We know what we’re getting into, but we keep doing it, because we don’t learn,” Trump says.

Updated

Trump: 'we're no longer gonna be the stupid people'

Trump promises a relief from idiocy:

It’s America First. We’re no longer gonna be the stupid people. And we’re not the stupid people. But we’re led by the stupid people. And that’s gonna end.

Dallas’ local CBS station reports that the cities of Irving and Grand Prairie, Texas, have declined to host Donald Trump rallies:

Trump says he did not want to run for president

“We can’t continue to live this way...” Trump says. Then he reworks an old Ronald Reagan line:

If you think you feel safer now than you did eight years ago – I don’t think there’s anyone here in this room that feels that way.

Trump definitely still wants to build the border wall, he tells the crowd:

Don’t even think about it. We’re going to build that wall. Don’t even think about it.

Trump: And who is going to pay for it?

Crowd: Mexico!

Trump: Who?

Crowd: Mexico!

Trump: 100%

Trump then says he did not want to run for president:

I didn’t want to do this, folks, I’ll tell you. I don’t know about you, but it’s about 110 degrees up here. I didn’t want to do this. I would’ve been very happy if Obama were a great president... but you know what, he’s been one hell of a lousy president.

Trump brags about shutting the Washington Post out of his events:

I said, why should I have people following me around, sitting up there like bigshots, and they write very untruthful stories.

So I did it with the Washington Post, I’m so happy... maybe they’re somewhere in the back, the back bleachers.

Trump says that the United States has admitted many immigrants since 9/11 from countries that persecute gays and lesbians. Perhaps the US is providing asylum – he does not say.

He continues his attack on Clinton:

She’s no friend of women, and she’s no friend of LGBT Americans. No friend, believe me. And how can you be a friend when you take many many millions of dollars... when these countries are oppressive to LGBT, they’re oppressive to everybody.

And then women like Hillary better than Donald Trump? I don’t think so, I’ll be honest. I don’t think so.

Trump says Clinton wants to resettle hundreds of thousands of refugees – “people that we don’t know, people we don’t know anything about” - at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. He’s making up the numbers, it seems?

Updated

Trump: Obama 'was more angry at me than he was at the shooter'

Trump interrupts his statement on Orlando to attack Clinton.

Clinton “plays the women card more than any human being I’ve ever seen in my life. And frankly, I don’t even think women like her, from what I’ve seen,” he says.

Trump says Clinton takes money from countries “that kill gays”.

“Let’s call for Hillary and Bill Clinton to give back the $25m plus from the countries that we’re talking about,” Trump says. He’s presumably referring to a donation or donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Then Trump replies to the president’s speech today in which Obama said Trump’s proposed immigration ban violated American ideals.

“Political correctness” is “killing us,” Trump says:

I watched president Obama today, and he was more angry at me than he was at the shooter. And many people said that. One of the folks on television said, ‘boy has Trump gotten under his skin.’

That’s the kind of anger he should have for the shooter, and these killers, that shouldn’t be here.

Trump says “we can’t be led by weak ineffective people”. He names Obama and Clinton, who are booed. Trump says that refugees from Syria “are being snuck into certain communities” without state governors knowing.

Trump has a prepared statement on the Orlando attack, which he seems not to want to read.

“I just wrote some of this down, but we gotta do it, because normally we talk about jobs,” he says.

Trump is speaking in Greensboro. Here’s a live feed:

Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs is monitoring the Trump rally for us tonight:

We’ll serve up a live video feed shortly.

Sanders calls for end to superdelegates

In his statement in Washington, DC, earlier, Bernie Sanders called for an end to the superdelegates system by which senior Democratic party figures cast decisive votes in the presidential nominating contest.

Sanders also called for same-day registration, adequate staffing and training for elections and other “major, major changes”.

AP has video:

Here’s the current Democratic delegates count, including superdelegates:

Democrats

Updated

It appears the Trump event in Greensboro is off to a spirited start:

Treasurer of pro-Trump Pac was convicted of $460m fraud

Politico’s Ken Vogel comes across a strange filing by a pro-Trump political action committee called Get Our Jobs Back, Inc. It claims a $50m expenditure on “digital media marketing” – a huge sum:

His curiosity piqued, Vogel called PAC treasurer Steven Hoffenberg, only to be threatened with a lawsuit:

Then Vogel notes that Steven Hoffenberg is also the name of a financier who, in 1995, pleaded guilty “to criminal conspiracy and fraud charges in connection with a $460 million scheme that was described by prosecutors as one of the largest financial swindles in history”, as the New York Times reported.

Not a coincidence, it turns out: Hoffenberg spent more than a decade in federal prison for his crimes, which the Times summarized like this:

Mr. Hoffenberg admitted to being the ringleader of one of the largest so-called Ponzi schemes on record, having sold more than $460 million in fraudulent notes and bonds to investors and having used some of the money he collected from later investors to pay interest owed to earlier investors. The rest of the money was used to run The New York Post briefly and to support a Potemkin-village financial empire with inflated revenues and fictitious profits that made it appear to be a major health care financing company

Trump spent months warning that outside political groups were a corrupting influence in American politics. Last month, however, he hired a finance chairman and announced he would build a “world-class finance organization”.

Updated

DC polls to close at 8pm ET

It’s finally here. The last voting in the 2016 presidential nominating season is happening as we speak in Washington, DC, where Democrats are holding a primary (Republicans in the district held their contest in March; Marco Rubio won 10 delegates and John Kasich won 9).

Polling stations in DC close at 8pm ET.

Before the polls close, Donald Trump will speak, should all proceed as scheduled, at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. We’ll carry coverage of the speech here.

Trump: 'I'm much better for women than she is. I'm much better for gays'

Are the 63% of women who told the Bloomberg /Selzer poll that they would never vote for Trump missing something?

Trump tells Fox News host Sean Hannity that “I’m much better for women than [Clinton] is. I’m much better for gays’.

In other news, BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski has unearthed yet another Trump interview with Howard Stern, in which Trump talked about the (late-1970s) heyday of Studio 54, the nightclub:

You’d see the top models in the world getting screwed on tables in the middle of the dance floor,” said Trump. “You would see things you just don’t see today primarily because of AIDS and other diseases. But it was incredible. You’d see the most beautiful women in the world, the most beautiful people in the world. Then, an hour later, you’d see them making love right in front of you. And I’m there saying, ‘Excuse me?’

Trump added he was dating “a million” models at the time.

63% of women say #NeverTrump – poll

The Bloomberg / Selzer poll asked a lot of “never would I ever” questions.

55% of voters surveyed said they could never vote for Trump, compared with 43% who said they could never vote for Clinton.

But Trump’s numbers were even worse with women. 63% of women surveyed told the pollsters they could never vote for Trump.

If you can never get the vote of two in three women, who are a majority of voters, that is something that has to change for Trump to emerge victorious,” Selzer said.

In the 2012 presidential election, women were 53% of voters. Barack Obama won 55% of them. In 2008 Obama won women 56-43. Read further here.

More from the poll:

Updated

Clinton up 12 points in Bloomberg poll

Hillary Clinton holds a 49-37 lead over Donald Trump among likely voters nationally, a new Bloomberg poll finds.

The poll was conducted on 10-13 June and, at the end, included a question about the 12 June Orlando attack.

The poll found a wider lead for Clinton than the 7-point-lead depicted in an NBC News / Survey Monkey poll released this morning.

55% of those polled by Bloomberg said they could never vote for Trump. Here’s Bloomberg:

“Clinton has a number of advantages in this poll, in addition to her lead,” said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who oversaw the survey. “Her supporters are more enthusiastic than Trump’s and more voters overall see her becoming a more appealing candidate than say that for Trump.”

One bit of positive news for Trump in the results is that he narrowly edges out Clinton, 45 percent to 41 percent, when those surveyed were asked which candidate they would have more confidence in if a similar attack to the one in Florida took place a year from now.

Updated

Trump seeks 'founding members'

A new email from the Donald Trump campaign invites potential supporters to become a “Founding Member of our campaign to officially mark your membership in the greatest American movement since our country’s founding.”

If Crooked Hillary gets elected, the country we love will be lost,” the email warns. “Say goodbye to the Supreme Court, our military, our border, our freedoms –everything that has made America great...

If you think that sounds bad, you can become a founding member here.

(h/t: @bencjacobs)

Trump: Post made it sound like I said Obama was shooter

Donald Trump has elaborated on his decision to nix press credentials for the Washington Post. The Post had reported that Trump had suggested the president harbored some nefarious secret agenda, which the Guardian also reported.

The Post’s report was preceded by an investigation that revealed that Trump had not given away money to veterans’ charities as he claimed, seemingly pressuring Trump into writing a $1m check to a charity.

On Fox News, Trump said the Post accused him of saying “essentially that Obama went in and shot the people” at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando:

Video: Obama unloads on Trump

Obama challenges Trump’s proposed Muslim ban

In a statement given at a press conference, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has lashed out at Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration, as it relates to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida that left 49 people dead.

“This is what we do know, and what we must never forget: We know that one hateful person committed this terrible crime, not an entire people or an entire religion. The Muslim people did not commit this horrific act,” Sanders said.

“To blame an entire religion for the acts of a single individual is nothing less than bigotry and that is not what this country is supposed to be about.”

A fundraising email just sent out by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign highlights the revulsion expressed by numerous high-profile Republican lawmakers, officials and leaders in response to Donald Trump’s self-congratulation in the wake of a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead.

“In the wake of his response to the tragic attack in Orlando, more and more Republicans have backed away from Donald Trump, his views and what he represents,” Clinton’s team wrote. “It’s no surprise, given his hateful language and dangerous policies that will do serious harm to working families and put America’s security at risk.”

Here are some of the officials quoted:

  • “I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s interest. It’s not reflective of our principles not just as a party but as a country.” - House speaker Paul Ryan
  • “I do not agree with Donald Trump’s call for a blanket ban on Muslims entering the United States - it is not what this country stands for.” - Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski
  • “You’re congratulating yourself because 50 people are dead this morning in a horrific tragedy?” - Meghan McCain
  • “I’ve run out of adjectives when it comes to Mr. Trump.” - South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham

Donald Trump responds to President Barack Obama:

President Obama claims to know our enemy, and yet he continues to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people. When I am President, it will always be America First.

Hillary Clinton offered a vigorous rebuttal of Donald Trump’s national security agenda at a speech in Pittsburgh this afternoon, arguing that his response to the massacre at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando is “more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander-in-chief.”

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Circuit Center in Pittsburgh.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Circuit Center in Pittsburgh. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

In the speech at a union hall, Clinton sharpened her attack on Trump, painting him as a “conspiracy theorist” and a “loose cannon who could easily lead us into war” with his superficial understanding of national security and controversial policy prescriptions. She called Trump’s insinuation that President Obama was somehow complicit in the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub, which left 49 people dead and 53 wounded, was “shameful” and “disrespectful.”

“Donald Trump wants to be our next commander-in-chief,” Clinton said. The crowd booed at the first mention of the presumptive Republican nominee’s name.

“I think we all know that that is a job that demands a calm collected and dignified response to these kinds of events. Instead, yesterday morning just one day after the massacre, he went on TV and suggested that President Obama is on the side of the terrorists. Now just think about that for a second, even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States.”

She challenged Republican leaders to condemn Trump’s comments about Obama, asking whether they will “stand up to their presumptive nominee, or will they stand by his accusation about our president?”

“History will remember this moment,” she added.

Clinton, who ascended to presumptive Democratic nominee last week, said she read “every word” of Trump’s national security speech on Monday, and found only two proposals amid the bluster: one was over semantics and the other over immigration.

“I will not demonize and declare war on an entire religion,” Clinton said, responding to Trump, who has denigrated her and the President for not using the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” In a speech in Cleveland on Monday, Clinton said: “To me, radical jihadist, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing.”

Today, she carried expanded on that point: “In the end, it didn’t matter what we called bin Laden, it mattered that we got bin Laden,” referring to the 2011 raid that killed the leader of Al-Qaida in Pakistan. On the campaign trail, Clinton has touted her support for the risky operation as evidence of her judgement and resolve in making important national security decisions.

On Monday, Trump hardened his stance on banning Muslims from entering the country, proposing that US stop immigration from areas of the world with a “proven history of terrorism.” He argued that this would have prevented attack in Orlando, based on the incorrect assertion that the gunman, Omar Mateen, was born in “Afghan of Afghan parents, who immigrated to the United States.”

Clinton drew cynical laughs when she said on Tuesday: “He was born in Queens, New York, just like Donald was himself. So Muslim bans and immigration reforms would not have stopped him. They would not have saved a single life in Orlando.”

Clinton acknowledged that she had planned to give a difference speech on Tuesday, one about the economy and union rights, but the attack in Orlando, and Trump’s reaction to it, demanded a rebuttal. She ended her speech with a call to action for bipartisan leadership and action in response to fighting terrorism abroad and at home. She quoted a part of the letter President George H W Bush left for a newly-elected President Bill Clinton when he took office in 1993 after a brutal and deeply partisan election, which she said sill brings her to tears after all these years.

“It concluded with these words,” Clinton said. “’You will be our president when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success is now our country’s success and I am rooting hard for you. George.’ That’s the America we love.” The crowd burst into applause.

Claudette Kulkarni, who attended the rally in Pittsburgh, said Clinton was right to focus on national security as she like everyone she knows has been glued to the TV watching the aftermath of the Orlando attack.

“It hits close to home,” said Kulkarni, who was wearing a rainbow “Love is Love” T-shirt. “And her message of everyone getting together and being not just tolerant but accepting of each other, that’s what the future has to have in it or we’re just going to keep killing each other.”

Updated

Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus’ response to President Barack Obama’s speech on national security this afternoon touches on a lot of familiar territory, although it is missing one thing: Any mention of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald trump.

“The horrific attack in Orlando was the second act of radical Islamic terrorism inspired by Isis to be carried out on our shores in six months,” Priebus said in the statement. “Let’s not forget: President Obama’s hasty and politically driven withdrawal from Iraq, which Hillary Clinton supported, created the vacuum that enabled the rise of this terrorist group. Their failure to secure Libya after their military intervention gave Isis a beachhead on another continent. Democrats want to talk about anything else because they have lost the national debate.”

“Nothing President Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing in response to the Orlando terror attack would have prevented it, but they would infringe on Americans’ constitutional rights to due process and to own a gun,” Priebus continued. “We should not make it harder for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves when radical Islamic terrorists are successfully launching attacks on US soil. The terrorists win when they convince politicians they should take away our rights, and that is exactly what President Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing.”

Donald Trump has responded to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s speeches condemning his response to the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub that claimed 49 lives:

In the aftermath of Orlando, conservatives are facing the dilemma of deflecting attention from their own homophobic history – and drawing LGBT voters to the right, reports.

Photographs of victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
Photographs of victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

In the aftermath of Orlando, hard-edged religious conservatives are facing a dilemma. How can they call for a redoubled assault on “radical Islam” without drawing attention to their own homophobic history?

Jim Hoft, a longtime hard-right blogger also known as the Gateway Pundit, thinks he has the answer. Yesterday, Hoft revealed that he was gay on Breitbart news and argued that it was time for gay people to “come home” to the conservative party. He wrote: “I can no longer remain silent as my gay brothers and sisters are being slaughtered at dance clubs. There is only one man who can lead this nation and protect all gays and all Americans. His name is Donald Trump.”

Hoft claims that he was driven to the announcement by the Orlando massacre in the Pulse nightclub.

He told the Guardian, “If there is an enemy of homosexuality today, we can look at the Middle East. There we see countries where it’s still illegal. We’ve seen the horrific pictures of them throwing gays off the roof in Syria and Iraq, and they believe they’re doing this out of some Islamic connotation. Certainly radical Islam is a severe threat to gays in the west.”

Hoft’s announcement came as a surprise to both friends and foes. Previously he had only been out to friends and family, and liberal bloggers had even accused him of homophobic political activism. In staking out this position, he showed one way conservatives might move to reconcile anti-gay politics with the exigencies of the war on Islam.

This is a tactic also used by politicians in office, even presidential candidates. Last November, with the primary in full swing, Republican contenders Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal all appeared at the Freedom 2015: National Religious Liberties conference. There, they shared a stage – and participated in question and answer sessions – with “Christian Reconstructionist” pastor and radio host Kevin Swanson, who advocates the death penalty for homosexuality.

Senator Bob Corker, one of Donald Trump’s biggest acolytes, has criticized his comments after the Orlando massacre:

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has condemned the treatment of campaign journalists by Donald Trump’s campaign, calling the mistreatment of reporters because of unfavorable coverage “shameful.”
“The Society of Professional Journalists strongly supports the numerous journalists and news outlets which have been blocked, bullied and harassed during this election season,” said SPJ president Paul Fletcher in a statement.
“Journalists covering a political campaign perform an important public service – they provide information to the American public seeking to determine our next leaders. Journalists must be free to do their jobs without fear of reprisal, intimidation and threat of physical harm,” Fletcher continued.
“Candidates for the office of president of the United States and all other offices must understand and respect the role of a free press, and must expect to be asked uncomfortable questions and receive tough but fair coverage,” Fletcher said. “Journalists ask questions on behalf of all Americans who have the right to know the policies, positions and background of any person they are voting into the country’s highest office or other offices.”
“For a candidate to disown the principles of the First Amendment simply because they do not like their coverage is shameful.”

Video: President Barack Obama’s full remarks from the Treasury Department this afternoon.

In an email to supporters this afternoon, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders told his fans that although “the voting is done” after today’s primary in Washington DC, “our political revolution continues” - and previewed his online video address on Thursday night, in which it is speculated that he will suspend his campaign.

“When we started this campaign, I told you that I was running not to oppose any man or woman, but to propose new and far-reaching policies to deal with the crises of our time,” Sanders wrote. “And for the past fourteen months, through the entire primary process, we’ve sent the establishment a message they can’t ignore: we won’t settle for the status quo.”

“After today, the voting is done, but our political revolution continues,” he continued. “I want to talk to you directly on Thursday night about what’s next for our campaign in a live, online video address at 8:30 pm EDT / 5:30 pm PDT. I hope that you will join.”

This is the angriest members of the press have seen President Barack Obama in a long time.

President Obama: Singling out minorities 'has been a shameful part of our history'

President Barack Obama delivers a forceful declaration that proposals by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to ban Muslims from entering the United States are “fueling Isil’s notion that the West hates Muslims.”

President Obama.
President Obama. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

“You hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence,” Obama says witheringly. “Where does this stop? The Orlando killer, one of the San Bernardino killers, the Fort Hood killer: They were all US citizens. Are we gonna start treating all Muslim Americans differently? Subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith?”

“Do Republican officials actually agree with this?” Obama asks, incredulous. “Because that’s not the American we want. It doesn’t reflect our democratic ideals - it won’t make us more safe, it’ll make us less safe.”

“It makes Muslim Americans feel like their government is betraying them,” Obama says. “It betrays the very values America stands for. We’ve gone through moments in our history before where we reacted out of fear, and we came to regret it. We’ve seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens. And it has been a shameful part of our history.”

“This is a country founded on basic freedoms, including freedom of religion,” Obama says. “We don’t have religious tests here. Our founders, our constitution, our bill of rights, are clear about that. And if we ever abandon those values, we would not only make it a lot easier to radicalize people here and around the world, but we would have betrayed the very things we are trying to protect.”

The pluralism and diversity and acceptance undone by such a move, Obama says, “the very things that make our country great, the very things that make us exceptional, and the terrorists would have won.”

“And I will not let that happen.”

Hillary Clinton, speaking in Pittsburgh, begins comparing President barack Obama’s response to the Orlando massacre to that of Donald Trump.

“Just one day after the massacre, he went on TV and suggested that President Obama is on the side of the terrorists,” Clinton says, to boos. “Now just think about that for a second - even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States.”

“He is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander-in-chief,” Clinton says. “Of course, he is a leader of the birther movement that spread the lie that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States.”

Obama himself lashed out against critics who say that his refusal to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” emboldens terrorists.

“That’s the key they tell us - we can’t beat Isil unless we call them radical Islamists,” Obama says. “What exactly would using this label achieve? What exactly would it change? Would it make Isil less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is, none of the above.”

“Is there anyone out there who thinks that we are confused about who the enemies are?” Obama continues. “If the implication is that those of us up here... aren’t taking the fight seriously, that’d come as a surprise to those who’ve spent the last 7.5 years” fighting Isis.

“We know full well who the enemy is.”

As Barack Obama details the war on terrorism in response to the terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is speaking on national security in Pittsburgh.

“The terrorist in Orlando is the definition of ‘the wrong hands,’ and weapons of war have no place in our streets,” Clinton says.

Meanwhile, Obama echoes Clinton moments later. To defeat domestic terrorism and “the kind of tragedies that occurred at San Bernardino and no occurred in Orlando, there is a meaningful way to do that - we have to make it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on weapons of war.”

President Barack Obama emphasized that although the exact motivations of Omar Mateen are not yet understood, his self-professed alignment with Isis and Hezbollah - two terror groups that are ideologically at odds - is an alignment with groups on the run.

“We’ve taken our more than 120 top Isil leaders and commanders,” Obama says, using another term for Isis. These actions, Obama says, tell Isis that “you will not be save; you will never be safe.”

“Isil’s true nature has been revealed - once again, they are not religious warriors. They are thugs, and they are thieves.”

Hillary Clinton speaks in Pittsburgh

Barack Obama: 'We are doing everything in our power to stop these kinds of attacks'

President Barack Obama, speaking at the Treasury Department in Washington DC, addresses the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that claimed the lives of 49 people.

Obama reiterated that he and FBI director James Comey did not believe Omar Mateen was directed by a group. But he said the Orlando killer “took in extremist information and propaganda”, and “became radicalized”.

Gun control, homegrown extremism, homophobic violence and the war against Islamic State have all been highlighted by the Orlando nightclub massacre, but deadlock in Washington means major legislation will probably have to wait until after the November election.

Thousands gather outside the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center for a vigil in Orlando, Florida.
Thousands gather outside the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center for a vigil in Orlando, Florida. Photograph: Chris Urso/AP

Whoever wins the US presidency will find an in-tray where the threat of terrorism at home, and the commitment to wars abroad, grinds on 15 years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Senate Democrats went on the front foot on Monday, calling for laws that would make it harder for terrorists to get their hands on firearms, in particular assault rifles.

In a vivid illustration of ideological division, however, Republican flag bearer Donald Trump opposed gun control measures, lambasted the immigration system as “dysfunctional” and claimed vindication in his his call for a ban on foreign-born Muslims entering the US.

A landslide victory for Clinton or Trump, with reflected gains in Congress, could give one or the other a mandate for change lacking during the Obama years. In the meantime there is realpolitik. With Obama facing a Republican-led House and Senate, the prospects for action are remote even after the killing of 49 people in the worst mass shooting in American history.

Report: Russian government hacked DNC, stole opposition research on Donald Trump

Hackers in the employ of the Russian government gained illicit access to the Democratic National Committee’s computer network, according to the Washington Post, gaining access to email, web traffic and the entire dossier of opposition research conducted on the background of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

According to the report, hackers had access for as long as a year.

“The security of our system is critical to our operation and to the confidence of the campaigns and state parties we work with,” said DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a statement. “When we discovered the intrusion, we treated this like the serious incident it is and reached out to CrowdStrike immediately. Our team moved as quickly as possible to kick out the intruders and secure our network.”

Senate minority leader Harry Reid launched into a blistering attack on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on the Senate floor this morning, calling Trump “vicious,” “un-American” and “hateful.”

Harry Reid.
Harry Reid. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

“One day after the worst mass shooting in modern American history,” Reid began, “Trump delivered one of the most un-American speeches ever from a major party’s nominee. Trump was hateful. He was vicious. He was Donald Trump - everything that Republicans knew him to be when they made him their party’s nominee.”

“It is incomprehensible that any presidential nominee would foster and promote systemic bigotry, as Trump often does,” Reid continued. “It is reprehensible and un-American for the nominee of a major party - or any party - to declare millions of Americans guilty until proven innocent, purely by virtue of their religion.”

Reid then called out Mitch McConnell, the senator majority leader, for refusing to denounce Trump or disavow his endorsement of the Republican nominee.

“Every time the senior senator from Kentucky reaffirms his commitment to support Trump, he is validating Trump’s behavior,” Reid said. “Senator McConnell is giving credence to Dona;d Trump’s rabid anti-everything hate speech - his anti-American stances against Muslims, African-Americans, women, Latinos, people with disabilities, immigrants, veterans and others.”

After 12 months of at times bitter contest, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will meet privately on Tuesday, after polls close in the nation’s capital.

Sanders and Clinton
Sanders and Clinton Photograph: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

Clinton emerged as the presumptive nominee last week, when she earned enough pledged delegates to secure the party’s nomination. She also has the majority of the party’s super-delegates, party elites whose votes are unbound to the outcomes of contests in their state. Sanders had put an enormous amount of time and money into last week’s California primary, hoping to narrowly win the state and create momentum going into Tuesday’s vote in Washington DC.

His strategy for wresting the nomination from Clinton at the party’s convention in July relied on flipping the support of a large number of super-delegates, a part of the political process he once railed against. Without question, Sanders disrupted the democratic primary, which was expected to be an easy glide path to the nomination for Clinton. Instead, he drew enormous crowds and electrified progressives with his fusillade against Wall Street and the billionaire class.

On Tuesday, the candidates are expected to discuss the future of the Democratic Party, and how they will move forward to ensure Donald Trump does not win in November. Sanders had previously pledged to take his campaign all the way to the party’s convention in Philadelphia in July, yet the math since losing California has left virtually no path forward for him to win the nomination.

Of late, he had trained his fire on Trump, promising to do whatever it takes to keep him out of the White House. On Monday night, a Clinton campaign official said in a statement: “Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders agreed to meet when she called him last Tuesday night. She looks forward to the opportunity to discuss how they can advance their shared commitment to a progressive agenda, and work together to stop Donald Trump in the general election.”

Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander says that the Republican party has no nominee:

Bernie Sanders to address supporters via livestream

Bernie Sanders speaks during a news conference at his home.
Bernie Sanders speaks during a news conference at his home. Photograph: Cheryl Senter/AP

Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will address his campaign’s supporters via a livestream on Thursday night, two days after tonight’s Democratic primary in Washington DC concludes the nominating season.

Sanders’ campaign announced this morning that he will address his supporters via a video message on Thursday night, with the theme of the conversation being: “The revolution continues.”

The Vermont senator has refused to comment on President Barack Obama’s endorsement of his rival, Hillary Clinton, as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, although he has scheduled a meeting with Clinton tonight after the conclusion of the Washington DC primary.

Updated

Paul Ryan: Proposed ban on Muslim immigration not 'in our country's interests'

In a press conference on Capitol Hill, House speaker Paul Ryan told reporters that the proposed ban on Muslim immigration to the US put forward by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is not “in our country’s interests.”

“I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s interest,” Ryan said. “I do not think it is reflective of our principles.”

The declaration was yet another sharp break in policy with Trump, whose relationship with the speaker has deteriorated ever since Ryan delivered a belated endorsement of Trump four weeks after the real estate tycoon secured the party’s nomination.

If you weren’t watching last night, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison called presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “a narcissistic fascist” for his proposed ban on Muslims and self-congratulation in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

“It is clear that we have a narcissistic fascist who has claimed the Republican nomination,” Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, told MSNBC’s Chris Cuomo. “That’s a fact. The question is what are we going to do about it as a nation.”

“Why-oh-why can’t his sympathies run to them for just a moment?” Ellison asked rhetorically, referring to the largely LGBT and Latino victims of a mass shooting at a gay Orlando nightclub that left 49 dead and 53 hospitalized. “The whole nation should be grieving with them.”

“The fact his mind is not concerned itself with what they need, comforting them, is deep and disturbing,” Ellison said. “And then turn it into a villainous rampage against other Americans who have absolutely nothing to do with this - and I mean Muslims now - it’s just outrageous.”

Today is Flag Day, and Donald Trump’s 70th birthday.

Donald Trump embraces the United States flag during a campaign rally.
Donald Trump embraces the United States flag during a campaign rally. Photograph: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images

When Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination as she continued to grapple with a surprisingly resilient primary opponent, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was in the polling doldrums. Now that she has become the nominee-in-waiting, however, Clinton’s odds are looking up.

The former secretary of state’s lead over Trump has grown to seven points, according to the latest tracking poll released this morning from NBC News/SurveyMonkey. Conducted online - unusual for polls that are largely reliant on landline phones - the poll shows Clinton leading Trump 49% to 42% among registered voters nationwide. The same poll last week showed Trump polling at 44% and Clinton at 48%.

The poll, conducted as Clinton functionally won the Democratic nomination and Trump faced extreme criticism over his racialized criticism of a sitting federal judge, showed Clinton gaining support among moderate voters, men and white voters.

Updated

Donald Trump accused of destroying email evidence in lawsuit

A few weeks ago, a USA Today investigation found that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits over the course of his career in real estate. A deep dive into one of those lawsuits has unearthed an accusation that Trump routinely deleted emails - an accusation that he has routinely made against presumptive general election opponent Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.

USA Today reports that in a 2006 lawsuit Trump’s holding company filed against a former employee over a casino deal in Florida, a judge ordered Trump’s casino holdings to turn over email records as part of the discovery process. The Trump Organization, however, said that it had no records from between 1996 and 2001 - six years’ worth of emails.

At that time, a Trump IT director testified that until 2001, executives in Trump Tower relied on personal email accounts using dial-up Internet services, despite the fact that Trump had launched a high-speed Internet provider in 1998 and announced he would wire his whole building with it. Another said Trump had no routine process for preserving emails before 2005.

Trump has, of course, made Clinton’s use of a private email server a centerpiece of his campaign against her.

Good morning, and welcome to the last day of the US primary season.

Washington DC’s Republicans already cast their ballots back in March, but today’s Democratic primary in the nation’s capital marks the official end to 2016’s primary contests - and the beginning of a general election campaign that is already heating up.

Some quick facts on tonight’s primary:

  • Washington DC’s Democrats - who make up 76% of the district’s registered voters - head to the polls today to cast ballots for their party’s presidential nominee, as well as a few city council races.
  • Polls opened at 7am ET and will close at 8pm ET tonight. (If you’re voting, you can find your polling location here.)
  • Although Hillary Clinton has already secured enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, opponent Bernie Sanders has been actively campaigning in Washington. Last Thursday, two days after Sanders was soundly defeated in the California primary and Clinton claimed the mantle of the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, 3,000 people turned out to hear the senator speak in Washington DC, where he called for the federal district to gain statehood and congressional representation.
Bernie Sanders’ speech in Washington DC

The two Democrats are already reportedly looking towards the general - Clinton and Sanders will meet this evening for the first time in months, in a candidate summit where Sanders will likely seek platform concessions from the presumptive nominee and Clinton will almost certainly push for the popular senator’s full endorsement and support in rallying the progressive wing of the party against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“I simply want to get a sense of what kind of platform she will be supporting, whether she will be vigorous in standing up for working families in the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, healthcare for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free,” Sanders said of the meeting to NBC.

Ahead of that meeting, Clinton will be hosting a campaign event in Pittsburgh at 12.15pm ET, where the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino will be reporting live. Donald Trump, meanwhile, will hold an event in Greensboro, North Carolina, at 7pm ET, just before polls close in Washington DC.

Democrats
Republicans

Updated

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