Clinton Email Probe Enters New Phase
“Federal prosecutors investigating the possible mishandling of classified materials on Hillary Clinton’s private email server have begun the process of setting up formal interviews with some of her longtime and closest aides, according to two people familiar with the probe, an indication that the inquiry is moving into its final phases,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Those interviews and the final review of the case, however, could still take many weeks, all but guaranteeing that the investigation will continue to dog Clinton’s presidential campaign through most, if not all, of the remaining presidential primaries.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post details how Clinton’s aides pushed to accommodate Clinton’s wishes to use her own private email account: “From the earliest days, Clinton aides and senior officials focused intently on accommodating the secretary’s desire to use her private email account, documents and interviews show. Throughout, they paid insufficient attention to laws and regulations governing the handling of classified material and the preservation of government records.”
Trump Threatens Lawsuit Over Delegate Selection
“Donald Trump upped the ante over the weekend by tweeting the threat of a lawsuit over last week’s maneuvering in Louisiana’s GOP delegate selection,” NBC News reports.
“Now, Louisiana is simply an example of Trump being outgunned when it comes to the nitty-gritty of delegate selection at the local level, and Team Cruz worked within the rules – not outside of them – to build a possible advantage. But for Trump’s supporters, the complaint furthers the fundamental underpinning of their candidate’s appeal – that he’s fighting an unfair and rigged establishment system to better represent the folks who have been most left out of the process.”
What Trump Does to Your Brain
“Something about Trump — his face, his voice, his message — generates increased brain engagement,” CNN Money reports.
SBB Research Group CEO Sam Barnett “has been strapping electrode caps on focus group participants and showing them primary season debates” and has found that Trump “generated more brain engagement than his rivals in almost every demographic category, even among Democrats and Independents. In each category, Trump outperformed the lowest ranked rival by a double-digit percentage.”
Quote of the Day
“I’m probably the best campaign politician you will ever interview. I’m like perfectly evolved. I’m like the Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator. I love it. I’m just really good at it and take great joy in it.”
— Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), in an interview with the Huffington Post.
Cruz Still Waiting for Establishment Embrace
New York Times: “While the Romney and Bush endorsements drew headlines, what has been just as striking is the sound of silence from the vast majority of Republican elected officials and leading donors. Nearly two weeks after Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the race, there has been no mass rush to Mr. Cruz, even as he appears to be the last line of defense against a Trump nomination.”
“The decision by so many leading Republicans to remain on the sidelines is all the more notable because it appears inversely proportional to the scale of concern about Mr. Trump. His recent attacks on Mr. Cruz’s wife and soaring unpopularity among women, minorities and college-educated voters have left many in the party more convinced than ever that, with Mr. Trump as their standard-bearer, they are churning toward a political iceberg this fall.”
Washington Post: Why some Republicans are feeling shame
How the GOP Elite Lost Its Way
New York Times: “As the Republican Party collapses on itself, conservative leaders struggling to explain Mr. Trump’s appeal have largely seized on his unique qualities as a candidate: his larger-than-life persona, his ability to dominate the airwaves, his tough-sounding if unrealistic policy proposals. Others ascribe Mr. Trump’s rise to the xenophobia and racism of Americans angry over their declining power.”
“But the story is also one of a party elite that abandoned its most faithful voters, blue-collar white Americans, who faced economic pain and uncertainty over the past decade as the party’s donors, lawmakers and lobbyists prospered. From mobile home parks in Florida and factory towns in Michigan, to Virginia’s coal country, where as many as one in five adults live on Social Security disability payments, disenchanted Republican voters lost faith in the agenda of their party’s leaders.”
Wonk Wire: How reversing the trade deficit could make America less great
Rubio’s Secret Donors Remain Secret
“Marco Rubio’s campaign is dead. His secret-money legacy lives on,” Politico reports.
“Nobody knows who funded the nonprofit group that spent more than $10 million on TV ads boosting Rubio, and untold more on mailers and research. And, unless those donors out themselves, nobody ever will.”
“No presidential candidate fighting for their party’s nomination has ever benefited from as much undisclosed cash, and watchdogs worry the pro-Rubio group’s unchecked activity serves as a dangerous precedent that will soon become common practice.”
Kerry Says GOP Campaign Is an Embarrassment
Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Republican presidential campaign raises awkward questions abroad about the reliability of the United States, Yahoo News reports.
Said Kerry: “They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they’re shocked. They don’t know where it’s taking the United States of America.”
He added: “It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability, and to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
Trump Leads In California
A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in California finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 37%, followed by Ted Cruz at 30% and John Kasich at 12%.
Key point: “How many Californians will turn out remains hard to predict because the state has not seen a fully contested June Republican primary since 1964. Also hard to predict is how the overall support for the top candidates will translate into delegates to the Republican nominating convention this summer. The state’s GOP awards delegates to the winner of each congressional district, so a candidate could lose statewide but still pick up a significant number of delegates.”
Trump leads in most areas of the state except the Central Valley, where conservative voters put Cruz ahead. In Los Angeles County, the two are nearly tied.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It’s a new way of communicating. It’s very effective. I’ve been very effective with it. Between that and Facebook, I have like 15 or 16 million followers… Now, other people don’t like it, because they have 15 followers… And, frankly, it’s a great way of communicating, as far as I’m concerned. But I’m not going to be doing it very much as president.”
— Donald Trump, in an interview with ABC News, on his use of Twitter.
Trump Says the GOP Is a Disgrace
Donald Trump blasted reports that Sen. Ted Cruz will pick up extra delegates in Louisiana weeks after the state’s primary, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “Welcome to the Republican Party. What’s going on in the Republican Party is a disgrace.”
We’re Witnessing the Implosion of the Republican Party
David Axelrod: “The normal pattern of GOP nominating contests for the past two decades is that the party endures heated primary fights between populist, evangelical and center-right candidates, only to settle on the leading establishment choice. No more.”
“Having stoked anti-Obama fever in order to score midterm victories at the polls and then failed to deliver on pledges to derail major elements of the President’s agenda, the party elite now finds itself overrun by a wave of outrage and discontent.”
Sanders Prepares Strong Push In New York
Washington Post: “To capitalize on his fresh momentum, Sanders plans an aggressive push in New York, modeled after his come-from-behind victory a few weeks ago in Michigan. He intends to barnstorm the state as if he were running for governor. His advisers, spoiling for a brawl, have commissioned polls to show which contrasts with Clinton — from Wall Street to fracking — could do the most damage to her at home.”
“The intensified and scrappy approach by Sanders comes as Clinton is eager to pivot to the general election. Clinton keenly understands the imperative to unite Democrats for the fall campaign and, thinking that the nomination is nearly locked up, wants to spend the spring building bridges to the Sanders wing.”
“A potentially ugly primary in New York threatens to derail those efforts. Clinton’s advisers are all but urging Sanders to lay off his attacks.”
Obama Approval Keeps Rising
The Gallup tracking poll now shows President Obama’s approval rate at 53% to 44%.
How the Media Created Trump
Nicholas Kristof: “Those of us in the news media have sometimes blamed Donald Trump’s rise on the Republican Party’s toxic manipulation of racial resentments over the years. But we should also acknowledge another force that empowered Trump: Us.”
“I polled a number of journalists and scholars, and there was a broad (though not universal) view that we in the media screwed up. Our first big failing was that television in particular handed Trump the microphone without adequately fact-checking him or rigorously examining his background, in a craven symbiosis that boosted audiences for both.”
Another view from Callum Borchers: “It’s convenient to blame the media for Trump’s rise, but the reality — made dishearteningly apparent this week — is that the press isn’t powerful enough to be responsible for his success or failure. It can’t even control the campaign narrative, never mind the outcome.”
Quote of the Day
“Look, they made this bed, they’ve been willingly allowing the Tea Party extremists to take over their party, and so they have only themselves to blame with the likelihood of having a presumptive nominee like Donald Trump, who is the most extreme and vile, misogynistic candidate in modern times.”
— DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, quoted by The Hill.
GOP Campaign Reaches Paul Ryan’s Backyard
“The Republicans’ presidential campaign has moved into House Speaker Paul Ryan’s backyard, thrusting him further into the vortex of a GOP debate about what kind of party it wants to be,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“With Mr. Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin set to hold the next primary, the unorthodox, from-the-gut campaign of Donald Trump is setting a tone and advancing an agenda that is a far cry from the cerebral, conservative brand of politics that has fueled Mr. Ryan’s rise to the top of the party.”
“The two men personify the fork in the road the GOP now faces, and will be spotlighted when the celebrity businessman travels to Mr. Ryan’s hometown of Janesville on Tuesday to hold a rally in advance of Wisconsin’s April 5 primary.”