Donald Trump dismissed the Boston Globe as a “stupid” and “worthless” newspaper after it published a fake front page with stories depicting would-be news events during a Trump administration, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Did you see the story? The whole front page, they made up the story that Trump is the president and they made up the whole front page. It’s a make-believe story, which is really no different than the whole paper.”
CIA Director John Brennan told NBC News that his agency will not engage in harsh “enhanced interrogation” practices, including waterboarding, even if ordered to by a future president.
Said Brennan said: “I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I’ve heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders continued his squabble with Hillary Clinton over her qualifications to be president, saying “something is clearly lacking” in Mrs. Clinton’s judgment, the New York Times reports.
Said Sanders: “She may have the experience to be president of the United States. No one can argue that. But in terms of her judgment, something is clearly lacking.”
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New York Times: “None of this seemed to matter much until recently. But the Trump style — long on gut instincts, short on briefing books — has taken a toll. His opponents have called him reckless and unfit to be commander in chief. Mr. Obama has said Mr. Trump ‘doesn’t know much about foreign policy, or nuclear policy, or the Korean Peninsula, or the world generally.'”
“Mr. Trump did not respond to repeated requests to speak with him. His aides say that he is continuing to build out a policy team and will soon give speeches.”
Harold Meyerson: “If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s become hi-definition clear in the past few weeks that the culture wars, long a powerful wedge that Republicans wielded against the Democrats, have now become a dagger that cleaves GOP ranks down the middle.”
“In one GOP-controlled state after another, legislatures have enacted measures that enabled businesses to discriminate against same-sex marriage partners or against gays and lesbians generally, only to face ferocious opposition from that pillar of Republican rectitude, American business. In many cases, opposition is so fierce it has led a number of Republican governors to veto the measures.”
“He can’t win. Ted Cruz is straight fastball down the middle of the plate for the Democratic Party, which they are expert at hitting out of the ballpark… If it’s Donald, there is no playbook.”
— Rudy Giuliani, quoted by the Washington Post, explaining his decision to back Donald Trump over Ted Cruz.
President Obama insisted that the FBI and Justice Department will not protect Hillary Clinton while investigating her private emails and server, Politico reports.
Said Obama: “I can guarantee that.”
He added: “I do not talk to the Attorney General about pending investigations. I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations. I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case.”
“It’s true, I haven’t been winning as of late. I haven’t won a state in almost three weeks, because that was the plan. I didn’t want to win those, and so I didn’t. It doesn’t bother me one bit. I’m not rattled.”
“He’s threatening; you go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics.”
— Trump aide Paul Manafort, quoted by The Hill, criticizing Ted Cruz’s campaign.
“As Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced growing criticism last fall over the city’s handling of police shootings, Chicago Police Department officials laid plans to have undercover officers spy on protest groups,” records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that one-third of Donald Trump supporters said they would not support the Republican party in the general election if the businessman is blocked from the nomination. They said they would instead vote Democrat, vote third-party or sit out the election.
A new Fox News poll in New York finds Donald Trump leads the GOP presidential race with 54%, followed by John Kasich at 22% and Ted Cruz at 15%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 53% to 37%.
Sen. Ted Cruz said that Donald Trump’s nomination would mean “bloodbath of Walter Mondale proportions—double digits everywhere” in a general election, Politico reports.
“Again and again, Cruz argued that it was Trump who would be the ‘disaster’ in a general election, and said that he had a plausible path to beating him in the primary, citing recent delegate wins and saying he would be in a strong position to win the nomination on a second ballot — a shift in emphasis for Cruz, who previously has made a point to stress his ability to win outright.”
A new Fox News poll in Pennsylvania finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 48%, followed by John Kasic at 22% and Ted Cruz at 20%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 49% to 38%.
“Colorado crowned Ted Cruz as the runaway winner in the state’s Republican presidential contest Saturday — and moved the GOP closer to a contested national convention,” the Denver Post reports.
“The Texas senator won all 34 delegates awarded in Colorado in what amounts to a stunning rebuke of Republican front-runner Donald Trump.”
The Boston Globe published a satirical front page predicting headlines about a Donald Trump presidency.
Washington Post: “Leaders of Donald Trump’s new campaign team said they have revised targets that would make the real estate mogul the presumptive Republican presidential nominee by mid-May and that would win him the delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the party’s convention this summer.”
“To do so, Trump would have to go on a month-long hot streak, starting in New York on April 19, that would deliver a sizable haul of delegates — including increased commitments from those who are unbound — and silence the widespread talk that his unpopularity and his campaign’s sloppy execution have made it nearly impossible to avoid a contested convention.”
“Dispirited over a Republican Party primary that has devolved into an ugly, damaging fight, some of the GOP’s biggest financiers are reevaluating whether to invest in the 2016 presidential contest at all,” Politico reports.
“Among those on the sidelines: Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who hosted the Republican Jewish Coalition’s spring meeting at his Venetian hotel this weekend. His apparent ambivalence about 2016 was shared by many RJC members here. With grave doubts about the viability of the few remaining Republican contenders, many of these Republican donors have decided to sit out the rest of the primary entirely. And while some are reluctantly getting behind a remaining candidate, others are shifting their attention to congressional contests.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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