“Trump is a dick.”
— Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, quoted by Politico.
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Trump Said There Would Be No Housing Collapse
“Just months before the U.S. housing market started to crash, beginning the downward spiral that sent the globe on the road to the massive 2008 financial crisis, Donald Trump was advising Trump University students that he didn’t think there was a bubble in the real estate market,” BuzzFeed reports.
“The comments from Trump in an October 2006 audiobook were one of numerous times Trump said through Trump University that he didn’t think there was a housing bubble. In another Trump University audiobook released earlier that year, Trump said to take talk of real estate bubble talk with a ‘pinch of salt.'”
Do Trump Supporters Lie to Pollsters?
Harry Enten: “Trump did worse than the polling forecast in 19 states; he did better in 15 states. That hardly suggests that Trump outperforms his polling. Still, the difference isn’t so great that we can say Trump usually underperforms his polling. It’s a fairly even split, with Trump missing his average poll by just 1 percentage point in the median state. Two of Trump’s worst performances relative to the polls were in Kansas and Iowa — both states held low-turnout caucuses, which Trump won’t have to deal with in the general election. Overall, Trump’s percentage of the vote versus the polls is about what you’d expect of the average politician.”
For members: How Many People Don’t Admit They Support Trump?
Trump Once Paid No Income Taxes
“The last time information from Donald Trump’s income-tax returns was made public, the bottom line was striking: He had paid the federal government $0 in income taxes,” the Washington Post reports.
“The disclosure, in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
DNC Will Offer Concessions to Sanders
“In an attempt to head off an ugly conflict at its convention this summer, the Democratic National Committee plans to offer a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders — seats on a key convention platform committee — but it may not be enough to stop Sanders from picking a fight over the party’s policy positions,” the Washington Post reports.
“Allies of both Clinton and Sanders have urged Democratic leaders to meet some of Sanders’s more mundane demands for greater inclusion at the Philadelphia convention. Their decision to do so is expected to be finalized by the end of the week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But growing mistrust between Sanders supporters and party leaders have threatened to undermine that effort.”
Sanders Quietly Reassures Democrats
“As tensions were escalating between Bernie Sanders and Democratic Party leaders over the chaos caused by his supporters at a Nevada convention, Dick Durbin got an unexpected call from the Vermont senator,” Bloomberg reports.
“Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, came away from the conversation on Wednesday convinced that Sanders, who has all but lost the presidential nomination battle to Hillary Clinton, understands the need for party unity and will do his part to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.”
GOP Donors Shift Focus to Congress
“Hundreds of millions of dollars that Republican groups had been poised to spend in the 2016 presidential election are now increasingly likely to move into Senate and House races, as many big donors look to distance themselves from the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“These groups and their Democratic counterparts have already spent more than $25 million on advertising in Senate general election races alone, according to Kantar Media/CMAG, significantly outpacing both the 2014 and 2012 campaigns in outside spending. And more than $134 million in advertising for Senate races alone has been reserved by groups for the general election.”
Trump Addresses the NRA
“Donald Trump will have another chance to reassure wary conservatives still reluctant to back a candidate who once expressed support for an assault weapons ban and contributed to anti-gun Democrats when he speaks at the National Rifle Association’s national convention Friday,” NBC News reports.
“Since expressing support for the ban and a longer waiting period for gun purchases in 2000, Trump’s done an about-face on the issue. He’s since called gun bans ‘a total failure,’ opposed an expansion of background checks and called for concealed carry permits to be valid across all 50 states.”
Quote of the Day
“Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that has been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.”
— The Texas Republican Party platform, which Reuters notes includes an errant comma suggesting that the majority of Texans are gay.
The Most Newsworthy Polls are Often Wrong
Norm Ornstein: “In this highly charged election, it’s no surprise that the news media see every poll like an addict sees a new fix. That is especially true of polls that show large and unexpected changes. Those polls get intense coverage and analysis, adding to their presumed validity.”
“The problem is that the polls that make the news are also the ones most likely to be wrong. And to folks like us, who know the polling game and can sort out real trends from normal perturbations, too many of this year’s polls, and their coverage, have been cringeworthy.
Republicans Fall In Line Behind Trump
Politico: “While a small group of Republicans has wrung its hands raw over the choice between the GOP’s nominee and Hillary Clinton, the party’s firmament – social and intellectual conservatives, the lobbyist and donor class, powerful operatives and outside groups – is increasingly getting in line behind Donald Trump.”
“Never mind that many of them complain about his bombastic and unpredictable political style. The thawing has slowly but surely begun – and it’s visible everywhere — from mega-donors like Foster Friess rallying Republican governors to Trump, to Mitt Romney’s allies agreeing to raise money for him, to leaders of the Never Trump movement conceding their cause is lost.”
Clinton Directing Money to Senate Battlegrounds
“Hillary Clinton, seeking a governing coalition if she wins the White House, is pumping millions of dollars into key battleground states at the heart of her presidential map and Democrats’ quest to regain control of the Senate,” the AP reports.
“The Democratic National Committee and state parties are spending about $2 million initially to build coordinated campaigns in eight battleground states with competitive Senate races. The money is being raised by Clinton’s campaign through her Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that allows Clinton to raise large checks of more than $350,000 from wealthy donors.”
“Democrats say the coordinated effort, now a staple in presidential campaigns, will try to build up the party’s network of field organizers earlier in the election and work more closely with Senate, House and state and local campaigns than in previous election cycles.”
Clinton Holds Narrowing Lead Over Trump
A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 47% to 41%.
Key findings: “An overwhelming majority of Republican voters say their party’s leaders should get behind Donald Trump, even as he enters the general election saddled with toxic favorability ratings among the broader electorate.”
Trump Helped Create the Media That Created Trump
Jack Shafer: “If this makes the media complicit in Trump’s rise, so be it. But the media didn’t create the Trump political phenomenon. The real origin is far more interesting: Trump artfully created the media that in turn created Trump the presidential candidate.”
“There’s something truly original in all of this. Trump may yet turn out to be a fairly conventional American populist when it comes to his policy views, but he’s already proved revolutionary in his ability to create—and then manipulate—the media platforms that enable his politics. His breakthrough idea was to cash in on his four decades of media exposure with a political message that uniquely combined victimhood, bragging and patriotic obfuscation. To invert Marshall McLuhan’s most famous dictum, when it comes to politics, it’s the message—not the medium—that matters most in pushing a candidate to the top. But you can’t deliver the message unless you have the medium at your disposal.”
The Electors
Just published: The Electors by Roy Neel and Tucker Neel.
“A riveting story of massive political corruption, The Electors follows a conspiracy hatched by the White House Chief of Staff, in the wake of a devastating terrorist incident in the nation’s Capitol.”
Lawmaker Proposes Keeping Strippers Young And Fit
While discussing a bill that would raise the minimum age of exotic dancers from 18 to 21, Louisiana Rep. Kenny Havard (R) briefly proposed an amendment to cap dancers at 28 years old and 160 pounds, the Huffington Post reports.
Not all of Havard’s statehouse colleagues were amused. Rep. Julie Stokes (R) said she had “never been more repulsed to be part of the House of Representatives.”
Trump Wanted Black vs. White Apprentice
BuzzFeed: “A decade before he launched his presidential bid, Donald Trump was a reality TV sensation in search of a new gimmick for the upcoming season of The Apprentice. In the summer of 2005, he thought he had found it: pit black contestants against white ones in the televised battle for boardroom supremacy.”
