Donald Trump told the Associated Press that he has whittled down his list of potential running mates to “five or six people.”
He says he has not ruled out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former rival who has embraced the billionaire’s campaign with gusto.
“If fighting for the American people makes me you an outsider in the Senate, then I will happily remain an outsider.”
— Sen. Ted Cruz, quoted by The Hill, returning to the Senate after suspending his presidential campaign.
Francis Wilkinson: “There are two ways that Donald Trump can become president. Either he must become significantly more popular among general-election voters. Or his likely opponent, Hillary Clinton, must become significantly more unpopular.”
“It won’t take long for Trump to figure out which is the more promising path.”
“Trump is unlikely to gain traction against Clinton arguing about experience or temperament or preparedness or ideas. She overwhelms him on every count. Given his voluminous record of falsehoods, breathtaking at the presidential level of politics, he probably can’t win a contest on integrity either. But Trump is a very successful bully. He intuitively understands weakness. He will find a way to hurt her.”
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
Washington Post: “Focus groups of swing voters have picked up some warning signs for Democrats about Donald Trump’s general election candidacy: While those swing voters are willing to see Trump as a risky, divisive figure, they are not yet prepared to believe the Dem argument that Trump’s policy proposals would benefit the rich, a senior Democratic strategist who has been directly involved in extensive focus groups tells me.”
“The findings in these focus groups present Democrats with both challenges and opportunities as they prepare for a very harsh general election campaign against Trump. They also may help explain the brutal onslaught of attacks on Trump we’re about to see from Democrats as the primaries wind down and the July conventions approach.”
“Donald Trump has never run for office before. I think a lot of people are expecting him to be this professional at politics where he has thought through the details of every issue. He hasn’t. You know what? As president, he doesn’t have to.”
— Mike Huckabee, quoted by BuzzFeed.
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump nationally by four points, 42% to 38%.
Said pollster Dean Debnam: “Hillary Clinton certainly is favored to win the Presidential race this fall. But it might not be the giant blowout it’s been made out to be in some quarters. Donald Trump has quickly gotten most rank and file Republican voters behind him and that has him positioned as a modest underdog for the general rather than a massive one.”
Sen. Ted Cruz floated the possibility of restarting his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraska’s GOP primary today, The Hill reports.
Said Cruz: “We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.”
Bloomberg: “Trump staffers have spent weeks gauging Kasich’s interest in being on the ticket, according to people familiar with Trump’s vice presidential vetting process. The talks have gone nowhere, the people said.”
“Despite the brick wall, some Ohio Republicans, as well as prominent financial backers of the governor, are pushing for him to change his mind, arguing that he’s an experienced chief executive with broad bipartisan support in a battleground state crucial to winning the White House.”
“It is only the people that were never asked to be VP that tell the press that they will not take the position.”
— Donald Trump, on Twitter.
If you’ve missed Jon Stewart during this presidential campaign, his interview with David Axelrod is definitely worth watching.
Mike Allen: “Republican insiders are buzzing about Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chair of Senate Foreign Relations, as an attractive, plausible vice-presidential pick for Trump. Corker — age 63, to Trump’s 69 — surprised many in Washington by lavishing on-camera praise on Trump’s foreign-policy speech two weeks ago. Last week, Corker told USA Today‘s Mary Troyan, who covers Tennessee for Gannett, that he ‘offered to help Donald Trump develop a foreign policy platform, making him one of the few senators to publicly embrace Trump … Trump called him last week and he and Trump’s campaign staff have talked since then.'”
A Republican who knows Corker well said: “He’s an independent guy – kind of a tough guy – who’s not afraid to swim upstream. He’s frustrated by being in the Senate and not getting anything done. I think he’d really lean into this. He’s not afraid to buck the old guard. And he’s no dummy: He jumped out on the Trump thing early.”
President Obama plans to travel to Hiroshima for a historic visit to the site of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing that is intended to underscore his efforts on nuclear nonproliferation, the Wall Street Journal reports.
New York Times: “The visit, hotly debated within the White House for months as the president planned his coming trip to Vietnam and Japan, carries weighty symbolism for Mr. Obama, who is loath to be seen as apologizing for that chapter in American history.”
“House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), the Nos. 2 and 3 members of leadership, have both fallen in line supporting Trump as the party’s standard bearer this fall,” the Washington Post reports.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), the No. 4 leader as chairman of the House Republican Conference, is siding with Speaker Paul Ryan, “saying that she is not ready to support Trump due to some of the more controversial statements he has made with regard to religious liberty and minorities.”
NBC News reports that 12 of the 21 Republicans senators up for re-election this year are now supporting Donald Trump — up from eight when they were surveyed before Trump wrapped up the GOP nomination.
Rick Klein: “If it’s over – and it is indeed over, for almost all intents and purposes – why is the Bern still being felt this intensely? Hillary Clinton’s campaign expects to lose Tuesday’s West Virginia primary handily, probably by a larger gap than it lost Indiana a week ago. Clinton won both of those states against Barack Obama back in 2008; it might be said that they like underdogs, but it can’t be said that they won’t vote for a Clinton. Clinton didn’t contest those states with advertising, and her coal comments surely hurt her in West Virginia. But going dark was her choice, just as her campaign is deciding to start advertising again in primary races, in Kentucky.”
“Then there are new Quinnipiac polling numbers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida – showing tight Trump-Clinton contests in each, and Sanders a slightly better matchup for Democrats. Clinton may be ready to move on to the general election, but Democratic Party voters aren’t quite there yet.”
New York Times: “Mr. Ryan’s refusal to endorse Mr. Trump was a reminder of a lost Washington art — not just the willingness to take on the political opposition, but a readiness to publicly challenge the leader of one’s own party.”
“If sustained, it would break dramatically with the recent pattern of lawmakers’ regularly deferring to a president of their own party and ceding power from Capitol Hill to the White House. In raising concerns about Mr. Trump, Mr. Ryan seemed to acknowledge the potential for Republican-on-Republican clashes should Mr. Trump prevail in November. And the fights could come not just on discrete policy issues like taxes and trade, but also over Mr. Trump’s very interpretation of the powers of the presidency.”
Elizabeth Drew: “Ever since he entered the presidential race, Donald Trump has been upsetting assumptions. And now the overarching question is whether his approach to landing the nomination will work as well for him in the general election. There’s little point in studying the maps of past electoral college results, in particular that of Obama in 2012, and trying to project from there—an exercise that suggests a likely victory for Hillary Clinton. For one thing, this isn’t 2012 and, quite obviously, Donald Trump isn’t Mitt Romney. (Nor is Hillary Clinton Barack Obama.) Trump’s remarkable triumph in all but officially winning the Republican nomination stems largely from the fact that he has refused to play by the traditional rules. He did it his way, and in doing so mowed down sixteen Republican opponents.”
“Because Trump upsets assumptions and makes his own rules, because of those intangibles, he defies conventional political analysis.”
For members: Three Reasons We May Want to Rethink 2016
A new Quinnipiac poll shows Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are running neck and neck in three key presidential swing states:
Said pollster Peter Brown: “This election may be good for divorce lawyers. The gender gap is massive and currently benefits Trump. In Pennsylvania, Clinton’s 19-point lead among women matches Trump’s 21-point margin among men. In Ohio, she is up 7 points among women but down 15 points with men. In Florida she is up 13 points among women but down 13 points among men.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.