A new Rasmussen survey finds that 45% of likely voters would prefer to have a beer with Donald Trump as compared to 37% who would like to have a beer with Hillary Clinton.
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Bonus Quote of the Day
“Marco has my support if he gets in. But I will say it’s not unanimous among Republicans at home… His decision to skip votes during the presidential race nationally I don’t think had a big implication, but at home it certainly did.”
— Rep. David Jolly (R-FL), quoted by the National Journal, on his campaign to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate.
Murphy Mounts Gun Control Filibuster
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) “has launched a talking filibuster on the Senate floor in an effort to force Republicans and Democrats to come to an agreement on legislation to deny suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and requiring universal background checks,” Politico reports.
Quote of the Day
“I’m not often critical of the media, but I am this year. And it’s driven mostly by television, and ratings. They never really vetted Bernie Sanders, and to this day have not vetted Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton? Oh my God. No human being in history has been more vetted.”
— Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson (R), quoted by City Pages, announcing his support for Hillary Clinton who he said is a “very kind, a very good person.”
Trump Has Seemingly Lost the Republican Party
Jeff Greenfield: “What’s emerged in recent days, however, is something we have never seen before. The hard questions about the character and temperament of the presumptive Republican nominee are coming from within his own party at precisely the time when the most important piece of business for a nominee is consolidation of that party. The weekend gathering that Romney hosted is yet one more measure of just how unmoored his candidacy is from anything remotely familiar in American politics.”
“In a normal intraparty contest, the fights usually take familiar forms: who best represents the party; whose ideas resonate, whose prescriptions are sound, or flawed; who has the experience (or the fresh ideas) that best serve the party. The disputes can be intense—think of Walter Mondale deriding Gary Hart’s new ideas campaign of 1984 by asking, ‘Where’s the beef?’ or George H.W. Bush labeling Ronald Reagan’s ideas ‘voodoo economics,’ or Hillary Clinton in 2008 deriding Barack Obama’s promises of change.”
“Rarely, however, does a candidate take on an intraparty foe on questions of character.”
Trump Will Meet with House Republicans
“Donald Trump will address House Republicans July 7, a top House Republican staffer said Tuesday, fulfilling a request House Republicans made shortly after Trump became the presumptive nominee,” CNN reports.
“House GOP members expect to hear from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee about his proposed policies and hear plans to unite the party.”
Speech of the Day
Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox (R) addressed a vigil held to honor the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Orlando:
Thank you for being here tonight on this very solemn and somber occasion. I begin with an admission and an apology. First, I recognize fully that I am a balding, youngish, middle-aged straight, white, male, Republican, politician… with all of the expectations and privileges that come with those labels. I am probably not who you expected to hear from today.
I’m here because, yesterday morning, 49 Americans were brutally murdered. And it made me sad. And it made me angry. And it made me confused. I’m here because those 49 people were gay. I’m here because it shouldn’t matter. But I’m here because it does. I am not here to tell you that I know exactly what you are going through. I am not here to tell you that I feel your pain. I don’t pretend to know the depths of what you are feeling right now. But I do know what it feels like to be scared. And I do know what it feels like to be sad. And I do know what it feels like to be rejected. And, more importantly, I know what it feels like to be loved.
I grew up in a small town and went to a small rural high school. There were some kids in my class that were different. Sometimes I wasn’t kind to them. I didn’t know it at the time, but I know now that they were gay. I will forever regret not treating them with the kindness, dignity and respect — the love — that they deserved. For that, I sincerely and humbly apologize.
Over the intervening years, my heart has changed. It has changed because of you. It has changed because I have gotten to know many of you. You have been patient with me. You helped me learn the right letters of the alphabet in the right order even though you keep adding new ones. You have been kind to me…. You have treated me with the kindness, dignity, and respect — the love — that I very often did NOT deserve. And it has made me love you.
Alexander Suggests Trump May Not Be Nominee
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) suggested to the AP that Donald Trump might not end up as the Republican party’s nominee after all.
Said Alexander: “We do not have a nominee until after the convention.”
Reminded that Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, Alexander retorted, “That’s what you say.”
Sanders Overplayed His Hand
First Read: “Well, the 2016 primary season came to an end last night with Hillary Clinton beating Bernie Sanders in DC, 79%-21%. And it came to an end without Sanders conceding or endorsing Clinton, although the two met last night and released positive-sounding statements.”
“Here’s the reality: Sanders hasn’t played his hand well. Many of his demands from yesterday (wanting Debbie Wasserman Schultz out of the DNC, ending superdelegates, having more open primaries) seem small. By not conceding a race he trails by every measure possible, he seems even smaller. And smaller still is the real leverage he holds, especially after losing eight out of the last 11 contests, after Obama and Warren have already endorsed Clinton, and after polls show Clinton increasing her lead over Trump.”
“The irony here is that Sanders already won — he performed better than anyone imagined, and he already effectively moved Clinton and her campaign to the left. But one of the arts in politics is declaring victory after you’ve already won. But Sanders continues to march on… “
Another Rough Week for Trump
Rick Klein: “It was Orlando, of course, that drew the sharp reaction to Donald Trump by President Obama. But Obama’s speech Tuesday was a response to much more than that. He offered a repudiation of Trump’s policies and rhetoric. It was a denunciation of the last year of politics, and just about everything Trump has come to represent in the American electorate.”
“Trump himself marches on as if nothing has changed in the political landscape or calendar. Swap out ‘Lyin’ Ted’ for ‘Crooked Hillary’ – and strip away any recent polling references, of course – and a Trump speech from June could be mistaken for a Trump speech from March, or January, or maybe even last June. With little evidence that Trump is headed in the right direction – his unfavorable number reaching 70 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll – this week is shaping up to be another rough one for the presumptive Republican nominee. And with a president now engaged in the fight, there could be more to come along those same lines.”
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Sanders Received Most Favorable Media Coverage
A new study from the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government found that Sen. Bernie Sanders received the most “overwhelmingly positive” media coverage of any presidential candidate.
“The Democratic race in 2015 received less than half the coverage of the Republican race. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was largely ignored in the early months but, as it began to get coverage, it was overwhelmingly positive in tone. Sanders’ coverage in 2015 was the most favorable of any of the top candidates, Republican or Democratic. For her part, Hillary Clinton had by far the most negative coverage of any candidate. In 11 of the 12 months, her ‘bad news’ outpaced her ‘good news,’ usually by a wide margin, contributing to the increase in her unfavorable poll ratings in 2015.”
The study also confirmed “the media’s excessive and often uncritical coverage of Donald Trump in the run-up to the primaries played a major role in his explosive political rise.”
Trump Wouldn’t Ban Reporters from White House
Though he won’t let certain news organizations into his campaign events, Donald Trump told CNN that he would not ban reporters from the White House briefing room if elected president.
Said Trump: “It’s a different thing. In my case, I’m a person running for office. I rent these large arenas… so I have an option… When I’m representing the United States, I wouldn’t do that. But I would let people know if somebody’s untruthful.”
Trump Unfavorable Rating Soars
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that 70% of Americans see Donald Trump unfavorably, up 10 points in just the past month to a new high since he announced his candidacy for president.
But Hillary Clinton reached a new high for unfavorability as well, 55%.
Portman Flips on Gun Ban for Terror Suspects
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said that he favors a federal ban on weapons sales to those on the U.S. terrorist watch list, even though he voted against a similar proposal last year, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
Clinton Leads In Swing States
As the 2016 general election begins, Clinton holds a 5-point overall advantage in the Politico Battleground States polling average over Trump, 44.8 percent to 39.8 percent.
Clinton also has the advantage in eight of the 11 individual swing states.
“The debut of the Battleground States polling average sets a baseline for the race to 270 electoral votes, focusing only on the 11 states most likely to determine the outcome in November — Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The basics of the average are straightforward: it’s based on the most recent public polls from each of the 11 states and weighted by each state’s representation in the Electoral College.”
Clinton Meets with Sanders
“With little affection or trust between them, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders met privately on Tuesday night to size each other up as they started exploring what kind of alliance they might build for the general election battle against Donald Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“Neither Democrat entered the meeting on sure footing, and both were a little tense… The chemistry between the two candidates was strained, in part, because Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders had not had any real chances to air grievances or blow off steam with each other away from the television cameras during their 14-month fight for the nomination.”
Trump Says Obama More Angry With Him Than Shooter
Donald Trump responded to President Obama’s criticism of his rhetoric on Islam and terrorism, “accusing the president of directing his anger at him rather than at the perpetrator of Sunday’s mass shooting in Florida,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “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.”
He added: “Boy, does he hate Donald Trump.”
