“Racism has contributed to a long, systemic pattern of institutional failures by this city’s police department in which police officers have mistreated people, operated without sufficient oversight, and lost the trust of residents, a task force assigned by Mayor Rahm Emanuel has found,” the New York Times reports.
“The report, issued on Wednesday, was blistering, blunt and backed up by devastating statistics.”
A remarkable 63% of women age 18 to 35 in an ABC News/Refinery29 poll say that Donald Trump scares them.
Nearly half, 47%, don’t find any of the presidential candidates inspiring – including the one seeking to become the first female president. And when asked if there are any with whom they’d like to have dinner, another plurality, 39%, turns down the offer.
“The release Tuesday by the National Archives of a fresh trove of documents detailing the Clinton administration’s dealings with billionaire Donald Trump could become the latest fuel for flame-throwing in an already incendiary 2016 presidential race,” Fox News reports.
The documents include: a signed copy of Trump’s The Art of the Deal, delivered to a top aide to then-President Clinton; logs of Trump’s invitations to the Clinton White House; and an entry about a Trump Towers photo-op with the president.
“Prosecutors say they expect one person who accuses Dennis Hastert of sexual abuse to speak at his sentencing in his hush-money case, and the judge has indicated that he wants to consider as an ‘aggravating factor’ the fact that the former U.S. House speaker lied to federal authorities,” CBS News reports.
A new Monmouth poll in Maryland finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 47%, followed by John Kasich at 27% and Ted Cruz at 19%.
Said pollster Patrick Murray: “If Trump’s current level of support translates to each of Maryland’s eight congressional districts, he may be able to run the table in the all-important delegate contest.”
A new Economist/YouGov poll finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 53%, followed by Ted Cruz at 25% and John Kasich at 18%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 49% to 41%.
“Ted Cruz thinks people don’t have a right to ‘stimulate their genitals.’ I was his college roommate. This would be a new belief of his.”
— Craig Mazin, on Twitter.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) once “ordered a state helicopter to fly his wallet to him at the beach, after he accidentally left it behind in the wake of an argument with his then-wife,” according to Yellowhammer.
“If true, the allegations call into question Gov. Bentley’s assertion that he did not misuse state resources during his affair with his then-senior advisor Rebekah Mason.”
“A proposal to dump Nebraska’s distinctive presidential electoral system and establish a statewide winner-take-all vote was trapped Tuesday by a filibuster and buried by the Legislature,” the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
“The result is that Nebraska will continue to allocate its five electoral votes by awarding one to the winner in each of the three congressional districts and two to the statewide victor.”
Rick Klein: “One does not have to question Paul Ryan’s sincerity to question his ultimate veracity. The House speaker’s extraordinary news conference, held to reiterate his position that does not want and will not accept the Republican presidential nomination, will hush the Ryan buzz and mute some – though surely not all – of Donald Trump’s grievances against the RNC. But the fact is that if the convention heads where it looks like it might, not even Ryan can control where it goes. And if it comes for him, can he really balance the honest-broker chairman role at the convention with that of an organically drafted candidate?”
“There’s a plausible scenario where neither Trump nor Ted Cruz demonstrates an ability to lock down 1,237 delegate votes after two, three, four ballots. The what? ‘Count me out,’ is what Ryan said Tuesday. What happens when the GOP needs to deal someone new in, though?”
For members: Here’s What Paul Ryan Was Really Saying
“A number of high-profile Republicans, fearful of a potential melee in Cleveland this summer, are considering skipping the Republican National Convention and campaigning back home instead.”
“With the presidential campaign hitting a fever pitch and Donald Trump warning about riots if he’s denied the nomination, some House and Senate Republicans tell CNN that it makes more sense to spend time with voters back home rather than be associated with the drama engulfing their party. But even some leading party stalwarts are planning to skip the convention.”
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) says he is giving “very serious thought” to a U.S. Senate run against Sen. Angus King (I-ME), the current independent senator and former governor LePage has accused of using investments in wind energy to increase his personal wealth, the Portland Press Herald reports.
James Hohmann: “Cruz’s campaign is now pushing to use Roberts Rules of Order, instead of House rules, to govern a contested floor fight. Why? Because House rules would allow the convention’s Rules Committee to convene during the convention to change the rules of the game as it is being played. Cruz’s team fears this could be used to elevate an alternative from the establishment wing of the party on the third or fourth ballot.”
“The system, folks, is rigged… It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system. When everything is done, I find out I get less delegates than the guy who got his ass kicked.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by the Washington Post.
First Read: “House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision yesterday to shut the door on rescuing the Republican Party by accepting its presidential nomination if there’s a contested convention was good news for Ted Cruz and John Kasich (because it solidified their status as the anti-Trump alternatives). It was good news for someone like Marco Rubio or Scott Walker or Rick Perry (because Ryan encouraged Republican delegates to nominate only those ‘who actually ran for the job,’ which would include candidates who dropped out of the ’16 contest). And it was bad news for establishment Republicans who’ve been pining for a presidential alternative beyond Trump/Cruz/Kasich.”
“But the biggest beneficiary of Ryan’s announcement yesterday was Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Why? Because Ryan is really the only major Republican out there who could be able to unite the party if there’s a contested convention, especially with Trump’s warning that ‘I think you’d have riots’ if such a convention were to result in anyone but him. The white knight has now been removed from the 2016 board. And the GOP’s choices are essentially 1): Trump, 2) Cruz — with Trump and his supporters not going away quietly under that scenario; or 3) someone else who isn’t Paul Ryan.”
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.