BuzzFeed: “Donald Trump tried to raise money from the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi two years before a 2011 revolution toppled the brutal leader, according to four people with knowledge of the effort.”
“Trump even tried to set up a meeting with the tyrant himself, three of the sources say, to explore business ventures — despite the Libyan leader’s notorious sponsorship of terrorism that killed scores of Americans.”
Donald Trump issued a statement saying it “is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage,” but the statement did not contain an apology, McClatchy reports.
The Atlantic: “The voice in the audio clip is unrecognizable. But it belongs to Hillary Clinton, who was making her first major public address 47 years ago this spring at Wellesley College. And if the voice is hard to place, it’s the words that are really difficult to reconcile with her present-day image.”
Iowa state Sen. David Johnson (R) told the Des Moines Register that he has suspended his Republican Party membership to protest “the racist remarks and judicial jihad” by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Said Johnson: “I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) issued a statement saying he would not back his party’s nominee for president:
I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers–not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American…
It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida finds that Sen. Marco Rubio remains quite unpopular in the state in the wake of his failed Presidential bid, and that voters aren’t interested in seeing him run for the Senate this year.
Key finding: “Only 32% of voters in the state approve of the job Rubio is doing as Senator, to 54% who disapprove. Those numbers make him one of the least popular Senators in the country.”
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told the AP that the Republicans cannot win in November with Trump as the party’s standard-bearer.
Said Flake: “Let’s face it: meet the old Trump, just like the new Trump. We’ve got what we’ve got. That’s not somebody who can win the White House.”
He added: “Where there’s no talk of a convention challenge or anything else, this might spur it.”
For members: It’s Not Too Late to Dump Trump
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Roll Call that if he speaks at the Republican National Convention this July, he will not be on stage as a Donald Trump surrogate.
Rubio said that his vision is “substantially different from what Donald is offering, and that’s why I’m not sure I’m going to be asked to speak at the convention.”
BuzzFeed: “Conversations with more than a dozen reporters, producers, and executives across the major networks reveal internal tensions about the wall-to-wall coverage Trump has received and the degree to which the Republican frontrunner has — or hasn’t — been challenged on their air.”
“Two network sources also confirmed the unprecedented control the television networks have surrendered to Trump in a series of private negotiations, allowing him to dictate specific details about placement of cameras at his event, to ensure coverage consists primarily of a single shot of his face.”
In attempting to defend Donald Trump in the wake of his racist statements, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) shows the tremendous difficulties Republicans will have for the next five months.
Chris Cillizza: “For party leaders who’ve lined up with Trump amid polling that suggested he was running surprisingly competitively against Democrat Hillary Clinton, the time is rapidly approaching to either hop off the Trump train or decide you are riding it all the way to Nov. 8.”
“At the moment, it appears as though most party leaders are trying to dangle a leg off the train while still holding on.”
For members: The GOP Resumes Its Unraveling
“This is a choice that many Americans are not happy with. But it is the choice.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), in an interview with KSKY, saying the presidential election is a choice between the “lesser of two evils.”
Speaker Paul Ryan called Donald Trump’s criticism of a Hispanic-American judge “the textbook definition of a racist comment” and said he “regrets” the remark, the New York Times reports.
But Ryan also reiterated his support for Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, against Hillary Clinton.
It actually took Hillary Clinton four days to concede the Democratic nomination after Barack Obama secured the necessary delegates in 2008.
As NBC News reported at the time:
“Advisers indicated earlier Tuesday that the former first lady would publicly acknowledge in her speech that Obama had crossed the delegate threshold. But she changed her mind and refused to do so … Her advisers said they considered the delegate numbers to be unreliable, even as the AP estimated Obama had several more than the 2,118 needed to nominate.”
Rick Klein: “If delegates didn’t exist, and the popular vote alone counted, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. If superdelegates didn’t exist, and only pledged delegates determined the outcome, Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. If only superdelegates mattered, and party insiders alone chose the presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. As it is, under the set of rules all candidates knew were in place when they entered the race, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.”
“Bernie Sanders has railed against a ‘rigged’ system and a closed process he says disenfranchises his supporters. But the fact is that, where the world now stands, the only way Sanders can become the Democratic nominee is if party insiders rig the process for him.”
First Read: “But you also have to give credit to Sanders. It’s really not fair to say he lost this contest; instead, he gave Clinton a race that no one saw coming, especially over the last three months.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders “plans to take stock of his presidential campaign at his home in Burlington, Vt., following Tuesday’s primary here and in five other states,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Sanders: “Let’s assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urged Republicans who have backed Donald Trump to rescind their endorsements, the New York Times reports, “citing the remarks about Judge Curiel and Mr. Trump’s expression of doubt on Sunday that a Muslim judge could remain neutral in the same lawsuit, given Mr. Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim noncitizens entering the country.”
Said Graham: “This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy. If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it. There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”
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.