The Atlanta Journal Constitution quotes Newt Gingrich:
“I have no idea what his thinking is right now. I don’t have any interest in the sense that I’m going to go out and try to become his vice president. I would obviously have to listen carefully if he called. He’s an old friend, and I think any time a potential president calls a citizen, a citizen owes them an obligation.”
“Eating a taco is probably not going to fix the problems we have with Hispanics.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in an interview on CNN.
Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of being “an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler” of her husband’s alleged affairs, CNN reports.
Said Trump: “She’s been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives. She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful.”
“If Republican leaders won’t line up behind Donald Trump, President Obama is trying to lash them together himself,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Obama: “Their standard-bearer at the moment is Donald Trump… Not just Republican officials, but more importantly, Republican voters are going to have to make a decision as to whether this is the guy who speaks for them and represents their values.”
“Donald J. Trump has asked his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to begin quietly working to put together a blueprint for a transition team should he win the White House in November,” the New York Times reports.
“In spite of his insistence that he will not run, Mitt Romney is being courted this week by a leading conservative commentator to reconsider and jump into the volatile 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate,” the Washington Post reports.
“William Kristol, the longtime editor of the Weekly Standard magazine and a leading voice on the right, met privately with the 2012 nominee on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of launching an independent bid, potentially with Romney as its standard-bearer.”
“A hasty effort to make peace between Donald J. Trump and Republican Party leaders veered toward the point of collapse on Friday as Jeb Bush announced he would not back Mr. Trump in the general election and Mr. Trump unleashed a caustic personal attack on a prominent senator who declined to endorse his campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“Since a landslide victory in Indiana made him the presumptive Republican nominee, Mr. Trump has faced a shunning from party leaders that is unprecedented in modern politics. Mr. Trump has struggled to make peace with senior lawmakers and political donors whom he denounced during the Republican primaries, and upon whose largess he must now rely.”
New York Times: “Although party leaders furiously brokered a meeting between the two men at the Capitol next Thursday, it is likely that only substantial changes in Mr. Trump’s language and tenor, not just minor calibrations on policy positions, will be needed to bring Mr. Ryan to his camp.”
“Mr. Ryan has become increasingly depressed about the tone of the race within the Republican Party, several people who have talked to him in recent weeks said. He could not bring himself to give even nominal support to Mr. Trump, despite pressure from more conservative House Republicans, after the candidate disparaged various ethnic groups and accused Senator Ted Cruz’s father of conspiring with Lee Harvey Oswald, among other inflammatory comments. Those remarks determined Mr. Ryan’s course far more than the considerable differences on policy between the men.”
“Mr. Ryan’s stance may lead to the remarkable scenario of a convention chairman presiding over the nomination of a man he does not support, but it basically comes down to three things.”
Politico: Top allies break with Ryan over Trump
A new New York Times/Kaiser poll in Chicago finds that 62% of residents said they disapproved of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s job performance, and only a quarter approved. Among blacks, his disapproval rating is 70%.
Jeb Bush wrote on Facebook that he will sit out the presidential election.
“In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life. For Republicans, there is no greater priority than ensuring we keep control of both chambers of Congress.”
“Donald Trump will testify after the presidential election on a class-action lawsuit that accuses the billionaire businessman and his now-defunct Trump University of defrauding people who paid as much as $35,000 for real estate seminars,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A federal judge in San Diego set the trial for Nov. 28, raising the possibility that Mr. Trump could take the stand as a president-elect if he wins the White House.”
“Hillary Clinton’s campaign is trying to seize on the turmoil Donald J. Trump’s ascent has caused within the Republican Party, hoping to gain the support of Republican voters and party leaders including former elected officials and retired generals disillusioned by their party’s standard-bearer,” the New York Times reports.
“It’s been very challenging, to say the least, I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies, but it’s over. I’m really glad to be putting it past me.”
— Former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), quoted by NY1, on being released from prison.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN that will support Donald Trump for president, an important move as the presumptive Republican nominee is encountering intense resistance from senior members of his own party.
Reince Priebus says he arranged a meeting between Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan to “work through some issues,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “I told Reince that I thought it was totally inappropriate what Paul Ryan said and thought it was good for me politically. But Reince feels, and I’m okay with that, that we should meet before we go our separate ways. So I guess the meeting will take place and who knows what will happen.”
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) suggested that he would be interested in a job in a hypothetical Donald Trump administration and, if he didn’t get one, he would run against Sen. Angus King (I-ME), the Portland Press Herald reports.
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.