“Michael Reagan — the son of former president and Republican icon Ronald Reagan — said he would not be voting for Donald Trump during California’s GOP primary on Tuesday. And his late father probably wouldn’t, either,” Politico reports.
Trump Tells Surrogates to Attack Reporters as Racist
“An embattled Donald Trump urgently rallied his most visible supporters to defend his attacks on a federal judge’s Mexican ancestry during a conference call on Monday in which he ordered them to question the judge’s credibility and impugn reporters as racists,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “We will overcome. And I’ve always won and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.”
Democrats Pounce on Trump Allies
New York Times: “In an unusually coordinated series of attacks leveled from congressional offices and the Senate floor, in state capitols and sidewalk protests, Democrats excoriated Mr. Trump as racist and demanded that Republicans either stand behind his comments or condemn him and even rescind their endorsements of his candidacy.”
“Democrats received unexpected ammunition from Mr. Trump himself, who, in an extraordinary conference call with allies on Monday, urged them to defend his criticisms of a federal judge’s Mexican heritage — and then rebuked his campaign staff for having suggested otherwise.”
Politico: Trump train derails on Capitol Hill
Clinton Has Delegates for the Nomination
“Hillary Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president, an achievement that would make her the first female nominee of a major party for the presidency,” the New York Times reports.
“Mrs. Clinton had been expected to clinch the nomination on Tuesday after polls closed in New Jersey. But The Associated Press surveyed superdelegates on Monday night, and their reporting showed that Mrs. Clinton had secured the overall support of the required 2,383 delegates, according to a news release.”
Politico: Sanders condemns “rush to judgement” on Clinton nomination.
Rubio Says Trump Comments Don’t Reflect Well on GOP
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) criticized Donald Trump for making comments about an American judge’s ethnicity, WFTV reports.
Said Rubio: “I don’t think it reflects well in the Republican Party. I don’t think it reflects wells on us as a nation.”
He added: “I ran for president, and I warned this was going to happen.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I’m sorry, I’ve got nothing for you on that.”
— Fed Chair Janet Yellen, quoted by Bloomberg, when asked if Donald Trump will cause a global economic crash.
Lawmaker Tells Trump to ‘Shove It Up Your Ass’
Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX) wrote an open letter to Donald Trump:
I would like to end this letter in a more diplomatic fashion, but I think that you, of all people, understand why I cannot. I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico. But, I am sure that many of these individuals would agree with me when I say: “Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.”
No One Stole the Nomination from Sanders
Jonathan Chait: “The system isn’t rigged. Clinton is going to win the nomination because she has won far more votes. She currently leads with 55 percent of the total vote to 43 percent. That’s fairly close for a primary, but it’s not Bush-versus-Gore close. It’s not even Bush-versus-Dukakis close (the 1988 election, widely seen as a landslide, was settled by less than 8 percent).”
“Clinton’s lead in pledged delegates is proportionally smaller than her lead in total votes because Sanders has benefited from low-turnout caucuses. Yet Sanders has enjoyed astonishing success at framing his narrative of the primary as a contest that, in some form or fashion, has been stolen from its rightful winner. His version of events has bled into the popular culture and fueled disillusionment among his supporters.”
Trump Again Gets Tax Break for Earning Less Than $500K
“Donald Trump’s New York City property-tax bill, published June 3, shows he once again received a tax break aimed at middle-class New Yorkers,” Crain’s New York Business reports.
“The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s latest property-tax bill shows he was awarded a credit under the STAR program, or the New York State School Tax Relief Program. To be eligible for STAR, a married couple must have annual income of $500,000 or less. You wouldn’t think a guy as rich as Trump claims to be would qualify, but he has received the credit for several years and records filed over the weekend with the city’s Department of Finance show he received a $304 STAR tax break for his Trump Tower penthouse.”
Which Political Party Has Better Sex Scandals?
Michael Kinsley: “My own, unscientific—and, in fact, brazenly biased—sense is that Republicans get tangled in the web of conventional morality more often than Democrats. I haven’t even mentioned all the right-wing family-values preachers with wide stances on the Appalachian Trail in recent years. Or some of the men who were so vociferous in their condemnation of Bill Clinton—such as Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who at the time was conducting an extramarital affair with a woman on the Hill, later to become his third wife, and Senator David Vitter, whose phone number was found in the records of the fabled ‘D.C. Madam,’ Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and who admitted that he had sinned. Or the current governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley, a former church deacon and Sunday-school teacher who (thanks to what the press calls ‘lusty audiotapes’) is believed to have had an affair with his married top aide (a charge they both deny), and who now faces impeachment. Or the raft of potboilers by Republican writers—from Newt Gingrich (‘Suddenly the pouting sex kitten gave way to Diana the Huntress’) and Lynne Cheney to Scooter Libby and Bill O’Reilly—that could themselves be turned into lusty audiotapes.”
“Could it be that these conservatives are fighting an inner battle on the public stage? Or is that too simplistic? Perhaps conservatives are just sexier than liberals and can’t stop themselves from misbehaving. Or maybe it’s the other way around: it’s not that conservatives tend to be pervs (as Donald Trump charmingly called Anthony Weiner) but that pervs tend to be conservative. Or maybe a belief in free markets leads to a belief in free love. All that talk about the “invisible hand” can give a guy ideas—and make him think he’ll never get caught.“
Roger Clinton Arrested in California
“Hillary Clinton’s brother-in-law is sitting in a jail cell after getting busted for DUI in Southern California … just 2 days before the crucial California primary vote,” TMZ reports.
Obama Is Finally Ready to Campaign for Clinton
President Obama, “after months of sitting on the sidelines of the rancorous contest to succeed him, is now ready to aggressively campaign for Hillary Clinton, starting with a formal endorsement of her candidacy as early as this week,” the New York Times reports.
“The White House is in active conversations with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign about how and where the president would be useful to her… Advisers say that the president, who sees a Democratic successor as critical to his legacy, is impatient to begin campaigning. They say he is taking nothing for granted.”
BuzzFeed Won’t Accept Trump Ads
BuzzFeed has terminated a deal with the RNC to run political advertisements in the Fall, the company’s CEO Jonah Peretti informed employees.
Said Peretti: “Earlier today, BuzzFeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them. The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.”
Trump Doesn’t Really Have a Campaign
“Donald Trump is a candidate without a campaign – and it’s becoming a serious problem,” MSNBC Reports.
“Republicans working to elect Trump describe a bare-bones effort debilitated by infighting, a lack of staff to carry out basic functions, minimal coordination with allies and a message that’s prisoner to Trump’s momentary whims.”
Said one source: “Bottom line, you can hire all the top people in the world, but to what end? Trump does what he wants.”
Dick Morris Hired by National Enquirer
The National Enquirer has hired Dick Morris to serve as chief political commentator and correspondent for the tabloid.
Christie Keeps Sinking In New Jersey
A new Monmouth University Poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie’s job rating at another all-time low, 27% to 63%.
The poll also found that twice as many New Jerseyans say that the state is currently worse off (41%) because of Christie’s time as governor than say it is better off (21%).
Trump’s Short List Is Getting Shorter
Rick Klein: “Maybe the plan for shortening Donald Trump’s short list is as simple as having his surrogates go on television for him. The latest examples came in the wake of Trump’s insistence that a federal judge’s Mexican heritage leaves him unqualified to hear a case against Trump, a statement that Trump defenders have been loath to defend… Is anyone on board with Trump for this one? What about the next one, or 10?”
“Every campaign gets second-guessed by supporters and surrogates. But Trump is drawing out more than that – not just angst, but outright rejection from those who describe themselves as supporters. If Trump insists on 100 percent loyalty from his vice-presidential pick, the list is already minuscule.”
What Will Bernie Do?
First Read: “After her victories over the weekend in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Hillary Clinton is now just 19 delegates away from hitting the 2,383 magic number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. And since she’ll easily cross it before polls even close in California (126 pledged delegates are for up grabs in New Jersey alone on June 7), here’s maybe the most important question in politics over the next month: WWBD — What Will Bernie Do?”
“Does he continue fighting all of the way through July’s Democratic convention? “The Democratic national convention will be a contested convention,” Sanders declared on Saturday, per NBC’s Danny Freeman. Or does he bow out after tomorrow’s results? And bow out gracefully?”
As one Capitol Hill Democrat closely observing the Clinton-vs.-Sanders race said: “It’s absolutely going to be the difference between a positive, proactive summer of unity and one that will lead to the same location — but travel across a much more treacherous path.”
