Donald Trump mocked Hillary Clinton for “shouting” about women’s issues when he appeared on Morning Joe early yesterday morning. “I haven’t quite recovered... from her shouting that message,” he said. “I know a lot of people would say ‘You can’t say that about a woman’ because of course ‘a woman doesn’t shout,’ but the way she shouted that message was—ooh, that’s the way she said it.” Trump lamented: “I guess I’ll have to get used to a lot of that over the next four or five months.”
Discussion Questions:
A federal judge has upheld a sweeping North Carolina law that requires residents to show photo identification before voting. In a 485-page ruling issued yesterday, Thomas Schroeder of the Federal District Court in Winston-Salem wrote that the law served a “legitimate state interest” with the aim to “detect and deter fraud.” Schroeder upheld all parts of the Republican-backed 2013 law, which includes the ID requirement, reducing the early voting period, and ending same-day registration. Critics of the law argue it targets black and Hispanic voter participation. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who enacted the bill in August 2013, said the “ruling further affirms that requiring a photo ID in order to vote is not only common sense, it’s constitutional.”
According to a report in Politico, the Trump campaign sent Joe Uddo, a former Ben Carson aide who now works for Trump, to Delaware last week to twist arms and procure more delegates for the upcoming convention. He threatened to bring in Trump’s law firm Jones Day and to tweet about alleged “backroom deals in Delaware” if more Trump suppporters weren’t included among the delegates being sent to the convention. This caused some unease among leading Delaware Republicans. “One of our delegates is just a little old lady,” one anonymous GOP’er told Politico. “This is not cigar chomping, tobacco spitting guys with three piece suits. These are just normal Delawareans, hardworking, retirees.”
Donald Trump agrees with Ben Carson: don't remove Andrew Jackson from the face of the $20 bill. "Andrew Jackson had a great history," Trump told the Today Show when asked about the president most infamous for genocidal actions against Native Americans. "I think it's very rough when you take somebody off the bill. Andrew Jackson had a history of tremendous success for the country." Asked whether he's a fan of Tubman's, however, the GOP frontrunner said she's "fantastic," but that "I would love to leave Andrew Jackson [on the $20] and see if we can maybe come up with another denomination [for Tubman]—maybe we do the $2 bill or another bill."
Tonight’s big wins in New York by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton didn’t fundamentally alter the delegate math; in fact, the results were pretty much what pundits expected. But what last night served to do was make it harder to stop the two frontrunners. And that could be especially true after next week’s contests in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. In the GOP race, Trump won 61% of the vote in New York, picking up 88 delegates to three for John Kasich (four more delegates are left to be allocated). To put the 88 pledged delegates that Trump gained last night into perspective, the total exceeds Cruz’s delegate hauls in Wisconsin (+36) and Colorado (+34). Maybe more importantly, Trump needs to now win 57% of remaining delegates to hit that magic 1237 number -- down from the 61% he needed before last night. Bottom line: Trump isn’t a sure bet to reach a majority; it’s more like a 50%-50% proposition. But he’s in a MUCH better place than he was just two weeks after his loss in Wisconsin.
Trump holds a 285-delegate lead over Cruz (it was 197 before last night)
Trump 844 (47% of delegates won)
Cruz 559 (31%)
Rubio 172 (10%)
Kasich 146 (8%)
Trump needs to win 57% of remaining delegates to reach 1237 magic number (was 61%)
Cruz needs to win 98% of remaining delegates to reach 1237 magic number (was 86%)
Kasich needs to win 158% of remaining delegates to reach 1237 magic number (was 140%)
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders by 16 points, 58%-42%, picking up a net of 31 pledged delegates (with six still to be allocated). To put those 31 pledged delegates into perspective, they all but erase Sanders’ gains in Idaho (+13), Alaska (+10), and Wisconsin (+10). And when you add superdelegates into the mix, Clinton needs to win just 29% of remaining delegates to hit the Democratic magic number of 2383, while Sanders needs to win 71%, which is nearly an impossible task given the Dems’ proportional allocation system. Here’s the math:
In pledged delegates, Clinton currently holds a lead of 271 delegates with Washington delegates to still be allocated (it was 240 before last night)
Clinton 1421 (55%)
Sanders 1150 (45%)
Clinton must win 41% of remaining pledged delegates to get a majority in pledged delegates (was 43%)
Sanders must win 59% of remaining pledged delegates to get a majority in pledged delegates (was 57%)
During an interview with Chuck Todd that aired this morning on Meet The Press, actor George Clooney admitted that the $353,000 per couple required to attend a fundraiser he hosted Friday night for Hillary Clinton was “an obscene amount of money.” Responding to the criticism he has received from Bernie Sanders, Clooney added, “When they talk about, it is absolutely right. It's ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree completely.”
The top 50 U.S. companies—like Microsoft, Apple, and Walmart—have allegedly stashed $1.4 trillion in tax havens, notwithstanding the fact that they received trillions of dollars in backing from taxpayers, a report by global poverty charity Oxfam claims. Between 2008 and 2014, those corporations paid $1 trillion in taxes. During the same eight-year period, the companies received the benefit of $11.2 trillion in federal bailouts, loan guarantees, and loans. General Electric, which has received at least $28 billion in support from taxpayers, stashed $119 billion in more than 100 subsidiaries, according to the report. Apple topped the list, though, holding an alleged $181 billion offshore in at least three tax-haven subsidiaries.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz blasted rival Donald Trump for calling the GOP delegate-selection process “rigged” to protect party insiders and block outsider candidates. Trump alleged on Fox News that voters were denied a voice at the Colorado convention, calling the process “crooked,” after Cruz swept all of the state’s 34 delegates over the weekend. Cruz addressed Trump’s remarks, quipping, “Whine is something best served with cheese.” The Texas senator added, “Donald, it ain’t stealing when the voters vote against you. It is the voters reclaiming this country and reclaiming sanity."
A new Associated Press-GfK poll released late last week finds that approximately seven out of ten of Americans don’t like Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. According to the poll, nearly half of GOP voters view him unfavorably, while more than 60 percent of registered voters and 31 percent of Republicans said they definitely wouldn’t vote for him in the general election. In the South, nearly 70 percent have a negative opinion of the candidate and 55 percent of whites without a college education—one of Trump’s biggest voting blocs—also view him unfavorably. There were no particular demographic groups where Trump performs more favorably.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders lashed out at frontrunner Hillary Clinton yesterday, saying the former secretary of State is not qualified to be president. Speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, Sanders said that Clinton was unqualified because of her special-interest funding, support for trade deals, and her vote for the war in Iraq. His attack comes after Clinton questioned whether Sanders is truly a Democrat. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon responded to Sanders’ attack, saying he reached “a new low.”
Expanding on his plans to force Mexico to pay for a 1,000-mile border wall, presidential candidate Donald Trump says he would cut off money transfers to the country. Trump’s idea would cut off billions of dollars from immigrants back to the country, likely causing serious problems between the U.S. and a key ally. Trump’s plan may not be legally (or politically) feasible, as economists say it would likely require crippling a major ally’s economy. Trump told The Washington Post that he would threaten to change a rule under the USA Patriot Act antiterrorism law, a threat he will withdraw after Mexico makes “a one-time payment of $5-10 billion” to pay for the project.
Donald Trump told reporters in Wisconsin earlier today that he asked the Republican National Committee to pressure Ohio Governor John Kasich to exit the presidential race. “He’s taking my votes,” Trump said of Kasich. Trump has been coming in second place to Ted Cruz in recent polls in the highly important upcoming Wisconsin contest. Kasich, as in many contests, comes in third.