A North Korean state-media outlet praised Donald Trump early today, calling him “wise” and “far-sighted.” The editorial contrasted Trump’s philosophy with “dull Hillary.” The outlet, DPRK Today, welcomed Trump’s proposal to hold talks with Kim Jong Un. “There are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies,’” said Han Yong Mook, a reported Chinese North Korean scholar. “Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North—isn’t this fortunate from North Korea’s perspective?” Though the editorial wasn’t officially from Pyongyang, its origin was likely from inside the regime, several sources claimed. Trump suggested in March that he would withdraw U.S. military forces from South Korea if that country did not ramp up its defense spending.
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Former Attorney General Eric Holder said NSA leaker Edward Snowden “performed a public service” by setting off an international debate over governments’ surveillance capabilities. “We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made,” Holder said on David Axelrod’s podcast, The Axe Files. But while he praised the former NSA contractor, Holder clarified that he still believes Snowden acted inappropriately and illegally, and “harmed American interests.”
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A former New York police officer has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the City of New York, claiming that an NYPD chief had an affair with her. She says he beat her and they had sexual encounters in his police car and at their precinct. “I felt safe until he started hitting me,” Tabatha Foster told the New York Daily News. Foster alleges that her married superior, Jeffrey Maddrey, on one occasion beat her until she pulled a gun. “I put the gun down and my ass got beat for real,” she told reporters. “He choked me up. He threw me from side to side like I was a rag doll.” She added, “I still kept seeing him after that, like an idiot.”
The National Football League attempted to influence a government study about the connection between football and brain conditions, said U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ). Taxpayers are footing the full bill for a study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health after the NFL pulled its $30 million donation because part of it would’ve funded Boston University researcher Robert Stern, an expert on chronic traumatic encephalopathy who the league claims is biased. A spokesman said the NFL “categorically reject[s] any suggestion of improper influence.”
In a new ABC/Washington Post poll, Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton 46 percent to 44 percent indicating the possible consolidation of the Republican party after he secured the nomination. He and Clinton have historically high unfavorability ratings as well. Some 60 percent of respondents view Trump as unfavorable while 53 percent feel that way about Clinton. Less than half of respondents on either side of the aisle say that they back their candidate strongly and half of each candidate's supporters indicate that they are voting to prevent the other candidate from winning.
Under pressure from conservatives, House Republicans dropped a measure from the defense policy bill that would have required women to register for the draft. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the House Rules Committee, said earlier he is "adamantly opposed to coercing America's daughters to sign up for the Selective Service at 18 years of age," but appreciates those who volunteer to serve the country. teny Hoter (D-Maryland), meanwhile, said the move was a Republican effort to make sure its members were not forced to "vote on equality for women, and they ought to."
Calling The New York Times a “failing” institution and its reporting “lame,” Donald Trump responded to The New York Times report on his mistreatment of female friends and business associates in past years. “The failing @nytimes wrote yet another hit piece on me,” he wrote. “All are impressed with how nicely I have treated women, they found nothing. A joke!” And in another tweet, he said, “Everyone is laughing at the @nytimes for the lame hit piece they did on me and women. I gave them many names of women I helped-refused to use.” A New York Times politics reporter responded to this claim on Twitter, saying that the newspaper had indeed interviewed and quoted women Trump’s office had suggested.
Addressing the graduating students of Rutgers University, President Obama decried ignorance and wall-building in what many consider to be a thinly veiled critique of Donald Trump and his plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” Obama told the Rutgers community. “It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s just not knowing what you’re talking about.”
The Obama administration issued a directive early today to all public school districts to allow transgender students to have access to bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, not their birth identity. The letter from Education and Justice Department officials told schools to abide by transgender students’ identity, even if their records or identity documents indicate a different sex. The move comes amid the escalating debate over transgender rights that erupted after North Carolina passed a law mandating that only the bathroom matching birth sex can be used by transgender students. “There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex.” The decree will mean that any schools that go against the order could lose federal funding or face major lawsuits.
Jon Stewart laid at least part of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump at the feet of Democrats yesterday. “The door is open to an *** like Donald Trump because the Democrats haven’t done enough to show people that government... that can be effective for people, can be efficient for people,” Stewart told former Obama adviser David Axelrod for his Axe Files podcast at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. “And if you can’t do that, then you’ve lost the right to make that change, and someone’s going to come in and demagogue you.”
Unlike several of his Republican peers, Jeb Bush will not cave in and back Donald Trump for the presidency. In a lengthy Facebook statement late last week, the failed presidential candidate congratulated the reality-TV star on his presumptive nomination, but stated that Trump has "not demonstrated [a] temperament or strength of character. He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative." As such, he will not vote for Trump in the general election; neither will he support "untrustworthy" Hillary Clinton. Instead, he wrote, "I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels."
John Kasich officially suspended his campaign yesterday, just a day after Ted Cruz dropped out. Both announcements come after Donald Trump won a resounding victory in Indiana, bringing him closer to the necessary 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Just Tuesday night though, Kasich asserted that he would remain in the presidential contest despite having no odds of winning.
He spoke highly of his staff and sticking to his ideals as the positive candidate in a race filled with harsh rhetoric. "As a result, I think I know and I sure hope and pray that they feel that this experience that they had in this campaign has improved and in some way changed their lives for the better," Kasich said of his staff. Just a week ago, Kasich and Cruz had made a pact to attempt to stop Trump by dividing their resources in various states. Cruz was supposed to focus on Indiana while Kasich would take Oregon and New Mexico, two states which will vote later this month. After Tuesday night's results, this was not the case.
Ted Cruz suspended his presidential campaign tonight after a crushing defeat in the Indiana Republican presidential primary. The Texas senator had pinned a great deal of his hopes on a win in the Hoosier State, announcing Carly Fiorina as his vice-presidential candidate and earning the endorsement of Governor Mike Pence. “Americans are deeply frustrated and want to change the path that we’re on,” Cruz said in his concession speech. “Thank you to each of you incredible patriots.” Cruz refused to answer whether he would be supporting Donald Trump as the nominee.
New York broke a record this week for the number of families living in homeless shelters. As of last Wednesday, 12,302 parents and kids live in city homeless shelters. News of the record comes just a day after the city announced that the overall homeless population had fallen 12 percent since last year. Other cities have experience similar increases in recent years.